The Fall

Well, good morning. We are continuing our series, How It Started.

This is now How It Started, part three. So we began this series a couple of weeks ago.

And in the first week of our series, we're, as we're covering the book of Genesis,

we're just starting at the very beginning of the Bible.

And so the first week of this series, we covered the creation of the world,

because that's what's found on page one of the Bible.

And then the second week of this series, which was last week,

we covered the creation of Adam and Eve and their assignment to subdue and to rule the earth.

And we covered that because that's what the second page of the Bible is about.

And so today we move on to the third page of the Bible. And our topic this week

is what is called the fall of mankind, which is perfect for Mother's Day, isn't it?

Good, you understood that I meant sarcasm. It's not perfect for Mother's Day,

but we're in a Genesis series and we're just going through it regardless of what the holiday is.

So today's passage, just if we're going in order from last week and we get to

Genesis 3, we're going to come up with something that I think is really important.

Today's passage answers a question that humans have asked for a long time.

I would say this is a major question and has been asked by many,

many human beings throughout history.

And I say, I think it's all types of human beings, not just Christian humans,

not just religious humans. I think all types of people have asked and wondered this.

This is what they wondered. Why is the world the way that it is?

Everybody at some point has seen something that they go, why is it this way?

Why is the world the way it is?

And particularly, why is it a mixture of good and bad?

Because virtually everybody I've ever met recognizes that there is good in this world.

I don't know anyone that says this world is all bad. There's nothing good in

it. Someone sees like a parent loving their child or they eat a good meal or

they watch a beautiful sunset and they say something like, oh,

this is a good world or, oh, this is good in the, you know, this is,

there is good in this world.

However, it is also true that everyone I've ever met believes that this world is not as it should be.

That everyone says this is not right. This isn't how it ought to be.

And sometimes that's obvious after like a really hard day at work and you get

home and you're like, man, that was so much harder than it should have been.

Like it shouldn't be this hard to make it.

And there are times where you notice it because you're watching the news and

something awful happens. Like you see the news of like an earthquake that killed 3,000 people.

And you go, that's awful. Like there's a pit in your stomach.

You're like, that's terrible that that happened.

Or you hear a story of like a tsunami that just wipes out a village and children

are all drowned in an instant, you know? And you're like, this is terrible.

Like that, this is what you think in your mind. Like that ought not be, it shouldn't happen.

Or you hear a story of somebody murdering somebody or you hear some story about

poverty or starvation or racism or like war, one nation at war with another

war, you know, with another nation. And you're like, this isn't how it's supposed to be.

Or maybe it's not stuff in the news. Maybe it's just stuff in your own life.

Like someone that you love gets into a car accident and it's terrible.

Or you get into a car accident and it's long recovery.

Or someone that you love gets cancer or you get cancer.

Or somebody that you love gets cancer and then dies. And there's something in

you that goes, this doesn't feel right.

It's not the way the world is supposed to be.

Things feel, all of these things I just listed are all things that feel so unnatural

to us, right? We just go and ought not be that way.

And yet all that stuff I listed, it's not really unnatural, is it?

Like you might hear about a story of an earthquake killing 3,000 people and

it feels unnatural to you.

It feels like it shouldn't be that way. And yet, what is that?

I mean, we literally call those things natural disasters.

Like it is the way the world is. And you hear about a tornado destroying a community

or you hear about whatever, like disease and death. We know that disease and death are natural.

And even things like murder or theft or one person like dominating over another

person or a group of people dominating over another group of people.

Like we don't call those natural disasters, but we would admit like that is, that's normal.

Like that's the way the world is, that's the way it's always been.

And yet, none of this feels right to any of us.

Everyone I know is sure that this is not the way the world ought to be.

And what's crazy about that, and I was thinking about it this week,

everybody I know, they don't agree on almost any other thing.

Like I was thinking about it this week, and I was like, everybody I know thinks

that there's good in this world, and everyone I know thinks the world's not the way it ought to be.

And I was thinking, how many other things are there that I could say everyone

I know believes this? Almost nothing.

Everyone I know disagrees on almost everything else.

But this one thing, for some reason, everyone knows. It's not supposed to be this way.

