Paradise Lost

Hope everyone's doing well this evening. It's fun to be here at Elevate. I hope you enjoy it as well. If you would take out your Bibles and open with me to Genesis chapter 3. As mentioned, we'll be starting small groups tonight. So that's another thing to be excited about.

We'll be getting to know one another in the small groups we'll be in for the rest of the school year where you guys talk about the sermon and the passage of Scripture that we are in. And tonight, that is Genesis 3, verses 14 through the end, through verse 24.

So last week we picked up in the beginning of chapter 3 and made it about halfway through. Tonight we will talk about Paradise Lost. That's our title tonight, Paradise Lost.

Last week at the beginning of chapter 3, we saw Adam and Eve rebel against God. We saw them eat of the fruit of the tree of which God told them not to eat. And tonight, we see them being sent out from Eden. Sent out from the presence of the Lord.

You guys all know movies and books that start out and they have really this fairy tale beginning. Not a fairy tale ending where everyone lives happily ever after, but the beginning is just more perfect than life itself.

You know, it's just so beautiful. Everything's perfect. Life is going so smoothly. Every true crime documentary starts this way too. They had a perfect family until.

Everything was perfect in their marriage until one day. And, you know, it's just, they kind of gloss over some of the details in the beginning. Everything starts out perfect. But we're so used to brokenness.

We're so used to life in a fallen world. We're so used to sinfulness. That when we see something that perfect in the introduction of a movie or a story, we're kind of just waiting for things to be messed up.

And a movie would be really boring if it was just good all the way through, right? Like, we're just waiting for things to go tragically wrong. We're so used to sin and brokenness that we're just waiting for something to go wrong in whatever story we're engaging with.

And we're so used to sin and brokenness in this world that we're even skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. You know, like those over-the-top relationships where it's like, oh, he is the peanut butter to my jelly.

We just go together so well. So, he's posting and is like, she is my entire world. I don't know who I am without her. And it's like, all right, y'all are in eighth grade.

Like, let's pump the brakes a little bit. Like, we're skeptical even of things that seem perfect from the outside. And then things in those stories where those eighth grade relationships go disastrously wrong, like being in eighth grade.

In those stories, Andy gets buzz. The Madrigals can't control their demonic house. Whatever it is, things go disastrously wrong.

And the story of the beginning of Genesis is the exact same. Genesis 1 and 2, everything is perfect. Genesis 3, everything comes undone.

And so, last week, we looked at Adam and Eve eating the fruit and rebelling against God. And here, we see the consequences of it. We see them ultimately exiled from the Garden of Eden.

And so, tonight, we'll have four or five points. We'll be looking, tracking in the first part with the characters of this story. So, number one, if you're taking notes, is the serpent. The serpent.

In verse 14, Yahweh God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I just want to step back and notice the order that God addresses these characters in.

Verse 14, he addresses the serpent. Verse 16, he addresses the woman. And starting in verse 17, he addresses the man. This is the same order of appearance they had in the beginning of chapter 3.

The serpent was more crafty than any other creature. He tempted the woman. And then the man ate. And so, they're appearing back in that same order here as God addresses them.

But notice something else in his speech to the serpent. He doesn't ask him any questions. When he is going to confront Adam and Eve, he says, Where are you?

And he asks another question. Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to? And then he turns to the woman and says, What is this that you've done? He asks questions of this human couple.

He asks zero questions of the serpent. He knows what the serpent is like. He knows what Satan is about. And so, it is just cursing given to the serpent.

And the serpent gets the severest punishment for what took place in the garden. And as we read through these curses that are given to the serpent, we need to be able to think about them in a couple of different ways at the same time.

We need to be able to think physically and spiritually. So, God is speaking to a real serpent in the garden. There was a real serpent that Eve was talking to.

And we also need to be able to think spiritually. There is a demonic force behind the serpent. Satan himself is the one speaking through the serpent to Eve. And so, as God addresses the serpent, he is speaking to Satan and to this actual snake.

And so, a lot of what he says kind of has a double meaning in the sense that he is speaking to this snake. He is also speaking to Satan, who is the one speaking through the snake. So, he says, because you have done this, because you have tempted Eve, because you have brought sin, you have brought temptation to this human couple.

Cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. Now, physically thinking, this verse is why we hate snakes.

Anyone here not hate snakes? Okay, you probably do, though. You maybe just don't, like, despise them, but you don't just want them. You know, we, this, this verse is, the snake itself is cursed.

