1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:08,520 In 1988, Anissa Ayala was 16 years old and diagnosed with a 2 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,560 rare form of leukemia. The doctor said that if she did 3 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,040 not receive a bone marrow transplant after chemotherapy 4 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:18,120 and radiation treatment, she would die. 5 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:23,800 Neither her parents nor her brother was a match and they 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:25,680 could not find a donor elsewhere. 7 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,640 Her parents, both in their 40s, conceived another child and 8 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,680 hoped that it's bone marrow would be compatible with 9 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,400 Anissa's. To their great delight, it was 10 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:38,480 determined that this new baby was a compatible donor, and when 11 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:43,440 Marissa Aiella was 14 months old, they took some of her 12 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,920 marrow and gave it to Anissa. Anissa made a full recovery from 13 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,520 the leukemia and both sisters lead healthy lives today. 14 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:56,320 In a very real sense, Marissa saved her sister's life. 15 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,360 She says without me being a perfect match for my sister, she 16 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:08,080 would not be here now. In comparison, Jesus was born 17 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:13,120 into this world for the express purpose of saving us, and He is 18 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:17,440 the one and only savor Savior. That is the perfect match. 19 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,760 In a sense, He's the perfect match for the sins of the world 20 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:27,800 because he's God in the flesh, and only a perfect God who came 21 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:33,160 down to be a man could die. But this man who was God also 22 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:40,760 lived a perfect life and never failed in sin, and he comes to 23 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:45,240 take away our curse. And that's what Christmas is. 24 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,560 It marks the day that we celebrate when this whole thing 25 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:50,720 began. And and so we're in this series 26 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,880 called Anticipating Advent. And over the last two weeks, we 27 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,480 looked at his second Advent. That means the coming of Christ. 28 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,000 He came the first time and he's going to come again. 29 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,520 We believe as Christians. And we looked at his, his second 30 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:08,880 coming the first two weeks. And now as we draw closer to 31 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,960 Christmas, we're going to look at the first Advent or the first 32 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:17,520 coming of Christ. And today specifically, I want 33 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:23,520 to talk about how Christmas reverses the curse. 34 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,480 You see in in the book of Genesis. 35 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,600 The theme of the book of Genesis, if you didn't know, is 36 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,120 blessing. But there's also kind of a anti 37 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:42,360 motif or theme, which is curse. It's do this and be blessed or 38 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,560 don't do this and be cursed. And that was kind of the 39 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,960 covenant that God had had made with his creation. 40 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:55,720 And we're going to look at that in in Genesis chapter 3, we see 41 00:02:55,720 --> 00:03:00,920 that shortly after his creation, mankind cannot obey God and 42 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:05,360 eventually falls into a not just themselves, but the entire 43 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:09,920 creation falls under a curse. So we're going to look at 44 00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:14,040 Genesis 315, which was the, the verse that I read earlier today. 45 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:18,480 But before we do that, I want to set up the context to where we 46 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:20,440 are at. And so I've got three points 47 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:22,360 today. And the first is the context of 48 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:29,880 the, the choice that was made. You see, when God created the 49 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:35,280 world, he said it was actually blessed in days 5-6 and seven in 50 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,880 chapter 1 of Genesis. Day 5 is when he created the 51 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:44,080 first set of animals, the ones that that were were in the 52 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,360 water, the water animals. And at the end of it he says, 53 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:52,440 and he blessed them. And then on day 6 if you go to 54 00:03:52,440 --> 00:04:00,240 day 6IN chapter 21 he makes the land animals and the humans. 55 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,560 And after that in verse 28 it says, and God bless them and 56 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:08,920 said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue 57 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:13,720 it and have dominion. And then you get into chapter 2. 58 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,000 Everything is still perfect and very good. 59 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:21,200 God has pronounced blessing on his creation. 60 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,400 And then on the day seven he rests, and it says he blessed 61 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:29,600 the 7th day as well. And you see this motif of 62 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:34,200 blessing starting out and what it what does that word mean 63 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:36,680 Blessed? It means to be filled with 64 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:43,440 strength or to be adored. To be blessed or to bless is to 65 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:48,640 invoke divine favor, often implying a positive disposition 66 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:50,640 of a kind actions toward the recipient. 67 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,800 And it also means that there was prosperity with respect to the 68 00:04:54,800 --> 00:05:00,440 fertility of the land and the health and fertility of the 69 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:03,000 beings or the creatures, including human beings. 70 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,400 And so there's this blessing in all creation. 71 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:10,320 And, and, and God says, OK, I've blessed you now I've given you 72 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:14,680 some things to do. And theologians would call this 73 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:19,920 the covenant of works. It's a an agreement between God 74 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:24,040 and his people that they will follow him and do what he says 75 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:31,720 obey him. And in Genesis 215, God in the 76 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,600 midst of the garden and after Adam had named all the animals 77 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:40,080 and was enjoying God's creation before woman was born or brought 78 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:43,120 from his side. God says this, he makes some 79 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:44,880 rules. He says the Lord God took the 80 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,440 man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 81 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:53,040 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat 82 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,560 of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of 83 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,840 good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat 84 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:06,600 of it, you shall surely die. That was God's rules. 85 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:12,360 He said, I've made this creation and you can enjoy everything 86 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,880 except for this, this one tree. If you do that, you're going to 87 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:19,880 be cursed. You're going to, it's going to 88 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,800 bring consequences to you and to all of the creation. 