How God Works To Make It Right

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Pray together.

God, when we sing great hymns of the faith like that, it reminds us that none of us here is beyond the pale.

No one's done so much that you've given up on them.

The Bible says it like this: that where sin did abound, grace did abound all the more.

So when we sing grace, grace, we're not singing about a thing.

We're singing about a God, the one God who was and is and is to come.

You're a God of grace, as we're gonna see in the Bible today.

You don't wink at sin and say, no big deal.

Sin is a big deal.

The death of Jesus on the cross magnifies that.

We don't need help with that, God.

What we need help with today is to understand the way sin affects us and the world we live in, and to understand what you've done about it.

So we can live in such a way that sin is not a part of our life.

We don't define ourselves by our chosen sin or our preferred sin, but we define ourselves in relation to you, who you are, and the way you designed the world to be.

Holy Spirit, illuminate the scriptures today.

It's more than words on a page.

It's not a history book, it is the truth.

It is the thing that sets us free.

And this is what we were created for.

And so, Lord, let us be freer, cats, when we walk out of here this morning than we were when we walked in.

We ask for this in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it over up to Genesis chapter three.

Genesis chapter three.

We're in a series right now, if you're our guest, called Return to Design.

Return to Design.

Usually we're preaching through a book of the Bible, uh, but but even when we do a series like this, it's from the Bible.

And you say, What do you mean, return to design?

We want to just kind of look at the way God designed the world to be.

The first 11 chapters of Genesis, it's kind of if you were building a house, it is the foundation.

God lays out the foundation and says, Hey, this is the way I created the world to be.

So far, what we've seen in the first two chapters or two and a half chapters of Genesis is that there was nothing, and God created everything from nothing.

Uh, and then he says, Hey, I'm gonna populate the world.

He creates all the animals, he gives Adam dominion over them.

Adam names them.

God looks down and says, not good, man should be alone.

Uh Adam took a nap, he wakes up, there's a beautiful woman standing there, and he said, Finally, finally.

In other words, I'm gonna feel about this woman in a way that I don't feel about anything else in all creation.

Men, that's the way we should always feel about our wives.

Finally, at last, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

Yes, absolutely.

And so this is what happens, and it's great.

And they were not ashamed.

The Bible says they were, the man and the woman were both naked, and they were they were not ashamed.

And then God creates paradise imperfection, and along comes the enemy, the devil.

And he tries to, he's not, he's created, he's not creator.

All he can do is pervert what God's created.

So, what does he do?

He comes along and says, Surely did God say.

And then all of a sudden, that's where we were last time.

I preached a sermon called Where It All Went Wrong.

It's called the fall.

It's where sin entered in.

Today I want to come back and talk about how God works to make it right.

You got to have in one hand where it all went wrong, but you also got to have another hand how God works to make it right.

And let me just begin with an illustration that I that kept stirring up inside of me as I studied in preparation for today.

Uh, if you've been here any length of time, you know that I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional uh household.

Uh and and my dad and mom were divorced, my dad remarried, a woman that had kids.

I didn't like those kids.

They didn't like me.

I didn't like my stepmom.

Uh I didn't know if there was a God, but I prayed to him every night that he would make this woman go away.

He never did.

And so it was not good.

And and and and we got disciplined a lot.

And now you may call it discipline or spanking.

We called it getting whipped.

Uh, if you if you understand the phrase getting whipped, say amen.

And so it wasn't child abuse.

We were deviant children, and and and my dad would always make you bend over.

I'll do this from the side so as to spare you.

My dad would say, grab your ankles.

And so we had to bend over, and I'm gonna show you how flexible I am.

I had to bend over and hold your ankles, and my dad would just wear you out with his belt.

And it wasn't like child, it was just like, hey, you screw up, you get whipped, get on with your day.

And one particular day, my dad was really angry.

Never discipline your children in anger, by the way.

This is free.

You discipline your children to understand the nature of their behavior, not to express your frustration, okay?

But my dad was like dirty hair and clean.

He's like, I'll tell you what, and so he whipped my brother five times, bop, pop, bop, pop, pop.

He whipped my other brother, five time, wah, pop, pop.

About halfway through, my second, the second brother, my dad said, It makes me want to change my mind.

And he reached over and grabbed me.

And I had a bad habit.

I put my hand back there, and my dad went, Move your hand, move your hand.

And so it was like a square dance.

My had dad had a leather belt, had me by the hand, and he'd be doing like this, and I'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And my dad's trying to, and he's like, I'll tell you what, it makes me change my mind about letting you go to Six Flags.

Six Flags.

And so I went from because he got two in on me.

I was like, oh man, that's thing.

Whoa, I put my hand back there, and that's what my dad says.

This just makes me change my mind, want to change my mind about letting y'all go to Six Flags.

Now, I've never been to Six Flags.

