When we look at the world around us, there's difficulty, no doubt, and there's suffering, and there's decay, and everybody, to some degree or the other, recognizes that. Now, the unbelieving world will look at the world and say, okay, with all this suffering and with all this death and decay and calamities, Usually the argument goes either there is no God or if there is God, he is not good. Because if there is a God and he is good, then all these difficulties and these sufferings and death and decay and everything else that we see around us would not exist. And yet what we see in the Bible is that the world that God created was extremely good. It was a perfect world. There was no problem in it. The problem started when man sinned and rebelled against God, and as a result, rebelled against his rule and his design. And so as a result, Because man was made the head of all of creation and to look after all of creation on God's behalf, when man fell, the effects of sin and death infected the whole entire world. And it's essentially what we experience now is the consequences of rebellion against God. So why is this world so bad and all these difficulties? Well, it's man's fault, it's not God's fault. It's the consequences of sin that we see even today. And yet, despite man's rebellion and the consequences of sin that we experience even on a day-to-day basis, I want us as children of God to understand and not lose sight of God's goodness to us still in just so many different ways. And this morning, I want us to look at God's goodness to us in this sin-cursed world. And we'll look at this passage, just three ways in which we'll see God's goodness. We'll see the confession of faith in verse 20. We'll see the provision of covering in verse 21. And we'll see the expulsion from the garden in verses 22 to 24. And I trust that as you see just some of the ways in which we experience God's goodness, as we are reminded from this text, it'll cause us to just be thankful to the Lord and even live in hope, even as we live in this sin-cursed world and we wait for Jesus' return. So firstly, one way in which we see God's goodness is in verse 20, that's the confession of faith. It reads there, the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. So now, Adam called his wife Eve, named her Eve. Now, the meaning of the word Eve is life or life giver. Now, I want you to think of, you know, where Adam and Eve are right now. Because at this point, as human beings, there's only two in the world. There's only Adam and Eve. She doesn't have any children. She's not a mother as yet. And yet, Adam is naming his wife as Eve, where the text itself says, because she was the mother of all living. How are we to understand this? Well, let me give you a context and just to help us understand what is actually taking place here. See, God created Adam and Eve in his image and they were to enjoy him and reflect his rule and live this way. And what we also understand in the first couple of chapters of Genesis is that God would meet with them in the cool of the garden, and they would commune with Him. And the language that's talked about there seems to suggest that this was a regular thing that they would do, where they would regularly commune with God sometime in the afternoon, and they longed for it. And what a joy it would have been for them. And yet when the man and the woman, they rebelled against God and chose to do their own thing, what happened is we see a big change in them. You see, when God created them first in God's image, they were created with an innocent nature. And yet when they rebelled against God, suddenly their nature was no longer innocent. Their nature became corrupt. And rather than, as soon as they rebelled against God, rather than looking forward to communing with God after that, do you know what they do? They want to run away from Him. They want to hide from God. They don't want to be in His presence anymore. That's one thing that you see when you recognize, okay, something in their nature has now changed. They just want to be as distant from God as possible. And then beyond that, they are even blind to their sin. Because when God comes to them and asks them, did you eat from the tree that I forbid you to eat from? Well, Adam starts by saying, Lord, the woman you gave me, she's the one who gave that fruit to me. So there's two things that Adam's doing there. In one sense, he is pointing the finger at God and saying, God, that woman you gave me, she's the one responsible for my disobedience. And then not only that, obviously, then he's also directing his sin toward his wife. And then God turns to Eve and says, well, Eve, did you eat from the fruit of that forbidden tree? And Eve says, oh, well, it was that serpent. And so what you see here is they're not taking responsibility for their sin. In fact, they're so blind in their sin, they're pointing toward God, blaming God and blaming everyone else around rather than taking personal responsibility for their sin. So there's a change in their nature. They're no longer innocent now. There's no love for God. They don't want to be in His presence and they're lost in their sin. They don't recognize it and they're putting the blame on everyone else around. And so God comes to them and gives them consequences