Consequences

If you have a Bible with you, we'll be looking tonight at Genesis chapter three, verses 16 through 24. Before I read this, I wanted to say, thank you again to elders who preached in my absence, John Rolloffs, George Brown, Scott Griffin. I heard great things, and even when I didn't hear great things, people were still impressed. But they were. I was impressed as well, just the fact that you guys did it, so thank you very much. We're continuing in Genesis. You also should be able to find the text on the back of your order worship. So I say to you, hear the word of God. I'm going to start at verse 14. It says, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I'll put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your pain and child bearing. In pain you shall go, you shall bring forth children, your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And Adam said, because you have listened to the, into Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife. And have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles that you'll bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken for, for you are dust and to dust you shall return. The man called this wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like us, like one of us, in knowing good and evil. Now listen, reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the chair of him and flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Let us pray. Father, I pray now that you would teach us the gospel as we consider this passage in Genesis that all the way back at the very beginning, you had one thing in mind and that was the redemption of your people through your Son Jesus. Make that clear now. In Christ's name we pray, amen and amen. What's been about a month and if you remember as we've been looking at the book of Genesis, that the purpose of the book of Genesis really was manifold but at the end of the day it was to remind Israel and us of this thing called the gospel. And what I mean by that was to them it would have been God's promises. He made a promise to Israel that was too fold if you remember. He said I'll take you out of Egypt, out of slavery and out of your bondage and I promise you I will deliver you into the land of Canaan. One promise sort of two sides of the same coin and remember is all of Israel's problems revolved around the fact that they had a hard time believing part two of that. They believed that they've been delivered from Egypt but the question was, is God going to finish the job? And as they read through the book of Genesis we've seen that the reminder should be reminded over and over again that God not only has promised to deliver them and promised to take care of them but he in fact has promised to finish the job any will. So as we got into this point in the story remember what's happened God told Adam and Eve you guys here you are you're holy and happy with God you're perfect. You're made for each other you're perfect compliments to one another you have a perfect relationship. And now the only thing you have to do is avoid that one tree. You don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day you eat of it surely you shall die. And we read the story that in fact the serpent comes and tempts Eve and Eve by that time is already a Pharisee and she probably got it from Adam. For the serpent says you should should you not eat of it and she says we're not even supposed to touch it. And they eat and then God comes and looks for them and says Adam where are you he looks from the cool day and you know the old saying that bad stuff rolls downhill well that's exactly what happened God says Adam where are you. And remember Adam's response when God confronted him. First thing out of his mouth was the woman. The woman that you gave me tempted me to eat that fruit and then he says Eve and what's the first thing Eve says the serpent it rolls downhill. And then so God when God begins to meet out punishment he starts with the serpent and notice the serpent is he doesn't have a dialogue here it's a monologue. And the serpent is interestingly enough the new testament will call this people would say this is in fact Satan. Satan receives the first promise of the gospel and the whole Bible it's made to Satan and that promise is just this is you are going to lose you're going to lose notice in verse 15. It says the Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this cursed or you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field on your belly you shall go dust you shall eat. And all the days of your life I will put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. In other words you're going to hurt the seed of the woman but he's going to crush your head you can write that down basically. And so now we get to the point what the title determines a fall out of the fall. They got immediately came in after the fall and promised redemption he promised it to the serpent but we appropriate it but even though we the redemption is promised they still have the consequences of their sin. And that's one thing the Christianity we often don't think about very much is even though there's grace and even though there's redemption sin also carries consequences. And what are consequences if you want you know my little footnote consequences are gifts from God to remind you of your need of the gospel. If there weren't any consequences you wouldn't have to continually rely upon Jesus and so consequences are gift they don't seem like it remember in the New Testament says no discipline ever seems pleasant in the moment but in the end it reaps a harvest of righteousness. So God is now going to give consequences to the man and to the first to the woman and then to the man and then we're going to see Adam actually apply the gospel to his life situation his consequences. So what are the consequences for the woman. Look at verse 16 says to the woman he said I will surely multiply your pain and child bearing in pain you shall bring forth children your desire shall be for and in my I use the ESV you'll see a footnote there that says against that could also be read against your desire shall be against your husband and he shall rule over you. So what is what are the consequences for the woman the first thing I want you to notice is that the consequences of the fall go straight to the heart and the core of the being of both the woman and the man will see it in different ways so goes right to the core of who a woman is and what what is a woman remember when Adam was by himself it says was not good