Six Flags might as well have been heaven.

It was so far away from where I lived, okay?

I had friends that go on the Six Flags, they come back talking about Six Flags, about the shockwave, and about the big tower and the runaway mind train and the pink thing.

I was like, What?

There's apparently a popsick on Six Flags called the pink thing, that it was like ambrosia.

You had to have this thing.

But I was just like, man, that is that that is so far from our existence.

And so my dad is whipping me.

I deserved it.

And I'm like, and he gets a light, move your hand.

He gets the last three in, and I'm sitting and my dad said, You got any questions, boys, about why you just got what you got?

And I was like, Yeah, what about six flags?

And my dad said, What?

And I said, What?

Why'd you what do you mean six flags?

Well, the first Baptist church is going to Six Flags next month, and they asked me if you boys wanted to go.

And so I was thinking about letting you go, but not if you're gonna be like this.

Oh, I'll be good, Dad.

I want to go six flags.

Now, why am I telling you this?

When you read Genesis 3, what you will see, we read the first part last time I was with you.

We'll finish it today, we'll pick up verse 14.

What you will see is in the context of something really not good happening, good gets interjected in the middle of it.

By the way, we went to Six Flags.

It was like I died and gone to heaven.

All these other church kids are like, six flags.

I was just like, I mean, the sun was brighter and it was all incredible.

And then you had to ride the bus back, but that's a whole other story.

Genesis chapter three.

Now, what's happened is that the serpent has come along.

Remember, I said everything spiritual seeks a physical medium by which to express itself.

And so the devil has inhabited the body of a serpent.

Uh, and and he convinces the woman to not believe God.

And so now we pick up in verse 14, because the woman she finally admitted, she said, Hey, what God said, What is this you've done?

And the woman said, Well, the serpent, you he he deceived me and I ate.

And God begins in verse 14 to dole out the consequences.

The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this.

Cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.

In pain you shall bring forth children, your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you.

In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles shall bring forth for you, it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

For you are out of it, you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Now, how God works to make it right, there's three things God is saying to us in the text today.

And I wonder, because I believe that these are the same thing God's been saying all along, okay?

The first thing that we see God saying in the text is that there's a consequence for sin.

There's a consequence for sin.

It's verses 14 to 19.

God is very specific.

Look at verse 14.

He says to the serpent, because you have done this, because you have done this, he connects consequence to behavior because you will be hard pressed to make sense of the world, both origin and outcome, without the fall of humanity and the reality of sin.

Let me say that again.

You, if someone asks you, hey, like tomorrow at work, if someone said, Hey man, what do you, how do you explain the way things are?

I mean, look around at the world.

Um, some people say there is a God, some people say there isn't.

Joe Rogan, who's got one probably the most popular podcast in America.

And by the way, I like Joe Rogan.

I don't agree with everything the guy says, but this past week, they had a guy on it, and it was interesting because they were talking, and Joe Rogan said this.

He said, Yeah, we've kind of in our country, we've outgrown the idea of the devil.

We got like the boogeyman, like we've outgrown that, but we've yet to outgrow the idea of God.

But what we need to do is outgrow the idea of God, just like we out outgrew this idea of the devil.

We've got technology and we're so far advanced, and the guest on the show is like, yeah, that's incredible.

And I'm thinking, can I be on the Joel Rogan experience?

Because I can help you here, Joe.

Uh he said, What do you mean?

Look around.

How do you explain the way the world is?

Now, let me just assume you you may be Pollyanna's, maybe like, this is heaven.

This is like six flags every day.

Is anybody in this room look around and think the world is messed up?

Say amen.

How did it get that way?

Now, some of you want to go politic politically and go, oh, well, I tell you what, you know, bruh.

Uh-uh.

No.

The way it got that way is right here in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Because God designed the world to be a certain way.

Man did not trust nor believe God.

And because as a result of that, that sin enters into the world.

It's called the fall of man.

Have you ever heard this phrase?

We live in a fallen world.

This is what it's talking about.

I'm just saying you cannot, and I'm I'm listening to Joe Rogan and I'm talking back because he can't hear me, but I'm trying to help him.

Like, Joe, you can't explain the world, the origin or the outcome of the world we live in without a doctrine of sin, without the reality of the devil and the reality of God.

It's a consequence for sin.

God's been saying this, he says it in Genesis, he demonstrates it all through the Bible.

Sin's never neutral, and typically it has three components.

It's theological, it's relational, and it's personal.

It's theological, it's relational, and it's personal.

What do you mean?

Look right here.

It's theological, it's against God.

Something is right or wrong, not because you think it's right or wrong, but because it violates God's moral nature.

That's what makes things sin.

It's theological.

Secondly, it's relational.

It affects someone else.

It affects someone else.

Nobody sins in a vacuum.

Now, by the way, in the Garden of Eden, there's just two people there, Adam and Eve.

