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 At the end of Genesis 2, everything had been going great for Adam.

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 Adam and his wife were enjoying the created realm and living at peace with their Creator.

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 But by the end of chapter 3, everything had changed.

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 Our first parents had now been removed from the garden with a fiery sword preventing their return.

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 So what happened in Genesis 3?

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 And what are the implications for the rest of humanity?

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 That will be the focus of today's study.

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 Your average man, the man on the street, so to speak, has no idea the cataclysm that his

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 sins have placed him in. No idea, no concept. In the marketing world, the word sin has actually

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 become a good thing. This chocolate bar is sinfully delicious, right? Sin has been utilized

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 as a word, a synonym, a euphemism for something desirable, something good, something that you

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 should want. And because that's true, because we're in a culture that drinks down sin like

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 it's water, then when someone comes to you and says you're a sinner, you go, yep, what about it?

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 They say, well, that's a problem. Really? Oh my. And then they think, well, if it is a problem,

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 well, here's the thing. If I'm a sinner and there is a God, well, the way I can appease this God is

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 just by doing enough good deeds to offset the sins that I've done. So if you get the man on the

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 street to understand that he's a sinner, that's not the hard part. All of us know that we've broken

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 the laws even of our culture, let alone of our God. The problem is we don't know what to do about

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 it, and we don't know why God cares. Your average man doesn't understand the cataclysm he's in.

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 You know, years ago in the first great awakening, there was a man, there was a pastor. His name was

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 Jonathan Edwards. And Jonathan Edwards preached one of the most famous sermons, if not the most

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 famous sermon of the past 500 years. Remember what it was called? Sinners in the hands of an angry

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 God. If we put that on a banner up by the street, you think people would respond? You think they'd

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 line on up to come on in? Probably not. Why? Because none of that sounds terribly desirable.

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 Now, if we put on a banner, come in to get your best life now, well, that sounds much more

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 appealing. Nevertheless, in the 1700s, you have Jonathan Edwards. He preaches a sermon called

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 Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, probably the most polarizing sermon title known to man,

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 Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But rather than people just running away or blocking up their

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 ears. Rather, God used it in the time of the great awakening to teach people something that their

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 hardened, seared hearts had forgotten, that they have a problem. Jonathan Edwards spoke. A better

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 way to put it, Jonathan Edwards' preaching style is he just read it. He looked at his text and just

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 read it. But God, through Edwards, spoke in such a way that those who heard this sermon, when they

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 heard the danger they were in, and what Edwards would say is things like this. He would say that

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 All of mankind hangs on the thinnest of strands over the deepest of pits.

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 When he said that, there were men and women in the midst who had never heard that before.

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 And many openly fainted at this concept that they had a problem.

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 Culturally, they'd forgotten that they have a problem, that there is a God.

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 Guess what? This God is greater than you.

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 Guess what? This God has given you laws that you've broken.

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 What are you going to do about it?

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 culturally, the answer is, as long as I'm better than Hitler, right? We can accept that hell exists.

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 We can accept that someone's got to be the sinner in the hands of an angry God, but we think there's

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 like a dozen people in hell. You know, Idiot Man, Hitler, you know, fill in the name of the politician

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 you don't like, that they're the ones consigned to that abode, to that pit, that hell's reserved

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 only for the really bad of the bad. We think if hell exists, it exists to judge only the most

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 depraved and only the most wicked. With that said, we think the rest of us, as long as we're

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 graded on a curve against them, we're going to be okay. And that even if we say, yes, I've sinned,

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 you've sinned, we all accept that, but we don't think that that's that huge a deal. As long as

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 we're better than those guys over there. As long as grandma likes me, I'm good. If grandma likes me,

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 if my mom likes me, if my dog likes me, surely, surely God will like me too. Surely. Newsflash.

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 God liked Adam just fine.

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 How many sins did it take before Adam was cast from God's presence?

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 One.

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 The wages of sin is death.

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 When you look at the text, it's not plural.

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 The wages of sin, singular, is death.

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 Here's a question for you.

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 How many times have you sinned?

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 What are you going to do about it?

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 That's what Edwards put to the people.

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 What are you going to do about it?

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 Do you have any idea what hell is like?

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 Do you have any idea the cataclysm that awaits you?

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 Do you have any idea what it's like to be a sinner standing in the presence of a holy God?