89 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:31,160 And, and just so you know, Adam and Eve had perfect free will. 90 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,760 They had a choice. They had a choice to make 91 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,560 whether they would follow God's commands or not. 92 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:45,200 Now as it moves forward, something else is added to the 93 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,800 mix and it's an enemy, it's an it's evil, it's Satan. 94 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,240 Up into this point, the Bible tells us that everything was 95 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,480 good in God's creation. But then this evil being comes 96 00:06:54,480 --> 00:07:00,880 into play in chapter 3. In verse 1 of chapter 3, it 97 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:06,200 calls him the serpent. It says now the serpent was more 98 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,800 crafty than any other beast in the field that the Lord God had 99 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:13,360 made. Now in one sense this is talking 100 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:18,400 about a snake, but the word in in the original language can 101 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:22,320 also mean dragon. And if you know anything about 102 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:27,440 who Satan is, Revelation 12/9 says this. 103 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,920 This is the last book of the Bible that recounts the story of 104 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,000 the Bible and tells what's going to happen in the end. 105 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,640 And it says, and the great dragon was thrown down, the 106 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:40,400 ancient serpent who is called the devil, and Satan, the 107 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,160 deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, 108 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,400 and his angels were thrown down with him. 109 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:52,160 So in this setting, in this perfect creation, at some point 110 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:57,760 in time, we don't exactly know, but sometime before this garden 111 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:04,160 narrative, a war happened in heaven where Satan, who was an 112 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:08,320 Angel, had some pride. He wanted to take God's 113 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:11,600 position. He wanted to elevate himself 114 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:15,160 above God, no longer wanted to worship God, but wanted people 115 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,640 to worship him or angels or wanted to be something big, make 116 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:22,640 a name for himself basically. And he was cast out of heaven. 117 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:26,320 And the Bible says he took of the third of the angels with him 118 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:28,320 and who are now fallen angels and demons. 119 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,560 And so that's a little bit of, you know, kind of demonology and 120 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:35,159 where evil comes from in all this. 121 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,880 You know, we have to understand that God created it. 122 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,640 He's all knowing and he knew that this was going to happen. 123 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,680 And so God still allowed it to happen anyway. 124 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:51,840 And we have to, to some degree not be like Satan and say, OK, I 125 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:57,800 don't need to know it all. And if God made it, then it must 126 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:03,400 be good. Even though the fall came to be. 127 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,840 So for whatever reason, this serpent Satan is allowed to come 128 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:12,520 into the picture in God's perfect world because he's cast 129 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:14,640 down. And here we start this 130 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:19,760 narrative, the context of the choice that ruins everything 131 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:24,680 basically. And 1st we see the lie of Satan 132 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:27,400 in verses 4:00 and 5:00. If you have your Bibles turn to 133 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:29,520 Genesis chapter 3, you can follow along with me. 134 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:33,520 I don't have these verses up on the screen, but in verses four 135 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:40,600 and five, it says the serpent said to the woman, you will not 136 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,760 surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes 137 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:47,920 will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. 138 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:54,320 What is what's going on here is although man and woman are given 139 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:58,320 this ability to make a choice to follow God, we have this being 140 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:04,080 that's actually very powerful that is influencing and trying 141 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:09,240 to deceive the first human beings, in this case, the second 142 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:13,800 human being who was Eve. Now in this we see that Adam 143 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:17,920 isn't anywhere around in this first part and Adam was the 144 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:23,840 first one to be created. But that is what happens. 145 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:30,000 Satan in in the midst of choices, Satan comes into our 146 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,200 world and even still exists today and he lies to us. 147 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:36,600 He lies to us about what God has to say in his word. 148 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:40,320 You see, Satan is twisting God's word here and he's saying you 149 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:44,840 don't have to believe God, but he just wants you to basically 150 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,480 be miserable. Now you don't have to raise your 151 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,360 hands, but how many of you have thought about this when it comes 152 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,520 to the idea of religion and believing in God? 153 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:57,520 I've heard many people say religion is just this man made 154 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:01,600 program that was made to control people right? 155 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:04,760 To make them fall in line to be more obedient to governments. 156 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:10,360 I've heard that before. I've also heard that, you know, 157 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:14,800 religion is all about taking fun out of the world or faith in God 158 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:18,920 takes takes the fun away and and so this is kind of the lie of 159 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:23,680 Satan that whether that you can't trust God's word. 160 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:32,600 It still happens today, but then we look at Eve's response when 161 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:36,400 Satan asked her this question in verses 2 and three. 162 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:40,400 We first we see the lie of Satan, then we come to legalism 163 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,600 and lack of leadership from Adam. 164 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,680 Let's look at verses 2 and two and three. 165 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:50,440 It says he said to the woman or and the woman said to the 166 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:54,040 serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but 167 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:57,040 God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in 168 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,200 the midst of the garden need neither shall you touch it lest 169 00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:03,040 you die. Now I don't know if you've 170 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,600 caught that there, but her second part of the sentence was 171 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:09,400 not in God's word. And that's what we would call 172 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,640 legalism. When you add things to God's 173 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:17,680 word that aren't there in order to mostly in order to be made 174 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:22,000 right with God or to find your favor from God. 175 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,080 When you add things in the word that are not there, that is 176 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:31,120 called legalism because we believe that it faith through 177 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:34,000 grace alone and Christ alone is how we're made right with God, 178 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:38,880 not through acts of obedience, although they're still in the 179 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:41,720 covenant of works. This is a narrative that has to 180 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:45,640 play out so that we can get to the grace in a moment. 