Now, the devil comes along and he inhabits the body of a serpent, but it's just two people.

Now, why do I say that?

Because I hear all the time people say, Well, we're consenting adults, we're not really hurting each other.

No, no.

Sin is theological, it's relational.

Thirdly, it's personal.

It affects us.

It's personal.

And so what we see here is how God assigns consequences for their sin to each one of these individuals involved.

And now, by the way, this consequence involves life function and relationship.

It involves a life function and relationship.

Look at the serpent.

He says, You're he's cursing his mode of movement.

In other words, he said, uh, verse 14, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

In other words, you will crawl on your belly and you'll eat dust.

Not literally, it's a statement about ultimate humiliation or being debased.

And so uh he's cursing his movement, and he goes on to say this, verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

Uh, this is the uh there's he's cursing his movement, and then the relationship that's affected is his relationship with the seed of the woman.

And this is the reality of what we call spiritual warfare.

If you've ever heard that phrase, spiritual warfare, like I would ask you, how often do you think about the spiritual nature of life?

I see a lot of people in counseling, and that's one of the questions I ask.

I see people from all different backgrounds.

I mean, Christians, non-Christians, atheists, agnostics, and I ask the question hey, tell me where you are spiritually, because I'm I'm gonna come at it from the Christian perspective.

I don't apologize for that, but I want to understand where you are so I can understand what you value.

And people are like, well, you know, I believe in a higher power.

I believe something cosmic force of goodness is out there.

And I'm like, oh, Oprah, nice to meet you.

Uh but I'm trying to understand, I'm not trying to, I'm dying.

By the way, I've been sick all weekend.

Somebody in the first service said, Are you okay?

And I said, I'm kind of hopped up on medicine and I like it.

So if I say something crazy, it's the medicine, okay?

We'll go with that.

Amen.

Now have your visiting.

I say stuff crazy every Sunday.

Anyway, uh uh now he says to the serpent, he says, Hey, you're coaster, you're cursing your mode of movement.

You're gonna crawl on your belly the rest of your days, and there's gonna be enmity, there's gonna be strife, there's gonna be conflict between your offspring and the offspring of the woman.

This is the nature of spiritual warfare.

It's what Jesus picks up on in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 12, about verse 30.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

He says, You are for me or you're against me.

He's talking to the Pharisees, the most religious people in the world at the time.

And he says to them, You are of your father the devil.

If you think religion will save you, religion will get you into heaven, I got bad news for you.

It will not, because these people were the most religious, the best rule keepers.

And Jesus said to them, You are of your father the devil.

In other words, you are the offspring of the devil.

He says, Your father, you you when you we speak, you lie just like the devil, because he's the father of lies.

Now, this is the this is what the Bible means when it talks about enmity.

He said, Between your offspring and her offspring, I will put enmity between the two of you.

We refer to that as spiritual warfare because there's a spiritual dimension to life, and you would be well served to think about that early and often.

To the woman, he says, You'll experience, look at verse uh 16.

To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.

In pain you shall bring forth children.

Translation, childbearing was not intended to be painful.

Now, I've never gone through it, I witnessed it twice with both my girls.

It does not look enjoyable.

Like the first time our our child, our oldest daughter was born.

Uh, we I got up, we went to the hospital, we were induced, uh, which was incredibly, you know, just I'm like, this is fascinating.

And then there comes a point where the doctor says, Okay, I think we're getting we're getting close.

And I said, Can we get that epidural?

I don't know if you know what an epidural is.

It's something they stick in a woman's back and she doesn't feel anything.

And we had all our hopes on the old epidural, all right?

Because if you've had a baby, you can't help but tell your baby birthing story.

And our friends would tell us, my wife would be like, Oh, man, I'm like, that sounds not enjoyable.

Uh, like one lady said, Yeah, I was pushing in labor for 36 hours.

And I was like, I think I pulled a hamstring just hearing that.

And so we're like, bring on that epidural.

And a guy comes in, he goes, Sir, I've got bad news.

And I'm like, you never say that in a maternity award at a hospital.

He said, I've got bad news.

I said, What?

He goes, Your wife's platelet count is so low, we cannot give her an epidural because if I do, I'll paralyze her.

And then I just instinctively reached out and just grabbed him.

You will not give her an epidural.

And my wife said, Turn loose to the man, please.

And I was like, sorry, let's smooth that out.

Uh and then the doctor, the lady, one of the nurses, said, looked at my wife and said, Sweetie, we're gonna have to have this baby naturally.

Are you ready?

And all of a sudden, my wife turned into a beast.

They took, I'm not making this up, they took the end of the bed off.

And all of a sudden, they put on these stirrups on there, then they pulled down this lever and a light came out of the ceiling.

One of the ladies said, Back up, back up.

And I was like, gladly, okay?

And then she said, get ready.

