Proto-Euangelion: The First Gospel

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to turn to the book of Genesis 3. I want to pick up where we left off with many of you who were here on Friday night as we had Secret Church, and we gathered together for six hours from six till midnight, and we studied the Old Testament together. Over a thousand folks in this room as we studied. By about midnight, there was some eyes that were becoming a little glazed. But, thankfully, we were getting to the good part then as we saw how all the Old Testament culminates in Christ, and we prayed for our brothers and sisters who meet like that around the world.

Let me encourage you to also pull out the notes from your Celebration Guide that are going to lead us in our time together today in Genesis 3.

How great Thou art! How great God is! The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed. For the present, they increase more and more and rise higher and higher until an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose.

It is true that judgment against your evil works has not been executed; hitherto the floods of God’s vengeance have been withheld. But your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are everyday treasuring up more wrath. The waters are constantly rising and waxing more and more mighty. And there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back. That are unwilling to be stopped and pressed hard to go forward if God should only withdraw His hand from the flood gate. It would immediately fly open and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury and would come upon you with omnipotent power. And that your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yay, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.

The bow of God’s wrath is bent and the arrow made ready on the string. And justice bends the arrow at your heart and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God and that of an angry God without any promise or obligation or interest in any Mediator, that there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, we have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves us every moment is the mere arbitrary will, an uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

Such was the seeker-sensitive sermon of Jonathan Edwards during a time known as the Great Awakening of the church, where countless people came to faith in Christ, and churches were renewed in ways that they hadn’t been in years. It happened because they were awakened — the first Great Awakening — they were awakened to all that God is and His entire character.  Though I am not going to preach quite like Jonathan Edwards did on that day today, I want us to see, in the very beginning of Scripture, a picture of the complete character of God. These first few chapters in the Old Testament are foundational for giving us an understanding of who God is, and they set the stage for everything else in Scripture. I think there are some characteristics of God that we are going to see in Genesis 3 that we desperately need to revisit today in the church.

So what we’re going to do is we are going to read Genesis 3. This is a passage that may be familiar to many of you. It’s known as the Fall of man, the entrance of sin into the world. But don’t let its familiarity keep you from missing this.

I pray that we read this with fresh eyes this morning, almost like we are reading this for the first time. It’s kind of like, you know how there are some movies that you can just watch over and over and over again. You know what’s going to happen at the end, but you still wait. Like Rudy — you know that movie guys. You know, in the end, they are going to win. Rudy is going to come out on the field, it’s going to be awesome. But you sit down two hours before just to watch it lead up. So, let’s sit down. We know how this thing is going to end. Let’s sit down and start to watch from before, and let’s be a people who delight in seeing the story that God reveals in Scripture shown to us over and over and over again.

Genesis 3. Follow along with me starting in verse 1. We are going to read through the whole chapter. I want you to picture this story.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not 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 God did say, ‘You must not eat the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” [Great job guys, some things never change, right? She did it.]

And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate. [Not that women will be relieved in this passage. The blame still gets shifted on to the serpent sitting nearby.]

And the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened 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 thistles 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, since 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 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.

Now, normally when we study a passage of Scripture, we kind of start at the beginning, and we walk all the way through it to the end. But I think the way this is written in the original language in Old Testament, instead of going from start to finish, it would be better for us to move from the outside, from the beginning to the end and go to the middle.

There is the key sentence in the very middle of this chapter that is the focal point — the focus — of everything that is to come after it in the Bible. And I think everything from the beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter works towards that in different ways. And so that’s what we are going to do. We are going to go back and forth from beginning to end gradually until we find ourselves at the very center of the passage, and along the way, I want us to see three characteristics of God.

Genesis 3:1—24 and the Judgment of God

First one — number one — you’ve got it in your notes there. I want us to see the judgment of God in Genesis 3; the judgment of God. Sin comes into the world for the first time in Genesis 3. Through this temptation, the serpent — more than just a snake, this is Satan, the Adversary, using the serpent as an instrument, and as sin comes in, we see a picture of the judgment of God. Up until this point, everything was good. When God saw all that He had made, He said it was, what? Good. Everything was good. “It was good…” “It was good… “It was good…” Over and over again in Genesis 1 and 2.

The core of sin …

And we get to Genesis 3, and we see a different picture, and not just the goodness of God, but the judgment of God comes in. I want you to see it in two ways. First of all, I want us to think about the core of our sin and the core of sin in Genesis 3. Think about the core of our sin, and even that, as we see sin enter the world, I want to divide into two different facets that I think combine together to come to the core of what it means to sin. Because sinning is much deeper than just eating an apple from a tree you weren’t supposed to eat from. That’s the fruit, that’s the result of something that’s much deeper at the core of it. And I want you to see the core on two levels.