for disobeying Him. To the woman, he says, you will have pain, and troubles, and conception, and motherhood, and in your marriage. To the man, he says, by the sweat of your brow, you will have to labor, and toil, and work from the ground. Food is not going to be freely available to you. Essentially, God would tell them, you are now going to live a difficult life on this earth, and ultimately you will die. So that's the context in which, once you understand that context, this is all that has happened, now look back at verse 20. And Adam's response to all this. So God has just given them and told them this is all the consequences for your sin. And it's striking how Adam responds. Even to these consequences God has just given. You would expect Adam to be in despair or again now be angry with God or just kind of do something silly. Or even as one commentator said, he could have even at this point, having this corrupt nature now, even could have said, well my wife here, I'm going to name her, I'm going to name her death. And blame her. And essentially say, well she's the cause of all this suffering and all this death that's going to come about. Yet he doesn't do any of that. In fact, what you see is a changed response now from how they were responding before. Despite all the judgments that God has pronounced, what you see is that Adam is now accepting responsibility for his sin. He recognizes this is what he deserves for his sin. He has a right view of God. And yet, he also sees God's grace in all that God has said, and even sees God's goodness in that. Because laced in all these consequences for sin, God also said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. That your wife will have a child. Whether it's an immediate child or a future child, he obviously doesn't know. But your wife, through your wife will come a child who will crush the head of the serpent and who will reverse the curse and undo everything and everything will be restored back. And so that's what Adam is now doing here. He's now again fully trusting God and His word. Or in other words, what you see is here that Adam has faith. The Bible says that faith comes from hearing and from hearing the word of Christ. Romans 10, 17. And that's what you see here with Adam, as he heard all that God said, and even the hope of Christ in its very rudimentary form, that now he responds in faith. And really what's happening here is similar to what Hebrews 11.1 says about faith, where it says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, or faith is the substance of things hoped for. So there's still only Adam and Eve. She's not a mother as yet. But because now he believes, and he believes that there is a child going to come, it is so certain, the things hoped for in the future is so certain that it's become substantive now. It's become so weighty. He fully believes God's word. And so he names his wife, as life or life giver, because he believes she will be the mother of the living, even though that hasn't happened yet. Now I want to ask you, so where did he get this faith? How did all this come about? Well, even the faith to believe is a grace from God, right? It's evidence of God's goodness. Ephesians 2, 1 and 2 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and our sins. That's the way we walked. And then Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that anyone may boast. So it is by grace alone we are saved through faith. It is not something we do. It is not something we deserve. It is a gift from God. Salvation and faith is a gift from God. And God brings about that transformation as the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to that person and that person is then made alive and they respond in faith. Here, Adam responds in faith, and that is evidence of God's goodness even to Adam, even though they will live in a sin-cursed world. Perhaps there's some of you here today, those of you who are believers, and you're just going through some difficulties. Maybe it's difficulty at home. Maybe it's difficulty at work. Maybe difficulty at school. Or maybe it's some ailment with your physical body. Could be. Whatever the difficulty is, the first thing I would say is every difficulty that you and I experience on this earth ultimately is because we're bearing the effects of living in a sin-cursed world. But then how are we to respond then to these difficulties that we experience in this sin-curse world? I think Adam's response has something to teach us because what we see here in verse 20 is that Adam has put his entire hope on God and his word and the one who would come to reverse the curse and restore everything that was lost through sin. And I would say it should be the same for us. The fact that we have faith, that's evidence of God's goodness in our life. The fact that our eyes have been opened to Him is evidence of God's goodness in our lives. And the fact that we have God's word and the promise that Jesus will one day return and make everything right and make everything new is such a grace. And so we can hold on to that by the faith that He has given us And I trust that as a result, as we ponder on these truths, those things hoped for become substantive, become so weighty, so real, that that would cause us to be thankful to God and live in hope