181 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:48,600 So just bear with me, but what we see here is legalism. 182 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:53,000 What we also see here is, as I said, Adam is not in the 183 00:12:53,000 --> 00:13:00,480 picture, but Adam was the one who was told this verse here. 184 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:08,680 So it was after these verses in Genesis chapter 2/15/17 that God 185 00:13:08,680 --> 00:13:11,160 took the rib out of Adam and made woman. 186 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:16,840 And so some theologians believe that she didn't hear directly 187 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:20,760 from God the command. It was supposed to have been 188 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:28,080 Adam's role and job to teach his wife the word of God and he he 189 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:31,360 either failed, which he gets a lot of blame in the New 190 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:37,560 Testament for failing in that he either failed or she 191 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:40,240 misunderstood or a mixture of both. 192 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:48,400 But what ends up happening is in verse 6 it says so when the 193 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:53,080 woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight 194 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,320 to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one 195 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:00,960 wise, she took its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her 196 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:04,960 husband who was with her and he ate. 197 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:10,440 So there was the lack of leadership because Adam knows 198 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:16,320 the command of God. But here we have Eve, who not 199 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:19,840 not only misunderstood God's Word, maybe because of the lack 200 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:24,080 of understanding or a lack of being taught, but also a love of 201 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:26,280 pleasure. You see that there? 202 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:28,520 You saw that there in the Scriptures, It says it was a 203 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:32,200 delight to the eyes. It was a desire to make one 204 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:36,080 wise. And so she took the fruit and 205 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,800 ate it. There was a a love of pleasure 206 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:44,640 that somehow surpassed her desire to follow God's law, to 207 00:14:44,640 --> 00:14:48,800 listen to the lie, the temptation, the deception of 208 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:52,160 Satan. Again, this is all something we 209 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,080 can look at chapter 3 and we can say this is basically how 210 00:14:55,080 --> 00:15:00,160 humanity still is today. We believe the lies of Satan, 211 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:05,360 that you can't trust God's word. Then we add things to it, like 212 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:09,400 man made religion making it harder to come to the Lord. 213 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:15,240 And then we're tempted by the pleasure out there instead of 214 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:19,720 rather following God. We want to please ourselves and 215 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:25,000 even we want to think that we could become as wise as God. 216 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:28,560 And so we've got the lie of Satan, the legalism, the lack of 217 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:29,920 leadership, the love of pleasure. 218 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:35,120 Now we come to the consequences. It says verse 7 the eyes of both 219 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:37,160 were opened, and they knew that they were naked. 220 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,280 And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves 221 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,040 loincloths. And they heard the sound of the 222 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,280 Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 223 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:47,480 And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of 224 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,840 the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 225 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,720 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are 226 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:57,280 you? And he said, I heard the sound 227 00:15:57,280 --> 00:15:59,640 of you in the garden. And I was afraid because I was 228 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:03,880 naked and I hid myself. What do we see there? 229 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,080 We see immediate shame and cover up. 230 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:11,720 And I know you know this because we all do this when we do 231 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:15,120 something wrong, whether you're a child or whether you're an 232 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:17,800 adult, when you do something morally wrong, you know that it 233 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,920 was wrong or you go against your, your children's commands 234 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:23,280 or your, your, your parents commands. 235 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:30,680 Sorry, maybe that was a, you know, a slip there because it 236 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,600 seems like our children lead us, especially the toddlers rule our 237 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:39,320 lives. But that's just a that's a proof 238 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:42,160 that sin exists. By the way, you know, you don't 239 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,920 have to teach a child to disobey, right? 240 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:51,240 You have to teach them to obey. But immediate shame and cover 241 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:52,920 up. They sow fig leaves to cover 242 00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:55,040 themselves. All of a sudden they eat this 243 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:57,360 from this fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 244 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:01,440 Now they know evil. Now they have this knowledge of 245 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:05,960 evil that they didn't have before and they knew it must 246 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,079 have flashed before the eyes. All the things that humans can 247 00:17:09,079 --> 00:17:12,920 contrive and dream, dream up about human bodies and the, the 248 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:18,599 disgusting things, the, the, the things that they think about 249 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:23,160 when it comes to nudity and nakedness outside of the 250 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:26,040 marriage relationship between a man and a woman. 251 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:30,120 They felt shame from the choice that they made. 252 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:34,080 They knew the evil that exists. Now they want to cover it up and 253 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:38,000 now they want to hide from God. Isn't that what we do as well? 254 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:44,160 We cover up our shame, our guilt, our sins with lies. 255 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:50,200 And then we also run from God. That's when we quit praying, 256 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:52,560 right? I'll come back to you, God, when 257 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:54,600 I'm living a little bit better of a life. 258 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:56,400 Have you ever felt that way before? 259 00:17:57,480 --> 00:17:59,240 Like I don't want to come to you now. 260 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:03,080 And we're kind of in denial that he's actually omniscient. 261 00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:04,840 He knows everything. He sees everything. 262 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:06,360 He sees exactly what you're doing. 263 00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:10,440 But instead we still think we can hide see, because in the 264 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:14,480 next part, God calls them to confession. 265 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:19,040 When God said, where are you? It's not as if God didn't know 266 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:21,920 where they were. He was calling them to be 267 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,120 honest. OK, Are you going to do the 268 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:26,440 right thing? He even gives them a chance. 