We're gonna start pushing.

And my wife just set up in the bed and it's like, Whoo, you're in charge now.

What I did not say was, hey, don't you wish that Eve wouldn't have eaten that apple?

We wouldn't be in this situation right now.

And so it was so, it was so graphic and I looked up and the feet of my mother-in-law are standing at the door.

I'm looking under the curtain, I'm like, Martha, go back to the waiting room.

You don't want to be in here.

She grunts one more time.

We're gonna shoot this kid across 59, all right.

My wife gave birth to an eight-pound, 12-ounce baby girl all naturally.

And after that, I was like, You are my hero.

I will carry your purse, I will do whatever you want.

But now, why do I point to that?

Because the way God we talk about return to design, you're like that.

Well, that'd be get you all jammed up with a bunch of religion and rules.

No, no, no.

God created Adam and Eve to be co-heirs and have dominion over everything.

And because of sin, uh for the woman, the consequences you have pain at childbirth.

And then, secondly, here's a relationship it affects.

You have this unhealthy desire because it doesn't mean what you think it does, men.

Verse 16, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.

In pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for your husband.

Now, some of you men hear that and you point to that and go, hey, baby, look right there.

Your desire should be for me.

It doesn't mean what you want it to mean.

It's the same word that's used in chapter four when it says that God says to Cain, uh, sin is crouching at your door and it wants to have its way with you.

Same word.

It's not a good word, it's not a sexual desire.

It's I want to usurp your authority.

And now, by the way, male headship is not a consequence of the fall, it's a design of creation.

Let me say that again.

Male headship in the home, that's not male dominion, it's male responsibility.

The most sobering thing my wife ever says to me is, I trust you.

I'm like, oh.

Okay.

Now outwardly, I'm like, okay.

We face decisions, we gotta come think, and we'll we'll talk and we'll we'll share our opinions.

And then she says, ultimately at the end of the day, here's what I think, here's what I feel, but I trust you.

You lead our family well.

Nothing drives me to my needs quicker and more regularly than my wife saying to me, I trust you.

Ladies, I have a question for you.

Does your husband know that you trust him?

Can you feel what's in this room right now?

Some of you are like, let's don't labor on this.

I thought this was about sin and fall and redemption.

Yeah.

That's the way God designed it.

But there's there's there's enmity between the woman and the offspring of the woman and the offspring of Satan.

And now there's enmity.

There's this unhealthy conflict between man and woman.

Thirdly, then there's a man.

God says this.

He says, because you've listened.

Verse 17.

And to Adam, he said, because you've listened to the voice of your wife.

Again, don't get it twisted, sister.

It's like, see, there, you shouldn't listen to your woman.

You just do it yourself.

No, no, what God is saying is, you didn't listen to me.

Because you've listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

God says, This is what I said.

I said, Don't eat of this one tree, knucklehead.

Why you got to be a knucklehead?

And you've listened to your wife.

Cursed is the ground because of you, and pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Here's the consequence for man.

It is work will now be difficult.

Work is not a result of the fall.

God designed work as a part of creation, but it was more stewardship.

Now work is more difficult.

Have you ever driven to work on Monday and thought, I don't like my job?

Say amen.

Have you ever driven to work on Monday and just fantasized about winning a lottery and never working again?

Say amen.

Yes, yes.

Have you ever driven to work on Monday and thought, I hope so-and-so quit over the weekend?

Say amen.

Yes, absolutely.

You know why you think all those things?

Because you live in a sinful world.

It's a contaminated, fallen environment in which we live, and work is hard.

People get on your nerves.

If you've got somebody at work that you just think, oh, this would be so much better if that person didn't work here.

Say amen.

Yes.

Somebody asked me, they said, Hey, you and your wife work at the church and you live together.

Like, yeah, we live together.

Yeah.

We work at the church.

How's that go?

I said, Her office is on one hallway, mine's on the other.

So why is that?

I said, we need a break from each other.

Not like It's bad or anything.

It's just that I don't want to always be around, you know.

And she's like, I don't want you always around.

Works out great.

But work will now be difficult.

And here's the relationship that's affected.

You'll now experience death, God says to Adam.

What do you mean?

Look at me.

God created humanity to live forever in intimate proximity to Him, in fellowship and enjoyment of Him.

You were never created to die.

Dying is the most unnatural thing a Christian does.

That's why in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the Bible says this.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Paul says he talks about the body, compares it to a tent.

He said, We strike our earthly tent.

That means we pack the tent up and we move into our heavenly dwelling.

And then later on in 2 Corinthians 5, he says this, talking about the death of a believer.

He says, when that happens, what is mortal gets swallowed up by life.

So if you've ever been to the funeral of a Christian, you need to realize that that dead person, quote unquote, that dead person is the most alive person in the room.

And so that's why for the Christian, we don't fear death.

