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You can turn in your Bibles to 
the book of Genesis, Genesis 3. I figured we'd finish Genesis 
3. Last Sunday night, we looked 
at the temptation to sin in verses 1-5, and then the fall into sin, 
verses 6-7, and then the reckoning with God in verses 8-13. Tonight, 
we'll consider the consequences of the fall for the serpent, 
the devil, the woman, and the man. And I want to read beginning 
in verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning 
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he 
said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every 
tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, 
we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit 
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 
you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And 
the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For 
God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be 
open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when 
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant 
to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of 
its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband 
with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them 
were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed 
fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they 
heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden of the 
cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from 
the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? 
So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid 
because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told 
you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree 
of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Then the 
man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave 
me of the tree and I ate. And the Lord God said to the 
woman, what is this you have done? The woman said, the serpent 
deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, 
because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle 
and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you 
shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And 
I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your 
seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and 
you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will 
greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain 
you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your 
husband, and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because 
you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from 
the tree of which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat 
of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall 
eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles 
it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the herb of 
the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till 
you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. 
For dust you are, and to dust you shall return. And Adam called 
his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 
Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin 
and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, behold, 
the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. And 
now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of 
life and eat and live forever, Therefore, the Lord God sent 
him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which 
he was taken. So he drove out the man and he 
placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming 
sword, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree 
of life. Amen. Let us pray. Father, thank you 
for your word. Thank you for the book of Genesis, 
the origin of man. Thank you for the record of your 
creation and your creative work. And thank you for that distinction 
between creator and creature. Give us grace now as we approach 
this passage. We know that we have fallen in 
Adam, that in Adam all die, but in Christ all shall be made alive. 
And we rejoice, Lord God, that there is a last Adam. There was 
a man, a public man, who did all that the Father commanded 
him, and he did it victoriously. He did it as a substitute. He 
did it as the mediator. And how we praise you for that 
finished, redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we 
would ask now that you would guide us by the Holy Spirit, 
illumine our minds and our hearts, and may you cause us to see and 
cause us to appreciate the great grace of God Almighty that is 
displayed even after the fall of man into sin. And we ask this 
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, as I said, we saw 
last week the fall into sin, and now there are consequences. 
There are repercussions because God had given Adam a specific 
prohibition. Notice back in chapter 2 at verse 
15, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden 
of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the 
man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, 
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not 
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. 
There are consequences of sin with reference to God. In other 
words, when we violate what he says vis-a-vis his law, there 
are judgments, there are liabilities, there are punishments, there 
are consequences. And so much of what we find here 
in Genesis chapter 3 serves or functions to basically tell us 
what the rest of the Bible is going to detail. So I want to 
look first at the consequences of the fall in verses 14 to 19, 
and then secondly, the hope beyond the fall in verses 20 to 24. But note in the first place, 
we pick up in verse 14, so the Lord God said to the serpent. Notice there's no interrogation 
here. God had asked Adam what he had 
done. Now, God didn't ask Adam what 
he had done because God needed information. God knew specifically 
what was going on, but He asks for the benefit of the creature. 
In other words, that question should have caused Adam and Eve 
to repent, to own their sin, to forsake it, and to cast themselves 
upon the mercy of God. But He interrogates them. He 
questions them. He does not do that with the 
serpent. Calvin says he does not interrogate 
the serpent as he had done the man and the woman Because in 
the animal itself there was no sense of sin and because to the 
devil he would hold out no hope of pardon and when he goes on 
or it goes on he says because you have done this you are cursed 
more than all cattle and And more than every beast of the 
field, on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all 
the days of your life." Now, some suppose that prior to this, 
the serpent had legs. I don't think that's necessary 
to infer from this, but rather it demonstrates the lowliness 
and the defeated state of this animal. Michael Reitelnick explains, 
when God proclaimed that the serpent would crawl on its belly, 
it does not mean that serpents previously had legs. Rather, 
crawling would now forever be understood as a sign of defeat. And that convention arises in 
several places in the rest of the Bible. Specifically, we just 
saw it in Micah chapter seven, this whole idea of crawling, 
this whole idea of eating dust. It shows the victorious hand 
of God subjugating and destroying his enemies. And that is precisely 
what is in view here with reference to the serpent. Now, attention 
shifts to the devil. In other words, the Lord's curse 
moves from the serpent to the evil power that animated it. 
