Genesis 3, verses 14 through. 19 This is the.
Curse we're looking at, we're examining, we're thinking about,
we're praying about the curse of sin and I've I've got a lot to
say this morning. There's a lot of explanation
that needs to take place. But when it's all said and done,
when all the smoke clears, I really only have.
One big goal this morning. Not a lot.
Not a couple different goals, really, just just one and so.
Before I pull the veil back for that, let me just catch you up
to speed. If you missed last week or
missed last couple weeks or haven't been with us, we're.
Doing a slow army crawl. Through the book of Genesis.
Here's what you missed in last. Weeks episode God creates
everything out of nothing. He creates Adam and Eve
particularly. With his own image.
And then a. Character The serpent slithers
in. And in a world of yeses and one
no. The Serpent.
Deceives Adam and Eve into into doing the one no and what ends
up happening we looked at this last week is that sin enters
into and pollutes the human heart and human nature it it
creates a heart that essentially is a factory that produces blame
shifting and excuses and sin and what we see in our text this
morning it takes that. One step further.
We see that it's not just a matter of sin entering in to the
human heart or the human mind or human nature.
But. Sin enters into the very fabric
of creation itself. Through.
The administration. Of the.
Curse. And so there's going to be a lot
to think about this. Morning.
But if I were you, I would give. My best thinking.
For the next 40 minutes. And the reason why is because
this is the type of text that can be misconstrued and
misunderstood. To.
Formulate on. Biblical observations about God.
There's a high degree of misunderstanding when it comes
to this particular text. And so this sermon, I think it's
going to be pretty unlike an ordinary sermon that I preached.
If you've been with me, you know that I like to preach and.
Expose it and then illustrate and then explain.
And then illustrate. And then explain.
And then preach. This sermon is going to be.
More like honestly it's going to be like 3540 straight minutes.
Of sustained. Argumentation, but if you can.
If you can, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you can give your best.
Thinking up. To the net these next 40
minutes. They might be exhausting, but I
think by the grace of God your mind may reach.
New depths. And perhaps you'll walk out of
this building with a a better and more Christ like
understanding of suffering and pain and so.
Here's my one goal. As we look at these verses
together, my one. Goal just one.
My one. Goal this morning is.
I want us to see the mercy. And goodness of God, even in the
midst of his administration of consequences and curses.
That's it. I want you to see his.
Goodness in the midst of him administering the curse this
morning. The curse is real.
And life is suffering, and we live in a.
World that's overshadowed by the.
Curse. And yet God is very kind, and he
is very. Good.
Both of those truths are. Totally compatible, so if you're
able, let's go ahead and stand. For the reading of the Word of
God, Genesis 3, verses 14 through. 19 the Lord.
God said to the serpent, because you have done this, curse it.
Are you above? All livestock and above all,
the. Beasts of the field on your
belly. You shall go.
And dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
I will. I'll.
Put enmity. Enmity.
An enemy? I'll put enmity.
Between you and the woman and between.
Your offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
Pause that verse right there. Verse 15 It's called the proto
at you angelion. It's the.
Most. Important verse in this entire
section of Scripture. And I'm not going to preach it
this morning. I'm going to preach it next
Sunday because that singular verse demands. 40 minutes of
your time. So put it, take it put.
It in your back pocket and we'll get we'll look at it.
Really closely next week, but the text goes.
On and he says, he turns from the serpent to the woman, and he
says. The woman, he said.
I will surely multiply your. Pain and childbearing and pain
you shall bring forth children your.
Desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over
you. And then he turns to Adam.
And he said now you buddy. And to Adam, he said.
Because you I don't. Actually, no, let me take that
back. I don't think that's his tone.
I think his tone is. More.
And to Adam, he said. Because you have.
Listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you, You shall not.
Eat of it. Cursed is the ground.
Because of you. Son in pain.
You shall eat of it all the days of your life.
Thorns. Thistles.
It's going to start to produce it shall bring forth.
For you, and you shall eat. The plants of the field it's by
the. Sweat of your face.
Dripping off your nose by the sweat of your.
Face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground.
Or out of it you're. Taken son, you are dust, and to
dust you shall return. Heavenly Father.
