God's Severe Mercy

Before we look at the word, I had a couple of, maybe several announcements. One is that the convalescent ministry won't be meeting today. They typically go to the convalescent hospital this afternoon and they're not going to be able to do that today and they'll be further announcements on that. There's a church family business meeting at 2 o'clock today. The last are about an hour and all of you who are part of this church or want to be a part of this church want to know about what we're doing. It's just our annual accounting of God's blessings over this past year, what he's done and where we're going in the future. He's blessed us with some wonderful missionaries that we support and we want to let you know a little bit about what's going on with them and also about our building program and where we're at at this point.

Bill want to meet him, make sure I made this announcement. There are a ton of trees out there and we need some woodcutters who would like to take home some firewood. There's some walnut and eucalyptus and other various and sundry kinds of trees. You won't believe how many trees are out there so please help us out and get you some firewood. Henry Ford said if you cut your own, the man who chops his own wood warms himself twice. So give it a shot. Miriam's email address is in here. If you would like to communicate with her, I would encourage you to do that. One thing it would do is it would put you on her mailing, her email list and you'll be getting updates as she sends them out and she does send out email.

It's amazing to me how the Lord is affecting her by this ministry she's involved in. It's a wonderful thing to hear her heart of God users who are there in Uganda. So stay in touch with her. And then the men's retreat that's coming up on February 21st. There's also a couple's retreat, a marriage retreat that's advertised on the back table. It's a weekend for marriages and if you want to take a look at that, do that. It's going to be in stock and so it's fairly close and take a look. But we're having a men's retreat on February 21st and 22nd. It's just one night away Friday night and it's a very nice campground. You have to bring a sleeping bag but that doesn't mean you're going to be sleeping on the ground.

They're actually beds and it's a very nice facility. So plan on take a look at that there are brochures on the back table. And our men's breakfast which has been meeting on Wednesday morning is being moved to Tuesday morning at 6.30 a.m. and we're meeting at the office and John Taylor's fixing breakfast for us. So show up and see what that's like. I think Maryland may come based on that. And then there's a couple of other things in there you want to take a look at. Let's turn to the Word of God. I'd like to read actually from three different passages. This is the Word of the Lord and if you don't have your Bibles you can look on the screen. To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing.

With pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. The Adam he said, because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you. You must not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and fizzles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground. It's from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return. Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

And the Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim, and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. And then 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 and it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being quite deceived fell into transgression. But she will be saved through the childbearing if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint and then Romans chapter 5 verse 19 for just as through the disobedience of the one man, Adam, the many were made sinners.

So also through the obedience of the one man Jesus Christ the many will be made righteous. Today what we want to look at is God severe mercy. There's an expression in Romans chapter 11, the Apostle Paul says behold then the kindness and severity of God. God is kind and gracious but he is also severe in judgment. He is the righteous God who brings judgment but at the same time even in the midst of judgment here in Genesis chapter 3 we see his mercy. So as he expresses and carries out his judgment that he is warned about in the midst of that judgment he displays great mercy upon Adam and Eve and upon this human race. And so we want to look at God severe mercy today in this text and notice first of all that it is seen in the curse of sin in verse 16 through 19.

We have here the very beginning at the beginning of the Bible we have the explanation of the effects of sin in the world. You want to read a parallel passage read the first three chapters of the book of Romans and you see this description of man's apostasy away from God. His constant movement away from God into greater and greater rebellion and the effect is devastating upon man and upon this world. And we see here the beginning of it the curse. And first of all we see the curse of sin on in judgment upon the woman. The fall brings her pain. The fall brings her frustration. In fact it brings her pain and frustration in her two primary relationships. When God created her as a help meat fit for the man a helper and that word as we when we looked at it a there is the word that used primarily of God that God is our help.

And so when he creates the woman he creates for man something so special and wonderful. In fact so wonderful that when man sees her he is speechless. He says wow this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She was a wonder of a gift to the man and her primary relationship and her primary fulfillment in life was going to be as a team member alongside of the man and in varying children and now those two primary relationships are affected by the judgment upon the woman. These two God given given relationships in the home. And notice he says with her husband and her children she is going to suffer pain. She's going to experience painful labor and bearing children. I think that includes not just delivering the child but it also includes nurturing that child.