We know that the serpent, as serpent, isn't the malicious 
and nefarious being, but rather it's the devil who utilizes him. 
We know from later revelations, specifically in John 8, Revelation 
chapter 12, and Revelation chapter 20, it's the devil who is behind 
the scenes. It's the devil who animates this 
serpent. It's the devil who engages in 
this onslaught against the creature in order to bring or produce 
or provoke rebellion against the creator. Now note in verse 
15, this is a very important passage in scripture. Some have 
referred to it as the Proto-Evangelion. It is the Proto-Evangel, the 
first announcement of gospel. It is the first declaration concerning 
God's plan to save His people from their sins. And notice, 
he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between 
your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and 
you shall bruise his heel. So the God wrought enmity here. Notice, I will put enmity. That is divine initiative. All 
that happens subsequent to this is as a result of God. The world 
is not a chaos, but it rather reflects the plan of God. The 
sort of antithesis that exists, or the antithesis that is present, 
is from God's design. There is this enmity put between 
the woman and between the serpent. The ongoing nature of the warfare 
until the decisive victory is the rationale or the way that 
we understand or the way that we can explain the great disparity 
between, say, Cain and Abel, between those persons given to 
us in Genesis chapter 6. There is both a collective reference 
to this seed, and there is an individual reference to this 
seed. The collective nature means all 
of her seed, all the people of God, all of the faithful throughout 
all the ages. Some say, or some ask, were Adam 
and Eve saved? I hope that by the end of our 
study tonight, you will conclude that Adam and Eve were in fact 
saved. And that this was an announcement 
that there would be these two lines, the seed of the woman, 
the godly, the righteous, the holy, and the seed of the devil, 
the ungodly, the unrighteous, and the unholy. But then when 
we look at this word seed, notice the New King James capitalizes 
it, and I think that's accurate. That's a good interpretation. 
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your 
seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and 
you shall bruise his heel." So there's both a collective reference, 
all of the people of God throughout all ages as the godly seed, but 
there is this individual reference. Now, this idea or concept of 
seed will get even more narrowly defined when we get to, say, 
the call of Abraham. Remember, the blessing to Abraham 
is that Abraham would have a seed. Abraham would have descendants. 
Abraham would have offspring. When we get to the book of Galatians, 
Galatians 3, verse 16, it gives us the identification of the 
singular seed. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why this is the proto-gospel. The Proto-Evangel, this is the 
first announcement of salvation by Jesus Christ. He is the seed 
of the woman, the skull-crushing seed of the woman that in the 
fullness of the times God will send forth. He will be born of 
a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law. And 
then as we survey or as we consider the various things that are stated 
here, notice, there will be this enmity between you and the woman 
and between your seed and her seed. Now note, he shall bruise 
your head and you shall bruise his heel. I think there's several 
implications that we ought to draw from this. The Redeemer 
would be a man born of a woman. In other words, it's not an angelic 
being that Adam and Eve are told to look for. The Messiah, the 
Christ, the Redeemer, the Deliverer, whatever we want to call Him, 
would be a man born of a woman. Now, it's not a fully developed 
doctrine of the virgin birth here, but the fact that only 
woman is highlighted certainly jives with what we find later 
in redemptive history, that he is born of a woman. There is 
that, at least now, looking back upon it, at least latent within 
the promise itself, this virgin birth. The Redeemer would accomplish 
victory through suffering. Notice, He, Christ, shall bruise 
your devil head, and you shall bruise his heel. So this bruising 
of the heel intimates or indicates that when the Deliverer comes, 
when this Redeemer arrives on scene, his life will indeed know 
something of suffering. In fact, his redemptive work 
is going to be carried out or executed through suffering. But I would also suggest we ought 
to appreciate that it's not just suffering that is highlighted 
here, but the death of the Deliverer, the death of the Redeemer, the 
death of the Messiah Himself. Notice, He shall bruise your 
head, and you shall bruise His heel. Many read it as a comparative. 