And we all feel this way, even though we've never lived in another world,

in order to compare this one to it, to know that there's something wrong with this one.

Right? Like when I put my key in my car and I turn it and it doesn't start, it frustrates me. Why?

Well, because I know what my car is supposed to do at that point, right?

Like why would it bother me if I turn my key in my car and it doesn't start?

Because it did start yesterday when I did that.

And the day before it did. And I can look at other people's cars and I can see

that when they stick a key in their car, it starts.

Or some people just, it has to

be just somewhat near the car and then they press a button. It's awesome.

But I look and see other people's keys starting their cars and that's how I

know mine's not doing what it's supposed to do, right? I can compare to other ones.

Like when I stick my key in my refrigerator and nothing happens,

it doesn't bother me at all.

That's never bothered me, never been offended by that, right?

Why? Because anytime I've ever stuck my key in my refrigerator,

like nothing's ever happened, right? And I've never seen anybody's refrigerator

where anything happened.

So it doesn't bother me that that doesn't happen to the fridge,

but it bothers me that it happens in my car because I know what's supposed to.

I'm able to compare and see what it's supposed to be.

We all know that this is a good world gone wrong even though we've never lived in a different one.

And we've never even seen another one in order

to compare this one to it and yet we know it and we really know it like we recognize

that this is knowledge that we have not just an opinion that we have I think

a lot of us would say no this is like knowledge this is a true thing not just

a preference that I have that when when you know thousands of people die in

a tsunami me, we don't look at that and go,

well, it's my opinion that that's bad.

No, we say, that's bad. That's bad that that happens.

Or when someone murders someone, we don't say, well, it's my preference that

people wouldn't murder people.

No, we say like, that ought not happen.

Where does that sense come from? How did the world get this way?

How did the world get so messed up that we are all sure of it.

Genesis chapter 3 answers that question. If you have your Bible, go to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention

In my Bible, it's the third page. That's going to be our text today.

It's Genesis chapter 3. I'm going to read all the whole chapter. It's 24 verses.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Genesis 3, starting in verse 1, says, Now the serpent was the most cunning of

all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,

Did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden?

The woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden,

but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden,

God said, You must not eat it or touch it or you will die.

No, you will not die, the serpent said to the woman.

In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will

be like God. No. knowing good and evil.

And then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look

at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.

So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband

who was with her, and he ate it.

And then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were

naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

And then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the

garden at the time of the evening breeze.

And they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, Where are you?

And he said, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.

Then he asked, Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that

I commanded you not to eat from?

And then the man replied, The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me some

fruit from the tree and I ate.

So the Lord God asked the woman, What is this you have done?

And the woman said, it was the serpent.

He deceived me and I ate. And then the Lord God said to the serpent,

because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal.

You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.

I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. He said to the woman,

I will intensify your labor pains. You will bear children in anguish.

Your desire will be for your husband. yet he will rule over you.

And he said to Adam, because you listened to your wife's voice and ate from

the tree about which I commanded you, do not eat from it.

The ground is cursed because of you.

You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field.

You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground

since you were taken from it. For you are dust and you will return to dust.

Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.

The Lord God said, Since man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,

he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.

So the Lord God sent him away from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming whirling sword east

of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life. This is the word of God.

There is a lot in that chapter. I will not be able to cover in detail every

single one of those verses, but let's go back and note some of the things in this chapter.

Starting with verse one, we notice this passage begins with a talking serpent.

Did you see that? Verse one. Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the

wild animals and the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden?

Okay? That's unusual. That's unusual.

Right? I mean, some of you go, well, no, that's not unusual.

Every single time I've ever heard this story, that's what always happens.

The snake always talks to her. Yeah, because you've heard the story.

I'm saying if you'd never heard this before, that should be surprising,

right? Snakes don't talk.

And yet the story, with no explanation, just has a snake talking to her. What is that about?

So there are two main options of what you can believe about why and how this

serpent is speaking. And there might be more than two, but these,

I think, are the two big ones.

One option is, and there are people that believe this, they say,

what this is in this story is, it is simply a serpent, okay?

That the story never says that it's the devil.

The story never says that it's Satan. It never says like Satan's controlling

the serpent or anything like that.