There is so much goodness and so many displays of restrained
judgment and mercy in these texts, and sometimes we just.
Miss them because our. Brain is going other.
Places so I pray we would take a good.
Honest look at your text. This morning and.
Reckon with the. Consequences of sin honestly
and. Still through the.
Pain and suffering. See your goodness and mercy.
We sang it. We sang it this morning.
Already we already. Sang the sermon, For the curse
of sin has no hold. On me.
That's true. We feel the effects of sin.
We feel the consequences. Of the curse.
But it doesn't. Hold us anymore, We don't have
to. Bear it.
Anymore, and that's because of the.
Gospel of Jesus So it's in the precious name of Jesus that all
God's people prayed. Amen.
You can have a seat. Clearly we have a.
Lot of work to. Do you're sitting?
I must start. Talking the curse.
Life is hard. Life is pain.
David Goggins was right about some stuff.
Life is suffering. Who's going to carry the?
Boats Rocky Balboa was right. It's not about how hard you can
hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
Life is full of pain, suffering. Is real.
We need to keep moving forward in the midst of this cursive.
World We have three main characters in our story so far,
besides God. We have the serpent, we have the
woman, and we have man. Each of them experience unique
concepts, consequences. Because of the curse of sin.
So we'll take each character 1 by 1 and.
Look at the unique consequence. That each gets the first
character that God turns to is first the.
Serpent. This is verse 14.
The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done
this, curse it are you above all livestock and above all beasts
of the field on your belly you're going to crawl and and
dust, dust you shall. Eat all the days of your life.
This is this is fascinating, isn't it?
One of the reasons why. This text is fascinating.
Is because with all three characters, what the curse does
is it strikes uniquely and exactly at each character's
greatest desire. What we need to see from this is
that God's not arbitrarily throwing a fit and just
arbitrarily throwing suffering out at all these characters.
Each one is uniquely administered to the unique
desire of each character. For instance, the serpent.
The serpent's greatest desire was pride and the desire to rule
over. Creation.
And what does he get? Yeah, humiliation.
Cursive to crawl on his belly. Doctor Michael Heizer, A.
Biblical scholar says. Quote.
Satan wanted to be the most high, so God made Satan into the
most low. He is humbled.
He's. Humiliated into being condemned
into the most cursive. Creature look at the text person
to crawl on his belly lowness for.
The rest of his life. Look at his diet.
Did you guys notice his diet? Right there in the text.
Dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Do you know? Do you know how much nutritional
value dust has? I looked it up.
None 00. Carbs.
Right, 0 calories which might. Sound good to some of.
You but also zero protein. There's nothing of any
nutritional value here. Satan is condemned to a diet.
That will leave him angry, small and nutrient.
Deficient with those epic eyes. Don't believe the comic book
illustrations? You know, you see these comic
book illustrations where like Satan is this?
Jacked character raw. He's eating his his, his diet is
composed of dust, right? He's a skinny.
Malnourished serpent with a chip on his non existent shoulder.
What's dust? What is dust?
Do you know what's composed of? I didn't.
I looked it up. Dust is composed primarily of
dirt, obviously. Soil, obviously.
Some microscopic debris, obviously, and tiny bits of dead
skin. That's interesting.
What are Adam and Eve made of? Genesis.
Two God takes. Dust.
And he breathes. Life into it.
How does this text end? Adam is condemned to.
Experience physical death and he returns to what?
Interesting. Exhaust what God is.
Doing is he's condemning Satan. To the realm of death.
The serpent is condemned to. Become a literal Death Eater.
This is why the. Enemy's desire is to.
Steal. Kill.
And destroy he loves. Death.
It's his only diet. It's.
All he can really eat. And there's.
Going to be a specific death thousands of years later that
the. Serpent will eat and that death.
Will destroy the serpent. From the inside.
Out the death of Christ. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
That's later on in the story. The serpent desires glory.
But he's. Cursed to humiliation strikes at
his greatest desire. And then he turns to the woman.
2nd. We see the woman verse. 16, he
says to the woman, he said. I will, surely.
Multiply your pain. In childbearing, in pain, you
shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your.
Husband and he shall. Rule over you, holy.
Trigger warning. Take a breath, it's OK, we can
talk about. This what's what's.