First of all, the core of sin is questioning God’s character; questioning God’s character. And I believe this is at the core of sin in Genesis 3. Let me show this to you. First of all, you need to back up to Genesis 2. What I want to do is read the setup to Genesis 3. And what I want to encourage you to do is every time you see God’s name mentioned, I want you to circle it. Every time you see God’s name mentioned in Genesis 2, circle it. You’ll see where I am going once we get to Genesis 3, but just trust me until we get there.

Circle every time you see God’s name in Genesis 2. We’ll start in verse 4. It says, “This is the account of heavens and earth when they were created…” Let me pause there for just a second. Genesis 1 gives us the story of creation. Genesis 2 now gives us another story of creation, not two creations; not two worlds that are created here. But, basically, the story of creation told from two different perspectives. Genesis 1 is more universal in its scope. Genesis 2 really focuses on man and woman and who they are, and God’s relationship with them in even a deeper way.

So, that’s what we are reading here. Genesis 2:4: “…when the LORD God…” There it is; circle it. Circle the “LORD God”. That’s the way He is referred to. “…made the earth and the heavens. Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God…” Circle it there. “…had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.”

Verse 7 says, “Then the LORD God…” Circle it there. “…formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Verse 8, now circle it: “Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kind of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge good and evil.”

Now, skip down to verse 15. It starts off and says, “The LORD God…” Circle it there. “…took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Verse 16, “And the LORD God…” Circle it again. “…commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Verse 18: “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” Verse 19, “Now the LORD God…” I realize this is getting repetitive, but just follow with me. Circle it there. “…had formed all of the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.” And you get down to verse 21: “So the LORD God…” Circle it there. “…caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.” And then finally, verse 22 says, “The LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”

Now, let me give you a little background on “Lord God”. And this title that God has referred to over and over again throughout Genesis 2. Actually, these are two titles that come together: “Lord” and “God”. In the original language in the Old Testament, “Lord” literally means “Yahweh”, and this is the title for God that we see throughout Scripture that refers, not just to God, but to God and His relationship with His people. God as the Lord of His people, the God who shows love and care, and kindness, and goodness to His people. It was the covenant name between God and His people. And “covenant” basically means they had entered into a relationship with Him. And He was showing love and kindness and goodness to them. So that title really emphasizes the goodness of God.

And the second part of this title, the “Lord God”, that word, “Elohim”, in the original language of the Old Testament, literally means “God Almighty”. We sing, “Great is the Lord Almighty.” “Almighty” is the title that God refers to, and it’s suppose to really emphasizing His goodness, His care and love for His people. It really emphasizes His power, and His greatness, His sovereignty and His dominion. He is the One who is omnipotent. He is almighty; all might belongs to Him. So, you’ve got the goodness of God in the title “Lord” or “Yahweh”. You’ve got the greatness of God: “Elohim”. Bring goodness and greatness together, and you have the Lord God. That’s the way He is shown to us all throughout Genesis 2.

Now, here is where it gets interesting. Look at Genesis 3. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the…” There it is again; circle it. “…the LORD God made.” But here is where it changes. “He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say…’” (Genesis 3:2) And all of a sudden, Satan, through the serpent, takes one part of this title off, and he begins to use “Elohim” alone. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die?’”

Look at verse 5. “For God…” What I have done in my Bible there is instead of circling these instances, maybe either underline or put a square around them just to show that there is difference here. Put a square around, “Did God…” in verse 1 there and here in verse 5. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God…”

(Genesis 3:5) The serpent is tempting there. In verse 2, God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree.” So, in verse 1, verse 2 and twice in verse 5, we see three times the serpent refer to God as “Elohim”, and one time Eve buys in and says, “Okay, He is ‘Elohim’” and begins to refer to Him as that.

See how Satan the Adversary was subtly showing the greatness of God separated from the goodness of God? Picture it: “Did the One who has all power, omnipotent, this Almighty God — did He really say you can’t do this?” And see how its subtly comes in there? “Does that God really care for you? Does that God really love you? Does that God really know what’s best for you? If you eat from the tree, then you’re going to be like Him. He doesn’t know what’s best for you. He’s put these unnecessary boundaries on you.” And we begin to see Satan shifting Eve’s focus to God’s greatness, while ignoring His goodness and His care and His love.