comparative. Well, what Christ does is he 
smashes the devil's head, and what the devil does, he only 
comparatively makes this dent upon the Redeemer's heel. I don't 
think that's an accurate way to read the text. I think that 
Reitlnick makes this very excellent observation. If you think about 
it for just a moment before I read this quote, where do serpents 
typically bite? Remember, they don't have legs, 
so they don't bite you on the head, unless you're that guy 
in Kentucky that was swinging the snake and it bit him on the 
head. I don't know if you all saw that recently. Somebody took 
Mark 16 seriously. Well, people have done that for 
a long time. Snake handlers. And this man was snake handling, 
and the snake bit him right on the side of the head, and he 
started to bleed. Well, the only way that a snake could obtain 
a head shot is if you pick him up. But a snake typically is 
going to bite the feet, he's going to bite the heel, he's 
going to bite where he can reach. Now, the particular word that 
is used here for this serpent is a deadly, a venomous serpent 
that can inflict a lethal blow. And so when we read, he shall 
bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel, the bruising 
of the heel is probably a reference to the death of Jesus Christ 
at the place of the skull, even Golgotha. Reitlnick says, since 
in the context the tempter has taken the form of a serpent, 
it is likely that the tempter's blow would be equated with a 
serpent's bite. And in the case of this animal, 
the Hebrew generally uses it to speak of a venomous and lethal 
snake. Most likely, therefore, the text 
is speaking of two comparable death blows. The future Redeemer 
will strike the head of the tempter and thereby kill it. And at the 
same time, the tempter will strike the heel of the Redeemer and 
kill him. So this first gospel promise goes along with what 
Peter said this morning. God, by the mouth of his prophet, 
said that the Christ would suffer. He would suffer and he would 
die. And that is the means by which 
the Redeemer will bring total victory. When we get to the New 
Testament commentary on this particular situation, we find 
that is exactly what happened. Colossians 2, 14 and 15, Hebrews 
chapter 2. First, John tells us that the 
Lord Jesus Christ destroyed the works of the devil. Where does 
he do that? He does it at the cross. That's 
the place where the Deliverer renders this skull-crushing blow 
to the devil himself. So the New Testament passages, 
Colossians 1.13, Colossians 2.15, Hebrews 2.14, 1 John 3.8, and 
then Revelation 12 is a detailed explanation of this particular 
passage of Scripture. Also, we ought to be helped in 
our understanding of the rest of the Bible in terms of God's 
sort of penchant, I think that's the word, or God's sort of authorization or legitimization 
of head blows to the enemies of God throughout redemptive 
history. It's no accident that in the book of Judges, many of 
the enemies of God meet their demise by losing their heads. 
It's not an accident that David defeats Goliath in the Valley 
of Elah by delivering a lethal blow in terms of chopping off 
his head. All of that furthers this promise. It furthers this understanding 
that the seed collective of the serpent is going to buckle under 
the seed collective of the people of God because of the individual 
seed, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Head blows or head wounds or 
death by heads being chopped off are quite common in the Old 
Testament. So when your little child comes 
to you and says, I was reading in Judges 4, and JL took that 
tent peg and drove it right through Sisera's head. That's pretty 
interesting. Usually if they're boys, they 
say, wow, that's just great. Look at how God is dispatching 
the enemies of the Lord. I mean, they're not saying that 
it's great because they're sick and twisted and they're going 
to go out and kill animals and do likewise. But there's something 
about it. I met these two young fellows 
in Vernon. And after the sermon, I preached 
on Elijah on Mount Carmel. And afterwards, these two young 
dudes came up. And we're talking about all the heroes of the faith. 
And I may have mentioned this, one of the boys said, I think 
that people today in the church should name their girls JL, because 
JL was a great hero. She absolutely positively was. 