269 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,520 This is mercy, by the way. He gives them a chance to 270 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:32,160 confess. Did you? 271 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:34,080 You know? You know you'll have mercy on 272 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,240 your child when they do something wrong, if they'll come 273 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,680 and say, yes, it was me, I own it. 274 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,480 And he gives them a chance. He says, where are you? 275 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,760 Where were you? And then he says, who told you 276 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:47,920 that you were naked? Have you eaten? 277 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:51,360 Of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat. 278 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:54,680 And he already knows. And here's what happens. 279 00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:58,240 Instead of confession, we get the blame game. 280 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:06,160 It says the man said the woman whom you gave to be with me, she 281 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,360 ate. She gave me fruit of the tree 282 00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:10,360 and I ate. So what does he do? 283 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:18,120 He blames the woman, but God, he says you made her and you're the 284 00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:20,240 sovereign Lord. You brought us together. 285 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,680 This must have some be your fault. 286 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:27,920 Don't we do that? We blame another person. 287 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,280 That's the first thing we want to do, defend ourselves, blame 288 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:34,600 another person. Again, this is a biography of 289 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:42,600 all of us here, but don't we blame God for our problems in 290 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,120 life, decisions we made long ago that have reverberating 291 00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:49,640 consequences, and somehow we blame God? 292 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:52,680 You allowed this. Why did you allow this? 293 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:58,520 Why did you make this happen instead of just owning our part? 294 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:03,480 You see, God has his part, and the things that He decides to do 295 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:07,080 are a mystery to us. But what we don't have to be 296 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:11,680 unclear on is our part, the things that that we do and our 297 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,880 choices. That we make and it goes on with 298 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,840 the blame game. Then the Lord God said to the 299 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:20,840 woman, what is this that you have done? 300 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:25,520 The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. 301 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:31,040 She too does not own it, but she blames it on the serpent. 302 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:39,800 Which then finally leads us to the curse of all creation. 303 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,320 The curse that needs to be reversed. 304 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:49,600 Now we got to look at this again to get to the context of why the 305 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:53,720 good news of Christmas is such good news. 306 00:20:54,080 --> 00:21:00,880 But first we see the consequences now of these 307 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,520 actions that were made. It's to animals, it's to the 308 00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:08,160 woman, it's to the man, and then we see it to all creation. 309 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:14,120 So I'll start with animals in in Genesis 314, the Lord God said 310 00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:16,560 to the serpent, because you have done this cursed are you above 311 00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:19,840 all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your 312 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:23,560 belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your 313 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:25,640 life. Now this is an interesting verse 314 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:33,040 because if you think about this, don't snakes already live on 315 00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:37,480 their belly right and slither throughout the the Bible says 316 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,840 that God created creepy crawling things. 317 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,520 And in one of those days you can go back and find that. 318 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,480 So the question is, what's going on here? 319 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:50,240 Well, there's a couple of different ways that this could 320 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,640 be taken. One, it could be that Satan 321 00:21:53,640 --> 00:22:02,240 appeared in such a way that was some kind of a a serpent who was 322 00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:08,600 eventually cursed and some things changed in his body 323 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,440 specifically. But the other thing which is 324 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:16,480 probably more the the better, the better description or the 325 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:20,600 better interpretation of this is that Satan had the power and 326 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:26,080 does have the power to possess animals and living creatures. 327 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:29,360 OK. And so he's talking to Eve 328 00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:33,800 through this serpent, but he as this spirit is, is, is speaking 329 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:35,680 through this serpent to deceive her. 330 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,800 Now, the other part is weird is why doesn't she think it's weird 331 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:44,800 that a snake is talking to her? Which brings in all kinds of 332 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,600 funny things that I was studying this week. 333 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:54,640 By the way, some people believe that that maybe animals before 334 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,840 the fall were more intelligent. Maybe they could communicate. 335 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:03,600 Like God opened Balaam's Balaam's donkey's mouth to talk 336 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,000 and so maybe animals could communicate. 337 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:12,320 So I looked at my dog and I was like, I know that you are 338 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:18,240 smarter than what you look. I mean, don't you think that 339 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:20,560 sometimes about your animal, you're like, you know, I maybe 340 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:22,720 they understand me. Sometimes there's just a little 341 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:24,520 something in there. And then I thought, you know, 342 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:28,360 Nope, you're the dumbest animal that I've ever had. 343 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:37,960 And so evolutionists actually claim that snakes, and this is, 344 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,760 you know, scientific thing that there are some snakes out there 345 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:46,880 that have vestigial limbs, which are like useless remnants of 346 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:53,000 possible limbs that snakes may use, some snakes may have had 347 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:57,640 and that might prove now they, they think that proves 348 00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,320 evolution. But what I would think is that 349 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:04,800 might prove devolution. See the, the, the kind of the 350 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:06,840 use of the word there. That's actually a real word. 351 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:12,760 But devolution caused by Satan, not only not animals and humans 352 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:14,440 aren't getting better and healthier. 353 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:15,840 You know, only the strong survive. 354 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,360 What's actually happening is things are getting worse. 355 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:22,320 There's a curse. We're dying. 356 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:28,600 And so with the snake. Maybe this snake did have limbs, 357 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:33,000 though, like a lizard. Maybe snakes had limbs, but God 358 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:38,600 curses this animal. So now that all snakes are a 359 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:42,640 representation, as we can have visual representation of God's 360 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,560 creation, we look out there just as we look at God's creation and 361 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,200 we say the glory of God, right? The sun, the moon, and the stars 362 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,880 all proclaim the glory of God. Now we can look at certain 363 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,800 animals like the snake and we can say God really humbled you 364 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,800 because the idea of a snake, Slytherin on the ground, on his 365 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:04,600 belly, that's the lowest of low. You could be Slytherin and now 366 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:07,280 you have to eat all of your food out of the dirt. 367 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:14,360 A snake is a representation of sin and lowliness. 