Going on here, well, again, what's happening is the curse is
uniquely striking exactly at what these characters desire
most. Eve as we see in chapter. 2 is
built for fruitfulness, and so she comes programmed with a
stronger desire for relationships, particularly
marriage and childbearing. And those spheres of joy.
Those spheres of desire remain. But they will now also.
Include increased pain Eve. Will still get to bear.
Children, but the process will be extremely painful.
Eve will still get to. Experience marriage, but now
it's. Now it's characterized by
hardship. Look at the text.
It says. Your desire shall be.
For your husband, there's. A lot of argumentation over
theologians about what exactly this means.
You're welcome to end up on a different page.
Than me. I'm pretty convinced that this
is not. Romantic language.
For a couple different reasons. 1 The immediate context and.
A couple of. Different things that happened
in Genesis. Four that we'll get around to.
I don't. Think this is like.
Oh man, I really want to get AI. Don't think it's romantic
language, I think. And most Christian.
Scholars think this too. Is that this is suggesting that
because of the curse of sin, Eve will be?
Tempted to dominate and. Rule over her husband harshly.
Her desire shall be to rule over her husband, and I think this
because of the next. Line.
It's a corresponding line. Look at it.
He shall rule over you. I think this is struggle.
I think this is power hungry. Struggle between husband and
wife? That's uniquely the result.
Of the curse that. Every marriage, even the good
ones, experience to some. Level and degree.
And now that that line there he shall.
Rule over you another. Pause.
Another deep breath, Derek. Kidner, A.
British Old Testament reform scholar in his.
Genesis commentary states this. Perfectly, he says.
Quote. This.
Statement. He shall rule over you.
This. Statement is not a statement.
Of what? Should.
Happen. This is a statement.
Of what will. Happen.
That makes sense. This is not a.
Commandment. It's not it's it's.
Just grammatically. Not organized as a commandment,
you must. Rule harshly over your wife?
No. Men are called to rule.
But not. Over, alongside and
sacrificially. And so this verse is a prophecy.
Of what will tend. To happen in a.
Cursed world with sin, he will tend to rule.
Over you and we know. That this is a.
Distortion of the marriage. Relationship because of the new.
Testament, but also because of Genesis.
Two right in Genesis 2. We took a whole sermon on this
and we looked really. Carefully and we saw that God
calls Adam to sacrificial, selfless life giving.
Leadership that. Helps Eve flourish.
That's God's design. Amen.
But but when a man. Uses his leadership to.
Harshly rule and harshly dominate.
That's not God's design. That's a result of the the
curse, and so this is a description, not a.
Prescription. So men are not supposed to look
at that. One verse and say oh I.
Got to I got to boss my wife around more, huh?
No, that's that desire is the result of the.
Curse not the result of faithfulness to God's design,
and that's also true. Of the verse before, right Eve's
desire to rule over her husband harshly.
And. To treat him like a child on ATV
show is also the. Result of sin, but every
marriage feels to some degree. The result of this?
Curse in their relational dynamic men feel it too, right,
maybe to different degrees like the the most recent data says
that 75% of divorces in the modern world are initiated by
women and what that tends to suggest is not that only women.
Experience. Frustration in marriage, I think
that suggests. Strongly that women experience
that. Frustration in marriage more
acutely than men tend to. Which I think is evidence.
That what God is. Talking about in Genesis. 3 is
operative and actually real and in this lifetime.
And so Eve desires relationship. She gets to keep the
relationships, but those relationships become.
Frustrated. And then God turns to the man in
verse 17 and to Adam, he said. Because you have listened.
To the. Voice of your wife.
Men. Be good listeners to your.
Wives, the New Testament says, live with your wives in an
understanding. Way this is not.
Saying don't listen to your wife the.
Thrust of this text. Is that Adam chose to.
Value Eve's voice more. Than God's.
Voice, he listened to his. Wife's voice.
When it was contrary. To the voice of God, right He.
Made an idol. Out of Eve, he chose to worship.
Her rather than worshiping. God, that's the problem here,
because you've listened to the voice of your.
Wife and have. Eaten up the tree which?
I commanded you. You shall not eat of it.