Never ever, by the lie, that she was a murderer or somehow 
that she was wrong in what she did. No, she's acting on behalf 
of God's kingdom to dispatch the enemies of Yahweh. But jail 
renders a head wound against Sisera. As well, the heads of 
Oreb and Zeb from the Midianites. The woman and Abimelech. Remember, 
she throws down that millstone from atop the tower and crushes 
Abimelech's head. We see it with David and Goliath. You see it in the Psalter as 
well. And intriguingly, the place where Jesus is crucified is the 
place of a skull. And so all of this shows us the 
interconnectedness of biblical revelation. We see that everything 
that appears here in Genesis chapter 3 ultimately comes up 
again later in redemptive history. So that's the consequences for 
the serpent. Note the consequences for the woman in verse 16. To 
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your 
conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire 
shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. Up to 
this point, the two primary blessings for a woman as woman was procreation 
and marriage. In other words, these are the 
two things that define her, the two things that bring her blessing 
and fulfillment. You see, the Bible world is not 
anti-womanhood. The Bible world doesn't look 
at children as some sort of a curse. Rather, children are a gift. 
They're a blessing. They're a provision from Yahweh. 
They're a heritage from the Lord. Blessed is the man whose quiver 
is full of that. You see, today, we don't like 
children as much because they get in the way of us spending 
our money on whatever it is we want. But in this context, womanhood 
is seen primarily, the blessings of womanhood are seen in procreation 
and in marriage. You see that in Genesis 1, 26 
to 28. Be fruitful and multiply. You see it in Genesis chapter 
2, 18 to 25. This marriage arrangement is good. And so the curse finds 
its mark in those things that are most blessed to the woman, 
such that now when she has babies or such that now when she enjoys 
times with her husband, there will nevertheless be this reminder 
of her sin, this reminder of the fact that she succumbed to 
the tempter, that she was deceived and that she fell into transgression 
and rebelled against God most high. So I will greatly multiply 
your sorrow and your conception and pain you shall bring forth 
children Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall 
rule over you. That last clause has been debated over the last 
little while. I think it's best to understand your desire shall 
be for your husband and he shall rule over you simply means that 
she will try to usurp his authority. You see, the idea of headship 
and authority and submission in marriage is not a consequence 
of the fall. A distortion of headship and 
submission is a consequence of the fall. In other words, God 
made Adam and then he made Eve to be a helpmeet. He made Eve 
to come alongside of him and to assist him in his vocation. 
And his vocation, as we've seen in our studies in Genesis, was 
not primarily a farmhand. Genesis tells us that the temple, 
or rather, that the garden was a sanctuary. It was a temple 
where God would meet with his creatures. Adam's task primarily 
was priestly. Adam's task primarily was to 
be a man that functioned in the service of God Almighty, and 
Eve was made to assist him. So never let it be told you that 
headship and authority and submission and those things that Paul deals 
with in Ephesians 5, that's all as a result of the curse. No! It's been twisted, it's been 
distorted, and that's what we see in this passage. Your desire 
shall be for your husband. You'll want to usurp, you'll 
want to arrogate to yourself headship in the home. This is 
why Paul tells you on a few occasions in the New Testament, wives, 
be submissive to your own husbands. because one of the marks or one 
of the proofs or one of the evidences that we know that we're in Adam 
is when women don't want to do that. And then it goes on to 
say, and he shall rule over you. Again, headship was present prior 
to the fall, but post-fall, that headship will not always be exercised 
in a godly way. That's why Paul speaks to husbands 
and says, love your own wives as Christ loved the church. The 
husband is the head of the wife. It's not something that's a consequence 
of the fall, but rather a consequence is the distortion of something 
that was intended by God to be good. So the next time husbands, 
wives, you abdicate, or you don't do what you're supposed to do, 
and you say, well, you know, it's only this way because Adam 
and Eve fell into sin, I would encourage you to be quiet. is 
not that way because Adam and Eve fell into sin. Adam and Eve 
falling into sin certainly affected and certainly made difficult 
and certainly brought turmoil to the situation, but headship 
and submission were intended by God in a prelapsarian state. That means a pre-fall state. 