The snake itself is cursed above every other beast of the field, any other creature that the Lord made because of its participation in this temptation and fall. And so, there are some dog people, there are some cat people, which, you know, getting a little bit weirder.

There are some, there are no real, like, snake people. And you might be like, my friend likes snakes. And we'd probably be like, yeah, that checks out.

We don't just normally gravitate towards snakes. They're dangerous. They're kind of gross. I don't necessarily hate snakes, but I'm also not letting them stay in my house. My wife despises snakes, among other small critters that she doesn't like.

And there was one time when she was, before we had kids, she was a teacher, and she had to get to work at 4 a.m. and not get paid for it. So, she was gone. It was just me in the house. And there was a snake that got into the house.

Don't know where it came from. Don't know what kind of beef it had with us. Don't know what it was looking for. Calling it a snake is a bit of a compliment, okay? It was like a glorified worm. But it was a snake.

It was a snake. And it's just kind of slithering around. Again, I don't hate snakes, but I'm not just going to let it stay in the house. I'm like, I'll just catch it. No big deal. I'll just catch it and toss it outside. Proved to be a difficult task.

It was kind of slithery and got away from me. Went under a cabinet, never to be seen or heard from again. And I'm like, I'm just not going to tell Lacey about this.

Being the bold, honest husband that I am. Just going to act like this didn't happen. Then a few days later, it got out. And Lacey was freaking out. And she killed it. And I was like, oh, that's crazy, huh?

Man. I did tell her that I tried to catch it and failed at my job as a husband. But anyway, we hate snakes. That's the point. So previously, before this snake was cursed, it was innocent enough for Eve to have a conversation with it and not be greatly alarmed.

Now things have changed. And the result of this curse is that it will crawl on its belly. So on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

Now perhaps, based on this punishment, the snake was not on its belly previously. We don't know what it would have looked like. Maybe it had legs. Maybe it just hovered.

We don't know. But God is also putting Satan back in his place. He's also, in addressing these characters, putting things back into order.

And so this serpent has very much stepped outside of his realm. He's crossed the boundary, and God is saying to him, get back down to where you belong.

Don't step out of line. And for the snake itself, it will be on its belly and eat dust for the rest of its life. So much so that in Leviticus 11, when God is declaring what animals are clean and unclean, anything that goes on its belly is considered unclean.

And it shall eat dust, just meaning it slithers around in the dirt. And this actually becomes significant in thinking about the enemies of Israel. In Psalm 72, a psalm addressed to the king, it says, Your enemies will lick the dust.

Their destiny, by opposing God's king, is the same destiny that Satan himself will face someday. And then lastly, in verse 14, this will happen all the days of your life.

There is no redemption from this curse. There's no hope of Satan being redeemed. And in Hebrews 2, it says that it is not angels that Jesus helps, but the sons of Abraham, the ones who share in flesh and blood.

Jesus became like us to save us, but there is no hope for the angels who have fallen, Satan being the leader of them. And so all the days of its life, the serpent will be on its belly, and Satan will have no chance of redemption.

In verse 15, this curse continues, I will put enmity, that's animosity or hatred, he'll make them enemies, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, which is why my wife especially hates snakes, and between your offspring and her offspring.

Or maybe your Bible says your seed and her seed. He, that's the woman's offspring, shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

And this is physically true. There's animosity between snakes and mankind. And so much so that John Calvin said that our hatred of snakes is our memory of our fall.

So it's kind of an interesting way of thinking about this enmity that happens physically. But there's also more than just the physical realm here, as I said. This is between your seed and her seed.

There is someone coming from the woman who will destroy this serpent. And the serpent will continue to try to kill this woman and her offspring, but someone is coming one day who will crush the head of this serpent.

There will be suffering. This snake will strike the heel of this descendant, but he will crush the serpent's head. And this single verse, Genesis 3.15, this threat to Satan becomes the backbone for the storyline of Scripture.

God will destroy this serpent through one of Eve's children. This serpent will wound him, but this son will crush the serpent's head. This victory will come with suffering, but it will end in Satan's defeat.

And ultimately, this pattern culminates in Jesus dying on the cross. He was bitten by death, but through death, he rose victorious to destroy the works of the devil, to set his people free.

But again, these things are physically true as well. Snakes are, for the most part, ankle biters, just like third graders. Like, get off me, what are you doing? But this verse is the seedbed for the gospel.

