Again, our passage for this evening will be taken from Genesis 3, so let's open our Bibles back up and turn to Genesis 3, Genesis 3, Genesis 3, I'm sorry, verse 20, Genesis chapter 3, verse 20, which is a passage that reminds me of the irony that you find in movies. Okay, and I say that for this reason, you think of a young man, you think of the movie with the young man who's wealthy, he loses his entire fortune. Right, and at the same time he's signing the lease through a new mansion because he knows that within hours his overseas investment was more than doubled. Or you think of the irony of a movie with a person who's a victim, she's been kidnapped, and she's been held hostage, and she's strapped to a bomb. With five seconds left on the bomb, she thinks that she knows that her hero is gonna bust through the door and favor, with just two seconds left before detonation. Right, and while she strapped up with those five seconds left, she makes the comment, when I get home, and I get out of this, I'm gonna take a vacation. That type of irony. When we look at the story here in Genesis 3, we kind of covered it the last time we looked at Genesis together, but we see Adam, we see Adam, who was created in the image of God, the first man to walk the earth, and we see that God made a covenant with Adam. And if Adam had followed this covenant and obeyed it, Adam would have entered into rest, eternal rest, the same way he worked, the way that his father worked, the same way that he was given dominion, as his father had given him dominion, an exercise dominion, and creating, in the same way that his father sat down and took his rest, not because he was tired, but because his work was finished. Adam was set to do the same thing, but we saw last time that Adam, he failed. And so here in Genesis 3, we have Adam being read his rights by God. God has convicted him, and he's given him his penalty and his charges, and it doesn't look good for Adam. It doesn't look good. Yet as we look at verse 20, Adam's ironic actions look like this, the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And God bless the reading of this portion of his word. What we want to do this evening, first we want to think about Hebrews chapter 11, and if you're familiar with that passage, or that chapter, you'll know that it's commonly, yet falsely, called the hall of fame of faith. You've heard that before. And the problem is that what we have in Hebrews chapter 11 is a writer just demonstrating the persevering character of faith. So we have individuals listed, and we see people like Abraham, and Noah, and Enoch, and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and this goes on. The writer, he even lists the few names that he said, if I have time, right, I can't even start to tell you about these guys because I don't have time. If time permitted, I'll tell you about more. And the focus wasn't that where to model what they do. The focus was that they were saved by faith, and their faith was a persevering faith. One person you won't see on that list, Adam. You don't see Adam on that list. And so it poses the question, okay, well, a question that many of us have probably asked, or we've heard before, was Adam saved? Did Adam have faith? So I'm going to say no. So maybe some may even look at that passage and say, well, yeah, maybe not. He's not even listed. But I beg the differ. I would say, of course, Adam had faith. The first thing I want to do tonight is look at our passage, and just establish the fact that in Genesis, with Adam, we have the first display of expressed saving faith. We won't spend much time there, but we just want to establish that quickly. And then our real focus and our main focus for this evening would be to look at the influence of Adam's faith, as it is played out in his actions and in his expectations. So we're going to establish the fact that we do see saving faith expressed by Adam. But our main focus is to look at the influence of Adam's faith on how he viewed his situation and reality. Let me say that again, because I said it a little differently the first time. We're going to look at the influence of Adam's faith on how he viewed his situation and reality. So first, to establish the fact that we see Adam expressing saving faith. Let's go back through the story. And we said that Adam was created in the image of God. We knew what God expected about him. All right, long story short, Adam doesn't meet God's expectations, Adam sins, and Adam fails. What happens after that will be get the curse and the penalty of sin and its depth. And no man from this point forward will be able to please God in and of himself because they'll all be born prone to sin with a distorted image. So that's what we have here. Where is it that we see Adam's faith come into play? Well faith, when we talk about faith, historically, the early church fathers pointed out that faith, the Christian faith, it is not a blind faith contrary to what we hear or what other people may impose or the way they may characterize Christians. We don't have this fanciful blind faith. We believe in something. They said three things about faith. Number one, faith, it first requires a knowledge. Faith requires knowledge in something. Secondly, faith requires that you would ascent or agree to that knowledge. So whatever it is that has been revealed. And thirdly, that we trust in that knowledge and what we agree with. Okay. So of course we know when we speak of faith and our faith, we know that the object of our faith is the promised Messiah. And we know that we have been given knowledge of