Why?

Because we get to return to life the way God intended it to be, but because Adam and Eve didn't trust God, God designed it to be.

You live forever in dominion, and now as a result of sin, you have to work as hard and death is real.

Paul picks up on it in the New Testament in Romans chapter 5, verse 12.

Romans 5:12

He says, This, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

But sin is not counted where there is no law.

Now there's just a few things to notice here.

Number one, death is now a reality because of sin.

It says sin came into the world through one man.

That's a reference to Adam.

And death through sin.

Death was not part of God's design for humanity.

Did you know that?

You were not created by God to die.

You were created to live forever.

But the Bible says the wages of sin is death.

It's physical death ultimately.

Just as sin came into the world through one man, death through sin.

So death is now a reality because of sin.

Secondly, Adam was the representative of the human race, so we've all sinned when he sinned.

What do you mean?

So death spread to all men because all sinned.

When Adam sinned, all of his progeny, all that came after him, his offspring, were born in sin.

We have a fallen nature.

That's why the Bible says when you become a Christian, your sinful nature is circumcised.

I don't want to get graphic, but circumcision involves the removal of something.

So when you become a Christian, sin no longer has power over you.

I ask people crazy questions in counseling.

And one of the questions I ask people consistently is this, and I love the responses of people that aren't Christians.

I ask them, could you ever envision yourself not sinning?

And one guy said to me recently, he's an addict.

He goes, What would I do?

I said, That is so refreshing and so sad all at the same time.

I mean, he goes, dude, I just, I mean, I've been a screw up my entire life.

What would I do?

I mean, I just I said, so basically, you can't think of yourself because I can't.

I can't.

Let me ask you a question.

Can you think of yourself and your life apart from sin?

Because the Bible says that your sinful nature, when you become a Christian, is circumcised, it's cut off, it's removed.

See, Adam represents all of us.

So it says, so death spread to all men because of all sin, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

You want some bonus round material this morning?

Say amen.

Look at that last phrase there.

Look at what it says.

But sin is not counted where there is no law.

That explains the geopolitical structure of our country right now.

Look at it again.

But sin is not counted where there is no law.

Over the past couple of years, there's been an assault upon the law.

Have you noticed that?

We do away with the law.

We say defund the police.

We got people like George Soros who have billions of dollars who don't know what to do with it, okay?

And so what they do is they pour money into these uh uh uh uh district attorney elections, and they get people elected who will not enforce the law.

Why?

Because sin is not counted where there is no law.

If you can do away with the law, then there is no such thing as sin.

Case in point, I plunged down this rabbit hole this week, thinking about looking back over my notes for today.

Did you know that in San Francisco, CVS and Walgreens, the drugstore, no longer want to put stores there?

And you can go online and see that people just go, because where there is not where sin is not counted, there is no law.

They said, we're not gonna prosecute shoplifting anything that's beneath below$900.

You can get a lot of stuff at CVS for less than$900.

And they said they show two guys walking in with backpacks and they literally just rake everything off the shelves into their backpack and they just walk right by the employees.

Why?

Because sin is not counted where there is no law.

So you remove the law, and what happens is you have no measure or means by what you establish right and wrong, and in that culture, nothing can be right or wrong.

Guess what?

That's where we live as a country, and that's what people want to drive us to even a greater degree of that.

Here's the second thing God's been saying.

Number one, there's a consequence for sin.

Number two, there's provision for sin.

There's provision for sin.

Look at verse 20, verse 21.

The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and he clothed them.

Again, there's provision for sin, but it starts back up in verse 15, actually.

Look at verse 15.

When he says, after he says, I put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring, then he says this, he shall bruise your head.

Who?

The offspring of the woman.

He's telling us right here, this is what's called the proto-evangelium.

It's a big word.

I put up on the screen so you can when you leave here today and your friends say, How was church?

You just go, we talked about the proto-evangelium.

And watch your friends just be like, Wow, yeah, yeah.

We were down in it, my man.

Proto is first evangelium, is gospel or good news.

Basically, this is the first inkling of good news.

Or look at me, what move that hand?

Six flags.

What are you saying about six flags?

In the midst of something very painful.

All I heard was six flags.

What?

What?

What?

Six flags?

What do you mean by six flags?

Any boys got any questions?

Yeah, what were you saying about six flags?

It's the first gospel.

He, Jesus, shall bruise.

That word in the Hebrew can be bruise or crush.

I like crush, crush your head, and you shall crush his heel.

It's a reference to the cross.

It's a first ingling when I say there's provision for sin.

This is what I two things I want you to see here, verse 20 and 21.

Number one, Adam naming his wife is an act of faith.

Because I don't know if Eve picked up on it, but Adam picked up on it.

What he what God said, it's that word offspring, because they think, hey, when we sin, we're going to die.

It's going to be over.