Out of this verse flows all of God's promises that come to us through Christ. And the Bible continues to tell its story from the view of these two kingdoms battling it out.

The kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of the serpent, and the kingdom of the woman, the seed of the woman. And so the Bible tells the story of this clash between two kingdoms, and it also continues to look for who is this deliverer?

Who is this one who will come from the woman to set people free? Which is why the genealogies, the lists of names are so important in the Bible. We'll come to one in Genesis 5.

We're tempted just like, okay, it's a bunch of names I don't know. Go to Genesis 6. But the authors are trying to track for us where this seed is coming from. Where is this deliverer coming from?

The serpent will continually seek to devour the offspring of the woman. Think about Pharaoh killing all the Israelite boys. Think of Herod trying to get rid of Jesus who's proclaimed to be the king of the Jews.

This is Satan's activity. So that's the serpent. Secondly, we see the woman in verse 16. To the woman, he said, I...

Now there's no because statement here. Verse 14, he says to the serpent, because you have done this. Verse 17, to Adam, because you have done this. But to the woman, there's no because statement.

She was deceived. She didn't rebel like Satan and Adam did. He says, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for... Maybe your Bible says contrary to. We'll talk about that. For your husband. But he shall rule over you. Now something that's critically important to notice as we read through this is that the man and the woman themselves are not cursed.

Satan is cursed. He says, cursed are you. Now the man and the woman will suffer from the curse that comes on the land and comes through pain. But they themselves are not cursed by God.

The opportunity for redemption is there for them in a way it's not for Satan. But he says, I will bring... I will multiply your pain in childbearing.

In pain, you shall bring forth children. And so the curse on creation will affect the very core of who Eve is and the very core of what she was designed to accomplish.

She was created as a helper for Adam. Someone to come alongside him to help him. And the primary way she would do that is through producing children. And now that primary task is incredibly painful.

Incredibly difficult. She was designed as a helper to him. And even that is affected, as we'll see in a moment. Now at this point, Adam and Eve had no kids.

But it's conceivable that if she would have had kids before this point, there wouldn't have been pain involved. There wouldn't have been difficulty involved in accomplishing this task.

But because of her sin, she will experience pain and sometimes sorrow as she seeks to fulfill her calling. Why sorrow?

Because all issues pertaining to pregnancy come from this verse. Infertility, miscarriages, stillbirths.

All a result of mankind's sin against God. With great pain and sometimes great sorrow, the woman will seek to fulfill her calling.

And animals don't seem to have the same kind of trouble. If you've had a dog that has puppies or anything like that, they just crank them out. It's crazy. There's no difficulty.

It's wild. And perhaps that's what Eve would have experienced before sin entered the world. But not only would there be pain in bringing forth children, but there would also be pain in bringing up children because the children they're having now would be sinners just like them.

They would naturally go away from what their parents say. They'd have to be trained in how to behave and act rightly. They've been radically changed by sin, and that affects even the children now that they'll have as they're growing up.

Now he says, your desire shall be for your husband. If you have an ESV, it says contrary to. They've interpreted it that way to try to make it more clear, but the text just says, your desire shall be for your husband.

Now if we compare that with chapter 4 verse 7, if you look there in your Bible, God is speaking to Cain. In chapter 4 verse 7, he says, if you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Pay attention to this. It, sin's desire, is for you, or contrary to you, but you must rule over it.

And so God tells Cain, sin is prowling around. Its desire is to dominate and destroy you.

You in turn must rule over it. Exact same words used in chapter 3 verse 16. To Eve, your desire shall be for your husband, but he shall rule over you.

So this isn't the curse of a sexual desire. That wouldn't be a hindrance to marriage, but she will desire to dominate and destroy Adam in the same way that sin desires to dominate and destroy Cain in chapter 4.

So she was called to submit to her husband. But now that task will be difficult for her because sin isn't just something she does. Sin is in her heart.

And we all, being their children, are sinners by choice, what we do, and by nature, who we are. It says, but he shall rule over you.

Now some people will read this and say, see, male leadership in the home is a curse. Male leadership in the home is a result of the fall. But this isn't the first time this is addressed.

God created Adam as the leader of their home, and now he is still the leader, but this task has become painful and difficult because of sin.