There's no connection between this snake and the devil anywhere in the chapter

or anywhere in the book of Genesis. So they'd say there's no reason to say that

because the passage just says it's a snake.

So therefore it's a snake that can talk.

Okay, well then how can it talk? So either it's just really smart,

so smart, there was no explanation needed.

Or some people believe this. You can Google and see that there are people that

believe this. Some people would say, well, what if animals talked before the fall?

So maybe the reason this was a talking serpent was because before sin entered

the world and before the fall of mankind, there was this harmony that mankind

had with the animals and they were able to talk.

And the reason why Eve was walking along one day and a snake talks to her and

she wasn't like, ah, it's talking snake.

But instead she's like, hey, okay, was because she spoke with animals because

that's what Adam and Eve did before the fall. So that's one of the options.

The problem with that is the story does not say that, like the story does not

say animals could talk before the fall.

It does not say that they lost the ability to talk, you know,

when sin entered into the world. It doesn't even say that the serpent lost the

ability to talk when it talks about the curse on the serpent.

So the other option, and this is the one that I believe, is that this particular

serpent who's talking because he was animated by, he was possessed by,

he was used as a tool by Satan himself.

And it was Satan who was tempting Eve.

And I do believe it was a real serpent. The story says it's a snake, so I think it's a snake.

But I think it was a snake that was, the person who was speaking through that

snake was Satan himself.

The reason I believe this, and this is actually kind of, this is the majority

view. I think most people, that's what they believe is happening in this passage.

And I would say probably the biggest reason why is Revelation chapter 12, verse nine.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Okay, if you go to Revelation 12, verse nine, it says this.

So the great dragon was thrown out. The ancient, what's the word?

Serpent, who is called the devil and Satan. the one who deceives the whole world.

He was thrown to the earth and his angels with him.

So you have the apostle John, right? He's writing down this thing about Satan. And it's interesting.

He says, there is this one who is called the devil and Satan.

So if you ever wonder, right, is the devil and Satan, is that all the same person?

Yes. Two names for the same guy, clearly.

This person is called the devil

and Satan. And who is he? He's the one who deceives the whole world. Okay.

So there is this one who deceives the whole world and has multiple names,

Satan and devil being two of the names.

And he is also known as the ancient what?

Serpent. Okay, so this is a Jewish guy writing in the first century.

He's familiar with the Old Testament, right? That's what he learned growing up.

And then he talks about the devil and Satan deceiving the whole world,

and he calls him the ancient serpent.

If you're a Jewish guy in the first century, what ancient serpent could you be referring to?

Could you possibly be referring to anything other than the one that's on the

third page of your book that deceived the whole world? Yes, that's what he's saying.

And so that's why I think this is Satan that is tempting Eve through this serpent.

So the conversation ensues.

The serpent tempts Eve by planting doubt in her mind.

It looks like he starts off by asking the question, are you allowed to eat from any of the trees?

Like he almost seems to be like implying something about like,

so God's holding out on you. You're not allowed to eat from any of the trees in this garden.

And Eve says, no, no, no. We're allowed to eat from the trees in the garden.

Just the one. There's the one in the middle of the garden.

We're not supposed to eat from that one. We're not even supposed to touch it or we'll die.

Which is not what God said. If you go back to the chapter before,

he actually just said, don't eat from it.

He didn't say, don't touch it. So there's an exaggeration that got in here.

I don't know where it came from.

I don't know if that was Eve exaggerating or if Adam exaggerated it when he

passed the command on to Eve.

Because if you remember, Eve wasn't around when the command was given.

So I don't know if Adam was like, don't even touch it, okay?

I don't know if he's the one that added to it or if she's the one that added

to it, but that's what she says. She says, no, we're not even allowed to touch it or we'll die.

And then the serpent says, oh, you won't die. Oh, God told you you'd die? No, no, no.

He told you wrong. God's the one lying here. I'm the one telling the truth.

Like he tells you you'll die and I'm telling you will not die.

In fact, something good will happen to you. God told you something bad would

happen to you if they ate that fruit.

I'm letting you know that he's not telling you the truth.

Something bad won't happen to you if you eat that fruit. In fact,

something good will happen to you if you eat that fruit. He says your eyes will be opened, right?

Remember I was reading in one book this week where it said something like that.