Questioning God’s character, and you see this because the rest of the time throughout Genesis 3, it goes back to the “Lord God”. After the sin happens in Genesis 3, look at verse 8. “The man and his wife heard the sound of the…” And you can circle it again: “…the LORD God as he was walking…” Verse 9: “But the LORD God…” Circle it there. Verse 13, “…the LORD God said to the woman…” Verse 14, “…the LORD God said to the serpent…” Then, you get to the very end of the chapter, verse 21: “The LORD God made garments of skin…” Verse 22, “…the LORD God…” You can circle it there. “…said, ‘The man has now become like one of us.’” Verse 23, “So the LORD God…” You can circle it there.

On both sides of this story of the fall of man, sin coming into the world, you see God’s goodness and His greatness. In the middle of it, you see God’s greatness separated from God’s goodness in the way the serpent, and eventually Eve, looked at God. I want you to think about how this is at the heart the core of sin. Sin at its core is distrusting the goodness of God. Sin at its core is not believing that God really cares for us, or God really wants what is best for us.

Think about it. Whenever we give ourselves to immorality, then we are saying, “I know what’s going to bring me more pleasure God does.” Whenever we follow down this path that we know we are disobedient in, we’re saying, “I think this is a better path for me to go than God does.” And this is the core of sin. I don’t believe the core of sin is Adam and Eve going over and taking a bite out of this fruit. The core of sin is in their hearts, saying, “Maybe God is not who He said He was. Maybe He is not good. Maybe He doesn’t care for us.”

And it’s the core of all of our sin in this room. It’s not just when we lie that we sin, but it’s the fact that at the core of our nature, there is something in us that says, “God doesn’t care for us. God doesn’t know what’s best for us.” So we give ourselves to our own way, our own path and our desires instead of His. It’s distrusting God’s character. Basically, we put ourselves in the place of God, and we say, “I can determine what’s best for me.” We don’t trust and depend on Him, and that’s what sin is.

Now, this is huge for our day because it flies right in the face of popular ideologies that basically say, at our core, we’re good. People, even in the church, they ask me sometimes – – they say, “Well, what about this person? Yes, they are not a Christian but look at all the good things they do. They’ve got such a wonderful nature. Look at all the good things they do.” Well, sin is not just when that person lies; sin is when any person does anything, anything apart from complete and total dependence on God. Sin is not having complete and total trust in God, as the Lord, the good, reigning God over their lives. That is sin. That’s the core of it. It’s at the core of all our beings the desire to put ourselves in God’s place. It is the mantra of our day: Self-fulfillment, self-confidence, self-determination, everything putting yourself in the place of God.

It is the core of sin that was introduced in Genesis 3. But it’s not just questioning God’s character; second, it’s questioning God’s Word. Questioning God’s Word. Now, think about this. The Word of God is so prevalent from the very beginning. God speaks and things happen. God speaks in the beginning, and earth is created. You see this all throughout Genesis 1. Verse 3, “And God said…” Verse 6, “And God said…” Verse 9, “And God said…” Verse 14, “And God said…” Verse 20, “And God said…” Verse 24, “And God said…” Then verse 26, “God said…” Verse 29, “God said…”

Over and over again, God speaks, and you get to Genesis 3:3, and what did Satan say? “Did God say?” It’s not just a question of God’s character. For the first time, we have a question introduced in the Bible, and it poses the first dilemma in human history. Did God really mean what He said? Or maybe, He meant something different, and all of a sudden, what God said is now open to human interpretation and human judgment, and we are put in a place where we determine what God said or didn’t say instead of God determining that. We now determine what is right and what is wrong instead of God.

As soon as the serpent said, “Did God really say?”, Eve should have been suspicious. Well, she should have been suspicious to the fact that she was talking to a snake, but, even deeper than that, as soon as she heard, “Did God really say?”, all of a sudden creeps in this assumption that whatever God says is open to our judgment; that God’s commands are actually a source of questioning for us.

And this is alive and well in 21st century culture today. You can’t say what is right and wrong. We each determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. You can’t say what’s true. We each determine for ourselves what’s true for me may not be true for you. What’s right for me may not be right for you. And it’s open to interpretation all the way around here. And God’s absolute truth, His absolute authority is brought into question, and man’s authority is raised up. And it’s the core of sin.