Cursed is the. Ground.
Because of you and pain. You shall eat of it all the days
of your life. Thorns and Thistles is going to
bring forth and. By the sweat of your face,
you'll eat your bread until you return to the ground where you
die again. What's?
Happening here. It's strategically striking at
one of Adam's greatest. Desires in life to have.
Meaningful work to make a dent. In the world to make an impact.
In the world, he was placed in the garden to work and keep the
garden to take Eden global. He's supposed to.
Want to make an impact? On the world with his work and
he still gets to continue to work, but what happens to the
ground that he works? It becomes cursive suddenly, up
to this point, all the ground. Produces is fruit and life.
And vegetation. And suddenly it produces
something different. What?
Verse. 18 thorns and and thistles and so.
Creation no longer works. In effortless harmony.
With the efforts of humankind. Now it seems to.
Wage war against us and the. Creation now has.
Teeth it bites it Laborers against us.
Thorns they all, they almost. Look like Serpentine teeth.
And now if you want to. Get it to produce fruit in life.
You can, but it requires what verse?
19. Sweat.
You got sweat. Now wrestle it.
You got work at it. So work.
It retains its purpose. It retains.
Its meaning it returns its value but.
It's also going to suck until the day that.
You die. That's.
Literally what the text by the sweat of your face, you shall
eat bread till you. Return to the ground for.
Out of it, you were taken. For your dust into dust shall
return the man desires. Meaningful work, but now work.
Has thorns and thistles. Here's here's the Here's the.
Big Here's the big guy. Here's the SparkNotes summary
for you. OK, here's what's happening.
Throughout this entire passage. Because of.
Sin pain is now. Rightly woven.
Into every square inch of the fabric of creation.
It's everywhere and God does not administer it like a child
throwing a tantrum. He administers it as a judge
judicially, carefully, precisely and exactly.
And that that doesn't make this text.
I don't know, doesn't. Make this text easier, right?
Like am I the only? One who?
Struggles with this text like it's not.
Been a fun week. For me to prepare this.
Sermon you know, it's been tough.
I've really struggled with it, like the text pushes against my.
Flesh like I've cried. Out to the Lord.
This morning. This week, like how?
How's this just? Why?
Thorns, thistles, pain. And I think that's a.
Valid question. Why?
I really do, but I need you to lock in here.
Because. I think there are answers to
that question, but this sermon is not the type of sermon that
you can. Just take bits and pieces.
From and draw on. Biblical conclusions about God
so. Before I say anything in
response to, why is this just? As just.
Hear me plainly here. You just you need.
To know that God is not. Cruel.
He's not unkind. He's not a psychopath who loves
to. Administer pain.
He's not. Malevolent, he doesn't delight
in inflicting pain upon his good.
Creation. Doesn't make him happy, but he's
willing. He's willing to sovereignly
administer pain. To the degree that it.
Turns us. Back towards what is ultimately
best for us. Which is himself, and so he's
willing to do it. Because that's what.
Good leaders do. That's what good doctors do.
That's what good. Parents do like when I survey
everything that the Bible has to say about suffering, which is a
lot, and when I survey my own personal experience with.
Suffering. It's it seems to me that the
exact amount of suffering that God permits in our lives and you
got to forgive. Me if it sounds arrogant and
prideful to know that exact calculation.
But I think that the. Exact.
Amount of suffering that God permits to enter into our lives
is exactly this I think that God permits in our lives.
Too much. Suffering for us to possibly
bear in the flesh and never enough suffering to break us in
the spirit. That makes sense.
Are we having fun this morning? The bull's eye it.
Seems to me biblically that God aims at in determining how much
suffering. Doesn't get to go into Cole
Daikie. 'S life and how much suffering
does get to go into Cole's life? It seems to be precisely in that
spot between. I can't do.
This on my own Lord and. I can do all.
Things through Christ, who strengthens me, he aims at.
Exactly that. Bullseye between those two
things too much. Suffering for us to.
Carry in the flesh. But never enough suffering.
To break us. In the Spirit of God, that's the
that's the proper dosage of pain and suffering in a in a person's
life and in the proper dosages in the hands of a good God, that
means that even the curse itself becomes an instrument of
salvation. It doesn't mean that the curse
is good. It doesn't mean that God likes
it. It means that God is willing to
use ugly instruments to achieve salvation in our lives as human
beings. I hate to be the one to break it
to you. We.