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 Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah was the most holy guy, most holy dude of his generation.

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 If Isaiah walked in the room, we'd all be like, oh wow, Isaiah.

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 Isaiah, he's something else than Isaiah.

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 Isaiah was the most holy man of his age, the most desirable, righteous, godly man walking.

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 And yet, when Isaiah, this paragon of virtue, entered into the presence of a thrice holy God,

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 in Isaiah chapter 6, what happened next?

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 Isaiah fell down.

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 And this is what he said.

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 He said, woe is me.

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 I'm a man of unclean lips.

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 I live among a people of unclean lips.

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 I've done all manner of things wrong.

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 And now I've seen what holiness is.

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 And because of that, I fall down prostrate as a sinner.

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 if Isaiah couldn't make it? What's our hope? In this morning's text in the fall, we have to

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 have a close encounter with our problem. If you don't understand your problem, why will you care

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 for the solution? In all seriousness, if you don't care about sin, you don't understand sin, you think

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 sin is the chocolate bar, you think sin is just something benign or small or what have you. If you

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 don't understand your problem, why would you esteem, why would you value the solution that God gave us

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 in the personal work of his son. Why would you value God's own son's blood poured out on Calvary

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 if you don't understand why it needed to be poured out to begin with? In today's text, we see why.

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 We see why it was poured out. We see the first sin, and as we look at the first sin, we can apply

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 its lessons to our sin. And then, God willing, before the morning ends, we will also see that

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 although there is a sword that blocks access, blocks the way, blocks the path to our God,

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 to our King, to our Creator, that God has made possible our approach through Christ.

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 All right, let's look at verses 1 through 3 once again,

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 then we'll work our way through the balance of the text as our time will allow.

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 Verse 1,

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 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field with which the Lord God had made.

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 And he said to the woman,

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 Has God indeed said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

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 Notice what he says.

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 And the woman said to the serpent,

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 We made the fruit of the trees of the garden.

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 but but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god said you shall not eat of

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 it nor should you touch it lest you die all right one of the predation predatory characteristics

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 of a snake is the degree to which it stalks its prey if you look at certain animals in the kingdom

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 if they see prey they just move they're right on it but snakes not necessarily snakes are clever

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 and crafty. They're masters of timing. They'll often wait in ambushes. That's why so many snakes

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 just wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. So one of the predatory characteristics of snakes

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 is that they observe their prey. They don't necessarily rush right in, but when they strike,

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 they strike to kill. They strike to kill. Now, with that said, here we have a serpent.

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 Here we have a serpent in the garden. Now, what options did this serpent have? You got the serpent,

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 you got Eve. What options did the serpent have to cause harm to Eve? Well, if you and I wander,

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 I don't know, 200 yards in that tree line, we're bound to find a snake there somewhere.

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 And when snakes want to mess with you, typically they do one of two things. They'll either just

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 bite you, they'll bite you, and they'll sink their fangs into you. Or if the snake is bigger,

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 they'll attempt to wrap themselves around you, cut off your life flow, and kill you that way.

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 With that said, this serpent does neither of those things.

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 This serpent does something worse.

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 This serpent does something far more deadly.

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 Rather than strike, rather than bite into the calf of Eve,

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 rather than attempt to wrap himself around the neck of Eve, what does he do?

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 He spoke.

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 The serpent opened its mouth, and words tumbled out.

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 And from the very first word, we see a lie.

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 Look what the serpent asks there in verse 1.

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 The serpent says to the woman,

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 Has God indeed said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

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 Now, was that true? Was that true?

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 Think about this.

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 Every tree in the garden, God had made all manner of good trees.

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 God had made the apple tree and the orange tree and fill in the blank.

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 All the trees that you love, they were there.

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 And Adam and Eve could eat from any of them.

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 So no, serpent, that's not what God said.

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 God said we could eat from the trees, and Eve corrects him.

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 you'll notice that Eve corrects him. She says, no, we can eat from the trees, but there is that one,

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 that one tree, that one we're not supposed to eat from. Well, that says the serpent right from the

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 get-go, he uses his words, it'll be no different when he comes for you. When the serpent, the snake,

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 the devil, evil, whatever you fill in the blank, whatever you call that spiritual rim of darkness,

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 when it approaches you or when it approaches your children, it comes not with a clown with a red

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 balloon in a sewer, not with a scary monster under the bed, not with those things. Evil will come to

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 you with words from smiling faces. Evil will come to you with words. Evil will come to you telling

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 you something that differs from what God has said. Evil will come to you with probing questions that

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 are intended to lead you off on the path of that which is right. When evil comes for you, it will

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 come with statements that directly contradict what God hath said. When evil comes for us, it comes

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 for us with words. In this particular case, the serpent's words are a competing hypothesis.