I want to share with you just a couple of articles that I read recently in a college newspaper, college campuses where this is rampant. Listen to these quotes, editorials from a college newspaper. The first one, “Spirituality Has No Right Answer”. It says,

What is most disconcerting is that, in all of the discussions on religion, tolerance seems to dissolve. The tragedy of the situation is that if we listen, we would realize that the role of all religion and philosophies is essentially the same. While we are fussing over whose interpretation is the best, we fail to realize that all the interpretations are vastly more similar than they are different. We all hold a primal belief that there is some greater power overseeing our existence. Some of us call that power God or Jesus, some Allah or Buddha, others refer to it as Karma, Chi, Tower, the Force. Some don’t call it anything but certainly know it when we feel it. The point is don’t get so caught up in your own interpretation of the truth that you close yourself to the ideas of others.

Spirituality has no right answers, our culture would say.

The other one, “Spirituality Is A Misunderstood Subject”. Listen to this.

Humans fear what they don’t know, and spirituality eases that fear by giving them some sort of foundation, no matter what religion they choose to worship. I believe that Jesus Christ gave his life for my sins. But people are shaped by their experiences. They will choose whatever religion they feel comfortable with. You can’t tell people what to do, only let them know what you feel is right. Just believe in something, but make sure your conscience is in agreement.

Do you hear that? “Eve, just make sure your conscience is in agreement. Think through this, and if you don’t agree with it, then go have some fruit.” The article continues,

Spirituality, in the form I speak of, expresses love and fellowship towards your fellow human beings. Life is a tapestry [This is where it gets poetic] that is constantly being weaved. And with all spiritual threads, you make the tapestry of your life stronger. But most of all to thine own self be true and choose the spiritual path in life that makes your whole world sweeter.

To thine own self be true Eve. Choose what you think will make it better, and it ushered in the assumption that God doesn’t know what He’s talking about. And His commands should be questioned, and we have the right to determine what is right and wrong, good and evil, true and false. And its the core of sin. Questioning God’s character and questioning God’s Word.

Genesis 3:1—24 Shows The consequences of sin

Now, the result is they go, and they eat the fruit. Now, I want you to see the consequences of sin. Three of them unfold here. Number one consequence of sin — first consequence of sin we see in Genesis 3 is guilt; the first consequence of sin is guilt. In verse 7, the Bible says after they ate it, “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Guilt. What was innocence in Genesis 2 is now exposed in Genesis 3. They say they need to make a change because of the guilt they feel, not just before each other, but guilt before God. They are exposed for their sin.

That’s why we see in other points in the Old Testament from here on nakedness, being stripped of clothes, is a sign of God’s judgment. It’s part of what God prophesied through His prophets of what was going to happen in the exile. They were to have those things taken from them. They were to be exposed in their sin. Guilt.

The second consequence of sin: Shame. Look at verse 8. “And the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD…” Now, this doesn’t mean that God was physically walking. This is language to help give us a picture of God interacting with His people in relationship with His people. It says when they sensed the presence of God, they hid from Him.

Now, this is drastically different than the end of Genesis 2. Look at Genesis 2:25 in the Garden of Eden before sin, before they’d questioned God’s character and questioned God’s Word. Verse 25 said, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no…” What? “…shame.” Now, they had shame in even being in the presence of God, so they hide because they know they’ve got sin, and they can’t hide it. So they hide themselves. The picture of shame creeps in. They have gone from a position of complete honor in a relationship with God to complete shame, where they want to hide from His very presence.

Guilt, shame and the third consequence is fear. The third consequence is fear. “The LORD God called to the man”, in verse 9, “‘Where are you?’” Not that God didn’t know where they were, but do you see how God uses questions throughout this story to help man realize and understand where he is? Listen to what man answered in verse 10: “He answered, ‘I heard

you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’” What was beautiful perfect fellowship, where they’d enjoyed being in the presence of God, is now fear in the presence of God. Afraid to even be near him, as well they should have been.

“What do you mean, Dave?” When you look back at Genesis 2:17, remember what God said? “You must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely,” what? “…die.” If God said that, and you ate the fruit, you’d be hiding too. You would be afraid. Guilt, shame and fear come in as the consequences of sin based on the core of questioning God’s character and questioning of God’s Word.

Now, what I want us to realize is that this is not just a story that we read about that happened way back in history. Yes, it is a real story. It’s not just a fable that we believe in. No, this is a real story, but the implications of this story for us today are huge. Because at the core of our being is the questioning of God’s character; at the core of our being is the questioning of God’s Word. All of us in this room have a desire to put ourselves in the place where God is. We do not depend on Him; we desire to be independent of Him. We have a nature that is prone to wander from God. And for that reason, no matter how we try to define right and wrong, we all find ourselves doing wrong, and there is a guilt that is there, there is a shame that should come with our guilt that, many times, we miss out in our culture, because we believe the lies of Satan. And there is a fear before God, because He is completely good, and because He is completely holy, and we stand before Him with a character that goes against His very being, a nature that is in all of us that is full of sin.