He's saying them like, it's like you're blind and God doesn't want you to see what's there.

But if you eat this fruit, then you'll be able to see it, right?

So your eyes will be opened.

Something good will happen to you if you eat this.

God's holding out on you. Something good will happen to you if you eat it.

Now I want you to notice Adam is there. Look at verse six, the second part of verse six.

It says, she took some of its fruit and ate it. And she also gave some to her

husband. Now what's the next four words?

Who was with her? That's very important. So I don't know if he was there during

the temptation part, but he's definitely there during the eating part, right?

She also gave some to her husband. who was with her and he ate it.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, if I'm picturing the scene right, Adam is a bad husband.

Is that true? Yes, he's a bad husband. You might go, I don't know if anyone's

ever told me Adam's a bad husband.

Well, I'm happy to be the first one to tell you. Adam was a bad husband, okay?

How do you know he was bad? I want you to imagine the situation.

Men, those of you who are here, imagine on your kitchen table,

there's some food and someone says, you will die if you eat this,

okay? Whoever eats this, they'll die, okay? And then they leave.

And then your wife comes in and reaches for it, okay?

And imagine the husband just leans back and says nothing, okay?

Let's see what happens to her, okay? Is that a good husband or a bad husband, right?

Let's see if she dies. Oh, she didn't keel over. All right, maybe I'll try some

now that she tested it out for me. That's not a good husband,

is it? He should have been stopping her.

He should have tried to stop her. He cooperated with the whole thing.

Okay, so then what happens next, I think is, it's a fascinating twist in the

story that I had never noticed until, I think it was this week,

I was reading through some books and this was drawn to my attention and I don't

think I ever noticed this before.

That the story is going along and then something happens that I just think you

wouldn't see coming and I grew up with this story and never noticed this. Look at verse 7.

After they eat the fruit, it says, this is the consequence of eating the fruit. Look what happens.

It says, then the eyes of both of them were opened.

And they knew they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Are you getting that? Like if the story stopped at verse seven,

it sure looks like the serpent was the one telling the truth and God was the one that was lying.

Do you notice that? Like God says, if you eat this, you'll die.

And the snake says, no, you won't die. Your eyes will be opened.

So they ate it. And what happened?

Their eyes were opened and they didn't die.

Right? At least not right away. The thing he said would happen is what happened.

And the thing God said would happen didn't happen. Isn't that strange?

However, the story does not end there. It goes on. And as the story goes on,

we will see God is the good guy and the snake is the deceiver.

In fact, the first hint that this snake is a deceiver that I think you can see

is when you see what happens next, you can see that the, first of all,

you see that the serpent technically told the truth, right?

But it seems to me he told a half truth because he said, your eyes will be opened,

which was true, but it seems to me he implied it would be good for them.

This will be a good eye opening.

This will be a good kind of knowledge that you get.

Okay. You're going to be happy you did this.

It was not good. And they were not happy.

Immediately, it says they were aware of their nakedness.

They'd been naked their whole lives, never cared. Suddenly on this day,

they were ashamed for the first time ever.

They felt shame for the first time. They noticed their nakedness for the first

time. They were afraid of God for the first time.

So afraid of God that they begin to isolate themselves.

Even before God kicks them out of the garden, they are already hiding from him.

Did you notice that? They're already separating themselves from him because

of whatever this knowledge is that they got, this shame and this fear and this

disconnection from God. And they start to hide from him. Look at verse 10.

And he said, this is Adam talking.

I heard you, the you is God, in the garden. And I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.

Like I heard you got in the garden. I was afraid, a feeling he'd never had before

because I was naked, something I'd never noticed before.

And so I hid something we had never done before.

And it's silly, too, that they were hiding, isn't it? Like, who were they hiding

from? What were they hiding behind?

Trees. Like, isn't that weird? When you think through the story,

like, if, it seems like they should have been able to figure out that God can

see through trees. I would think.

Because there's, like, if you're the creator of the universe,

you probably have x-ray vision, infrared vision. You probably have all the visions.

So they're like, oh, here comes God. Let's hide behind a tree that he made.

Okay? And so, so he comes, so he's there and he's like, you know,

I see you. And so he starts talking to them.