There's going to be frustration towards her husband. There's a lot of frustration between husbands and wives. I would say with the past 25 years 80% of my counseling I've done as a pastor has been basically involved in the relationship between husbands and wives and parents and children. The primary challenge we face and here she's going to experience this frustration towards her husband and instead of freedom as God created her she is going to experience control. Freedom replaced by control because of the fall. Persuasion is going to be replaced by coercion. He's going to have a heavy hand God says. Multiplication is going to be replaced by division. No wonder a woman would rather have a career where she doesn't have to primarily deal with these two personalities her husband and her children.

Not an escape to get away from that because there's a curse. There's a judgment that has fallen upon the human race and the only way we find deliverance from that judgment the only reason we can't experience wonder in the marriage relationship is because of Christ and what he has done is we'll see in just a little bit. But notice what he says that's going to come upon her as a result of this judgment. This pain and pregnancy, quite literally, this may be what's called a endiodist which means that the illiteracy says, I will increase your pain and your conceptions. You'll have more pain and more conceptions. More pain and more pregnancies. That's probably a endiodist which simply means a very expressive way of saying, now this wonderful thing, this gift from God to bear children and nurture children is going to be a painful experience because you're going to bring children into a sinful world.

Are going to be get sinners and these children are going to be coming into the world as sinners into a sinful world. So having a nurturing children in a fallen world becomes painful. Is there an amen? Amen. It can be a painful experience. It's such a wonderful experience. I'm looking forward to two new grand babies in the next month, in the next year. What a wonder that is. I love children and I love that my children are fruitful and I love the fact that we're going to have more children in our family sitting around our table. But I also know that it includes pain, pain, like the movie Rocky remember when what are the guys Mr. T. They said what's your prediction about the fight and he said pain and that's how it is isn't it?

Bearing children can be a very painful thing, a painful experience. Not just the physical pain which is certainly included here but the difficulty and pregnancy. Difficulty in the birth of a child with people in this church who face this, having children come in the world and a very painful experience dealing with all the difficulties, anxiety over what's going to be and how this is going to turn out. The infant mortality rate in the United States, I think it's down to about seven per thousand. Is that right? I might have the right. One per thousand or one per. I got a doctor in here who said don't ask me, I don't know. It's high when you consider that we're in a very modern country but imagine what it's like in a third world country, imagine what it's like in Uganda, painful.

In Uganda there are a million and a half orphans running around with no parents brought into a sinful world, a fallen world and where there is disease and rebelliousness and foolishness. Why are over one million? I think it's 1.3 this past year, 1.3 abortions. Women who decided that the inconvenience or the fear of what may happen was just too much. The risk was too much to take and they ended the life of their unborn child and they carried that burden the rest of their life. Which is only found release and relief in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. Women going into eternity without being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ having done away with one of your own children. Why do we have this kind of problem?

We live in a fallen world and just as the man's toil over the resistant ground now that God appointed him to till and to work so that it produces something good, it's going to resist him and he says in the same way the woman is going to have great pain in her toil with her children. It's a really wonderful passage and Psalm 127, why don't you turn there just a second. Psalm 127 is a blessed promise to all of us who are filled with anxiety over the burdens of life and even as I describe the pain of bearing children. What a load this is and maybe some of the young people here who aren't even married or don't have children yet are thinking, wow, maybe we shouldn't do this. But notice this blessed promise, Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain who build it, unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early to retire late to eat the bread of painful labors because God gives to His beloved even in His sleep. It's not through our labor, it's not through our hard work, it's not through our own wisdom, it is through the grace of God and the mercy of God and the blessing of God that it is worth it. That it is a great blessing to endure the pain, to experience this great blessing and all of you women and all your mothers here this morning would say amen, it's worth the pain to experience the blessing. And now what has happened because of the fall is immortality, the ability to live forever, they would have never died but immortality is replaced by progeny. God says in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die and they begin to die, death was within them and yet even in the curse he tells the woman she is going to have children.