Must. Taste the pain of sin in order
to grasp the severity of sin and to understand the glory of God
if. We were to live in a world.
Without curses or consequences, we would never learn, we would
never grow, and. What's worse?
Worse than? All of the worst.
What would be the worst? Of all of it is that we would
become irredeemable beasts. Because without the pain of sin,
we would never learn to turn to. Jesus.
And cry out to him. We wouldn't do it.
We wouldn't do it without the thorns and the thistles and.
What a terrible life it would be.
To live and sin without pain. It would just.
Be a comfy Rd. that leads you straight to the gates of hell.
But Cush. What a terrible life.
Listen, man. I'm not trying to crush you.
When I say these things, every word I'm saying this morning is
actually pretty measured and needs to be.
Mulled over by you, but. These types of things, they need
to be said. So this is this is a lot to.
Reckon with and I understand it if it's too much.
Put it in your back. Pocket and bring it.
Before the Lord this week. But these things need to be
said. It is.
Better for men to have hard.
Work that sucks, that makes. Them turn to Jesus than to have
effortless dream. Jobs where they remain.
Distant from Jesus it's better for women to experience pain in
relationships and turn to. Jesus.
Than to have. Effortless.
Relationships and remain distant from Jesus.
Why? Because the best thing in the
world for you. Better than a painless life,
Better than an on. Frustrated life.
The best thing for you is a life.
Where you see the. Fullness.
Of the glory of God. That's better for you than a
life without pain. To see the.
Fullness of who God is and without the curse of sin.
Without the. Effects of sin in the world
there is no salvation I mean, the glory of salvation is
greater than the glory of. Living in a world without the
curse. Because in that.
World you wouldn't know the. Fullness of God because you
couldn't. Know the fullness of God.
Right, you might know his love. His beauty, His perfection, his.
Goodness, which is all great, but you would be.
Definitionally ignorant of His forgiveness and His mercy and
His grace. And that is no small part of why
God? Would sovereignly.
Allow the fall to happen because in so happening does it
introduce pain and suffering? Yes, tons of it.
But to be ignorant of the grace, forgiveness, and mercy of God?
That only comes to us through the presence of sin and the
forgiveness of it. To be ignorant of those
qualities of God is to only see a fraction of who God.
Is. You would only see half of him
or 1/4 of him wouldn't see the fullness of.
Them so as. Painful as the curse of sin is,
it does, in the hands of God, help us see and experience and
taste. The.
Fullness of the glory of God more and if you didn't see the
fullness of the glory. Of God, you wouldn't fall in
love with Him. You would fall in love with the
world, and the world's a good friend but an abusive spouse if
the earth didn't have forms. You'd never aim at heaven,
right? If it didn't have.
Thistles if you felt at. Home in the world?
All the time you wouldn't. Long for Eden.
And so as painful as Genesis 3. Is we have to reckon with the
fact that. It's better for us to feel the.
Heat of hell on our skin than for us to just think it's safe.
To jump into the fire because there's no.
Consequences attached to. It now we need to.
Feel it, Nip. And maybe even scar.
Our flesh a little bit, or at least singe the hairs off.
Of our arms and know oh I. Shouldn't, shouldn't jump into
that. Shouldn't jump into that and
live in that. Right.
It's like. Does God?
Does God like the curse? No, he doesn't.
But you. Can't avoid the grammatical.
Structure of these verses either.
I don't know if you noticed. This, but if you look at this
text and deal with. It honestly.
God is the. Active agent of administration.
You can't get around that. If you find a way, let me know.
Verse 15 in administering the curse, God says I will.
Verse 16 God says. I will.
Verse 17 It's God cursing the ground.
He's. You just can't get around this.
He is the sovereign and active agent of governance.
It's like the. World is slipping out of his
control. Here.
So does that mean that? Since.
Since God. Administers it.
Does that mean? That God likes the curse.
Like a sick. Parent who maybe?
Enjoys disciplining. Their kids too much.