in this sin-cursed world. So that's the first evidence of God's goodness in this sin-cursed world. Second way in which we see God's goodness in the sin-cursed world is the provision of covering in verse 21. The provision of covering. It says, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. See, Adam and Eve, after they sinned, they try to cover their sin and their shame and their guilt with loincloths made of fig leaves. Right? But it didn't do anything. They wanted to be distant from God, but just in case, just, you know, somehow we want to hide from God. And the best they could come up with is fig leaves just to cover their loincloth, their loins. And I would say that it's so much Like the world today, right? People who don't know God, people who are lost in sin, who try to cover their shame and their guilt. How do they do that? I'll try to do more good. So I don't have to deal with my shame or my guilt. I'll try to be more religious. Or I'll try to numb it, my guilt and my shame, by getting drunk. or taking drugs, or by being sexually promiscuous, or by going after the things of this world, by getting rich or something else that will ultimately bring me satisfaction and security, thinking, yeah, that's all that I need and I will be fine. But in the end, nothing will be able to take away the shame and the guilt of our sin that is within a person unless God intervenes. And that's what we see here. God makes a provision for them, for Adam and Eve, to keep them safe. And what's interesting is, God not only, He doesn't just provide loincloths to provide their bare essentials. No, He provides them with garments. See, the word garments, it's another word for tunic. A tunic is a piece of clothing that can be worn that covers the entire body, either up to the knee or even all the way up to your ankle. So God is providing a covering for them with clothes that would protect their entire body to keep them safe from this harsh world that they're going to be living in as they will be moving out of the garden. What a grace from God. But even more than that, even more than providing physical safety, God was going to provide spiritual safety. a covering for sin and shame and guilt. See the verse here says that it's garments of skins that God clothes them with. Skins meaning animal skins, the hide of an animal. Now let me ask you something, how are you going to get animal skins in the garden. I mean, are they just, you know, lying around somewhere? No, obviously not. An animal had to be killed. It involved the shedding of blood and the taking the life of an animal. And that's exactly what God did. I mean, God could have chosen to cover Adam and Eve just supernaturally or with something else, but that's not what he did. What he did is by killing an animal and providing animal skins as covering for Adam and Eve, God was making a point. You see, when Adam and Eve rebelled against this holy and good God who had done only what is good for them, who then should have died? Adam and Eve. And yet, Who was killed instead? An animal. That's right. An innocent animal was killed instead of Adam and Eve for their sin so that a covering could be provided for their sin and their shame and their guilt. And think of what a shock it would have been for Adam and Eve. I mean, they've lived in the garden. They've experienced only the goodness of God. They have never seen death before in their life. Never ever. Because death came into the world because of sin. So they've never seen death before this. So you can imagine them seeing this, it would have been a horrendous thing for them. As they saw this killed animal. What they would have understood is that death was the payment for sin. That mere fig leaves of whatever sort could never cover their sin and guilt and shame, and innocent life had to be shed to cover their shame and their guilt. They would have understood that sin was very costly. That it is not cheap, it requires death as payment. We read in Hebrews that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. That's how serious sin is. And so that's why God then slaughters an innocent animal for the sin of the man and the woman, replaces their fig leaves with garments of animal skins to not only provide full covering for them, physically speaking, but also to cover their shame and their guilt. And over time, what you see is this act of sacrificing animals as payment for sin, it would become a normal part of the people of God. And that's what you see with the Israelites, and it's part of the law of God in the Old Testament. And yet, for all the regular animal sacrifices, the Bible also tells us that it is still impossible, though, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Why? Because ultimately the animal sacrifices were pointing to a greater reality that God would provide the perfect sacrifice to be slain for the sin of his people. And what you see is, as you turn the pages of scripture and you come to the New Testament, you understand that God finally sends his son, Jesus Christ. As John says, behold the Lamb of God. Where Jesus would become the perfect, spotless, innocent Lamb of God who would be slaughtered as a substitute for the sake of His people, for the sin of His people. Where His death, Jesus' death, would be the payment of sin for