And he says, who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?

Now, verses 11 through 13 are interesting because this is the beginning of blame shifting. Okay.

And God says to Adam, did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?

Now, I want you to notice that is a yes or no question. Do you see it?

Did you eat from the tree? That's a yes or no question. And Adam answers with what?

The woman you gave to be with me. Whoa, whoa, whoa. The woman you gave to be with me is not yes or no.

Did you eat it? Yes or no? And he immediately goes, well, the woman,

the woman you gave to be with me, she gave it to me.

So he does not answer her question. Instead, he tries to blame shift,

right? And he says, it's her fault.

And it kind of seems to even be saying, God, it's your fault,

right? The woman that you gave to me, right?

Like I was doing fine before you gave her to me. I wasn't even thinking about

eating from that tree, honestly.

Farthest thing from my mind. Then you brought her along, right?

I didn't have anything to do with that. You and her kind of caused this, right?

And then Eve also is a blame shifter. Look at verse 13. So the Lord God asked

the woman, what is this you have done?

And the woman said, it was the serpent. He deceived me and I ate.

So I guess this was the original, the devil made me do it.

Curiously, the Lord does not ask the serpent anything, right?

He talks to Adam. He asks him stuff. He talks to the woman. He asks her about

some stuff and then doesn't say anything to the serpent. Just jumps straight to doling out curses.

So the snake is cursed to crawl on its belly.

According to the passage, the snake is cursed to crawl on its belly for the remainder of its days.

It makes you wonder how the snake got around before this. I do not know.

Another part of the curse with the snake is that there is now going to be hostility

between the snake's descendants and Eve's descendants.

Then there's the curse on the woman or the consequence that comes to the woman, verse 16.

The woman's curse includes suffering during childbearing. If you are here today

and you're going, you know, it's Mother's Day and I just wish the pastor would

like say something about mothers in his sermon. Yeah.

There it is.

God said, I will intensify your labor pains and you will bear children in anguish.

Don't say I didn't bring up the topic, okay?

So that's what he does. So the woman's curse includes suffering during childbearing

and a predicted battle of the sexes, right?

Between her and her husband, and I assume kind of between men and women for generations.

The man's curse involves the ground being cursed and work changing from something

that was enjoyable to something that is now painful.

It looks like before this, it would have been easy to acquire food and survive.

Now it's going to be difficult and the earth is going to fight against us actively.

And then lastly, we get to the part about death.

It's first mentioned in verse 19. God mentions Adam is going to die. Look at verse 19.

This is God speaking. He says, you will eat bread by the sweat of your brow

until you return to the ground since you were taken from it,

for you are dust and you will return to dust.

In the cursing of Adam and the punishment that goes to him, he says, you're going to die.

And then death comes up again in verse 22 or the concept of it.

Verse 22, the Lord God said, since man has become like one of us,

knowing good and evil, he must not reach out and take from the tree of life, eat and live forever.

So he says, since man has become like one of us, and the us there is plural. So that's interesting.

The fact that my Bible capitalizes the U makes me think that the translators

were assuming this is some sort of like inter-Trinity conversation,

like God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I don't know that it is.

The plural could be that God is speaking to like other heavenly beings that

are not on the earth, cherubim and seraphim and angels and whatever,

all sorts of creatures that we don't see, but really do exist.

So that might be what he's talking about. But anyway, he says,

man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.

So he says this, so he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat and live forever.

Right? So, so in this first, he's saying Adam is going to die and he is going

to lose access to immortality.

Right? There's a, he could have had that. No, now not, not going to happen.

We can't let him live forever now.

We know from later on in the Bible, God is actually interested in his people

living forever, but apparently not this way. Right? And so he says,

we're going to have to prevent this.

Adam's going to die. And so God said that they would die if they ate from the tree.

And it seems to me, I mean, a lot of other people, that they died in two ways that day.

In one sense, they died spiritually. And a lot of people have pointed this out.

This is the spiritual death of Adam and Eve.

That they are experiencing shame for the first time. Their spirit had a connection

with God's spirits in a way that was like, there was no disconnection.

There was no bad. there was this life giving relationship between God and humans.

And now they have shame and now they have separation from God.