No God, like anybody who has any wisdom whatsoever, has the
capacity to administer things. He doesn't.
Like temporally? For the sake of achieving ends
that he does like eternally. Every good leader does that.
Every every person with wisdom knows that.
Your kid scrapes her knee. Right.
You administer a disinfectant. Ouch.
It stings. It bubbles up.
Ouch. Do you like?
That it causes your child. More momentary.
Pain. You're actively administering
it? No, of course not.
But you are willing to. Administer something you don't.
Like a little momentary. Pain in order to achieve
something that you do, like disinfecting the wound and make
sure it doesn't become irredeemably infected.
Right, the parent who's unwilling.
To do that is a weak. Parent who is condemning?
His child to an. Infected wound.
Because of his. Lack of nerve and and
leadership. And So what we need to see is
that God is active behind administering these curses.
But it is ultimately God's love that's operative behind the
curse. It's God's love.
Does that make the effects of curse hurt less?
No, still. Hurts.
I don't like to suffer. I don't like nerve pain.
I don't like chronic pain. I don't like, I hate diseases.
I don't like any of that stuff. Does knowing?
This help take away the pain. No it doesn't.
So what's the point in knowing this?
Because even though it doesn't take away the pain, it does
protect your hope, right? Your hope?
God's. Good.
Even in the midst of this and I know.
The new creation is going to be awesome.
And there are still going to be some pains.
And suffering that you endure. Where you will spend.
The rest of your life. Asking God why the rest of your
life? There are some.
Questions that don't have answers in this lifetime.
There are some questions. That don't get solved.
By information. Or chat.
GPT. Right, there are some questions
that can only be endured and not answered.
Endured. With living.
Hope. Endured by longing, aching,
looking forward to the new. Creation where the curse is.
Finally going to be lifted and we get to live in a world free
of. Sin and suffering.
You've got to fight to believe that God is kind and merciful,
even as we're subjected to living in a world that's marred
by the curse. Gosh, this is so important.
I'll be honest with you at the. Beginning of this sermon.
I told you my goal was for you to see the goodness and kindness
of God. Even in the midst.
Of his administration. Of consequences and the curse
Where's? That.
Well, partly. It's in the text I'm not
preaching this morning. But you do see the.
Goodness and kindness of God by answering one simple.
Question. Are you guys ready for it?
Here's your one simple. Question Who and what does get?
Cursed. Did you notice?
That I'll walk. You through it here this is I
want you to see how kind and loving and.
Patient God really is. Notice exactly.
Who and what God curses and who God doesn't curse?
Look at your Bible. Closely verse 14 God curses who?
The serpent. The word curse doesn't appear
again until verse. 17. What does God?
Curse in verse 17. Ground So who does God curse
because of the fall? The serpent and the ground.
Who does God not curse? Adam and Eve, you humanity, why
not? They committed the sin.
Why does it not? Curse the.
Fountainhead of humanity here. Why not curse Adam and Eve?
Here's the answer. Because although we will.
Have to experience. The consequences of the curse we
will not have to bear the penalty of the curse Adam and
Eve experienced the consequences of the curse they.
Have to live in a cursed world. But they don't actually bear the
curse. Why not as God?
Unjust plot twist. Here's where it all gets.
Good guys, ready. 5 more minutes.
Give me 5 more minutes. Plot twist.
This is how you see the goodness mercy of God.
Plot twist, God. He does not merely administer
the righteous curse. He does in Genesis 3.
What's he do? He ultimately comes in the
flesh. And he?
Himself bears that curse for us. You ever notice this in the New
Testament? The night.
Before Jesus is crucified, he's. Praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane, he's experienced, he's under the weight of the
curse of sin. He's he's experiencing the
penalty of sin. And what does his?
Body release as he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane sweats, he
perspires, he sweats drops of blood.
Why? That's an interesting element.
Genesis 3 the. Curse by sweat.
You're going to eat your. Bread.
What Jesus is doing, He's sweating blood because he is
literally bearing the weight of the curse for us.
Isn't that amazing? And before Jesus, before he's.
Put on a cross? What do they put on his head?
They put on his head a crown. What's it made of?
Thorns. What an interesting literary
detail. I wonder why the author.
I wonder why God, I wonder why they put.