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 God has said, you shall not eat from the tree, otherwise there are consequences, and the serpent

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 says, nope, nope, nope, nope, not so much. You see, here's the thing, Eve, come here, come here.

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 Here's the thing. If you eat from this, it's not going to be what God has said. See, he just doesn't

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 want what's best for you. If you eat from this tree, oh, it's going to be great. You're going to know

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 some things you don't know now. You want to know things, right? You're going to know things you

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 don't currently know. You'll know good and evil and the like, but you'll also, you're going to

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 be like God. And that's the reason he doesn't want you to eat. That's what he says here. You will be

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 like God. God doesn't want that. He can't have that. So he tells you don't do it. But between

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 you and I, what do you think you should do? Well, let's see how that turns out. So Eve corrected

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 him, verses one through three. Let's see how the serpent continues to spin his yarn. Verses four

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 through seven. Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. You will not. For God

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 knows in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open. That sounds good, doesn't it? Your eyes will

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 be open and you will be like God. She must have gone, oh, that sounds good. You will be like God,

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 knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that was pleasant to

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 the eyes, newsflash, most sin looks pleasant to the eyes. Most sin is things that you're going to

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 want to do. When she looked at this, and it was desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit

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 and she ate. And she also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of

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 them were opened. The serpent was right about that. They were open, and they knew that they

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 were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together, and they made for themselves covering. All right,

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 as I said before, in verse 4, we see the pattern of attack that the devil continues to use to this

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 day. The devil continues to attack that which is true, that which God has said, and says the exact

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 opposite, or something that perverts or poisons that which has been given to us by God himself.

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 That will not change in the time yet to come. If there are old heresies, there are heresies because

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 they violate what God has spoken. If new heresies should come, there are also heresies because they

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 violate what God has spoken. In either case, that's the primary tool that the devil likes to use. He

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 attacks the veracity, the truth of what God has said, and he also, in this case, attacked the

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 motivation by which God had said it. You see that? It wasn't enough for him simply to critique the

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 truth claims of God and offer a competing hypothesis like one scientist and another

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 scientist. No, no, no, no, no. What did he do? He critiques the motivation by which God said it.

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 God doesn't want you to have this. God doesn't want you to have what's good for you. Oh, he's

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 a skinflint, that God. He doesn't want you to know these things because if you partake, you'll be

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 like him, and he can't have that. So he not only critiques truth, but he critiques the motivations

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 of God here. Now, in verses four through seven, we can learn a few things about sin that are helpful

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 for us. Number one, sin causes us to think that good outcomes can exist outside of God's will.

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 How many times have you done something, partook in something, thinking that would be good for you,

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 even though you know, strictly speaking, it's not God's plan, right? How many people are

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 cohabitating? They know they shouldn't. They know that's not the way God has said, that's not the

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 way it's supposed to work, but they say, you know what, but the benefits, the benefits, the benefits.

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 How many times do we do that? Fill in the blank. There's all manner of sins we could just point

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 out right now. We could spend the whole time just pointing out sins and saying, look how we do this.

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 God says X, Y, Z, but we look at our world, we look at our own lives, our own circumstances,

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 and we say, I know what God has said, but if I just do this, I can achieve a greater outcome

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 than if I was to, strictly speaking, do what God has said. That's the root of every sin. That's

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 clearly the root of this sin in Genesis 3. The idea when we sin is that we'll get something that's

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 good for us or that we want over and against what God wants for us. Why? Because oftentimes we think

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 we know better, at least in our own circumstances. We think that this applies in the big picture

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 to all y'all, to all of us. But we think in my circumstances, you know, my circumstances are so

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 unique. If God only knew this relationship, this thing I want. If he only understood that he'd see

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 it's okay. So that's what we do. We think good outcomes exist outside of God's will. Sin also

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 causes us to think that God withholds something good from us. That somehow maybe God is just a

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 skinflint or a prude or a cheapskate or whatever, fill in the blank. We think God's withholding