368 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:19,160 And in fact, beautiful gospel and later in the book of 369 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:23,200 Numbers, there are these snakes that God allows to come in and 370 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,960 start biting the people. They're venomous snakes and and 371 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:28,960 God says in order to be healed, what you need to do is grab a 372 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:33,360 snake, lift it up on a pole, and when people look to this snake, 373 00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:37,920 they will be healed. That was a representation of 374 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:45,240 snakes being evil in sin, but Christ taking our place. 2nd 375 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:49,560 Corinthians 521 says He became sin. 376 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,280 Who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness 377 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,560 of God. Jesus Christ becomes our sin, 378 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,320 hangs on the cross, and anyone who looks to Him now is saved. 379 00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:08,320 But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's the serpent, but it says 380 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,280 cursed above all livestock. So now we know that there's, 381 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:14,920 there's especially cursed, humbled Slytherin along the 382 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:19,160 ground, but then all livestock now dumb. 383 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:20,920 They can't talk to us anymore. Possibly. 384 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,240 I don't know. I, I don't necessarily really 385 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:27,520 believe that, but they're not, they don't live the way they're 386 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:31,440 supposed to. They get sick and die just like 387 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:37,400 humans do. So moving on then to the woman, 388 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,560 I'm going to skip 3:15 for a second and get to the woman. 389 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,240 It says to the woman, he said I will surely multiply your pain 390 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,360 and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth 391 00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:48,280 children. Your desire shall be for your 392 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:53,120 husband or contrary to your husband, and he shall rule over 393 00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:56,240 you. Now first Eve gets her 394 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,360 consequences laid out by the Heavenly Father. 395 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,640 She made a choice and there are consequences to that choice. 396 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:11,280 And so now, although humans were created to procreate and 397 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,640 reproduce, now there's much pain. 398 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:18,600 And I don't have to tell all the women in the room how much pain 399 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,120 is involved in childbearing. If if you know what that's like, 400 00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:25,760 you can say Amen or you can say Ouch, either one. 401 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:30,680 But I, I saw this meme earlier that says now women can 402 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,360 understand what it's like when men get a cold. 403 00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:43,360 I am just kidding, all right? Sometimes we are babies. 404 00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:46,360 I know that it's weird, right? Like it is weird that when men 405 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:49,680 get a cold day, maybe women have a higher threshold for physical 406 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:53,240 pain sometimes I don't. Maybe that's how this works. 407 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:58,760 But but the pains of childbearing, and it's not just 408 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,840 in the birth part. Now it happens all the way from 409 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:07,200 conception to the end of life, you see, because you have 410 00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,000 pregnancy problems with pregnancy problems leading up to 411 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,600 that. And then when you finally have 412 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:18,080 these children, that's called childbearing as well. 413 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,640 And they grew up, they start making their own choices. 414 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:27,000 And those choices, the Bible says that a foolish son is a 415 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:33,560 sorrow to his mother that can be included in this, this pain. 416 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,640 It could also be talking about emotional pain. 417 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:41,680 Now, ladies, I don't want you to think that this is all your 418 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:43,320 fault. All right? 419 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:47,760 Like this was Eve, OK? Eve made this choice and her 420 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,160 consequences passed down on to all human beings and specific 421 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:52,240 ones to women. Yes. 422 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,360 But we're not looking and saying because Eve did this, now all 423 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:59,720 women are guilty. No, as I said, Adam gets a 424 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,280 brunt, if not more of the blame in the New Testament. 425 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,480 He was supposed to be leading, as I said, he was supposed to be 426 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:11,160 the protector, provider, priest. He was supposed to be clinging 427 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:15,960 to his wife. It says in in Genesis 224 that 428 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,080 man would leave his father and mother and hold fast to his 429 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,600 wife, cling to his wife, be there for her at all times. 430 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:28,600 He failed in that. And she takes the food and she 431 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:34,000 provides it to him and she teaches him, oh, this is OK. 432 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,400 The serpent told me. Now she's the priest. 433 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,720 So Adam fails in this. Yes. 434 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,880 But we what we also see in this is now marriage has issues. 435 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:48,320 And you can think Adam and Eve just say it. 436 00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:50,800 Next time you guys get in a fight, say thank you. 437 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,160 Adam and Eve. Can we just forget this? 438 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:55,040 Honey? It was their fault. 439 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:05,360 There's a an order of things in which God created and human 440 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:10,520 beings fell out of order. In fact, sin means to miss the 441 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,560 mark. It is a it's it's like archery 442 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:18,280 and hitting a target. To sin is to literally mean miss 443 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,120 the mark. You've missed what the target 444 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,160 was. They missed the target. 445 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,200 The first human beings. When God reverses the curse, we 446 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:29,760 don't have to miss the target anymore. 447 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:36,560 But this is what has happened. And so moving on then one thing 448 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:43,040 I would say is that Eve, not only is she, you know, take a 449 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,960 lot of the blame, but she does get some honor in that she's 450 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:49,960 called the mother of all living. Adam named her Eve, which means 451 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,560 the mother of life or the mother of all living. 