This is a good thing, but rather, when it comes to the introduction 
of sin, it's going to affect things, it's going to make things 
difficult. One man says, what the woman 
once was to do as a blessing, be a marriage partner and have 
children, had become tainted by the curse. In those moments 
of life's greatest blessing, marriage and children, the woman 
would sense most clearly the painful consequences of her rebellion 
from God. And then note, thirdly, the consequences 
for the man, verses 17 and 19. Again, we see the same sort of 
pattern. Labor is not a consequence of 
the fall. You know, don't say, well, I 
got to go to work on Monday morning because Adam and Eve fell into 
sin. No, Adam and Eve messed up, and certainly it affected 
the blessed ordinance of labor, but labor predates the fall into 
sin. Labor is good. Hard work is good. The foundational text is the 
fourth commandment. We remember it as making sure 
that we keep a day holy unto the Lord. But we oftentimes neglect, 
six days you shall labor and do all your work. That's absolutely 
positively commanded by Yahweh as well. So it's not work as 
work, that's the curse. But it's going to be difficult 
now in this post-fall situation. It's going to be far more difficult 
than it was in a pre-fall situation. So we cannot infer from the passage 
that headship and submission are post-fall consequences. They're 
not. Neither can we infer from the 
passage that labor is a post-fall consequence. It is not. There 
is problems now to be endured as a result of our fall into 
sin, but the things in and of themselves are good and blessed. 
But now they will be tainted by the reality that Adam and 
Eve have transgressed against God. Now note verse 17. Then to Adam he said, Because 
you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from 
the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat 
of it." The word of judgment to the woman is not the imposition 
of male headship, but a distortion of it. And with reference to 
Adam, this will indeed be further illustrated later in redemptive 
history. Even if the wife of your bosom 
entices you or solicits you to commit apostasy, don't listen 
to them. Deuteronomy chapter 13. Adam 
listened to the voice of his wife rather than to the voice 
of God. Men, we love our wives, but when 
it comes to our wives or God, we always must choose God. We 
don't do what they say if it is in contradiction to what God 
Most High says. That's not loving leadership. 
That is rejection of God's Word. It is rebellion and treason, 
and we need to guard against that. So the Lord God comes to 
Adam and says, because you've listened to her and not to me, 
this now is your lot. Verses 18 and 19. I think that 
Wenham sort of reflecting on the consequences here. He says, 
the sentences on the man and woman take the form of a disruption 
of their appointed roles. It's a disruption. It's now distorted. It's always the case that a man 
was to exercise headship. It was always the case that a 
woman was to submit. But with the introduction of 
sin, that's going to be challenging now because the wife is going 
to want to usurp the husband's role. It's going to be challenging 
now because the husband's either going to be a tyrant or he's 
going to be milquetoast. That's probably one of the problems 
that we have in our day and age. Husbands, love your wives, or 
the husband is the head of the wife. We always say, oh, that 
means every man's going to be a tyrant or a despot. Well, that's 
certainly possible. But my observation is that a 
lot of men just abdicate their authority. The husband is the 
head of the wife. He's not to be voted into office. 
He's not to be agreed upon. He's supposed to function as 
a godly head in his home. He's supposed to do it in a Christ-like 
way. self-sacrificially loving his 
bride. That's what biblical headship 
looks like. The people of God, unfortunately, 
have given the very pattern of God a bad rap because we don't 
do what God says in the way that God says. So people in the world 
say, oh, that headship and submission, it's just a terrible thing. Yeah, 
it's because we're terrible people not obeying God the way we're 
supposed to. But according to plan, if we 
did what we were supposed to, it would be a beautiful model, 
it would be a beautiful display, a beautiful expression of what 
Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 is Christ's relationship to his 
church. But notice, with reference to 
the consequences, the ongoing difficulty of labor. Again, prior 
to the fall, labor was present, but not with the challenges of 
a post-fall world. The ground is cursed because 
of man. One man says, the vista of thorn 
and thistle is diametrically opposed to the luscious vegetation 
of the garden and already intimates the verdict of banishment that 
will be carried out in verses 23 and 24. Romans 8 comments 
on this section as well. What does creation do? It yearns, 
it groans, it is waiting for redemption. The creation around 
us is yearning for that day when Jesus Christ will come again 
in glory to judge the living and the dead and usher in a new 
heavens and a new earth. But there is, post fall, a curse. Now there is going to be great 
struggle to get the ground to yield its fruit. There's going 
to be great difficulty. It will be by the sweat of your 
face. It will be by hard labor and toil. You're not going to 
just wander out and do a few things and then eat wonderfully. 