And so what do they do?

They do what you and I do.

They realize that they've screwed up.

And so they real, the Bible says their eye, after as soon as they believed the lie of Satan, their eyes were open and they realized they were naked.

And so what did they do?

They made coverings for themselves and then they hid themselves from the presence of God.

God came looking for them because we're designed for relationship with God.

And he says, Where are you?

And he says, Well, I was I'm over here.

I I was naked and I hid myself.

And God didn't say, What'd you do?

God said, Who told you you were naked?

Who informed the way you think about yourself to such a degree that you would withdraw from relationship and fellowship with me?

This is what God's trying to get to the bottom of.

And so Adam in verse 20, the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

He realized offspring, if we're going to have offspring, that means we're going to survive this.

Look at me.

In the midst of the deepest, most strongest form of discipline God ever brings on you, there's always hope.

There's always hope.

Adam naming his wife is an act of faith, and God providing skins was an act of grace.

Look at there in the Bible, verse 21.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and he clothed them.

Garments of skins.

Where did the skins come from?

From where?

From an animal.

And what happened to the animal?

It got killed.

Who killed it?

God.

Look at me.

What the Bible's kind of foreshadowing here is called, here's another big word.

You drop this at lunch, I'd be like, man, you go to one of them churches to use big words.

It's substitutionary atonement.

Substitutionary atonement.

You're smart people.

Substitute.

Someone stands in your place and takes your place and dies on your behalf.

In the garden, it was the animals.

Because they made loincloths like a speedo out of fig leaves.

Men, have you had a speedo on lately?

Ain't nobody feels good about themselves in a speedo.

That's what the Bible says.

They were loinclaws.

It wasn't like one of those, you know, unitar things.

It was just like a little speedo.

They were kind of like, this is kind of awkward and creepy.

God comes along, he sacrifices animals, he makes skins, and he covers them.

Why does he do that?

Because God does not want them living in shame, walking around the rest of their life living in shame.

Now, I make a big deal out of naming and then God providing.

Here's why.

Because when you have sinned, now let me ask you something.

Have you ever sinned or you just did something you just knew it was wrong?

Or you just you didn't do any committee big sins, just over time you kind of drifted to a place where I do not feel as close to God as I once did.

And the thought of going to church is like, if I went back to church, the building would fall down.

Everybody'd be like, where are you being?

Blah, blah, blah.

If you've had either one of those experiences where, hey, I put it in the ditch, or I just kind of slowly drifted.

If you've ever had either one of those experiences, say amen.

You ever wonder what you do?

Here's two crazy questions.

Here's two 50 cent questions that'll get you into a million-dollar conversation.

I asked these questions in counseling on a consistent basis.

I tried to.

Once people say, hey, I've really screwed it up.

Like I met with a man way back.

Doesn't go to church anywhere.

He comes to see me and I said, just tell me your story.

Tell me why you're here.

And he goes, dude, it's it's terrible.

And I said, okay, just start talking.

He goes, Where do I start?

I said, just start talking.

Uh tell me whatever you want me to know.

It's not going to change my mind.

I mean, his story involves phrases like, My son looked at me and said, I never want to be like you ever again.

You're the worst example of a father.

I can't stand you.

I hope I never see you again.

His wife said, There's no way I'll ever take you back.

You just get your stuff and get out.

And he got to the end of it.

He looked at me, he goes, Should I just leave right now?

And I said, What do you mean like leak?

Yeah, I mean, this is, I mean, I hear myself saying this, and I just think, what, what a piece.

I said, Stop right there.

Can I ask you two weird questions from the Bible?

He goes, I told you, I'm not, I'm not spiritual, I'm not religious, I'm not into the stuff you're into.

That's not what I ask you.

Shut up, okay?

Now, boys and girls, shut up is a bad word.

You shouldn't use that word.

But there's a little fire extinguisher recessed in the wall holder in Pastor Neil's office.

It says, In case of emergency, break this glass.

That's where I keep the word shut up.

I gotta pull them out every once in a while.

I said, shut up.

And he looked at me like, what'd you say?

I said, I said, shut up.

Two questions for you.

I said, can you still name things about your life?

And he said, What do you mean?

Can you name things?

I saw this right from the Bible.

Verse 21, or excuse me, verse 20.

And the man called.

He named his wife.

He called his wife's name Eve.

Why?

Because she was the mother of all the living.

Adam's starting to pick up on the fact that God is not a God of termination.

God's not a God of separation.

God is a God of reconciliation.

He's not done with us.

And so he named his wife Eve.

We're going to live and you're going to be the mother.

All of humanity is going to come from you.

So I said to this man, can you name things?

The way you find your way out of where you are is two questions.

Number one, can you name things?

He goes, like what?

I mean, like how you feel, what this feels like, what you fear.

He goes, Oh, I feel like I'm the scum of the earth.