his people so that his people could be forgiven of their sins. And you know what would cover then the lives of God's people? It would be the perfect righteous life of Jesus. And this would be the reality of all then who would belong to Christ and they would be acceptable in God's sight forever this way. I mean, just think about this. What a grace from God, right? It's God's Son, God's precious Son, who only could come and become that perfect Lamb, that perfect innocent Lamb, who could die for the sins of people like you and me. No one else could take that place. That's what it cost for your sin and my sin. That's what it cost God. And what a grace from God that He would even do that. Now, in light of the fact that we are reminded of the costliness of sin and even the grace of God shown to us through Jesus, I want to ask you something. Do you take your sin seriously? I mean, I'm not talking about the one time when you got saved and you saw the weightiness of your sin. I'm not even talking about maybe once in a blue moon where you see your sin. But I want to ask you, do you regularly, regularly if not daily, see your sin? And do you confess then as you see your sin, do you confess it to God and then after that regularly run to Jesus seeking forgiveness under the cross? And then even then being renewed and then recognizing that he now gives you the grace now to live an obedient life. Well, I ask you this question. Here's why. Because when we don't regularly see our sin, And we don't regularly confess it to the Lord, and we don't regularly then ask God to forgive us because of what Jesus has done, and then turn away from that sin. What happens is, when we don't do that, you and I are then tempted to cover up our sin by our own effort, somehow. We start excusing our sin. Oh, you know, that's a little sin. Oh, a little bit of lying, that's okay. A little bit of gossip, that's okay. A little bit of slandering someone else, that's okay. We start minimizing our sin, start excusing our sin, and in some sense we try and cover it up. And what happens when we minimize our sin and don't see it enough, do you know what else is going to happen? We start running to Jesus. We stop running to Jesus, we then start to forget the great cost that was paid for our sin. And then we don't see God's goodness and grace toward us. And then when God's goodness and grace toward us in Jesus becomes blurry, you know what else happens? A disinterest in the things of God. apathy sets in. And we simply go through the emotions, but there's nothing here. And then the Christian life just becomes hard. The commands of God become extra burdensome. And then on top of that, as we experience the difficulties of this sin-cursed life, we then turn to God and think, God, you're too cruel to give me this kind of life. And we think God does not do what is only best for his children. I mean, see the progression of things? God hasn't changed. He continues to remain good. His goodness toward his children has not changed. But it's our view of things that have changed. And it all starts, how? By not taking our sin seriously and then running to the cross regularly and confessing and turning away from it. May we all see our sin rightly. May we all see how costly sin is and what it costs God. And then beyond that, May we just see the abounding grace of God shown to us through Jesus, that not only did He forgive us of our sins, but He's covered us with the righteous, perfect life of Jesus. And forever we will be covered with His righteousness, so that we would be acceptable in His sight. And may this cause us to be thankful and to live our lives in such a way that we make much of Jesus. So the animal garments that God clothed Adam and Eve served as a vivid reminder to them of their sin and its costliness, but it also served as a reminder of God's goodness and grace toward them to cover their shame and their guilt. And the third way that we see in this passage of God's goodness in a sin-cursed world is the expulsion from the garden in verses 22 to 24. Verse 22 reads, Then the Lord God said, Behold, a man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. I want you to think about this. In one sense, the man and the woman is already like God. See, because when God made the man and the woman, God made them in His image, in His likeness. But when sin came into the picture, it distorted that image, and that likeness to God was distorted. But in another sense, as sin came into the picture, they also became unlike God, but not in a good way. They became like God in knowing good and evil. See, when the man and the woman, they were first created, remember I mentioned that they were created with an innocent nature, and they were sinless. They only knew good because the only thing they experienced at the time was the goodness of God in the garden. Yet when they sinned against God, they gained knowledge of evil by experiencing evil within themselves. You know, one commentator gives a really good analogy, and I want to share that. This is what one commentator said in the difference between how God knows good and evil, and particularly evil, and the way man knows evil. God knows evil like a cancer doctor, right? A cancer doctor fully knows about cancer, understands everything about cancer, and even