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 something that we want or need and that we could take it, we should take it. The fruit was right

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 there. It wasn't hard for her to grab it. It wasn't hard for Adam to bite it. The only thing

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 standing in the way of them doing so was God had spoken. But sin causes us to think that when God

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 speaks, sometimes he was withholding something that would otherwise benefit us. Sin also causes

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 us to trust our judgment rather than his. To look at his truth claims, to look at his commandments,

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 and then to look at our circumstances and go, okay, I think I can cherry pick which is a better

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 fit for me. For me, this is where the concept of carnal Christianity comes from. People don't mind

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 the idea of being saved. They don't mind the idea of a genie God being up there that answers prayers

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 sometimes. They don't mind Christianity in the way abstract. What they do mind is when this God

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 gives them laws, and they look at those laws, they say, those laws conflict with how I want to live

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 my life. Therefore, I will do laws 2, 4, and 10, but these other ones, maybe not so much. Again,

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 and that's what Eve did. There's no sign here that she ran through the garden doing all manner

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 of other things wrong. She cherry-picked, but she cherry-picked the one thing that God had told her

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 don't do. So sin causes us to trust our own judgment. Finally, we see in these verses,

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 sin leaves us in a worse position than when we started. Every sin that you've ever committed

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 has left you worse off for having committed it. Now, does that mean that sin can't be pleasurable,

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 enjoyable? Well, of course not. Sin can be pleasurable. Sin can be enjoyable. However,

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 if you could only look at the pleasures and the enjoyments and the benefits, so to speak,

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 from those sins and compare that with the costs, some of which you'll never understand on this side

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 of glory, or the ways in which that sin impacts or harms not only you, but still others, some of

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 which you'll never understand on this side of glory, if you truly did a risk-reward ratio,

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 if you looked at it through spiritual eyes, you would run from every sin you've ever committed.

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 But sin causes us to think that we know what we're doing, even though it leaves us in a far

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 worse state than when we began. All right, so let's look in this case, what happens next? What's the

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 response? They partook. God said, don't do it. The serpent says, go for it. They gave in. What happens

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 next? Let's look at verses 8 through 13. And so they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in

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 the garden in the cool of the day. Let me stop there for one second. How did they know the sound

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 of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day? How did they know that was the sound? Because

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 he'd done it before, right? If a kid is misbehaving upstairs in the bedroom, and then they hear the

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 floorboards creaking, and there's a sound coming down the hallway, they know what's coming.

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 Well, here, they knew the sound. They knew he was coming. So they heard the sound, verse 8,

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 of the Lord God walking in the garden of the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves

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 from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. That's the first time they'd ever

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 done that. Verse 9, then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? God knew,

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 but he still asked. Verse 10. So Adam said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid

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 because I was naked. And so I hid myself. And God said, who told you that you were naked? Where'd

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 you come by this knowledge? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you? Not suggested.

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 It's not the 10 suggestions, but have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat

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 from? Verse 12. Then the man said, the woman. Oh, look what he does. He throws Eve under the bus

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 immediately. The woman, the woman, the woman you gave to be with me, it's not only her fault. You're

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 the one who put her here. Look what happened next. He throws her under the bus and he sort of throws

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 God under the bus too. The woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and so I ate.

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 In verse 13, and so the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done?

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 And the woman said, the serpent, the serpent, the serpent deceived me and so I ate.

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 All right, as we said a moment ago, in verse 8, Adam and Eve hear this familiar sound,

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 a familiar sound, but they respond in an unusual way. They hear the familiar sound, a sound in the

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 past that they would have run to. Hey, God's coming. Let's go meet him. Let's talk with him.

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 Let's spend some time with him. But this time when they hear him coming, they don't respond in that

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 way. They respond in an unusual fashion, a fashion that they'd never responded in the past. They hide.

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 Right from the get-go, you see sin that doesn't help you out a whole lot. If sin's first reaction

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 after you sin is to prompt you to be shamed and not feel like you deserve or should engage in

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 proximity with your maker, that should be a hint that sin is bad. If you do something at home on

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 your computer, in your discussions, whatever, and your reaction is shame, that reaction is the

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 equivalent of Adam hiding in the garden. You feel that searing flash of, I've done something wrong

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 and God's going to be angry.

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 Well, let's look at what happens from this.