No, you're going to have to work for it. And then notice this 
return to the ground. It's intriguing because the narrative 
continually highlights man's origin. It tells us he's from 
the dirt. And if you think about it, what 
we have in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 is a man who tries to achieve 
godlike status, but will ultimately return to the dirt from which 
he was pulled. The narrative is showing us that 
we are creature, 2.7, 3.19, 3.23. The man of clay attempted to 
rise to God-like status, but will instead return to the dust 
from whence he came. The obvious allusion there is 
to death. Boyce thought about this particular 
passage in light of Philippians chapter 3. You know, the Bible 
is about two men. It's about Adam the first and 
Adam the second, or Adam the last. Israel functions as an 
Adam as well. And I think we'll see that as 
we continue in our Wednesday night studies and our Bible studies. 
But there's Adam the first and Adam the last. And what Adam 
the first gets us is to return to the dust. What Adam the second 
brings us, or Adam the last, is the transformation of our 
lowly body. Philippians chapter 3. He transforms 
that which is distorted and messed up because of the fall and descent. 
Brethren, as you study or read the first chapters of Genesis, 
don't do so divorced from a knowledge of who Jesus Christ is. Paul 
sets up that parallel. We call it covenant theology, 
federal theology. There's an Adam-Christ parallel. In Adam, all die. In Christ, 
all shall be made alive. We're going to end this particular 
chapter with Adam and Eve being exiled, being banished from this 
garden. Well, that's what happens to 
Israel. They have tenure in the land and they continue in rebellion 
against God. So what happens? Exile. They are banished from the land. 
Jesus, in a sense, as he is like Adam, as he is like Israel, as 
he is the anti-type of both of them, He comes and he is banished. He goes into exile, vis-a-vis 
his death. But then there's this resurrection, 
and Christ secures for us permanent tenure in the land. A Canaan 
that is above, a Canaan that is heaven, a Canaan that is most 
blessed and most excellent. Never read Genesis 1 to 3 without 
thinking of Jesus. That's why we read Revelation 
21 and 22 tonight. When we looked at the garden 
as a temple in Genesis chapter 2, we saw all of the things in 
Revelation 21 and 22 that sound just like what we find here in 
the book of Genesis. The Bible is whole. The Bible 
isn't random. It's not just bits and pieces 
sort of thrown together and bound up in a nice goatskin leather. 
That's not what the Bible is. Our confession speaks of the 
Bible as having a consent of all the parts. They all feed 
into one another. This morning in our confession 
study, we considered this very theme or this very idea, the 
book of Ruth. Is it in there because we all 
love a love story? I mean, it's such a nice story. 
Boaz takes mercy and pity upon Ruth and he brings her into his 
home and he confers upon her great blessings. It is nice. 
I mean, especially in a world like this, it's nice to see decent 
people doing decent things, isn't it? There's something about that 
that just brings a bit of an encouragement to, you know, the 
weary pilgrims in this world that see non-decent people more 
often than not doing non-decent things. But the point of Ruth 
is the last few verses. It's from Ruth that David comes. 
It's from David that Jesus comes. The contribution of Ruth to redemptive 
history is not the love story. It's the gene pool. It's the 
line of David. It's Messiah. It's the seed of 
the woman that will crush the head of the serpent. Brethren, 
the Bible holds together tight Whenever those people outside 
of the church say, oh, the Bible this or the Bible that, obviously 
they haven't read the Bible. We should know better. We should 
understand not only the particular trees in the forest, but we ought 
to fly over the forest and see how it all holds together. It 
is wonderful. It is beautiful. It is glorious. 