452 00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:57,280 And so certainly the the consequence of pain and 453 00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:01,200 childbearing is shown in this verse as well, because now she 454 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:06,400 sees every generation of child that has come after her sinning 455 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:13,400 going against God. But it's interesting, I'll get 456 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,880 to it later, how God uses the woman to change things as well. 457 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:24,320 But then we get to the man. And here we find that it said 458 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,840 and Adam said because or he said to Adam, because you've listened 459 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:30,200 to the voice of your wife and had of eaten of the tree of 460 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:32,560 which I commanded you shall not eat of it. 461 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,720 Cursed is the ground because of you. 462 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:39,680 Now we've got the earth. Everything is cursed because of 463 00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,400 you in pain. You shall eat of it all the days 464 00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:43,400 of your life, thorns and thistles that shall bring forth 465 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,960 for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat 466 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,560 of your face. You shall eat bread till return 467 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,880 to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, 468 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:55,800 and to the dust you shall return. 469 00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,000 Some say Adam's sin was passivity. 470 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:04,320 As I've said many times, that Hebrew word listen to your wife 471 00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:08,640 is also you obeyed her. You obeyed her into sin rather 472 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:17,320 than obeying God. So now, because he has sinned 473 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,280 and he failed to be the protector, provider priest, not 474 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:27,440 only is he at fault, but now the ground is cursed. 475 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:32,280 And now he's, as he's trying to be the provider, there's toil 476 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,800 and pain in trying to get food. That's what work is. 477 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:38,760 I mean, basically, that's why we work, right? 478 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:44,720 We work to eat, right? We work to get food and survival 479 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,040 for our family. And yeah, you can enjoy your job 480 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:48,800 too. You should. 481 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,480 The Bible says you should try to, you know, do everything to 482 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,000 the glory of God and and love what you do because that's your 483 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,960 lot in life. So find one, find a good job. 484 00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:01,200 But this explains why things are still broken and they don't 485 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:05,840 work, right, Right. Your boss is unorganized, right? 486 00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:11,440 Or your body doesn't work, so you can't get up to make it on 487 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,120 time to work. Then you get in trouble. 488 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:17,960 Then you get fired. Your car breaks down because 489 00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:28,340 moth and rust destroys. Ways of providing for our family 490 00:33:28,340 --> 00:33:31,380 are now difficult. The economy is up and down. 491 00:33:31,580 --> 00:33:37,240 There are global catastrophes and death now comes to all 492 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:38,640 mankind. That's what it says in those 493 00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:43,720 last verses. He had it all but allowed a 494 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,680 lapse in judgement and a moment of pleasure to take the place of 495 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,840 reigning with God his Father here on earth. 496 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:53,080 And and here we are. That's the human race. 497 00:33:53,800 --> 00:34:04,680 That's where we're at today. Except for God does something so 498 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:09,760 merciful and so gracious even in the midst of the consequences of 499 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,000 all this sin right in the middle. 500 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,960 That's why I passed over that verse because you can overlook 501 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,520 it sometimes like you think a lot of people look back at the 502 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,080 Old Testament like God is God, the Old Testament God. 503 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,600 He's a wrathful God. He's a mean God. 504 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,120 He's a judging God. And I've heard people say I like 505 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,800 the God of the New Testament. Well, they're the same God and 506 00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:34,560 God hasn't changed. And in fact, he's a triune God 507 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:42,280 and the Son of God is about to come and reverse the curse or be 508 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,120 promised to reverse the curse. That's the mercy. 509 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:49,080 That's the the covenant of Christmas, I'd like to call it 510 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,960 because I'm trying to keep all these things alliterated with 511 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,679 two CS in the points. If you didn't notice that the 512 00:34:56,679 --> 00:35:01,120 context of the choice, the curse of all creation in the covenant 513 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:05,760 of Christmas, what is a covenant? 514 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:08,440 A covenant is a promise, a promise. 515 00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:12,640 It's a promise that I'm going to keep up my end of the bargain. 516 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:19,760 And it's embedded right here in the middle of all this 517 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,760 consequences of our own sin. He says. 518 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:27,120 I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your 519 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:32,920 offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and 520 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:39,840 you shall bruise His heel. As soon as sin enters the world, 521 00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:44,000 God does not delay. Here on display is the grace and 522 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,960 mercy of God, but He starts to reveal His plan for redemption. 523 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,440 As I said, he already knew all this was going to happen in the 524 00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,240 1st place. And that's the biggest struggle 525 00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:57,800 for a lot of people is why would God, again, that's questioning 526 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,000 God. Why would God do it this way? 527 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,840 Why would he allow all this brokenness and sin in the world? 528 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:04,880 Why? The best answer I can give you 529 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,720 from Scripture is that this way glorifies God the most. 530 00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:12,920 Why? Because not only does God 531 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:17,120 deserve our worship and all the glory for being Creator and for 532 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:22,120 all of His perfect attributes, being other than us, holier than 533 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:27,320 us, mightier than us, that alone deserves the the glory and the 534 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:32,880 worship not. But we also come on the Lord's 535 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:34,320 Day. We call it the Lord's Day 536 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,360 because Jesus Christ rose again on a Sunday. 537 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:41,960 And so we worship God because not only of his power and his 538 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:45,520 wisdom and His might, but His love and His grace that was 539 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:51,880 displayed that Christmas morning when He sent His Son to come to 540 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:56,360 this earth. It said God is not only a just 541 00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:02,960 God, He is a loving God enough to assume humanity to come and 542 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:11,640 put himself in the mess that we created so that he could war 543 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,560 with the serpent. He could war with the enemy. 