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 In verse 8, Adam and Eve, they hear the sound,

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 they respond by hiding.

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 As a side note, this is the first time

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 Adam had ever experienced fear in God's presence.

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 There was a whole wave of emotions that hit Adam

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 that he didn't know about in the past.

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 And as we said last week,

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 something that's interesting here

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 is sometimes when this tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

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 when it's discussed or depicted,

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 sometimes it's discussed or depicted

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 as if this tree contained like this magical elixir,

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 like you bite into the fruit

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 and it's like there's this, you know, poisonous arsenic that starts winding its way through your

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 system. I don't think that's the case of this tree at all. I don't think they knew good and evil

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 because of some magic potion in the fruit itself. I think they knew good and evil experientially.

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 They had known good before, but now, now through rebellion, they knew evil. Now through rebellion,

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 they knew what evil was because they'd experienced it firsthand, and their response is to run,

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 to hide. As a note for you and I, don't know evil. Let me dive into that just briefly.

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 There's a lot of things in media and culture, there's a lot of sin opportunities out there

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 that if you partake in, you will know some things that you didn't previously know,

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 but they are not things that are good for your soul. There's things that if you watch,

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 you may receive entertainment out of it. You may learn some things you didn't otherwise know,

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 data sets you didn't otherwise have by engaging in certain things, but there's certain things

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 God doesn't want you to know. There are certain experiences God doesn't want you to have.

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 And you have to have the wisdom to say, this experience, this choice, this thing,

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 do I desire my eyeballs and my ears to process it, or would I be better off if I didn't?

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 The short answer is you're better off abstaining from sin rather than indulging in it. Whatever

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 of the cases, these two, Adam and Eve, their reaction when God calls them on this, they

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 experientially, they finally knew what evil was because they'd experienced it and they were written

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 head as a result. When God found them, their first reaction was to blame anyone but themselves,

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 to blame others for the sin. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent. So that was number one.

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 We tend to do that too. But that was the first thing they did. The second thing, well, the thing

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 they didn't do was they didn't repent. There's no sign here that they were like, oh, mercy me.

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 We've messed up. I sure hope you have a plan to save us. Nothing like that. There was no repentance.

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 There was simply casting the blame on others. All right, let's look at verses 14 through 21.

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 So now we have the verdict. Now we have the verdict. They know they're guilty. God knows

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 they're guilty. The guilt is established. We get the verdict in verse 14. So then the Lord said to

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 the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, more than every beast

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

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 will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. And depending which

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 translation you're using, you'll notice that seed is capitalized there, and there's a reason.

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 So he says, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed,

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 he shall bruise your head. It's a reference to someone specific. Your seed and her seed. Not

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 just mankind as a whole but there is one he is established in the next verse he shall bruise

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 your head and you shall bruise his heel god tells the serpent you will strike at this one you will

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 strike at the seed you will strike at him the one who is coming you'll strike at this one you'll

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 nick his heel but your head will be crushed beneath it this is the curse we see here then

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 verse 16 he talks to the woman to woman he says i will greatly multiply your sorrow and your

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 conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband. He shall

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 rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because you've heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from

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 the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for

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 your sake, and toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it

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 shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you

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 shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are,

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 and to dust you shall return.

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 So Adam called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

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 Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.

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 All right, in verses 14 through 21, Adam learned two new words.

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 Two new words that he didn't know before.

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 Two new words that meant nothing to him, previous.

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 He learned the word curse, and he learned the word pain.

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 Again, there's some things you don't want to know.

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 Adam learned.

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 The devil was not wrong about that.

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 Adam did learn some new stuff as a result of biting this tree, but these are not things

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 that he wanted to know. He now would know the word curse. He would now know the word pain.

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 Now, what would be cursed? Well, you've seen this, everything. Everything would be cursed as a result

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 of Adam's first sin. So, sometimes we think that, well, the sin affected just Adam. You know, Adam

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 paid the price for his own sin, and the rest of us are kind of on our own with God. Well, if you

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 think that, that's not historically the understanding of Scripture. Scripture and the church have long

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 taught that Adam was the federal head, the representative for the rest of us. He was the

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 first Adam. I sure hope a better Adam comes along, as we'll see in the pages of Scripture. But he was

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 the first Adam. And his sin, his sin, his choices, they're passed on to us. So we're affected through

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 the fall of Adam. But it isn't just we that were affected. It's everything we see in the world

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 around us. Why do you think there's COVID? Why do you think there's pandemics? Why do you think

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 there's hurricanes that wipe people off the face of the map? Why are these things here?