Hold your place here, and turn over to the right, all the way back to the New Testament. I want to show you this in Romans 5. I want to show you how Paul bridges the gap between what was going on in Genesis 3, all the way over to his time in the New Testament, and the implications for our lives today. Look at Romans 5. I want you to see and underline some phrases in these verses that talk about how Genesis 3 relates to us today.

Look at Romans 5:12, right after Acts, the book we’ve been in for a while. You go one book to the right, and you come to Romans 5:12. Underline this: “Sin entered the world through one man…” Who is that one man? Adam. “Sin entered the world through Adam, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned.” You see the

relationship between Adam and us? “Sin came through one man, death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned.”

Come down to verse 15. It says, “The gift is not like the trespass. The many died by the trespass of the one man, so the many…” Meaning, all of us, “…died through the trespass of Adam.” Not just because he sinned way back there, but because his nature is in all of us in this room. It continues on, verse 16: “The gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin…” Here it is. “The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation.” One sin and condemnation was for all men. Look at verse 17; it says it again. “By the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man…”

Now, here is where it really gets thick. Verse 18, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men…” Because of one trespass in Genesis 3 was condemnation for all men; because the condemnation was ushered in the judgment of God in Genesis 3. But we all know from experience. The statistical probability of us sinning in this room is 100 percent. It’s not just because you lied one time. It’s because you and I at the core of our being have the same nature of Adam that questions the character of God and questions the Word of God. And until we come face to face with that reality, we are living in an imaginary world.

It is only under the deception of the Adversary just like Adam and Eve were in Genesis 3. And the result is we completely lose sight of the judgment of God. Let’s step back into reality, ladies and gentlemen, and let’s see the fact that we stand before God with a nature that is drastically opposed to Him. The result for all of our lives includes His judgment on our sin.

Genesis 3:1—24  Reveals The Mercy of God

Thankfully Genesis 3 does not stop at this point. It’s a good thing that we don’t close our Bibles now and say, “Now, we go out with our sin and the judgment of God, period. Have a great Sunday.” It’s not the news from Scripture and not the message from Genesis 3. Come back there. I want you to see not just the judgment of God, but second, the mercy of God. I want you to see the mercy of God.

This is where it gets really good. In Genesis 3, how do we see the mercy of God? Verse 8 says, “The man and his wife heard the sound of LORD God as they were walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. And the LORD called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8—9) Don’t miss this. They had been told that, when you eat of this, you will die, but they are still alive. God is actually coming to them. God is actually speaking to them.

He seeks the guilty.

We see the mercy of God, first of all, in the fact that He seeks the guilty. God seeks after the guilty, those who has sinned against Him. God has not left them without His presence. He is still coming to them. He is still speaking to them. As we see later on in the rest of Scripture, He is restoring them. God seeks after the guilty, and the God who seeks after the guilty in Genesis 3, continues to do the same throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

A few chapters later, you come to Abraham. We picture Abraham as the father of our faith in many ways, but don’t forget, before God sought after Abraham, Abraham was an idolater, who was completely turned against God. He was worshiping false gods instead of God and robbing God of the glory due His name. And in Genesis 12, God seeks after him and says, “Abraham, I am going to pour out my blessing on you.”

Then, Jacob, a couple of generations down, is a deceiver; that’s what his name literally means. He is running from his sin, and we see God seeking after him, running to him. Moses, in Exodus 3, is a fugitive in a foreign land, and God comes running to him, and He seeks after Moses. Even a guy like Elijah, a great prophet of God at the height of his ministry, starts running from God and bolts away from Him. “I am afraid of you God. I am afraid of this mission you have given to me.” He starts running away, and God seeks after Elijah in 1 Kings 19.

The good news is the God who sought Adam and Eve, and the God who sought Abraham, and the God who sought Jacob, and Moses, and the God who sought Elijah, is the same God who seeks after the guilty today. He seeks after us; He pursues us. Don’t miss how radical this is when it comes to the religions of the world. Let me illustrate. I told you about when I was in the eighth grade, and I wanted to make the eighth grade basketball team, and I was compelled to try to dunk the basketball. Evidence of our fallen nature and just lack of wisdom. I made the team though.