Like I said, even like on both ends, really, separation from God and that God

kicks them out of the garden, but also separation from God that they were isolating

from God and hiding from him.

The connection is broken and they are now worthy of eternal judgment.

They are among the spiritually dead.

And then also a physical death sentence was placed upon them.

Immortality was removed. The chance for immortality taken away.

The New Testament says death entered into the world. at this time.

That there was not death and then death entered into the world through Adam's sin.

And we are under the same judgment. Like the wages of sin is death,

but you don't die the very first time you sin either.

But there is a sentence of death spoken upon you that is certain to come to pass.

And so by the end of the story, especially in light of the rest of the Bible,

we see that Satan is the deceiver and God is the one who is holy and just even

as he rightly condemns sin and rightly curses sinners.

And that is why the world is the way it is.

Like if there's a time where you go, man, it feels like the world shouldn't be this way.

The Bible's response to that is, yeah, because it shouldn't be this way.

It's not supposed to be this way. God's original world was all good.

Now it's both good and evil.

Before sin, God's world was a paradise. Now there's pain and hardship and death.

Prior to sin, I believe there would have been no disease. There would have been

no death. There would have been no earthquakes.

There would have been no tornadoes or earthquakes and tornadoes would have been

fun because there'd be no pain and no death, okay? I don't know which one.

I don't know if there would have been none of them or if it would have just

been like, woo, this is cool. But either way, no death, no pain.

If sin had not entered the world, there'd be no murder, there'd be no divorce,

there'd be no racism, there'd be no betrayal, there'd be no theft, there'd be no greed.

The world that we live in, and I think we sense like it's good, but it's bad, okay?

This is what the Bible says. the world that we live in is good because God made it good.

And it's bad because humanity ruined it with sin.

And if the Bible just ended there at Genesis chapter three, it would be really depressing.

And we would just be doomed.

So let's move on to some good news. Let me take you back to the story and just,

I want to read to you how it ends.

Okay. Verse 24. It's very interesting. I don't think I'd ever noticed this before.

Verse 24, the last verse of the chapter says, he, that's God,

drove man out and stationed the what?

The cherubim with a flaming whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard

the way to the tree of life.

So Adam and Eve were not able to go back into God's presence where they'd been

hanging out with him. They were not able to go back to that tree of life to

get immortality. They were cut off.

And the way that it was made sure that they would not get back is there was

a cherubim that was stationed there as a guard. Okay.

Now you might go, I don't even know what a cherubim is. And I will say to you,

honestly, I don't, I don't know a whole lot about what a cherubim is either,

but it's apparently in the Bible, it's a heavenly creature.

It seems to be a type of angel, has wings described other places in the Bible.

So it seems like this kind of angel is there guarding the path back to where

they had come from, where they had walked with God, where like eternal life had been available.

And so that's the cherubim. That's how it ends. Cherubim's guarding the way.

Now, this is the thing that was interesting to me that was pointed out this

week. I think I read it actually in a couple of books that I read and I was

like, whoa, I never noticed this.

So in the book of Exodus chapter 26, you have a description of the building

Exodus 26 · chapter mention

of the tabernacle, specifically the instructions that God gave to the Israelites

telling them how they are to build the tabernacle,

particularly how they are to set up the place that's going to be like God's

holy place that's separate from the rest of the people.

And I want to read to you what it says. This is Exodus 26 verse 31.

Exodus 26:31

It says, you are to make a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn.

So this is a command to make a curtain. Okay.

You are to make a curtain, a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn,

and finally spun linen with a design of, what's the word? Cherubim.

Worked into it.

God said, I want there to be cherubim on this curtain, okay?

So you sew them in there and then hang it on four gold-plated posts of acacia

wood that have gold hooks and that stand on four silver bases.

Hang the veil under the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony there behind

the veil. So the veil will make a separation for you between the holy place and the most holy place.

So I just want you to notice, cherubim were on the curtain separating the place

of God's presence from the sinners, right?

Not literal cherubim, but like symbols, like cherubim were guarding the section,

communicating to the people, this is God's section.

You do not, you're not worthy to come back in here and be with him.

That's, that's what it looked like. Now, the reason why that is interesting

to me is because the moment that Jesus Christ died on the cross,

what happened? Do you remember?