I feel, I, I, I, I, I feel humiliated.

I said, Oh, ooh, ooh, hang on a second.

Come over in this chair.

Let me pull it back a little bit, and I'm gonna walk around here and I wanna write some of this on the whiteboard right here.

And he looked at me and he goes, What do you want to do that for?

So we can just see it.

We can hear it orally and see it visually.

It will be as jacked up and broken as you think.

Keep going.

And he said, I'm scum of the earth.

I'm reprehensible.

I mean, he had all these big words.

I'm like, You're an educated man.

And he said, I'm just, I'm sorry.

I said, Are you saying you're sorry like you're apologetic, or you're just sorry of no value?

He goes, Both.

And so we had seven, eight, nine big words up there that are descriptive.

I said, Okay, so first of all, can you name what your life feels like?

He goes, Yeah, can you name?

Yeah.

And I said, Secondly, here's the other question.

Can you can you receive from God?

And he says what everybody says when I asked that question.

But this guy just put his face in his hands and he says, I don't deserve a thing.

And I put my hand on his and I said, Neither do I.

You think I deserve the grace of God or forgiveness of God because I'm a preacher?

Some of the sorriest people in the world are preachers.

Go to their bank and ask for their credit history.

And he's like, Yeah, but I mean, I just did stop.

I mean, did you hear the stuff I said?

And I said, Because I'm Mr.

Helpful.

I said, Yeah, that was terrible and horribly selfish and sinful, and you deserve hell for it.

I'm available to help you too.

And he said, I know.

He said, Why are you asking me?

Am I open to receiving?

Because right here, and the Lord God made for Adam and Eve.

Now, by the way, that word made, such a big word.

Adam and Eve.

Now, God has ceased from his labors in Genesis 2.

Remember that?

And the Lord rested on the seventh day.

Look at me.

This is the first time God rises to do anything.

And what he rises to do is to do something about what makes this man and woman feel so far from God that they hide in a fig leaf spito, like, hey, hey, how are you?

Kind of creepy and awkward here.

So I said to my friend, I said, Are you open to receiving?

I don't deserve it.

It's not about what you deserve.

Jesus took what he did not deserve to give you what you could never deserve.

And he said, What do you mean?

I said, The Bible says like this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 by verse 21.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

He, God, made him Jesus.

He made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we can become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

And I said, There's an exchange that God's willing to make.

And in the course of counseling, I want you to come to that point where you're willing, you have a desire in you to make that exchange.

Otherwise, you'll live in shame your entire life.

You'll apologize to your sons, you'll apologize to your wife, you'll lose half of everything because your wife is going to clean you out.

He said, I got a lot of money.

And I said, Did you have a prenup?

He said, Nope.

You're going to take a bath, my man.

But he answered two questions.

What can you name about your life?

And are you open to receiving from God?

And I just wonder if there's anybody here that just in your mind you just think I've sinned so much.

I don't deserve anything.

I'm telling you that God, who back in the in Genesis 3, he sacrifices two animals and makes skins for this man and woman, it's a little foreshadowing that in the New Testament He's going to sacrifice his own son to make provision for your sin as well.

See, sin has a consequence, but there's a provision for sin.

And thirdly and finally, there's a way back.

There's a way back.

Look at verse 22.

What do you mean there's a way back?

The Lord God said, Behold, this man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

Stop.

Not everything the devil says is untrue.

You got to think about that one, don't you?

Yeah, I'm like, wait, what'd you just say?

Uh not everything the devil says is untrue.

Now, when it comes out of his mouth and God's mouth, there's different motives behind it.

Because remember what he said?

Oh, God's afraid you'll be like him, knowing good and evil.

God speaks right here.

This is the second time.

We're getting ready to hear this inter-divine dialogue.

And the Lord God said to him, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

Here's the problem that knowledge didn't get them what they thought it would get them.

Now, God says, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

And all of a sudden, look, look there in your Bible.

They're like a dash after forever.

It's like God's mid-sentence and he catches himself and he's like, ah, no, I can't wait.

I don't want that to happen.

Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove out the man at the east of the Garden of Eden.

He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

When I say that there's a way back, what I'm saying is God's fear is not that, oh, they're gonna have the aid of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and so they become like us.

Here's what it's not God's fear, it's God's understanding.

What God understands is if they eat of the tree of life, then they will live forever as sinful, fallen people separated from God.

So it is mercy that God puts them out of the garden.

God, mid-sentence, just stops speaking and he acts and he expels them.

The language in the Hebrew is very graphic.

It's not, hey, you guys, no, no, no.

It's like he gets them by the scruff of the neck and says, You guys gotta go.

Why?

So he can bring them back.

I don't have time to go into this today, but it's kind of subtle.

He says, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword.

He guards this because there's no way they could get back into the presence of God because they're sinful and fallen.