knows how to treat it. But a cancer patient knows cancer experientially. because they have cancer in them, they experience everything about cancer, so they understand cancer in a very different way. Both know cancer, but the patient knows cancer by experientially knowing it, but the doctor knows cancer by knowing everything about it and even knowing how to treat it. And that's the difference in which how God knows evil and man knows evil. And so here when God says, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil, that's what he's talking about. Even though God knows good and evil, not experientially, man now knows good and evil, now experientially even knowing evil. Now here's the problem. If man is now become corrupt, and infected with sin and every thought and desire and everything he says and does and even how he reacts to everything is tainted by sin and if he's in this sin infected state and God has just come and pronounced because you rebelled because you're sinful I now condemn you to die for your rebellion what do you think the man and the woman is going to do? they're gonna try and eat from the fruit of the tree of life, so that they wouldn't die. And that's what you see God saying next. Look at verse 22, where God says, now that man knows good and evil, lest he reach out his hand, excuse me, and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Man should not eat from the tree of life and eat forever, God says. Now you might be thinking, well, why is that a problem? Well, here's the problem. If the man and the woman ate the fruit of the tree of life in their sinful state, they would be locked in that sinful state forever and they could never be redeemed. See, because to live in a sinful state, as one theologian said, that's what hell is. That's what a person in hell experiences, where the person lives forever in their sinful state without any hope of redemption. And God would have been perfectly just to leave them in their sinful state and let them eat of the tree of life so that they would be locked in that sinful state. God would be perfectly just because they would be getting exactly what they deserve. In fact, you think of what happened to Satan and his demons. When Satan and the third of the angels who rebelled against God, what happened to them? They were locked in their sinful state and now there's no provision for them ever to be saved. But God, in His grace and His mercy, would not allow the first man and the woman to be locked in that sinful state forever. Yes, the man and the woman, they now believe in God. God has provided a covering for them. But the man and the woman still have the principle of sin within them. And so now God takes the initiative and provides a solution for the good of man and for the glory of God. Look at verse 23. It says, therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work from the ground from which he was taken. So that the man would not reach out and eat from the tree of life, God sends them out from the garden of Eden. Man could no longer be in the presence of God. God is a perfectly righteous God. And because man still had the principle of sin, nothing sinful could live in God's presence. So God cast them away from his presence, out from the garden to work the ground from which he was taken. so that they would be out from the garden and they would work hard and live out the consequences of their sin and rebellion and then finally die. Here's just a small side note even here of the goodness of God. See, when Adam and Eve, when they're living outside the garden with all its troubles and difficulties, it would be a constant reminder to the man and the woman of their sin and its consequences. and would be a reminder to them to not go their own way, but to trust in God alone. This is the goodness of God, even in the consequences that the man and the woman will experience in this sin-cursed world. But it doesn't stop there. Verse 24, it says, And he drove the man out, He drove out the man and at the east of the garden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. So God sends them out, banishes them from the garden. And if it's not enough that there's a cherubim there, cherubims are angels of a higher order. I mean, they are powerful creatures. No man can take on a cherubim. And as if that weren't enough to guard the entrance to the garden, God places also a flaming sword that's moving in every kind of direction. So you can think of this sword that's just kind of like this blazing fire that's just going in every direction possible. And so you can imagine that scene. The man and the woman, they're cast out from the garden and as they turn back, the entrance of the garden, there's the cherubim and there's this big flaming sword that's moving in every direction. The message was loud and clear. Because of man's sin, man could no longer come freely into God's presence and enjoy the fullness of life associated with God. Man was totally barred and it would be impossible for man by his own efforts to get back to God and to experience something of the goodness of that life and that communion that he experienced with God. But when you think about this, there's two things that we can understand. that God bars man from entering the garden because God is altogether righteous