And it's through this painful birth, this painful labor of having children, this judgment that's come upon her that is a word of hope because it's going to be through the seed of the woman that the Redeemer comes and redeems this from this curse that is upon the earth. Genesis 3, 15, the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the seed of the serpent who is the enemy of God's people. Isaiah 9, when it refers to the Messiah, when Isaiah speaks about the Messiah coming, this great warrior hero who is going to bring deliverance to the people of God and we listen and we wonder who this hero is, he said he is going to be a hero like Gideon, a powerful warrior, but then when he describes him he said unto us a child is born, it's going to be a baby.

God came in this incredible weakness, Mary experienced the birth of this, the pain of this curse when she gave birth to the Lord Jesus, an animal shelter, but it was through that birth that redemption comes to the world and the person of Jesus Christ. So there's going to be increased pain and pregnancy, there's going to be difficulty in bearing children and raising children and having children, but not only that, he goes on and he says there is going to be increased desire and frustration in a relationship with their husband. Now, I don't want any women to say amen, but just in your own heart, listen to, think about this a second, isn't this a pretty good description of what you have felt at times in your relationship with your spouse, you feel desire and frustration, desire and frustration.

What's being said here is actually a, what's called a chiasm, it's a literary device in making a statement that ties these things together in such a way that gives us an idea of what God is saying. When he says in verse 16, yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you, the two things that are tied together here is desire and rule. She's going to have a strong desire to dominate him, and that's the idea of this. We know that from chapter 4 verse 7, if you look there, chapter 4 verse 7, it says, this is the Lord speaking to King, who's offered a sacrifice that God was not pleased with, and he's angry because his brother offered a sacrifice that God was pleased with, and so he's boiling an anger in his mind, he's thinking about doing away with his brother, which he finally does, but God comes to him in this time of anger, his face is falling, he's angry, disappointed, and God says to him, verse 6 of Genesis 4, why are you angry and why is your countenance falling?

If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? If you do the right thing, then your face will be lifted up, and then God says this, if you do not do well, then sin is crouching at the door, crouching like a wild animal who's about to take you as its prey, sin is crouching at the door, and it's desirous for you, but you must master it. Exact same phrase that's found in chapter 3, the only place in the Bible this phrase is found is in chapter 3 verse 16 and chapter 4 verse 7. In other words, sin wants to dominate you and take control of you, but you must master it, and he says to the woman, the temptation for you is because you're going to be now married to a fallen man, and everybody knows that a woman knows what's best for her husband.

Everybody knows if a woman was given free range, she could change him into what he ought to be. Every woman, every good wife knows. She just had the opportunity, she could fix this guy. She will, her desire will be for him. She sees all of his weakness like nobody else. I think one of the great marks of a mature Christian woman is, she never runs down her husband. You may think that's a joke, but it's not. That's the mark of maturity, not to run down a husband who everybody knows is weak and flawed, and yet because of her role in his life as his helper, God given helper. Instead, she loves him and helps him to be all that God wants him to be, but all the temptation God says is you're going to want to dominate him, but instead he will rule over you.

What an irony that is here. They sought freedom. They sought to be free from the restraints that Satan said God had put upon them. You mean God said that you can't eat of every tree in the garden? Well, we can eat of every tree except this one. God knows. You see, God knows that you would have a true freedom if you ate of this tree, and you would be like God, and you know, you would know good and evil. Because they wanted freedom from the restraints, they eat from the tree. That is, they rebel. They revolt against the rule of God. And what do they find? They don't find freedom. They find domination. The man will dominate her, and this is the story of the human race. The only way we get deliverance from that is through the work of Jesus Christ, the influence of the gospel.

The fact is, the only reason there is not this domination in every home is because of the effects of the gospel of Jesus Christ on this world. It is because of the teaching of the gospel that women are set free as they should be according to the gospel, but he says, under the curse, their alienation from one another, the husband and wife is profoundly illustrated here by this description that God gives of their relationship as a power struggle. Instead of a team working together to fulfill the will and purpose of God, now they become a wrestling match. It becomes a struggle, a power struggle. Who's going to be the dominant one here? Who's going to be in control? Well, God designed marriage. We are told from the very creation of marriage and throughout the scriptures, and it's an illustration of the gospel itself.