But once I made the team, I quickly found out that I was in what was called the 20/20/20 club. I didn’t realize it when I got on the team that I was going to be on the 20/20/20 club. Basically, the 20/20/20 club is this: Whenever the team is up 20 points or down 20 points with 20 seconds to go, I’m going to get to go in the game. So, whenever that situation happens, and everybody is fouling out, then coach would look down the bench and say, “David, it’s time for you to go in.” So that was the role that I played.

Well, I knew going in the ninth grade then, I hadn’t had a chance my eighth grade year to really show my stuff on the court. So, I knew I needed to work hard, because I had to go through tryouts again. So, all summer long, I spent hours — literally hours — every single day up in the gym. Coaches had opened up, and every once and awhile, they’d come by to see who was there most of the time. I was the only guy there working as hard as I could. I wanted to make the team.

So, I get to tryouts, putting into practice all I’d worked for, working as hard as I can. I was showing the coaches, and we get to that final day. The coach gathers everybody who tried out around, has the list in front of him, and says, “All right, here’s the team.” And he starts reading off names. When he gets to the end, I thought, “Coach, you forgot somebody.” And I go and have a meeting with him afterwards, and he said, “No, David, I didn’t forget your name. You didn’t make the cut.” I am not still bitter against that guy. I’ve almost forgotten about it. He ruined my high school career. But I remember the pain of working and doing all I can, day after day after day, hours everyday, and finding out in the end that I did not make the cut.

That’s the picture of religions of the world today. If you do enough, if you follow enough, if you give enough, if you make the right steps follow the five pillars, walk the eight-fold path — if you do these things, then you will make the cut. Christianity turns it upside down. Instead of us trying to make the cut, we are running from God. Instead of us trying turn our way, we are showing day after day we can’t make the cut. The coach is pursuing us now. He is coming after us. He is seeking after us. Even while we run, He’s seeking after us to the point where we turn, and we see that He has sought after us. We realize there is a God who seeks the guilty. Though I could never make the cut the God of the universe decides, He’s going to call your name. That’s good news in Genesis 3. Yes, there is guilt. There is also a God who seeks the guilty. It gets even better.

In Genesis 3:1—24, He covers the shameful.

Second, the mercy of God: He not only seeks the guilty, but He covers the shameful. Remember guilt and shame were the consequences of sin. He covers the shameful. Look at Genesis 3. Remember, we are going back and forth, beginning, and the end working toward the middle. Look at Genesis 3:21. “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and he clothed them.” Because of their guilt, they are exposed. God takes garments of skin and clothed them.

I want you to think about that. The God of the universe takes garments of skins. Now, what does skin mean? Now, there is only one option there. One option is that He would take the skin from an animal from His creation to clothe them with. What that means is, for the first time, death has entered into this picture in Genesis. The death of an innocent animal over here whose skin is taken to clothe the shamefulness of man and woman in their sin. Let me repeat that one more time: God takes the death of an animal to clothe the shameful in their guilt — the death of an innocent animal to clothe their shame and guilt.

That’s the pattern that begins to unfold throughout the rest of the books of the Old Testament. In order to approach God, in order to be honored in His presence, there must be a sacrifice of an innocent animal that will cover your sin. Leviticus 16, literally says “atone for”; it means “cover your sin”. The stage is set for the God, who will take the death of an innocent man, and He will use His death to cover the shamefulness of our sin. God will make Him who had to sin to be sin for us, so that we might be clothed with the righteousness of God. He covers the shameful and brings us from a place of shame to a place of honor through the blood of Jesus Christ, the one man, whose death covers our sin. See, the Old Testament is good.

He protects the fearful.

In the mercy of God, He seeks the guilty, He covers the shameful, and then, third, He protects the fearful. You get to the end, and the Bible says at the end of verse 22, “He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and also take from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So, God banished him out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.” (Genesis 3:23) Don’t miss it. Man in his sin is under the judgment of God. If that were to be forever, that would not be good news. You don’t want to be forever in the state of Adam and Eve at this point. Nobody wants to be forever in this state.

So, the Lord God banishes them out, and He protects them even in their fear. You say, “It was a good thing they were taken out of the garden?” Absolutely. It was because of their sin. Once sin crept in the world, the last thing you wanted to do is for that to last forever. So He sets in motion a plan to protect the fearful, to make a way for this not to be the end of the story.

Genesis 3:1—24 Establishes The Promise of God

That leads us right into this third characteristic of God. We’ve seen His judgment, and we’ve seen His mercy. The mercy exemplified in the fact that man is still not dead. In fact, one other thing: I forgot to mention verse 20. Look at that. “Adam named his wife Eve…” He had already named all the animals, which that must have been a very interesting process. Antelope, ostrich; he was a very creative guy. “Adam named his wife Eve…” Why did he name her Eve? What does “Eve” mean? “…because she would become the mother of all the living.”