the promised Messiah by God in a special revelation in the scriptures. And we know that anyone who was blessed with God's grace, we receive faith to trust in a knowledge of Christ and to ascend and agree with that knowledge and to walk in it. So how do we see this with Adam? Right. Let's walk through the first, the three selves. Number one, the knowledge, do we see knowledge? Reveal to Adam whereby he can place his faith. Okay. Or whereby he can agree with that knowledge. And I will say yes, if we look at Genesis 3, and if we start at verse 14, the familiar passage, this is what we read. One second, I'm digital again. So awkward silence. Okay. So Genesis 3, beginning in verse 14, we read the Lord God said to the servant, because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly, you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. Verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now there we know what we have. We have the first promise of the gospel and Adam. Adam was there and he stood by and he listened and he heard and Adam the knowledge that would have been required for Adam to have faith was it's there. So we can check that off of our list. Adam did receive knowledge and we said that for Christianity, our knowledge is in the promised Messiah, which is exactly what was promised here, the promised seed, the Messiah to come. So our objects of faith, us and Adam looking back and looking forward, it's the same object. So Adam, he's able to put a faith or a sense of the truth and where do we see that? What was our passage? The knowledge that's revealed is that there's a seed coming, a promise seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent, right? He'll defeat Satan and he'll undo what was done. So there's our knowledge and Adam. Does he agree with this knowledge and does he trust it? Well, again, our passage in verse 20, we read the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living and there's the iron, right? When Adam has his word that's come crumbling down, Adam hears the knowledge of the Messiah to come and Adam, he shows that he trusts in that knowledge because his wife who brought the fruit that they were told not to eat, his wife who he blamed when die came upon him and asked him what it was that they done. Out of all the things that he called his wife, he called her Eve, life and giver of life, though they had no children and it was just promised debt. Adam ironically speaks of life. Adam has faith. Adam trusts in the knowledge that has been revealed that the promise he'd is coming and Adam shows that because he speaks of life. So we've established, I believe that Adam, Adam, he possessed saving faith. We even look further into the book of Genesis in chapter 4 where they both have what they have children and Adam he instructs his children in the way of the Lord and he teaches them to offer a blood sacrifice to God through faith and from faith. So our main focus now, and there's three things that we want to look at in light of Adam's faith, Adam, he had faith, saving faith, in light of that faith and as we look at the context of the book of Genesis, we remember that Moses, he was the author of Genesis and Moses wrote this and penned this during the time of the Exodus, more or less. And Adam would have given this and read this to Israel as they wandered through a wilderness that their father, Adam, had brought into the world. And in reading this portion of scripture, Israel, Israel would have seen that this variant wasteland that they live in and that they're marching through. Well, there's a promise that was made that this would not be their final destination. And they were here, they would read this passage and they would be strengthened. And they too, who placed faith in the promise seed of Genesis 315, like Adam, Israel, they would be able to live differently, right? In light of the faith that they have. So three things that we want to point out as it pertains to Adam's faith, right? The influence that his faith had on how he viewed his situation and his reality. Three things we want to look at this evening really quickly. Number one, Adam's actions contradicts his situation. When we read that the man calls his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living, we see that Adam's actions contradict his situation. The first thing we have to ask ourselves is, what is Adam's situation in Genesis 320? Again, it's paradise laws. It's paradise laws. Adam through his failure and disobedience to God has ushered in a world that is subjected to sin. If we go back to verse 17, right here in chapter 3, we read, verses 17 through 9 through 8 and 18, we read. And to Adam, he, God said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Courage is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and fissures that shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field. So Adam, Adam has subjected the world that he lives in, that he has to remain in to sin. And he'll work and it'll be hard and he'll eat and it'll be hard. And his wife shall bring for children in pain. The world has turned upside down. This is Adam's situation. This is what he's faced with, but more than this, Adam, he's shamed his father. Made in the image, and you know what happens to the image that Adam was created in, like his father, it was shattered and it was distorted. But Adam, he's also standing there as a man who blew it and carrying out the functions and the responsibility of his position as a prophet. Adam was supposed to speak the word of God and only the word of God. As we see him doing with Eve, when