And Genesis 3.15, I don't think it's a stretch to say, is programmatic. It is foundational for all of 
the rest of the Bible. In fact, G.K. Beal says all of 
the rest of the Bible is commentary on Genesis 1 to 3. That's how 
important this section of scripture is. But notice, let's move finally 
and quickly to the hope beyond the fall. Verses 20 to 24. We see this first in the naming 
of Eve. Notice in verse 20, Adam called his wife's name Eve because 
she was the mother of all living. This is the second time that 
Eve is named. She was named woman initially. Why? Because she was 
taken out of man. Woman means out of man. Now she's 
called Eve. Why? Because she's the mother 
of all living. What do you think Adam is reflecting 
upon here? He's reflecting upon verse 15, that from this woman, 
her seed will be the one that renders the death blow to the 
devil himself. And so Adam, in faith, names 
his wife the mother of living. He names his wife based on the 
reality communicated by God in Genesis 3.15. Klein says, this 
reflects Adam's faith as he gave this name to the woman. His reference 
probably to her spiritual seed who should trample underfoot 
the prince of death and so rest life from the curse. So we see Adam's faith in naming 
his wife the mother of all living. But then notice as well the coverings 
of skin in verse 21. Also for Adam and his wife, the 
Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Remember what 
they did when they sinned, they tried to hide from God. They 
make these girdles and they cover themselves, these fig leaves. 
They sew them together and they try to cover their nakedness. 
And then they run and hide amongst the trees that the Lord God had 
made. As if somehow God isn't going to see them in the trees 
that he had made. Of course he's going to see them. 
But what does God do here? He doesn't make girdles for them, 
he makes tunics. It's not plant life that sacrifice 
to deal with their sin, but it's blood atonement. You see, this 
text indicates how extensive sin is. It ain't no little girdle 
of fig leaves that is going to help you out of this mess. You 
need blood atonement. And God communicates blood atonement 
as He kills these animals and He makes tunics of skin, and 
then He clothes them. This is foreshadowing the Levitical 
system, which foreshadows the Lamb of God who takes away the 
sin of the world. See how the Bible holds together. 
It is not disparate pieces thrown together, put in one cover. It is a consistent whole, the 
consent of the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give 
glory to God. All of this is demonstrated here. The Lord highlights 
the necessity of atonement as the basis for fellowship between 
God and men. Now Israel is going to learn 
this. Israel is going to learn this when the Shekinah glory 
of God comes down and rests upon the tabernacle in Exodus 40. 
They're going to learn it when Moses himself, who's the godliest 
man that they have to offer, can't go in there because of 
the glory of Yahweh. They're going to learn it in 
Leviticus chapters 1 to 9. They're going to learn that the 
way to approach Yahweh is through a bloody knife and a smoking 
altar. The way of access to God, a holy God, by sinful man is 
through blood atonement. And that Levitical system points 
forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 
So that's what God does here. He makes for Adam and Eve these 
tunics of skin and He clothes them. Gil says, but of creatures 
slain, not merely for this purpose, God brought a skin over them, 
nor for food, but for sacrifice as a type of the woman's seed, 
whose heel was to be bruised or who was to suffer death for 
the sins of men. And therefore, to keep up and 
direct the faith of our first parents to the slain Lamb of 
God from the foundation of the world and of all believers in 
all ages until the Messiah should come and die and become a sacrifice 
for sin, the sacrifices of slain beasts were appointed." You see, 
God killed animals right before their eyes, so that when we get 
to Cain and Abel, where did Abel get the idea to kill animals 
and bring an offering to the Lord? He watched Daddy. He watched 
what the custom was. How did they know to do so at 
the end of days? That's what the text says in 
terms of Cain and Abel. He watched Daddy, and Daddy had 
watched God. The Sabbath was not instituted 
at Sinai, it was instituted in Genesis. Genesis chapter 2, given 
to Adam, who then subsequently gave it to Cain and Abel. So 
at the end of days, not the end of all days, but the end of the 
days of the week, they came and they offered up their sacrifices 
and Abel brought blood. Abel brought blood in faith. That was not some pagan notion, 
but it was instituted by Yahweh by pattern, exemplified here 
in verse 21. And then notice, finally, the 
expulsion from the garden. This is actually an act of mercy 
for Adam and Eve. Now, we may not approach it that 
way. We may say, well, it's judgment. 