God designed marriage is love and cherishing, but in cities there's because of the fall, marriages are going to be dominated by a power struggle in the home. More than half of the marriages in America don't last. They end up because the power struggle gets so bad that they decide to split up. The restoration of God design marriage is found in Christ. In fact, turn with me. Here's a good passage to underline Matthew chapter 20 and apply this because this is, this comes as an effect of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This comes as an effect of Jesus Christ coming into the world, into a fallen world. The one who's going to deliver this world from the curse and set it free. He says in Matthew chapter 20, verse 25, but Jesus called them to Himself.

That is the 10, the 12 disciples, the ones who were indignant with one another because there was a power struggle going on among the disciples. It's like there are power struggles going on in homes between husband and wife, and so these words could be spoken to husbands and wives who were in a power struggle. Jesus calls them together to Himself and says, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great men exercised authority over them. It is not this way among you, not in the kingdom of God, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. The most Christ-like manifestation in a life is servanthood, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be, sir, but to serve to give His life a ransom for many.

And here we have the mark of greatness in the kingdom of God. It's the person who serves. My heart, and I keep saying this over and over again, I know I'm talking about it too much, but the thing that just serves my heart about Uganda and about Miriam being there and ministering the way she is is how God has affected her heart in all this. One of the, it was actually sharing coffin. They spent some time in Uganda. She said the amazing thing about going there. She was talking about Miriam and how we keep, she's always got a new, a new thing. The last time, the last series of emails, she wanted to see if we could help start a medical clinic. Well, I got an email from Emma and they've started a medical clinic.

Amazing. We got doctors in the United States are committed to go there and man this on a regular basis. So what's happened is sharing coffin says when you go there because life is so different, you have so much time to serve God and serve people because we are so busy in our culture serving ourselves. Think of all the time you have to spend managing. You have a massive amount of blessing that you have in your life. Material blessings of all kinds. You have so many things. You have things you've forgotten about. You're like the guy, you know, like who was a person who wanted to buy some rare paintings. He was a, he was a collector and so he sent his agent to find these paintings that he had read an article about.

He looked all over the world. He couldn't find the painting and he finally found them in her own collection hidden away in a warehouse. Isn't it like that? Are you amazed at the stuff you find when you go cleaning your garage, the back seat of your car, all those things that you had to have and because we don't have, we have so, we, it takes so much time to manage our goods that we don't have time to be servants. The design of God in marriage is that we serve one another. That we serve one another. It's given us unique roles but because of the fall there's going to be struggle. We have to overcome that through faith in their Christian marriage. God ordained male leadership. That was the design when he created the male and the female when he created the woman for the man but it wasn't male dominance.

It wasn't to come down heavy upon her but rather to lead her with great love and sensitivity because of the fall there's going to be war. Now notice this, the judgment upon the man. The judgment upon the man in verses 17 through 19. In fact, why not let's read that. Let me read that again. To Adam, he says, because you listen to your wife. I think it's a very good thing that you listen to your wife. This is a great lesson in hermeneutics. Please don't go to this passage man and says, well, you know, the Bible says by implication, you shouldn't listen to your wife because when you listen to your wife, you get yourself in trouble. Now this is a particular situation. In most cases, you should listen to your wife but in this case because he listened to his wife in contradiction to the word of God because you listen to your wife and you aid from the tree about which I commanded you.

You must not even eat of it. Curse it is the ground because of you and through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns that the earth over which I have placed you will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. Instead of eating of the trees of the garden which he had provided for them, they're going to be eating the plants of the field by the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return. It's interesting how always God's judgment hits the crime and we have the same thing here. Notice it is judgment is toil and oil.