So because of her sin, Adam's leadership would at times be harsh and insensitive. And so this is why the New Testament says, wives submit to your husbands. It says that because wives don't always want to submit to their husbands.

And it says to husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way because that's not our tendency as sinners. All of that is because of what happens here in Genesis 3. This chapter explains our entire world.

It explains why our world is the way that it is today. So this first couple used to build each other up, used to live in perfect harmony that was uninterrupted, but now they're cutting each other down just by their very nature as sinners.

Their marriage and marriage in general is now made difficult and challenging because of sin. And so their relationship would be difficult from the pain of bringing forth children and the sorrow sometimes involved with that to the frustrations of being married to a sinner.

Their lives would be marked by difficulty as they live under God's curse. Thirdly, the man. Verses 17 through 19.

God shows Adam how he's failed to do what he was called to do. He didn't rule over creation and he did not protect his wife. Those were two things he was called to do.

So in verse 17 he says, 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.

Adam failed to be the leader and protector. He listened and followed instead. He listened to his wife, but he did not listen to God. God says, I spoke to you too.

I told you what to do as well. You chose not to listen to me and instead you followed your wife. And in the Bible, when a man listens to his wife instead of God, horrible things happen.

No offense, ladies. But when a man does not listen to the Lord and follows the direction that his wife is leading, bad things happen. First one here in the garden in the beginning.

And we see that all of creation is affected by sin. Because of this, cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread. So Adam's role was to have dominion over creation.

That was one of his primary callings. And his primary calling is also now affected by pain. Pain marks who they are now in this fallen world after sin.

And so we see thorns and thistles in verse 18, tornaders, any other natural disaster that starts with a T, all because of this verse.

The earth, instead of being subject to Adam, is now working against him. The ground is actively opposing him.

The ground is resisting him. Adam has lost all control. He's lost all semblance of dominion or control over this creation under God.

Which is why it's so fascinating that in places like Mark 4, Jesus shows up on the scene, speaks to a storm, and it listens. This is someone who has control over creation.

Adam has completely forfeited that. In verse 19, he's gonna sweat, he's gonna be in pain, he's gonna have to work hard. Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.

For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And so Adam's difficult and now painful life will end with death.

And as his body after death decomposed and dissolved, he would return to the dust from which he was made. In Genesis 2, 7, it says that the Lord God formed him from the dust and breathed into him the breath of life.

And once that breath is taken away, he disintegrates back into the dust. This is the first appearance of death in the Bible.

And it's because of sin. Evolutionists would say that death has really built our world, that death has always existed from the beginning. But we know, who believe the Bible, that God created this world very good, and death came into it through sin.

Sin is what brings death to this world. So we've seen the serpent, we've seen the woman, we've seen the man. Fourthly, we see the man's response.

Adam's response. Verse 20, the man called his wife's name Eve. Eve. Because she was the mother of all living.

And that's what Eve means. It means life giver, or alive, or living one. And so Adam responds to God's word with hope and trust.

He understands that they will live long enough to have children. And he understands that one of those children, somewhere down the line, will rise up and deliver them from the dominion of this serpent.

Will deliver them from the temptation and entrapments of this snake that has gotten them into this trouble. Someone will come from their line that saves them from their sin.

And so he calls his wife's name Eve. And previously, she's been unnamed. She's just called the woman. That's what Adam originally named her. And so now he renames her Eve.

This again expresses his authority over her as her husband. But it also demonstrates his hope in the words of God. And so some of you have asked me, in light of what we're studying this semester, other people have asked me in the past, will Adam and Eve be in heaven?

That's a good question. They did a lot of bad stuff, right? I think based on this verse, yes. They believe God's word now. They finally understand. God has said, someone is coming from her line who will defeat the serpent.

And Adam hears that promise. He believes it. And in that faith, names her Eve, saying from you will come all of life. All humans who exist will come from us.

And one of those will be the deliverer. And we see this even in Eve in chapters four and five. As she gives birth to male children, she is under the impression that one of them could be the seed.

And so they're both trusting and believing in God's words here in Genesis chapter three. Now the Bible doesn't say explicitly they'll be in heaven. So we don't want to fight over it. But if you do get in a fight, make sure you win.

But I think based on this verse, we have confidence that they have faith in God's word. Adam is trusting the word of the Lord. In verse 21, What does this mean?

Since the moment they sinned, they've been trying to cover their shame. They used the leaves, but those were inadequate. They tried to hide themselves from God, but he found them.