544 00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:20,240 He could war with Satan on our behalf and be bruised in his 545 00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:29,240 heel on the cross to be broken and beaten and bloodied and 546 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:37,920 pierced so that we could be victors and our our right 547 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:39,880 relationship with God could be restored. 548 00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,480 That is what Christmas is about. That was that's what this this 549 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:48,640 verse is about here Herman Batink says the promise that 550 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:52,120 this covenant of grace, we were in the covenant of works. 551 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,000 And now he reveals, OK, we had this. 552 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,680 We had this agreement that you were going to obey me and I 553 00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:03,360 would bless you, but you failed to do that. 554 00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,280 So I'm doing it all. I'm going to take this into my 555 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:08,680 own hands and I'm going to show favor to you. 556 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,240 Blessing. That's what grace, the word 557 00:38:12,240 --> 00:38:13,720 grace means. It means a gift. 558 00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:15,360 You don't earn it. You don't deserve it. 559 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:21,720 It's just the love of God and and here. 560 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,360 And so we would call this not just not the covenant of 561 00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:26,840 Christmas, really, we would call it the covenant of grace that we 562 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,480 see all through the the Scriptures. 563 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,520 The Westminster Shorter Catholic Catechism, which is an older 564 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:35,680 confession in the 1500s that came out of the Protestant 565 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,520 Reformation where they were were looking through Scripture and, 566 00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:43,000 and nailing down the the theology that needs to be 567 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,560 understood for right relationship and faith. 568 00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,560 They ask a question and a catechism is just a question and 569 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:55,000 answer type of a thing that they did for learning. 570 00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,440 Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and 571 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,960 misery? And then answers God, having out 572 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,480 of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to 573 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,760 everlasting life, did not did enter into a covenant of grace 574 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:14,400 to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, to 575 00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:19,520 bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer. 576 00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,760 All right, now we look at this verse and you're thinking, how 577 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:26,400 do you get all that from this verse? 578 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:31,120 Well, when he says between you and the woman, he's talking to 579 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:37,240 Satan directly and he says you and the woman and her offspring 580 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:42,280 and yours. Well, that offspring that is 581 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:46,480 talked about isn't just an it, but then it gives it a pronoun. 582 00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,320 He gives it a pronoun. He and his. 583 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:53,920 This now becomes a person, a promised person. 584 00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:58,280 And by the way, this is a curse. And so you say, how can a a 585 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:00,520 promise? We call this a promise. 586 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:06,320 Well, for God to curse the enemy, to curse the evil 1 is a 587 00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:08,160 blessing and a promise to you and me. 588 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:17,040 In a war, if someone comes in and takes out the other side, 589 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:22,080 who gets blessed, right Who when they take away the power of the 590 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:26,880 evil side of a war? We become the victors, and 591 00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:28,920 that's what ends up happening here. 592 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:34,920 Because when Jesus dies on that cross, he takes away all of the 593 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:38,920 power of Satan. You see, Satan came to bring sin 594 00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:45,000 into the world to thwart God's plan of creation. 595 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,160 But God says I've already got a plan for that too, and it's 596 00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:50,840 actually going to glorify me even more. 597 00:40:51,720 --> 00:40:56,000 I'm going to come down and show my people how much I love them 598 00:40:56,240 --> 00:41:02,040 by living amongst them and dying for them first. 599 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,760 John, 38 says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy 600 00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:13,720 the works of the devil. So this bruising of the head, 601 00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:17,360 that word bruise means to batter, to crush. 602 00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:21,000 And so often times we talk about this as crushing the serpent's 603 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:23,160 head. Christ, when he died on the 604 00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,480 cross, crushes. It's a fatal blow. 605 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:33,360 You see, bruise to the heel is bloody and violent, but it is 606 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:36,160 not fatal. And although Jesus died on the 607 00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:40,640 cross, he rose from the dead, but the crushing of the 608 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:42,440 serpent's head takes away his power. 609 00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,880 Have you ever heard of that saying before we got to cut the 610 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:48,800 snake off at the head, got to cut it off at the head, right? 611 00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:52,160 Because you cut it off at the tail, it, you know, it continues 612 00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:56,400 to live and survive. And the powers in the head of 613 00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:04,320 the snake, Jesus takes away the power of Satan now, because we 614 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,360 can have forgiveness of all the sins, the sins we inherited from 615 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:14,480 our our our forefathers, from our earthly parents, Adam and 616 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:20,440 Eve, which by the way, you can follow genealogies in Scripture 617 00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:22,760 that trace us all the way back to them. 618 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,720 This is literal history, by the way. 619 00:42:26,720 --> 00:42:32,720 This is real truth. We believe that the Bible best 620 00:42:32,720 --> 00:42:37,320 explains creation and the human condition better than any other 621 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:41,080 explanation in the world. And we can back it up. 622 00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:48,120 We can and we can look at all the human being, not every human 623 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:51,280 beings ever listed in the Bible, but the ones that traced from 624 00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:54,960 Adam to Jesus. And that's where this comes in, 625 00:42:55,320 --> 00:43:00,720 her offspring, her offspring is preserved. 626 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:02,880 And you see it through the the Old Testament. 