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 There's no sign of him in Genesis 2.

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 There's no sign of that stuff, diseases and cancers and these sorts of hardships.

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 There wasn't even thorns and thistles in Genesis 2.

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 But in Genesis 3, God says, now, your sin is so significant,

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 this one sin, which functionally was just the biting of a piece of fruit,

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 this one sin, this one rebellion is so significant

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 that not only are you cursed, Adam, but the whole of the created cosmos

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 will bear the effect of what you did.

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 And that's why not only the evils that we see in mankind,

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 but also the brokenness we see in creation itself,

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 it's why it all exists, because of one sin.

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 That's why all of creation groans, Paul wrote,

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 all of creation groans for the day of redemption.

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 All of creation, the entire universe, groans for the day

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 when that which is wrong will be made right.

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 But that which is wrong happened here.

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 In Genesis 3, you don't think sin's a big deal?

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 Dear heavens, look at its fruit.

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 Look at what has happened as a result of one sin.

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 and then stop and remember how many times you've sinned.

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 The greater you understand your problem by rightly understanding Genesis 3,

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 the greater you will long for this seed, for one to come to fix things,

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 for one to come to crush the serpent, for one to come to restore that which is right,

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 for one to bring us back into the garden, for one has the means to part the sword

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 that blocks the way and to usher us in.

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 The more you understand the problem, the more you'll desire the solution,

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 which is why we're honest about the gospel with both.

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 We share the problem.

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 So in sharing the problem, we can greater magnify the solution,

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 the personal work of Christ.

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 All right, let's look at the last three verses, and then we'll wrap up.

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 Verses 22 through 24.

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 Then the Lord God said,

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 Behold, the man has become like one of us.

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 That's also capitalized, at least in the New King James.

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 It's a trinity.

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 The man has become like one of us to no good and evil.

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 And now, lest he put out his hand, take from the tree of life,

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 and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him

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 out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken.

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 And so he drove out the man, and he placed cherubim

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 at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword

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 that turned every which way to guard the way to the tree of life.

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 If you were to look back at the last verse in chapter 2,

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 everything was going great.

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 But by the last verse in chapter 3, it couldn't be worse.

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 Mankind is now thrust out from the garden that held the tree of life.

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 Now, in the book of Revelation, we understand that the tree of life still exists.

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 Where is it?

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 It's in heaven.

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 You see in Revelation, the tree of life is there.

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 With that said, how can we approach it?

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 How can we approach it?

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 How can we approach this tree?

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 What are the options?

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 Let me close this morning by reminding us of our hope.

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 You know, the best two words in the English language,

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 at least when strung together,

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 the best two words in the English language

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 when utilized together are these two words,

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 Genesis 4.

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 Genesis 4.

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 Now, why?

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 Why is that?

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 Well, here's the thing.

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 Your story could have ended in Genesis 3.

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 In fact, not just your story, but all of humanity,

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 all of existence, everything.

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 God could have rolled up the cosmos like a scroll

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 right then and right there,

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 and he would have been just to do so.

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 You understand this? He said, I gave you one shot at this, and you didn't even go one chapter before

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 you ate from the very tree I told you not to, and I told you the consequences, and here they are,

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 death and expulsion. That's it, and that's all. That could have been it. The Bible could have

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 been a three-chapter book. It wouldn't have had anyone to read it, but that could have been it.

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 Genesis 3. However, the good news for you, and for I, and for Adam, and Eve, and all that followed

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 are these two words, Genesis 4. You see, God looked down at Adam's fallenness, and he's looked

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 at your fallenness. He's looked at your sin, just as he's looked at Adam's sin, and he says,

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 I have a plan. I have a plan to fix this. I have a plan to make things right.

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 And that plan is this, that although you have sinned, I will send one. I will send one to pay

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 the penalty to die the death, to suffer under the curse in your stead. You have a problem. God looks

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 down on mankind and says, you have a problem, but I have a solution. That solution, which was

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 determined for the foundation of the cosmos itself, that solution was that God would send his only

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 begotten son. His son would come down. He would live the perfect life. He would live the life that

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 you and I should have lived. He would not fall to the temptation. When Jesus was tempted in Matthew

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 you for. When the serpent came for him, what did Jesus do? Jesus stood firm. Jesus did what Adam

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 didn't do. The second Adam is better than the first. The second Adam is also better than us.