What could cover their shame? Something had to die. God had to provide something that would cover their shame.

They tried in their own way and in their own works, but those were inadequate and didn't do the job. Only God could cover their shame, and it had to involve a death.

death. It had to involve bloodshed. And so this animal, whatever it was, if I had to guess, I'd maybe say a lamb, but we have no idea.

This is the first physical death in the history of the world. Adam and Eve were threatened with death, and they did die spiritually in the sense they were cut off from God.

They were changed and scarred by sin, but their physical earthly lives would extend for years and years down the road because of God's mercy in killing this animal in their place.

This animal is the first thing that died, ever. And it's to show that God must cover sin, and in order for sin to be covered, death has to take place.

And then fifthly, we see this couple east of Eden. East of Eden. Then Yahweh God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore Yahweh God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

This is the first exile in the Bible. The first time that someone gets sent out of God's presence. Someone is cast away from the Lord. Adam and Eve are driven from the garden.

But this is actually a mercy. Because as the text says that if they had eaten of the tree of life they would have lived forever in this state. And living forever in this fallen and broken world would be awful.

As Paul says in Philippians 1, it's far better to depart and be with Christ. But I want you to notice that Satan was actually telling a partial truth to them.

He said, the reason God doesn't want you to eat of this fruit is because he knows that when you eat of it you'll be like God knowing good and evil. And in a sense he was right.

Even God acknowledges this. He says, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. But it did not take them anywhere that they wanted to go. Satan lied to them.

Satan deceived them. They did not use God's wisdom and walk in his paths to obtain wisdom which starts with the fear of the Lord and obeying his word. And so they're sent out.

And man is cut off from his source of life. Cut off from access to this tree of life. Where would this couple be able to find and sustain their life?

Only in God himself. And as we continue reading for a while in the Bible, ultimately life would come from another tree 4,000 years down the line as Jesus gave his life, shed his blood for sinners on the cross.

And in verse 24 it mentions cherubim. And these are angels. These are warriors of light that are protecting the garden. And this is actually a Hebrew plural.

Things that end in I am is Hebrew plural. Kind of like our letter S. So a singular would be a cherub. But there are multiple angels. We don't know how many. But they're set here to guard the way to the tree of life.

To protect man from getting into the garden of Eden. What was one of Adam's responsibilities in the beginning? To guard the garden.

Same word as keep. He put Adam in the garden to work it and keep it or guard it. Adam has completely lost that responsibility. He's completely forfeited it.

And now he's tasked with working the ground like verse 23 says but he no longer has the privilege of guarding and protecting this garden. That is now the work of angels.

And whether the garden of Eden was destroyed in the flood or the angels are still protecting it, text doesn't say. But these angels are now tasked with guarding the way to God's presence. If you keep reading the Old Testament, when the tabernacle and the temple were constructed, you entered into it and the first interior room was the holy place and what separated that room from the most holy place was a curtain.

And do you know what was on the curtain? Images of angels. These angels were still symbolically guarding the way into God's presence.

And Jesus, when he died on the cross, there was a miracle that took place in the temple, the curtain was torn in two showing that this access to God's presence is no longer protected on the threat of death.

It is now open through the death of Jesus. This is, they were sent out at the east of the garden. Anytime someone goes east in the Bible, it's not a good sign.

We'll see that again later in Genesis 1-11. So, you know, don't travel to the east. Just go west, young man. In the words of Toby Keith, a great theologian.

So, interestingly, the tabernacle and the temple were also entered from the east. And so as you come from the east, you're going to the west into the presence of the Lord.

Now, we have a question, when did this exile happen? When did this take place? How long were they in the Garden of Eden? We don't really know. We do know they didn't have any kids there.

They didn't have kids until after the fall. And given that their bodies would have been perfect and without sin, we can say it was less than a month that they were in the Garden. And some people earlier in history that were smarter than me thought, maybe they didn't even make it a week in the Garden.

And so they didn't last very long there in the presence of the Lord before they were sent out. So at the back end of chapter 3, we think, man, how glorious were Adam and Eve in the beginning?

How perfectly were they created? How gloriously were they originally made? And how shamefully have they fallen? How debased have they become in their sin?

And we ask, and I've asked these questions, how could Adam be so stupid? That was so easy. He gave him one command and he violated it. How could Eve be so easily deceived? How could she not think straight while the serpent was talking and lying to her?