and holy and he will not tolerate sin. But on the other hand, God bars man from entering the garden and eating the tree of life for their own good so that it would be an impossibility for them to have access to the tree of life in their sin because they will be doomed then. So you see God's love and mercy and grace and righteousness in this. I wonder if there's anyone here this morning who does not follow Christ. Friend, I want you to understand this. The fact that you will die one day is God's grace to you. You say, why? because you're a sinner. Now you might try to suppress your sin, suppress the fact that you are sinful, even try to deny it, maybe even try to cover it with some sort of modern fig leaves, but the fact still remains that you cannot hide from God and that you're a sinner before God. And here's the reality. If you were to live forever in this sinful state without ever dying, you would never have the opportunity to be restored back to God. But it is precisely because you will die one day that there is hope that something can change for you and that you can actually be restored back to God. See, man, because of his sin, stands guilty before this perfectly righteous God. Nothing sinful can be acceptable in God's sight. But God, in His goodness and His grace, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into this sin-cursed world. And ultimately, He came and died on that cross to pay the price for sinners like you and me. And then He rose on the third day, defeating sin and death so that all who would put their trust in Jesus could be forgiven of their sins and could be covered with the righteousness of Christ and would be acceptable in His sight forever. Turn to Jesus while there is time. Turn from your sin. Friend, if you wanna talk more about what it means to follow Jesus, please come and talk to me, talk to Wassam, talk to one of the members in this church here. I'm sure they would love to talk to you. But for those of us who are believers, in closing, I just want you to just consider the goodness of God, even in instituting death. See, we were spiritually dead, living in a world that bears the shadow of death. But God in his mercy and his grace made us spiritually alive. But there's still a problem. There's still the principle of sin within us. There's still the flesh that we call, that we still have. There's still this wretched body that we have that is still bearing the effects of sin. And then there's the world around us that still bears the effects of sin. A world that is marked by hardship and suffering and disease and decay. That's why we need to die. That's why this world needs to be destroyed and made anew so that sin and its effects will be renewed. will be removed and we will have a new body, a resurrected life in a resurrected body, in a glorified body. And there will be a new heaven and a new earth, a world where there will be no sin, no hardship, no suffering, no disease, none of the effects of sin and no sin whatsoever. That's the hope that we have. What a grace from God. that we would not be locked in this sinful state, but that this old self would die and would be resurrected and this sin-ridden body would go to the ground and we would be given a new body. What a grace from God. So as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we long for that day when Jesus will return. and make everything right. We'll restore this whole world, make everything new and give us new bodies and we will be in His presence forever, enjoying Him forever and enjoying the blessing of that life in this world. And I pray that even this week and in the days and months to come, that as we live in this sin-cursed world, he would continue to see God's goodness toward us, his undeserving goodness toward us, whether it's the faith that he gives us, his word that he gives us that we can hope in, the covering that he's given us in Christ, and even the hope of resurrection and where everything will be made new. Let's live in that hope and even be thankful for what he has done in Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the righteous and just and good and merciful and gracious God you are. We recognize that everything that we experience in this world that is hard and difficult, ultimately it is the consequence of man's sin. Yet we thank you that you didn't leave this world this way. And you didn't leave us in our sinful state. But the very fact that you've instituted even death so that we can be born anew, so that we could have resurrected bodies, so that everything in this world can ultimately decay and die and everything would be restored. We just thank you so much for that. Thank you for your goodness and grace. Thank you most of all for Jesus Christ and what he has done. And we recognize that it is only through Christ that all this is possible. So help us, Lord, as your children, to live thankfully and to live with hope, even though life in this world is difficult. But let us live with hope and with thankful hearts. knowing that all that you have said that will come about through Christ will absolutely happen and help us to live that way and to make much of Christ and I pray that you would use us mightily in your kingdom and even to draw many people to yourself. All this we pray for Jesus name's sake. Amen.