he tells her what it is that God said that they can eat from all of the trees, except the one in the midst of the garden. Adam is a prophet speaking a word of God, and only God's word. Adam, he operated in the office of a priest guarding the garden, which he felt to do when he let the serpent in. And finally, as a king, exercising his dominion and authority that was given to him by God. So Adam's situation is that he's in a barren land. Adam's situation is that he has been dethroned. Have you ever seen a governor or a person in a position of authority fail and get caught in failing to succeed and carry out the responsibilities of their position, right? A governor or mayor, any government official or minister, anyone like that, you notice how low their head's aim when the news cameras come around. They don't want to be seen from ministers. They shut themselves away. Some of even committed suicide. This is Adam's situation. He's failed, but then we look at his actions. We see a situation and in light of his faith, in light of the promise of the seed, Adam's actions are as such. Again, before Adam's fall, we see him as a king. Let's all turn to Genesis 2. And in verse 19, we read concerning Adam, now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called, every living creature, that was its name. Adam, Adam was a king. And as a king, Adam, he names the animals. And when he names the animals, you know what they don't do. They don't argue and say, no, I don't like that name. And when he names the animals, God doesn't come down and say, no, that's not good enough. Try again. Adam is a king. God has entrusted him with authority. And whatever Adam called these animals, that's what they were. But Adam, Adam cursed by God. He was dethroned. He had surrendered his, his kingship and his rule to the serpent, the moment he ate, the moment he ate. And you know what Adam could, Adam could have done. Curse by God and told his destiny, Adam could have went and sat in his little corner and neglected every other responsibility that he may have thought he had until his dying day. But Adam, Adam, the same dominion that he exercised the name and the animals, you see what he does in light of a promise. Adam hears the promise of a seed. And that faith prompts him to start feeling like a king again. And he names his wife Eve. Adam, just as he executed the minion and naming the animals, he names his wife. Now this is after the fall. This is after he was dethroned, head hanging low in shame. But the promise of a seed, the promise of a seed, reminds him of who he was and what is going to be restored. And Adam starts acting like the king again. And we imagine how Israel would have felt, again, reading this. Israel who's wandering through the land and their situation is similar, right? Mard images of God, they're walking out of Egypt, going through the Exodus and they're complaining and they want to be back in Egypt. But they read of Adam. One who sin was far worse than almost anybody's sin that we can think of, only because it was Adam who saw that through his sin, the whole world changed, right? But Adam, because of a promise, the promise seed, he doesn't see his situation. He doesn't see the thorns and the thistles. He doesn't see that he failed as a king. He starts feeling good, right? He starts looking at the reality of what will be Adam. Adam, he acts, or his actions contradict his situation. But secondly, Adam's expectations, they exceed his reality. Adam's expectations receive his reality. And I have three grown teenage girls at the house, right? Two of them are my wife's younger sisters and we have one teenage daughter. And oftentimes their expectations exceed their reality, okay? The reality is sometimes this, okay? There's bread, there's lunch meat, there's cheese, and so lunch, there's going to be sandwiches for lunch. But dinner, well dinner, we're going out to eat. And so their expectations is for dinner. Their expectations is to die now and they'll skip over lunch because they know what they have in store, right? They know that they have dinner coming and if they don't like it, they just bypass it. In a more positive way, Adam, his expectations, they far surpass his reality. And what's Adam's reality? Again, let's turn to Genesis 3 and let's look at verse 19. And by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken, for your dust and to dust, you shall return. Church, Adam's reality, it's not hard to see, it's our reality. Adam's reality is death, death in every way, physical death, eternal death and spiritual death. Spiritual death is already set in and iron and Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge is that when their eyes were opened, they actually became blind. So I run it. But by the promise of a seed, Adam's eyes are opened again through faith, through God working through his word, his word that the Messiah would come and Adam's eyes are opened. He was one spiritually blind, but he sees. Through the promise of that seed, Adam who lives in death's valley, he expects to live. He expects to live. Again, we see this in the name that he gives Eve when he calls her life, or he calls her giver of life. So we ask ourselves, okay, is Adam being cynical here? Right, God has read down his list and one of the things that he tells Adam is for sure and for certain, you're going to die. And I'm sure that Adam would know by now that God means what he says. And so is he being cynical? Because God said that he was going to die, yet he doesn't believe it, so he names his wife, wife. And I don't think that's the case. Again, we