It's difficult hard work. Now this is a working God who created us, the picture of God in the book of Genesis when he creates man as a God with dirty fingernails. He scoops out dirt and forms man in his own image. Work is honorable but now as a result of the fall his work is going to be characterized by hard toil and resistance. It's going to be difficult by the sweat of his brow but notice something that goes on here in verses 17 through 19 the word eating or eat is used five different times. Why is that? Because Adam's rebellion was in eating what God forbade him to eat and so he will suffer pain and frustration in his work as provider. He has to provide for his families to give them food and yet he's going to meet great resistance.

It's going to be difficult to provide for his family. It is difficult to provide for our families in this fallen world. In verses 17 in verse 15 when it talks about the soil, the dirt, the land which was God's gift of man and he created it for man and he put man over it to till it to work it to see it produce great results and now his role is reversed. The role is reversed. The dirt, the land is going to consume the man from dust. He has come into dust. He will return. He's going to be swallowed up by it. We put people in the ground and even if we scatter their ashes their ashes go back into the ground and so this toil that comes to him this hard and the word toil here is the same word that use the pain for the woman in her childbirth.

Same word. This is the woman experiences this difficult pain in bearing children. The man is going to experience pain as he works the soil. There's an interesting thing. Tell me to Titus chapter 2. Notice this parallel. In Titus 2 we have this passage that most preachers wouldn't touch the 10 foot pole because of all the trouble you get in over it but notice what it says. This may be a brand new verse for you. If you've been in the church only in the last 10 years we usually jump this particular chapter but in Titus chapter 2 verse 5 verse 3 it says older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior not malicious scossips nor enslaved to much wine teaching what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands to love their children to be sensible pure workers at home kind being subject to their own husband so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