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 Jesus never once gave in to all the temptations that were thrown at his door. Not once. He lived

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 the perfect life, and then after living the life that you and I should have lived, he died the

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 death that we should have died under the wrath of God. However, because God saw his only begotten

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 son paying the penalty that was due for you and I, he now accounts you and I as righteous. The two

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 imputations, your sin was placed upon Jesus, but also his righteousness was placed upon you. And

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 because of that, when God looks at you, when God looks at you in spite of all your sinfulness,

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 in spite of all your errors and failings and flaws, when God looks at you, he now sees you

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 through the prism of the robe of his own son, the white robe of righteousness. He now sees Jesus

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 in you, so to speak. This morning, we've said before, whenever we talk about the gospel,

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 if you were to go to heaven, and you got to the gate, it won't happen this way, but let's say it

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 did. Let's say you get to the gate, and someone stops you there and says, why do you deserve to

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 go in? Tell me why do you deserve to go in? You know, some traditions say, you know, St. Peter's

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 there guarding the door. I don't think it works that way, but let's say someone asked you,

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 why do you deserve to go in? What's the right answer? We start with the premise that I don't.

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 Peter, you got the wrong question.

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 I don't deserve to go in.

430
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 I know who I am.

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 I know what I've done.

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 And as I look through the sliver into heaven itself,

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 I know I don't belong there.

434
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 I don't deserve to go there.

435
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:56,280
 I haven't merited it.

436
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 Dear heavens, I merit the exact opposite.

437
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:00,980
 But, and you point around Peter,

438
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 but you see that one on the throne?

439
00:31:04,020 --> 00:31:05,580
 He died in my place.

440
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 My faith is in him.

441
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 And I'm not saved because of anything I've done.

442
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 I deserve death and condemnation because of what I've done.

443
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 But, like the thief on the cross, I present my faith to my king.

444
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 Faith is the singular means by which we have hope.

445
00:31:22,460 --> 00:31:24,120
 Faith is the singular means by which we're saved.

446
00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:25,140
 We're not saved by our works.

447
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:27,220
 You're not going to offset your good deeds from your bad.

448
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,820
 You're not judged on a curve, by which as long as you do more things that are right in God's eyes, he'll let you in.

449
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,040
 In Genesis 3, we've seen it doesn't work that way.

450
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:36,660
 One sin was enough to cancel the whole project, so to speak.

451
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 One sin was enough to throw the whole universe into chaos.

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 You and I have sinned far more times than that.

453
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 So our hope is not that we'll offset things

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00:31:43,860 --> 00:31:44,700
 on the ledger of heaven.

455
00:31:44,820 --> 00:31:46,860
 Our hope is not somehow I'm gonna appease God

456
00:31:46,860 --> 00:31:48,160
 by doing something right tomorrow

457
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:49,360
 and then he'll have to let me in.

458
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:50,500
 Our hope is not that.

459
00:31:50,740 --> 00:31:52,160
 Our hope is to point to the one on the throne

460
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:53,320
 and say because of who he is

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 and because my savior lives, I have hope.

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00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:56,880
 My faith is in him.

463
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:58,280
 My faith is in who he is

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 and my faith is what he has done on Calvary.

465
00:32:00,740 --> 00:32:03,500
 And because of that, I can not only enter in,

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 but I can enter in boldly.

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 That's what Hebrews says.

468
00:32:07,940 --> 00:32:09,340
 This morning, if you're a sinner,

469
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:10,780
 I guess join the club.

470
00:32:11,460 --> 00:32:12,800
 From Adam Ford, we all are.

471
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:15,120
 But our hope is not in Adam.

472
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:16,340
 Our hope is in the second Adam.

473
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,840
 This morning, my invitation, my encouragement to you

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00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,740
 is to turn to this one, not through your works,

475
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:25,020
 not through this ledger sheet of balances, but through faith.

476
00:32:25,380 --> 00:32:27,580
 Turn to the person and work of Jesus Christ through your faith,

477
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:29,220
 and you'll find that is the singular means

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00:32:29,220 --> 00:32:32,080
 by which you will one day grace his golden shores.

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 Let's pray.