say that Adam, he's expressed true and saving faith. Brothers and sisters, on our list, our long list of promises, of a painful life, the promise of heart labor, the promise of death, but the promise ultimately of life. Just like Adam, he's not being cynical. It's just that that promise of life out of that long list the promise of life is the promise that stands out. And that's what we see as God's grace is given to Adam by his faith. The promise seed tells Adam that nothing else matters. Okay, nothing else matters in Adam's eyes. Our reality is that death is not. Right, we have a long list of sick and shut in and a long list of funerals and the business of undertaking it never goes out. So our reality is that death is knocking, but Jesus, the promised seed, he tells us that he is the resurrection. Right, anyone who dies, if they believe in him, they'll live again. And if anybody who believes in him lives, they'll never die. And that was Adam's reality. So in light of death, the reality of death, Adam's expectations was life and life more abundant. So thirdly, as we see Adam who expresses faith in the fact that he names his wife, Eve, life, thirdly, we see that Adam expresses full assurance in what he hopes and what he hopes for because his desires, his desire is what God has promised. I'm sorry, let me read that again. Adam expresses full assurance in what he hopes for because his desire is what God has promised. Adam doesn't rejoice or expect anything more or less than what God has promised him. Has he? He hasn't. He names his wife, life. Okay, he can take full assurance in what it is that he's looking forward to. Adam will say it confidently, he can name his wife in the face of God because that's what God has said of her. God has called her life. The Genesis 315, he promises that she will bring for life, right? The life Christ. And so Adam his hope isn't it something arbitrary or isn't it something that God hasn't promised today? It has become too common in the church that we expect of God, things that he's never promised. And oftentimes every time those expectations are far lower than what God has actually promised to give, right? Leave it up to us if we stood there and we were able to ask God anything that we would we would want. And he granted. It wouldn't be eternal life within and life more abundantly. It would be something temporal, something that will waste the way. So we shortchange ourselves. Adam by faith, his desires are conformed to what it is that God has said about himself. And so what it is that God has promised. When Adam dies, he won't get mad at God because he knew that God didn't promise physical life here on this cursed earth forever, but a better life. When Eve would bring for children, those baby boys and all the others that would come after him and she would bring him for it in tears and in pain, begging her husband to make it stop. He wouldn't get mad at God because he knew that God promised that although she would bring for children in pain, she would bring forth life. God didn't promise an easy road for any of us because of Adam. We live in a world that you can trust will be full of hardship. Brothers and sisters. Adam knew this, but he lived a life that showed his actions were contrary to the situation. He lived the life that showed that his expectations they far exceeded his reality. And Adam, he was able to have full assurance in what it is that he hoped for because what he hoped for was conformed to what God had promised. So that's our task, brothers and sisters. To look at Adam and to see an Adam, what it is that we have been given life, life, if he who has subjected this world to sin can be given life and can live in light of the promise as opposed to reality. How much more can we? How much more can we? And we would say that as we look at Adam in closing, he is not one that we look to be like. There's a second Adam, a better Adam, Christ. And he fulfilled everything that Adam was supposed to do, but we do look at Adam as an example of what God does with sinners. He saves them by his grace through the faith that he gives in the promise seed who has been revealed to be Jesus Christ. And so in closing, we say as if Adam was listening to Hebrews 11 by faith, he called his wife's name Eve. Let's borrow his name. Our gracious God and our Father, we come before you, Lord, we thank you for this time again. Lord, we ask that you feed your people, that you give us what it is that you have for us in this message that our expectations will be conformed to what it is that you promised and nothing more, Lord, but most definitely nothing less. God, we ask that you will show us that by faith and the promise of your son Jesus Christ, Lord, we can look at this world that's perishing, the world that's tomorrow, Lord, as soon as we wake up, we can guarantee that we'll run into a problem. Lord, it's coming. Those problems, Lord, they're coming. They're waiting and they'll be here, but you promise God to deliver us and that you have delivered us. You've given us life, Lord, and you've given us something far better, Lord, than what we have. So please, like Adam, we pray God that we will not look at our situation and act out in spite of our, in light of our situation, but that our actions will contradict the situation that we live in and that our expectations will exceed our reality, Lord, that we expect life that you promised, Lord, and that we'll be sure that you're given us eternal life, no matter how many people drop dead at fault. So bless us in this and in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.