So the word of God won't be blasphemed and notice that expression workers at home what does that mean? Let me tell you the Greek word for farmer is the word for which we get the name George George means a laborer in the land a worker of the land the word here that's translated worker in the home is very similar to that it means a worker of the home just like a farmer works the land and it produces a crop that he can take great delight in the woman works the home so that it produces a crop it produces benefit it produces fruit that she can delight in and all can delight in the point here isn't that the woman should never work outside the home because we have all kinds of examples in the Bible of God blessing a woman's labor outside the home Proverbs 31 try that on that's a discouraging passage isn't it ladies? but the point is your primary focus as the primary focus of the farmer is this field it doesn't mean he never gets out of his field or he never does anything but work his field but it means this is his focus that's always the question whatever I I do in life whatever the woman does in life whatever the wife does in life her primary focus is the home that's her soil out of which is going to come great blessing and fruit and enjoy the fruit ladies don't be afraid to enjoy the fruit of your labor in the home it's a great benefit it's a blessing all the labor even though we live in a fallen world there's going to be pain and discouragement all the labor that you pour into that home into that family into those children into that husband is going to reap wonderful benefit it's painful just like farmers get blisters they get tired and they run into all kinds of problems they have to overcome obstacles but the product is so wonderful I have a neighbor we live out in the country and my neighbors are farmers and I love to talk to them and some guys that work out there about farming I love to listen to them talk about farming what farmers will always do is tell you they don't make any money I've noticed that they never make any money I don't really believe that I think they must make money because they keep eating well and living good but they love their work they love to work the soil they love to feel the dirt in their hand and the woman is a worker of the home it doesn't mean that you've got handcuffs on you it means that you are free to work that home so that there's fruit for the glory of God that old saying the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world is really true every world ruler how to mother every great man has a mother I hope none of you watch the Super Bowl the day but if you do I'll guarantee you somebody is going to say hi to their mother that's the thing to do what a great work it is and the man is to work the soil and he's going to find resistance as well he's got to work the soil now it's cursed by the estrangement of humanity from the God who gave it to them and so it's going to be harsh labor and sometimes it's not going to produce any result and it's going to be frustrating because of that God's blessing isn't going to be on it at times the amazing thing about the nation of Israel they came out of Egypt and in Egypt the water was abundant and they irrigated the land they couldn't do that in the Promised Land the Promised Land they had to trust God God had to bring the former and ladder rain God didn't bring the rain the crops wouldn't be watered because the land was such they couldn't irrigate like they did in in Egypt they had to trust the living God you see the primary thing and it's amazing how farmers are this way even today is there's built into them this sense that God is in control of their destiny is God going to bless our curse and then the second thing he says is not only is the soil going to be hard to work and the benefits it's going to rise up spontaneously thorns and fissles as we all know very very well spontaneous growth of inedible plants that's what my eight acres are it is an abundance of inedible growth thorns and fissles amazing how that stuff grows these is also the earth is going to consume you dust to dust notice the irony they they revolt against God to gain a better life and instead it gets them chaos and death you know that's always true it's true in your Christian life as you live the Christian life these temptations come along these satanic temptations let's say if you simply disobey God in this one small little way you'll finally be happy and what does it bring chaos and death doesn't it it brings chaos and death that's the reason those of us who've been in the face along have so many scars is because we've tried it so many times it always brings chaos and death physical death is both a bane and a boon that is it is both a negative and a positive it's a negative because it remin it it renders all of man's activity he's going to die he's going to return to the dust and all of his activity is going to be vain you can have to leave it you can ask you can ask the question about the richest man who ever lived how much did he leave and the answer is always the same all of it I'm going to leave all of it you can't take it with you but it's also a great deliverance because even though we live under the revolt of the king and the earth is affected by it and it's a hard life but physical death is also a blessing it delivers man from the curse of eternal toil and oil on a cursed earth we won't always live on a cursed earth we're going to be delivered from it look at this in Romans chapter eight listen to description of the of the effects of the fall on the earth itself not just the man and the woman but the earth itself is cursed and that's really the curse here that affects the man it's the curse on the soil in Romans chapter eight verse 18 is this for pulses for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared but the glory that is to be revealed to us for the anxious longing of the creation of all of God's creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God and we are finally set free from the curse that is upon us for the creation was subjected to futility the earth was subjected to futility to emptiness not willingly but because of him who subjected it but it was subjected in hope those words are wonderful those two words in hope the earth was subjected to futility in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God things are going to work in eternity men are fascinated by how things work so we love computers and we love engines we love tools we love to see how things work and it's so neat to be able to take some apart and put it together and it actually works to imagine what's going to be like an eternity future and everything works this creation the curse the curse and that chivalry that you own is going to be lifted no more curse everything's going to work everything's going to be rightly related to the living God this whole story amazingly is filled with such emphasis on death and the curse and separation from God but right in the midst of this right in the midst of this judgment upon the man and his death returning to the dust is this word of hope because it's going to be through death that we are delivered