Now, that’s weird. Not the name Eve, but the fact that Adam, after sin, after they’d eaten fruit that had been promised, once they eat the fruit they’re going to die — Eve is the woman who he’s got on his mind is to blame for all of this — Adam says, “I am going to call her Eve, which means the mother of all the dead.” No, the mother of all the living. There is going to be a way; we’re still going to be able to live in the presence of God.

How is that going to happen now? We get to the third characteristic: The judgment of God, the mercy of God, and the promise of God. We’ve come to the center where all of this chapter is focused in on the center: The promises of God. And over and over again, what you are going to see are words like “I will”, or “you will”, mentioned over and over again. “I will do this”, “You will have this”. Promises of God; the promise of God. And what you see are three different ways with three different people. You see the divine penalty for sin shown in these promises, and then, the description of the consequences of that sin. Now, we are moving from outside to outside to the middle.

Now, let’s think about it. Who did God approach first? He approached Adam first. So, let’s think about, “What did God say to Adam? Look at verse 17,

To Adam he said, “Because you listened 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 thistles 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 since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17—19)

We will have a clash with our environment.

So, what it this promise for man, for Adam specifically? Well, number one, there in your notes: We will have a clash with our environment. That’s the promise of God. Adam was created to rule over the earth. But it’s told him, as a result of his sin, “The consequence here is that ruling the earth and being over the earth is going to cause painful toil and hardship all the days of your life.”

Yes, he is still alive now, but as what does verse 19 say? “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the,” where? “…ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” This is a sobering truth of Scripture that we have all seen played out. That man’s life on earth comes to an end, and the body is taken back into the ground. From dust you are and to dust you will return, a clash with our environment. A very sobering truth in Genesis 3.

We will have a conflict with each other.

Second promise: Not only will we have a clash with our environment — we will look at Eve now. The second person God approached was Eve. Let’s look at how Eve was promised that we will have a conflict with each other; we will have a conflict with each other. Look at Eve. “To the woman he said…” In verse 16, “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.”

Think about the clash with each other that’s represented there. Eve is told, in the most intimate relationship — she has the relationship with a child and bearing a child and in a relationship with her husband — that there would be pain in the deepest relationship there were. Our sin against God will have a drastic effect on our relationships with each other.

We all know that to be true in different ways. Throughout our journeys, we’ve seen the effects of sin in our relationships with other people. Even those who we would expect it to never happen with. Those who we are closest to, many times, the greatest hurt is there. Whether it is marriage relationships, family relationships, close relationships, there will be conflict with each other that will go from a husband and a wife, or a mother and her child, all the way to nation against nation in the Old Testament. Conflict with each other as a result of our sin.

We will have combat with sin.

So, first promise: We will have a clash with our environment; second, we will have conflict with each other; third — and this is the focal point here. We’ve come to the middle God addressing the serpent and giving a promise. We will have combat with sin; combat with sin. Now, I used that term very intentionally. I want you to look at what God says to the serpent in verse 14. “Because you have done this…” Look at what God says: “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.” Now, that and that alone was a curse of humiliation. Not just on a snake but on the Adversary; curse of humiliation.

But then look at what happens in verse 15: “And I will put enmity…” You might make a note in your Bible there. “Enmity” literally means “war, combat, battle.” The battle lines are drawn. “I am going to put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” (Genesis 3:15) Here’s the picture that’s set up here in Genesis 3. Enmity, battle lines drawn between the Adversary and the woman.

But, not just them as individuals, see how it goes plural here: “…your offspring and hers…” Not that the Adversary, Satan, was going to produce offspring like Eve does. That’s not what’s being said here. But the seed of what happened in Genesis 3, the seed of the work of Satan, would continue to expand in offspring. Eve would obviously continue to bear offspring.

There would be a constant battle between the offspring of Eve and the Adversary, the devil, constantly battling with sin, a battle that we all know well in our lives. This is the constant pull away from God. All of us in this room all week long are constantly facing temptation, experiencing the effects of the enmity that is set right here in Genesis 3:15. Even Paul, a devout follower of Christ, in Romans 7, saying, “I don’t do what I want to do, and I do what I hate to do.” And it goes back and forth, and you see the battle. This battle is going throughout the Old Testament in our lives today.

Complete combat, but that’s not where this promise stops. If it was, that would be bad news, because we would still be in a battle all the time; we would never have any kind of victory. But don’t miss this: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Now, what does that mean? Well, he will crush your head. That’s referring to the serpent, right?