But the only thing those questions prove is that we don't fully understand our own hearts. We're daily having to live with ourselves. And if someone could watch our lives and say, how dumb is this guy?

Like, he keeps doing that over and over again. How can she not figure this out? Why can't they just grow in holiness so much more quickly? If we were in the garden, we would have done the same thing and so what is this teaching us?

What does Genesis 3 have to tell us? The wages of sin is death. Some of you have jobs. Your wage is the payment you get, your paycheck for the work you've done.

And so the paycheck we get from God for who we are is death. That's what we've earned. That's the right we have. We deserve to be put to death because of our sin.

And if you die in your sins apart from Christ, you will go to hell. And that's a difficult truth to come to terms with it. It's difficult to think about who I am is not adequate for God.

And if we die in our sins apart from the Lord's mercy, we will go to hell. God's mercy and that's not something to laugh about or to put off.

If we truly believed this like we should, we would give most careful attention to what the Bible has to say. And because that is true, because people who die in their sins go to hell, that is why we preach.

That is why we're so focused on the Bible. This is why we study the Bible. This is why I pray for you. This is why we don't want to be distracted or distracting when we're studying the Bible.

Because youth students, 6th through 12th graders, are old enough to die in their sins and go to hell. And I have gone to funerals for youth students.

I have a friend right now who's got a student in his youth ministry who has already gone through cancer treatment and is going to the doctor because the cancer is probably back. Death is not something that waits for us.

Death is not something that just comes down the road all the time. Why does cancer exist? Why do funerals happen? Why is there even such a thing as a children's hospital at all?

Because of sin. Because of what we read in Genesis 3. This chapter is sufficient to explain everything that's wrong with us and wrong with our world.

And so what is our hope? What hope do we have? Is it just 70 or 80 years? Is it fame? Is it money? Is it peace? Our only hope is God himself.

And thinking about verse 21 how God provided for their shame and their sin through death and bloodshed. This becomes a pattern that culminates in Jesus.

Jesus was not clothed by God but was stripped of his clothes by men. He was naked as he was publicly crucified taking the full shame of sin on himself.

A sinless man brought sin into this world and a sinless man must pay its penalty. Jesus similar to Adam gave up his freedom in a garden not because of any sin Jesus had committed but because of others sins.

Jesus like Adam would also forfeit his life at a tree. Jesus received a crown of thorns pressed into his skull and the thorns being a sign and symbol of the curse that came upon this world because of sin.

Jesus took this curse on his own head as Paul says in Galatians 3 he became a curse for us and as he's laid in the grave the assumption is he's going to return to the dust just like Adam did.

But he triumphantly takes up his own life again on the third day. Adam received the breath of life from God as he was formed from the dust Jesus rose from the dust and is now the life giver.

What we have in Jesus is a new Adam who doesn't just suffer under the curse he reverses it. He doesn't just experience temptation he conquers it. He doesn't just receive and give God's word he is God's word and he doesn't just ask or wish that you would worship him he demands it.

He demands that you worship him and he will get you one way or the other. You will either bow down now and worship him willingly you will surrender to him and acknowledge him as Lord and creator or you will be forced to lick the dust at the end of time.

He will crush you. You will either worship him willingly now or you will be forced to acknowledge publicly that you were wrong about Jesus.

Paul says that every need will bow. Every tongue will confess. Your only hope my only hope is through placing our trust in Jesus.

Through placing our hope in the word of God like Adam did. Your only hope of escaping his wrath is to bow down before Jesus now in worship and to ask him to forgive all of your sins and praise God this is something that he delights and desires to do.

So I would encourage you cry out to Jesus worship him ask him for mercy this is why he came this is why he died on the cross was for sinners like us to be made brand new again we pray for us our father I thank you for these students we thank you for the ability to hear your word I pray that none of us would take lightly the reality of sin in our lives and that we would not ignore its consequences both here and as they echo into eternity and so I pray for students here who are unsaved that you would open their hearts to the truth of the gospel they would turn to Jesus and be saved I pray for those here who are believers that we continue to trust in your word and not turn from it I pray you give us a firm conviction that you

God are holy in your wrath and because of that we need to share the gospel I pray we do this for the name and glory! Christ your son it's in his name we pray amen and get up and those then are good and they can also let them out and get them in they they're they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they fathers they fathers they they they they fathers they they they they they they fathers they they they they they