the death of our substitute the Lord Jesus Christ now let's look at the last section we have here the hope of salvation in verses 20 through 24 the hope of salvation the glorious hope of salvation right in the midst of him bringing this judgment against them he gives these words which speak hope to our hearts he says God says Moses says rather verse 20 Adam named his wife Eve this is after the curse this is after he speaks of death and judgment upon mankind and Adam names his wife Eve now before he called her woman God had called her woman now Adam calls her Eve because she would become the mother of all the living a word of hope we have this first expression of hope in the mouth of Adam he gives the woman a personal name that reveals that he has hope in the midst of this judgment mercy in the midst of this severity Eve Eve describes her destiny this is a very common Hebrew way of naming that is that it is to express the destiny of the person and Eve is to become the mother of all the living in other words he expects that the race is going to go on even though there's a curse even though there's death the race will go on through the progeny she is the mother of all the living so Adam reveals his faith he reveals the fact that he believes in trust God he believed the promise of Genesis 3 15 the seed of the faithful woman is going to defeat the enemy of God in this story even though it's filled with death and judgment on the serpent painful labor and conflict of the wills fighting and war and struggle and all that but the promise that the seed of the woman will defeat the evil one gives a ray of hope a ray of hope I read those words to you from 1st Timothy chapter 2 when Paul says and it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being quite deceived thoroughly deceived she fell into the transgression now I think you could argue if I was a woman I would argue this way that the reason is that God told Adam don't eat of this tree and Adam communicated that to his wife and they had a communication problem some time and so she is quite deceived by Satan as he comes against her and she falls into a trespass but then he says Paul adds these words glorious words but she will be saved through the child bearing she'll be saved through the child bearing now there's all kinds of interpretations of this phrase there are those who say it means that a woman even though she can't rule her husband she can rule her kids quite serious about it and various other interpretations let me tell you what it means it means this it's the irony that the woman leads her husband and he shouldn't her father he should have let her but he follows her into rebellion against God that this woman who led the man to sin is going to be it's going to be through her and in fact the very thing that God cursed her with pain and child bearing is going to be the way in which redemption comes you know this there's an article it may not be in your translation but in the text there's an article before child bearing it is the particular child bearing think of it every woman who had a child is wondering could this be every woman of faith who had a child up until the coming of Christ could this be the seed of the woman he's going to crush the head of the serpent in fact look at chapter four verse one it says another man if Genesis chapter four verse one now the man had relations with his wife even she conceived and gave birth to Kane and she said I have gotten a man from the Lord I've gotten a man from the Lord what does she mean she thought that Kane was the one who was going to crush the head of the serpent she thought the Lord had fulfilled his promise in the birth of Kane and throughout the history of mankind people of faith up until the coming of Christ imagine the heart of Mary when the angel comes to her and he tells her you're the woman this little teenage girl a maiden that's never been married yet there's never had relations with a man you're going to bear the one who's going to crush the head of the serpent you see it's through the child bearing it's through the woman that the Savior's going to come Paul says in Genesis chapter 11 the head of every woman and his man but every man come through a woman every man comes through a woman there's no man born into this world except through a woman there aren't going to be any clones they're going to come into this world without a mother somebody's going to come into this world without a mother without the child bearing and it was through this child bearing that the Savior comes the seed of the faithful woman defeats the serpent the promise of the seed of the woman is going to defeat the evil one gives us this ray of hope the bearing of a child even though it was cursed because of the fall and then notice God's gracious provision in verse 21 in verse 21 the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and in his wife and clothes him you remember back up in verse 7 it says when they discovered they were naked when their eyes were open they realized they were stripped of everything and they saw themselves in their sin and they for the first time in their lives they wanted to hide they had something to hide they had rebelled against God and it says they made for themselves loin coverings the word is belt and it just means they made these pitiful looking little things to cover themselves but it was totally inadequate my goal were big today there was totally inadequate our best efforts are totally inadequate and so what does God do in verse 21 he provides them with garments the word garment here tunic means that and all you fathers of teenage girls can say a hearty amen a tunic the tunic the the only garment we know of that God made was a tunic that went from the nap to the ankles amen so you love that design and they were covered their shame was covered what a picture this is our loin coverings our efforts our weak and beggarly efforts to try to cover our shame versus the God God glorious work it's so common for us to try through our own efforts to make ourselves right and yet the only one that can make us right the only one that can give us a covering by which we can stand before a holy and righteous God is God himself these in chapter 2 says for by grace you say through faith and that not of yourself it is a gift of God not of works not of your effort so that no one could boast and then he says this for we are his wrapmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works you see what God does in our lives is so much better than religion religion is man's best efforts to make himself right with God but what God is provided for us in Christ Jesus is a garment that covers us we are covered with the glory of Jesus Christ the blessing and the grace of Jesus Christ surrounds us and we are made perfect before God God provides a covering God's we have salvation results in a song always that's why we sing because our hearts are lifted up and realizing we've been saved through the grace of God in Revelation chapter 15 the last book of the Bible it says they sang the song of Moses Moses wrote the song when they came out of Egyptian captivity and it says here they sang the song of Moses