So, who is the offspring? We hear the language of Eve and her offspring. This is singular, Eve, a woman and then her offspring, which is plural, but who is this “He”? Is it one man? Now that’s a great question. Who is He? One man in Genesis 3:15 who will crush the head of the Adversary. And you, the Adversary, will strike his heel. He will crush your head; you will strike his heel. The battle will culminate, not in the offspring of the Adversary and the offspring of Eve, but between the Adversary and this one man. He will come face to face in this battle, in this combat, in this war. And what will happen? It says the serpent will strike His heel. Isaiah 53, “He was bruised for our transgressions.” You will strike His heel. But now God does a little bit of trash talking in the Old Testament, and He says, “He is going to absolutely flat out crush your head.”

Now, what does that mean? Well, I am glad you asked. The message of Genesis 3 is this: We will have combat with sin, but in the end, two truths will arise. Number one: Satan will be trampled; he will be crushed. Second truth: Jesus Christ will triumph. “The Man will crush your head. You may bruise His heel, you may hurt Him, but three days later, He is risen again, and you are gone. He will crush your head; you will strike His heel.”

You’ve got to see this. Turn to Romans 16; look at this. Isn’t this beautiful? The fall of man becomes the fall of Satan by the promise of God. The fall of man has now become the fall of Satan. Look at Romans 16. Paul comes to the end of this book and this letter that he’s written to these Christians in Rome. He’s kind of closing things out. I want you to hear how he closes things out.

We will start with verse 17, just to get a picture. “I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” Verse 18, “For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people.”

Romans 16:19: “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise…” Now listen to this: “…be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” You see good and evil next to each other there? Then, he says in verse 20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Have a great day. Isn’t that a great way to close out the book of Romans? “The God of peace is going to soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” Man, that’s good news! Will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Look at Revelation 22; Revelation 22. Satan is crushed. He is. He does come to a point where he meets his end. Revelation 22. Now, remember where this whole thing started? In the garden, Tree of Life, tree that brings life where you can live forever. Man is banished from it in Genesis 3, because of the triumph of Christ. Listen to Revelation 22. “And the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the…” What? “…tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.” (Revelation 22:1—2) And we are not banished out any more.

Listen to what it says.

The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see His face. No fear, no shame, no guilt. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the even the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign… (Revelation 22:2—5)

Don’t miss this: Not just He will reign, but “they will reign with him for ever and ever.” (Revelation 22:5) Here is the beauty of what started in Genesis 3, and we come to the end of this book, because Satan has been trampled, because Christ has triumphed by the grace and mercy of Almighty God. Even though at our core our sinful nature, which questions the character of God and questions the Word of God, God supersedes that with His merciful promise. He says, “There is coming a day, not only when Christ will triumph, but ladies and gentlemen, you will triumph with Christ. He will crush Satan’s head, and Satan will only be able to strike His heel.” He was pierced for our transgressions, and He was bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes, we are healed.

Across this room, I pray that we see God and all of His character, His judgment, His mercy, and His absolute faithfulness to His promise. And across this room, I want to urge you — if you have never trusted in Jesus to save you from the consequences of your sinful nature — I want to urge you with everything that is in me to trust in Him, trust His character, and trust His Word.

Even as we have started talking today, many of you have been thinking, just like the serpent said to Eve, “Is this really true? Is this really right?” The temptation is just as real today. I pray that you will trust Him, ask Him to forgive you of your sinful nature. The Bible says that He stands ready today. He sought after you. He sought you in your guilt. He stands ready to cover you with His forgiveness and to bring you into not fear, but to peace, the peace that only comes in knowing that you have eternal life with Him.

The lie is still real today. Satan is saying there is not a price of judgment for sin. He is still convincing people all across this room that, in the end, everything will be okay, that there won’t be judgment, that you will go when you die — whether it’s into a reincarnated state, whether it’s into this black hole that leads to a shinning light, or maybe that you just cease to exist — that it’s all is not true. I pray that you will embrace Christ today.

I also pray that, across this room, those of us who call ourselves Christ followers will be serious about sin and will realize the infinite price of Calvary that was promised in Genesis 3, and that it will be reality of our lives. Let us stop trying to justify our sin and stop trying to shift the blame and let the righteousness of Christ clothe us. We’re going to celebrate these truths in communion in just a second. I want to invite us all across this room to reflect on the promise of Christ in Genesis 3 and the fulfillment of that promise in His death, the shedding of His body and His blood. God, we praise you for the truths of Genesis 3.