that he be alone. And so God created this helper for him and helpers not a week helper that word they're used for helper is the same word that's used of God as a helper. If you're wonder men if someone says you need a helper and your wife is your helper that's not a low thing that's a high thing and not only that but she was made as a perfect compliment to him not just emotionally and spiritually physically as well. So here she is perfect compliment to him in a perfect relationship with the perfect guy and now the sin is going to affect everything. And what's the first thing he says he says in pain you will bring forth children. He says I'll multiply your pain in child bearing and in pain you shall bring forth children. Do you think he's just talking about labor pains there? Probably not. I mean that's sort of a no-brainer but the pain here it's actually doesn't it's not only things like labor pains but it is the pain that is involved simply with being a mother or frankly being a parent at all. I mean if you think about it before the fall the way you did evangelism was you knew your wife or you knew your husband that was evangelism that's something I could live with. In other words the way you produced another believer the way you produced another covenant human being was you had a union with your husband and wife and you produced a child and that we assume would not have been painful but we also assume it wouldn't have been painful spiritually speaking or emotionally speaking. In other words you would have produced perfect children have anyone ever dreamed of that you would have somehow produced perfect children and the perfect children would have had a perfect mother and a perfect father and life would have been perfect. And when sin was introduced into the world there's not only pain in the act of bearing children but there is pain in the act of just having children of parenting children. I mean if you don't believe me watch the bill cause be special I think the air is every now and then on discovery on on fatherhood but in reality I remember when you know when our kids were first born we had we had our kids in rapid succession it was like machine gun kids so we had you know a one year old and we had a baby and then Judy was pregnant again and I remember kidding around with people it was so hard for that brief time saying you know who was 17 years and I'm done with this. And then I just become a pastor and I went to the hospital someone I literally didn't even know the guy I was going to visit all I knew is that he was 39 years old and that he was dying of summit cancer. And as I went to the hospital you know as a pastor you sort of navigate through the hallways and you know you hold your Bible so people don't ask you a question it's sort of like your FBI past thing. And so I'm coming and I'm going down the hall and I just heard weeping coming out of a room you know a few doors down and I asked the nurse you know where's Robert's room and she said oh I forget it 115 let's say and then I hear weeping come down I realize that weeping is coming out of room 115 and as I approached the room I looked around the corner and I saw his 78 year old father laying over his 39 year old son is dying of summit cancer. And weeping and it hit me in that moment and I've never been glib about it since then that being a parent doesn't end the pain of being a parent never ends you could think well he's 17 or he's 18 he's out of the house he has his own job that doesn't remove the pain of parenting. And God said it's always going to be like that as long as there's sin it is going to be hard to be a mother it's going to be hard to be a father. But I think particularly a mother I don't I've never met a mother who's not guilty at some level. And if you're not please I'd love to meet you after but they wonder if they've done the right thing by their kids if they've done the right thing by their husbands if they've done the right thing by their jobs you see this is not even saying that women shouldn't work right we know from some proverb 31 that it's perfectly acceptable to be a professional woman to be a business woman to be all those things but in trying to do them they never seem to jail. I know partly I was raised by a single mother of grandmother and all sisters somehow ended up with the same thing now so that's part of the issue what's the other part of the issue for the woman he says your desire she'll be for or against your husband and he shall rule over you. Right desire for equals control and when it says he shall rule over you that that equals it ain't going to happen. And so the bottom line is this if you're getting married or you have been married for any amount of time you're probably going to fight a lot at least for a while at least from time to time and at least for seasons and those of you who've been married for a lot longer than may have been married for almost 18 years you get to a point where you think we don't we hardly ever fight anymore and just about the time I say that a wapper will come up right and it just never ends. I mean it gets better and better but you know what I mean the point is is that struggle is always there and here was Eve who's created to be the perfect compliment to this guy and now they are at loggerheads. It's like if you ever seen how do you deal with that if you ever seen the movie The War of the Roses. It's a very dark comedy dark I'm not suggesting it however basically Danny DeVito is a very short divorce lawyer and he's telling the story of this cup to a guy who comes into consult with him about getting a divorce. He basically wants a very civil divorce he wants a very nice amicable parting and he tells him the story of the roses. Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas and basically they meet they fall in love they get married and then as soon as they're married for a while he starts to ignore her she starts to disrespect him she asks him for a divorce he says no out of spite and then they spend the rest of the movie literally trying to kill each other until eventually by the end they succeed. And then the camera comes back to Danny DeVito and he basically says the moral of the story son is there is no such thing as an amicable parting. He says my advice to you is to go home to your wife and be generous to the point of night sweats be generous to the point of night sweats. You know what he's right that's the only way to avoid divorce. The issue however is what is it that enables you to be generous to the point of night sweats. The only way you're going to be able to be generous to the point of night sweats is if some you realize that someone else has been generous to you to the point of night sweats. And there is a person his name is Jesus. In fact he was not only generous to the point of night sweats he was generous to the point of sweating blood he gave everything to you who had sinned against him. And because of that if you really understand that then you're able to do the same thing with your husband or your wife imperfectly but at least you have a starting point. So the question is you know some you know if you're younger you might be thinking okay well when I get up I'm not I don't know if I'm going to get married now and if I do get married I don't know if I'm going to have kids. You know what you still can't escape the effects of sin because it not only affects our relationships it affects parenting but it affects our work as well and that's where Adam comes in. He's basically meet it out discipline to the woman and now he talks to the man and just like it with the woman it sort of hit her right at the core of her being same thing with the man. Verse 17 and Adam he said because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you you should not eat of it. Curse it is the ground because of you in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for your dust and to dust you shall return. I've told you many times that passage every time I read about it every time I think through it it it moves me I mean if you just go backward the last thing he said from dust you were taken into dust you will return. You know Adam was created out of dust and he was made from the dust of the ground and yet he was made from the dust of the ground and he was made into a king. He was made into God's vice region over all of creation do you remember that he says be fruitful and multiply you be stewards over all of creation everything that I own you are now stewards of you cannot get any higher than that and God says part of your punishment is that while you were king from dust you came into dust you will return. The very first thing he says Adam cursed is the ground because of you. Have you ever felt like you did something and sort of you screwed up big enough that it was going to affect other people right where he said I hope I wonder if anyone you hope no one else finds out about this or I hope no one else realizes what I did. Imagine being Adam and God saying Adam cursed is the ground because of you. Remember when Adam was created his job was to be the gardener he was put in the garden to work it and to keep it and his only job was to work and to keep the ground and God says now Adam cursed is the ground because of you. Your work is a gardener before your work was worship and now because of sin what your work will be is toil and misery and frustration has that trade off for you that is it always have to be that way. The answer is no I learned an important principle in seminary and during a class in Genesis and the principles just this as man goes so goes creation. As man goes so goes creation in other words Adam was the representative not only of humanity but it was representative of all creation and so when Adam sinned not only did you and I get credit for his sin but all of creation was cursed. Cursed is the ground because of you now if another Adam could come and another Adam could live the life that God expected him to live and be completely obedient not only could he redeem humanity but guess what else he would redeem all of creation. You see the gospel of Jesus is bigger than just your in my personal salvation the gospel of Jesus is about Jesus reconciling all things to himself people to himself but also all of creation. Remember Romans says that creation itself groans for the revelation of the sons of men to be revealed because as man goes so goes creation and creation at some sort of CS Lewis, Narnia-esque level creation groans and moans and talks to each other and the trees of the field cannot wait until you and I are finally redeemed because when you and I are finally redeemed is when they also will achieve their redemption as well all creation will be redeemed through Jesus. Now the big question is how do the Adam and Eve respond to this crisis? You know theologians this is one of those people write dissertations about this you know what we're Adam and Eve Christians that Adam and Eve believe God we're Adam and Eve cast out of the garden and that was it. And there is no question in my mind that Adam believed the gospel how do I know that Adam believed the gospel how did Adam apply the gospel to the consequences that were just dealt out to him. And the answer is right there in verse 20 it says the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living that's it how do we know Adam believed we know Adam believed because of the name that he gave his wife. In other words God could have given the discipline to Eve and the discipline to Adam and Adam could have said you know oh woe is me life is over I blew it there's no hope for me now. And yet God came in and promised redemption he came in and and meet it out discipline and instead of responding negatively Adam names his wife life giver that we are going to live because of the gracious act of God. And God responds to Adam's faith did you see how he responds to Adam's faith it says in verse 21 in the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. And people talk often that you know that this was the first shedding of blood and that points to the cross I don't know that that does what does point to the cross is our need for covering. That in their nakedness and in their shame Adam and Eve knew that they had to be covered in the question is would they be covered in that which may they made for themselves or they be covered in that which God provided for them. It's the same question that you and I have to deal with because you're going to be covered you're going to stand before God and you're either going to be wearing that which you've stitched together your own self righteousness your own goodness or you're going to be wearing the righteousness of Jesus which will it be the decision jurors. Think about that let me pray for us. Father I pray that as we look at this we consider this text we could do weeks on it. We could do Sunday school classes on it and we have and I just pray that you enable us more and more to understand both how sin has affected us as men and women but also how the gospels redeeming us as men and women. Jesus name we pray these things amen and amen.