the bond servant of God and the song of the Lamb and here's the song here were the words of the song great and marvelous are your works oh Lord God the Almighty righteous and true are your ways king of the nations salvation is done in such a way the covering of man's sin and shame is always done in such a way that God receives the glory and we receive the benefit religion man's efforts to cover himself by his own works and his own righteousness is always a pathetic substitute God provides a covering for their shame remember their sin had the sentence of death and now God provides a covering for their shame by the death of a substitute he slaves an animal takes the skin and covers them berugam and in his little commentary on Romans says with a sentence given God does for the couple that what they cannot do for themselves they cannot deal with their shame but God can God will and God does you may be here this morning and you have such a sense of shame that it's hard for you to be honest and open and face the world with open as a way God created you for what I'm going to tell you there's a garment that you can put on that covers the shame and you can stand before God in fact the way it's pictured in the book of Hebrews is that we can come into the presence of God we have free access into his presence we can come into his presence and we can speak boldly I can tell him what's really on my heart well the primary words the New Testament for prayer is a word that means to express your deepest desires how many times do you express your deepest desires to people most people you would never tell them what your deepest desires are because you're afraid of their response but this God who has covered us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ says that we can come into his presence because we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and we can be totally open transparent we can bear our hearts in Galatians chapter 3 verse 27 it says for all of you who are who were baptized into Christ Jesus have clothed yourself in him God has clothed you in Christ and so we can stand before him unashamed what an amazing thing what is it going to be like when Jesus comes back John warns us to live in such a way that so when Jesus comes we won't shrink back at his coming what he's talking about there is don't live in such a way that your first realization that you are in the presence of Jesus Christ you would be tempted to shrink back but live in fellowship with him live transparently before him so that the transference from this present life into the physical presence of Jesus Christ is going to be a glorious glorious chain second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says God made him Jesus Christ who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him clothed in his righteousness and it comes about through the death of the animal that he slothed slow and we are clothed as a result of the death of Jesus Christ clothed in the righteousness of Christ fifth to stand in the presence of a holy God but an amazing blessing that's the work of God and not the work of men and then notice God's finally God's severe mercy the last couple of verses God's severe mercy verses 22 through 24 the Lord God said the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil just what Satan promised only not at all what they thought he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever in this state imagine living forever upon the earth in a cursed world among cursed people so the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken after he drove the man out he placed on the east side of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth the guard the way to the tree of life and we've been living east of Eden ever since God's severe mercy he says I don't want the man to live forever in this state death is both a judgment and a release and an entrance as a result of the work of Christ he says he banishes them in verse 23 he cleanses his temple the garden temple just like Jesus did the temple in Jerusalem in Revelation 21 it says that God's going to do that in the future in his future temple and he puts cherubim there interesting the cherubim were always connected with the presence of God and they're there to protect the presence of God that man's not going to in his fallenness is not going to enter into the presence of God and be destroyed first in the six as God dwells in light which no man can approach you'd be consumed and yet as a result of the work of Christ we're going to enter there I want you to notice a theme that in the in these first three chapters that goes around the whole Bible the first is and then is the theme of these trees the first is we see the fall just but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die the curse and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden and banished him and then the redemption Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us where it is written cursed it is everyone who hangs on a tree the cursed tree the cursed tree has changed things so much that in the future we are going to have access to the tree of life and that's the last tree that's mentioned in Revelation chapter 22 verse 14 blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right wash their robes in the blood of Jesus in the context in the righteousness of Christ so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city of God what a glorious thing in the upper room Jesus said just before his crucifixion I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father that's true me you think of the story of the Bible it begins with the story of man's glorious creation and then his and his separation from God and the rest of the Bible is the story of redemption of how through the redeemer God is bringing men and women believers back into the presence of the holy God and we'll eat from the tree of life we'll live forever in communion and fellowship of the living God what a wonderful plan but a good plan this is why people go all over the world telling people about this plan this good news this gospel of Jesus Christ if there's a way for people in spiritual darkness whether they're here on the other side of the earth if they believe this message they'll trust in the work of God instead of their own works they'll be covered with a garment which is the very righteousness of Jesus Christ and stand blameless beforehand that's good and let's stand together and pray our father as we talked to one another in the next few minutes and fellowship I pray it helps us to talk about these glorious truths and as we leave this place we pray we leave here encouraged by your glorious word father we recognize the things in our life the shame that we bear the sin that has characterized our lives and yet we are so grateful that we have come to rest our trust in your work and not our own your work in Jesus Christ who took our place and suffered the penalty of death that you warned man of in the garden so that we might experience life and access to this holy God help us to live that gospel out this week I pray for the glory of your son for his reputation and his good work in Jesus' name