Yeah. In Matthew's account, that curtain was ripped into the cherubim that are

guarding the way to the thing that are communicating, hey, you are not allowed back here.

You are not worthy to be in God's presence. That curtain was ripped.

That curtain. I don't know if it, now the temple was built and rebuilt multiple times.

I don't know if it had cherubim on it at the moment that Jesus died or not,

but that curtain either had cherubim on it or was supposed to.

And it was ripped into signaling the beginning of the end of the estrangement

between God and mankind at the moment that Jesus died.

So in light of that, let's look at how the New Testament uses this story.

Where do we see Adam and how does the New Testament talk about Adam when it

looks back and refers to this story? I want to show you two places.

First one is 1 Corinthians chapter 15, starting in verse 21.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians 15, 21 says, For since death came through a man,

the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.

What men is it referring to? The next verse says, For as in Adam all die,

so also in Christ all will be made alive.

The New Testament looking back on this says, Adam's the one that brought death

for everyone and Jesus is the one that brings the resurrection.

You see this also in Romans chapter 5. Let me read this to you.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

This is Romans 5 starting in verse 18.

This is another passage that's contrasting Adam with Jesus.

It says, so then as through one trespass, there is condemnation for everyone.

So also through one righteous act, there is life-giving justification for everyone.

For just as through one man's disobedience, that's a reference to Adam,

the many were made sinners, so also through the one man's obedience,

that's a reference to Jesus, the many will be made righteous.

The New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the second man representing humanity

who undoes what was done in Adam.

So let me end with a story.

This story is, I'm going to say it in my own words, but this is based on something

Ernest Hemingway wrote about 90 years ago. He wrote a short story.

At the beginning of the story, it takes place in Madrid, Spain.

So about a hundred years ago in Madrid, Spain, he tells this story and I'll

just say it in my words now.

There were a father and a son and they were estranged there in Spain.

And so the father takes out an ad in the local newspaper and it says,

Paco, I want to be with you again.

Meet me at the Montana Hotel downtown at noon on Saturday.

All is forgiven. I love you, dad.

And the story is told that 800 guys named Paco showed up at that hotel that Saturday.

And part of the point of that story was of course humorously pointing out how

common the name Paco was back then.

But the other point of the story, and this is the sad one, is how common it

is for a kid to be estranged from their parent.

Like how many people out there are desperate to hear, all is forgiven, I love you, dad.

And so I tell you that story as a way of reminding you, because of your sin,

you deserve to be alienated from your heavenly father, spiritually dead and

sentenced to physical death.

And you have been rightly separated from a connection with God the Father.

And through Jesus Christ, God says to us, I want to be with you again.

All is forgiven. I love you, Dad.

And your response to that should be to go home, to turn from your sin and receive

Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

And for those of you who have done that, keep trusting in Jesus and wait patiently

for him to restore all things. Let's pray.

God, we thank you for telling us why the world is the way it is.

You don't owe us that. You don't owe us anything. There are lots of things you

do not explain to us, but this one you did.

And so thank you for helping us make sense of why we look at this world and

go, wow, it seems good and man, it seems bad.

And then just giving us information of how it got that way. I mean,

if that's all we had, that wouldn't be really comforting at all.

So I thank you, Jesus, for coming to undo what was done in Adam.

Thank you for dying on the cross. Thank you for making it to where we can be spiritually alive.

Thank you for making it to where we can resurrect and be physically alive with

you forever. Thank you that we can make it to where we don't have to be afraid

of you or hide from you or be ashamed,

or to be estranged from you in any way through what Jesus did on the cross.

So if there's anybody here today that doesn't know you, I pray that today they

would place their faith in you, Jesus.

And be reunited to you.

That they would turn from their sin and they'd be invited back behind the curtain.

We thank you for your grace. We thank you for the gospel. We love you and we

look forward to a restored world.

Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let me end with these good words from God's word.

This is actually the apostle Peter preaching really early on,

shortly after Jesus ascended to heaven.

He said, But what God predicted through the mouth of all the prophets,

that his Messiah would suffer, he has fulfilled in this way.

Therefore, repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out,

that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.

Heaven must welcome him until the times of the restoration of all things. That is good news.