627 00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:07,640 It's such a beautiful thing where God is working and moving 628 00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:12,280 and Satan is warring and trying. And Martin Luther once said that 629 00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,560 that after this promise, he believes that he was afraid of 630 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:26,840 all women up to Jesus. And he should be because there 631 00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:31,600 was now he was living in anxiety like who's going to be the who's 632 00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,520 going to be the seed, the offspring out of out of which 633 00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:37,520 family, out of which woman? And God, You see through this 634 00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:40,040 whole story of the Old Testament, it's such a beautiful 635 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:43,000 thing. Time would fail me to share with 636 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:47,400 you all the different different people that God used like 637 00:43:48,320 --> 00:44:00,000 Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah who leads to David and 638 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:05,680 even Isaiah says she was going to a a virgin was going to 639 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:09,520 conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, 640 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:14,840 which means God with us. And you can find a, a genealogy 641 00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:18,280 in Matthew chapter 1 of of all those names if you want to go 642 00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:22,640 through all of that. But the Son, this offspring, the 643 00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:26,480 he is preserved throughout all Scripture. 644 00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:28,080 In fact, John Calvin says it like this. 645 00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,160 At the beginning, when the first promise of salvation was given 646 00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:36,960 to Adam, this promise we're talking about here, it glowed 647 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:40,840 like a feeble spark. Then as it was added to, the 648 00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,520 light grew in fullness, breaking forth increasingly and shedding 649 00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:47,920 its radiance more widely. At last, when all the clouds 650 00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:51,120 were dispersed, Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, fully 651 00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:56,120 illumined the whole earth. And that was Christmas. 652 00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:02,600 That's the beauty of Christmas. And not just a baby boy to be 653 00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:09,880 born, but a baby boy to be born, grow up, live a sinless life, 654 00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,640 die on the cross, and you can even see. 655 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:16,120 And this is the last thing I want to look at as we think 656 00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,360 about the grace of God in the midst of all of our sin. 657 00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,600 Now, every one of us here is a Sinner, and we've failed. 658 00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:27,440 This is our biography, but in the midst of all of our 659 00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:32,680 failings, we see the this is called the first gospel. 660 00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:37,400 The first message of hope is Genesis 315. 661 00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:42,040 But shortly after that we even see a picture of the cross and 662 00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:45,400 the atonement here. And it said, after all of this, 663 00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:49,240 and they were naked, the Lord God made for Adam and his wife 664 00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:51,920 garments of skins and clothed them. 665 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,920 What is that? What do you see in there? 666 00:45:55,760 --> 00:46:02,040 God literally had to kill one of his creatures, sacrifice a 667 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:09,520 creature that he created in order to cover His beloved 668 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:12,280 creation, the human beings in which He loved. 669 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:19,280 The grace there is so beautiful. Man tries to cover his guilt and 670 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:22,680 shame with elements that cannot bring satisfaction. 671 00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:26,240 And one pastor told me one time that if you've ever touched fig 672 00:46:26,240 --> 00:46:28,680 leaves, there's some that are really itchy. 673 00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:31,640 So that would have been a very terrible thing to put on 674 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,360 sensitive areas like Adam and Eve did. 675 00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:39,760 But isn't that what we do? Again, we we make things when we 676 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:43,720 take matters into our own hands. We make it worse when we cover 677 00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:49,720 up our shame. Even more pain, just like Adam 678 00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:53,880 and Eve did in the blame game. But God sacrifices the life of 679 00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:56,360 the creature to cover the nakedness and the shame. 680 00:46:56,360 --> 00:46:58,600 We cannot atone for our own sins. 681 00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:03,320 Only God can do the work for us to be redeemed and forgiven. 682 00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:07,760 And what a gracious God He is. And so don't cover up your sin, 683 00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:10,680 poor Sinner. God will do that. 684 00:47:12,240 --> 00:47:15,640 Sin now has no power. If you're stuck in your sin 685 00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,240 right now, just know Jesus defeated that. 686 00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:25,160 You don't have to live in shame and guilt any longer. 687 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:30,720 You can walk in victory even though you yourself have still 688 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:37,200 sinned and struggled with sin daily and it but what you need 689 00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:41,200 and what I need is to continue to go back to this promise and 690 00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:45,120 realize the power and the grace of God that it really did take 691 00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:49,160 away sin. Quit believing the lies of Satan 692 00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:52,600 and the twistings of the words of God and the false teachers 693 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:56,040 and the false religions out there that will tell you that 694 00:47:56,040 --> 00:48:00,880 no, you must become worthy. You must add your works to this. 695 00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:11,600 This is pure grace. And families, let's start 696 00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:17,160 leading our kids into the truth of who Jesus is then, not just 697 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:21,720 celebrating A tradition. Yes, gifts are fine and trees 698 00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:23,560 are fine. We love Christmas. 699 00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:28,640 Put lights on your house. But please, for the love of God, 700 00:48:29,240 --> 00:48:33,080 teach them the real reason why Jesus came and why we celebrate 701 00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:41,560 this and we make bad choices and sometimes they are really bad 702 00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:46,440 and it does need to be confessed and recognized, but then it can 703 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:49,600 be forgiven and that's why Jesus came. 704 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:54,960 Christmas is this reminder that God loves us and He keeps His 705 00:48:55,160 --> 00:49:00,680 promises, His greatest promise, in the person of Jesus Christ. 706 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:05,560 We are saved by faith alone and one day we will be fully saved 707 00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:08,600 out of this world and all the problems that come with it. 708 00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:13,440 Would you pray with me, dear Lord? 709 00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:23,520 Father, we come to you with brokenness and pain of our own 710 00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:27,520 consequence. And yes Lord, there are things 711 00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:30,480 that have happened to us in this world as well, but that's a 712 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:32,480 result of sin. We do not blame you. 713 00:49:33,240 --> 00:49:40,120 Forgive us for shifting the blame and believing lies and all 714 00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,600 of our sin where we've missed the target of obeying you. 715 00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:46,360 And thank you God that you're such a gracious God that you 716 00:49:46,720 --> 00:49:52,160 took care of our sin problem and now you bring us close to you. 717 00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:54,200 And you have this. We have this holiday to just 718 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:58,120 continue to renew our our covenant with you, although it's 719 00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:01,480 1 sided and you keep it all and we constantly fail. 720 00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,240 That's why we worship you and you deserve all the glory and 721 00:50:05,240 --> 00:50:07,920 the praise. And I pray, Father, you'd help 722 00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,560 us to know this more deeply and love you more dearly. 723 00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:14,160 And I pray that you draw unbelievers to yourself today in 724 00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:17,720 Jesus name, Amen. Amen. 725 00:50:17,720 --> 00:50:19,560 Would you stand and sing a response with us?