And yet, what you see in the Garden of Eden is this kind of the foreshadowing of the tabernacle which faced the east, which the presence of God was was was protected by these cherubim, these two angels sitting on the mercy seat.

And God says, You can't get to me, I'm gonna come to you.

And it goes from tabernacle to temple to the New Testament.

Christ, God sends his son.

And John says it like this in John chapter 1, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1 · chapter mention

That phrase is where we get to England and dwelt among us, is the where we get the English word tabernacle.

See, God says, I'm not sending you to a place, I'm sending you a person.

I'm not sending you to a place.

You didn't come to church today.

You are the church, and the church is about a person, it's about a relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is how we get back.

What God is saying is that, hey, there's only one way, there's not a bunch of different ways.

You you can't give a lot of money to the church and get to heaven.

No, there's one way.

First Timothy chapter 2 by verse 5 says like this there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

And so we move from this foreshadowing of the tabernacle that faces east with a cherubim with a flaming sword.

God is so committed.

Look at me.

We're just about done.

You still with me?

God is not mad at them.

God is not like, get out of here, I never want to see you again.

God so understands that if they eat of the tree of life, then they're just stuck as sinful, fallen people living in shame the rest of their life.

And God so loved you, and he so loved me, and he so loved the man that I shared about earlier, who worked so hard in counseling to get to this point where he realized, you know what, I don't have to live in shame as it relates to my sin, because there's a God in this world, and he paid for my sin, and he can forgive me even if my wife and my son won't.

Absolutely.

That is the gospel, and it was first spoken in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, because the offspring of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent on the cross.

Genesis 3:15

And there's a way back.

So, regardless of how you're here today, if this is the first time you've gone to church in 30 years, I don't care.

If you're like, hey, I'm just kind of exploring, that's great.

I want you to know there's always a consequence for sin.

But God has made a provision for sin.

And that provision is in the person is found in the person of Jesus.

This is why we can there's a way back into the presence of God.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We'd like to uh teach the Bible, and then we'd like to give you some soul space to think about it.

So some questions come on the screen.

You don't have to try to write them all down.

You can just take your phone and take a picture.

Let me voice a prayer and let's just think for a moment.

God thank you that in the midst of the most consequential decision anybody's ever made.

Adam and Eve royally put it in the ditch.

They did not trust you.

Sin entered into the world and death entered in.

And yet, in the context of all that, you're the God that says, Hey.

You ever heard about a place called Six Flags?

But the place you're talking about is so much better than Six Flags.

And it's not heaven in the sky on clouds, eating angel food cake.

It's being on the earth in its pre-fallen state.

It's getting back to the way God designed the world to be.

That's ultimately where this is all headed for the people of God.

So we get to come back and be on the earth forever.

In perfection.

With God.

Just the way you designed it to be.

So Holy Spirit brood over us for just a moment.

While we contemplate and consider.

Our women will gather for a night of worship and fellowship.

Childcare is available.

Register at grandparkway.org slash events.

Here's a look at how you can be prayed for our upcoming student retreat.

God is immutable.

That means unchanging.

When the world changes around me and I go into a new step of life, he's always the same, and his promises are always the same.

I chose God as faithful because throughout my life and throughout my struggles, um, God is stuck around and faithful in my life, and I know that he will be faithful in the future.

That's why I chose faith.

I chose brilliant because when I was thinking about this, a butterfly came by that's not all that's detailed.

So beautiful time not to be on the dotted brilliant.

I've just got it with fire.

I just weren't not only seen all my powerful bodies, but he wants a relationship with that.

I just don't think it's so so special.

I think we take forgiveness every day, although it's pressed.

God is the creator because he created everyone and everything, and we can have faith that he got is forgiven.

He watches away to God.

Come join us this weekend and we'll figure out who God is to you.

Registration is full, but there is a waiting list, so be sure to sign up at grandparkway.org/slash events.

If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Uh we called the camp.

We're having the retreat and asked for more spaces.

They don't have any spaces.

We're taking 90 people to our retreat, and there is a waiting list.

So if you want to go, you can get on the waiting list.

Uh Leo Almeida, our new teaching pastor, that's going to be his first uh uh teaching responsibility with our church.

He starts here on November the 8th.

Uh so you have asked, hey, when does Leo start?

He starts on the 8th.

His last Sunday.

His previous church was last Sunday.

Uh and I said, Why don't you just take the next three weeks, get caught up on seminary, grad school, and then come here fresh?

He goes, Are you serious?

I said, Absolutely.

Uh so just he'll be here.

That'll be the first thing he speaks out.

So be praying for Leo and be praying for our students, okay?

Stand to your feet.

We'd like to include the spoken blessing.

Hold your hands out.

It's necessary that you're able to name things in your life.

It's also necessary.

And it's okay for you to receive things from God.

He has much to give you for now.