A crown of thorns on his head, that's.
Simple Genesis 3. What's the world now bring?
Forth thorns and thistles. So on his head.
In a crown of thorns. Carving into his flesh, Jesus
is. Bearing the curse of sin.
For us by wearing that. Crown on his thorns.
He literally wears the curse on his head.
That's what the cross of Christ. Is.
The cross of Christ is. Literally Genesis 3 fulfill the
cross is literally Genesis 3 with.
Skin on. The cross is literally Genesis 3
with arms and legs. It is God himself.
Enduring. The consequences of.
Our sin, it's got himself bearing.
The curse that God administered like.
How awesome is that? It's just, it's just, it's.
Amazing. That means that if.
Jesus bore the curse for us. That means that you don't have
to bear the curse. That's why.
Galatians says that Jesus became a curse for us.
Why? So that we might become the
righteousness of God. What a deal.
He gets our curse and we get to know him as God.
What an amazing deal. That's the gospel.
He became a curse so that we might know the righteousness of
God. That's why God doesn't curse
Adam and Eve. He doesn't curse is the serpent
in the ground to Adam and Eve, although they have to.
Experience the consequences of the.
Curse. What's happening behind this is
God is saying, I'll take your. Curse.
I'm gonna let it. Land on the serpent.
I'm gonna let it land on the ground.
But I'll take. Yours.
Give it to me. I'll carry it.
I'll take it upon my head. I'll.
Take it upon my shoulders. It's, it's mine, God said.
I will damn myself to save my people.
What a God we worship. Amen.
Who could ever. Invent a God like this, who
could ever want? A God who is not like Jesus.
This is the most profound. Good news in the entire.
Universe. And it doesn't mean that we
don't still feel the weight of that curse.
We do. We feel it in our aging.
We feel it in our broken and unfulfilled relationships,
through disease, through loss, through chronic pain.
I know you feel it. I know it.
Hurts. I know it hurts a lot.
I know it hurts like hell, but because of Jesus if you turn to.
Jesus in the midst. Of that suffering and pain.
It'll still hurt, but it won't destroy you, won't rule over
you. It won't be your Lord.
It won't be your. King.
Jesus will be, and in Jesus hands he will.
Use that pain as an instrument to point.
You towards himself, the one who knows the.
Fullness of pain and the curse. Jesus knows what a slipped disc
in your neck feels like. He knows what the disease feels
like. He knows what the nerve pain
feels like. He knows what it's like to sweat
blood. He knows the pain.
By suffering. On the cross, I'm absorbing the
curse for you. What?
Has he accomplished? He's opened up the way.
To a new. Creation one without the curse.
One without pain, 1 without. Suffering a future life where
you are resurrected. Heaven and earth, finally.
Come together, new creation is established.
And you finally and forever live in a world.
Saturated completely by the joy of the Lord, free from.
Pain in the new. Creation there is no longer.
Any need for pain. There's no utility in suffering
in the new creation because our nature will no longer be marred
by sin. It'll be.
Restored, not just back. To the goodness of.
Adam and Eve's good human. Nature, but to a perfected.
Nature that. Doesn't even have the.
Capacity to sin and then we will live in a.
World free from thorns free from thistles from.
Pain. What a glorious savior.
We have in Jesus Christ. Amen.
The pain's real, but the pain won't last forever.
The pain won't last forever. Soldier, the pain won't.
Last forever. Queen.
The pain won't last forever, King.
Jesus will so choose carefully which.
Of those two you worship. Heavenly Father, I pray for just
a. Unique experience of your
goodness and and mercy. Bible verses like this are so
interesting because it shows us how.
Realistic the Bible is. It's so honest about.
Pain and suffering and hurt, those things are real.
And they're not. Outside of God's control.
But it's also amazing how much hope is just kind of woven like
into. The background of these verses
it. Shows us you're restrained
judgment. That even though we.
Deserve to bear the curse all. We have to do is feel.
The effects of it and you bear it.
Yourself and so I pray that that would just elicit.
Worship. In awe and wonder from.
Us. And so it's in the precious name
of Jesus that all God's people prayed.
Amen. Let's stand and let's worship
this God who bears the curse for us.