It is judgment, but it's judgment with a very remedial end for 
Adam and Eve. If Adam and Eve reach out and 
take from the tree of life in this sinful state, that's a terrible 
thing. You see, eternal life isn't always 
just associated with blessedness. The damned live eternally as 
well. And so that's how we need to 
approach this passage. Notice in verse 22, the Lord God said, 
Behold, the man has become like one of us. Us, there is Trinity. Just like us in Genesis 1.26 
is Trinity. The Trinity is God. God is Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
You see that in Genesis 1 itself. God spoke. by the Word of the 
Lord He created the heavens and the earth. Jesus is the Word 
of the Lord. The Spirit of God is brooding 
over the waters. All three persons are present 
in Genesis chapter 1. So this plural form, us, refers 
not to some heavenly counsel or divine counsel. It certainly 
does not extend to man, but rather it is the triune God. That's 
what's in view in 126 and 322. Behold, the man has become like 
one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand 
and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, 
therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to 
till the ground from which he was taken. Notice how it just 
cuts off. God is saying something and then 
he drives the man out. It shows the need to get him 
out of there right away. Now, as we seek to understand 
this, what is this knowledge? Behold, he has become like one 
of us to know good and evil. Now, some of the commentators 
say it's an ironic statement. As if God is saying, oh, now 
he's like one of us. It's not ironic, it's true. Remember, 
this is what the devil promised him. But the devil said, or made 
it seem like, this would be a good thing. But it's a bad thing. 
It's not good to be like God in this sense. So what is this 
sense that God is speaking of? It's not experiential because 
God doesn't possess such knowledge of evil. The knowledge was not 
a higher knowledge, but it was a knowledge forbidden to man. 
The knowledge was a knowledge that sought to operate autonomously. In other words, it sought to 
operate independently. It sought to remove itself from 
under God and to think after one's self. You say, well, that's 
not so good. It's terrible. Look what happened. When Adam and Eve stop thinking 
God's thoughts after him, misery ensues. Independent thought is 
good in some areas. If you're an artist, be independent. 
If you're an artist, be innovative. If you're a, you know, whatever 
it is you do, you can be independent, great. But when it comes to metaphysics, 
or the doctrine of being, or it comes to, you know, how we 
know, or it comes to who God is, we need to listen to God, 
each and every step of the way. And they didn't listen to God. 
Hermann Bavink explains what's happening here. He says, in Genesis 
3, the issue is not primarily the content of the knowledge 
that humans would appropriate by disobedience, but the manner 
in which they would obtain it. The nature of the knowledge of 
good and evil in view here is characterized by the fact that 
humans would be like God as a result of it. By violating the command 
of God and eating of the tree, they would make themselves like 
God in the sense that they would position themselves outside and 
above the law, and like God, determine and judge for themselves 
what good and evil was. We saw that last week in The 
Temptation. Remember when the devil presents 
this temptation to Eve? There's three reasons why Eve 
wants to eat from this. First of all, it's good for food. 
Second of all, it's pleasant to the eyes. And third, it's 
desirable to make one wise. It was pleasant to the eyes. 
Throughout the creation week, God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. God 
saw that it was good. And now the creature is seeing 
what is good and making decisions based on that. The problem isn't 
the knowledge of good and evil per se. As Boving says, it's 
not the content, it's the manner. It's the ye shall be as gods. It's this challenge to adopt 
this godlike status. He goes on to say, the knowledge 
of good and evil is not the knowledge of the useful and the harmful 
of the world and how to control it, but the right and capacity 
to distinguish good and evil on one's own. That is the problem. And then note, But they are excluded 
from the tree of life. Notice in verse 23, Therefore 
the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the 
ground from which he was placed. So he drove out the man. He placed 
cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which 
turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. The 
expulsion from paradise, this is Kyle and Dalich, therefore 
was a punishment inflicted for man's good, intended while exposing 
him to temporal death to preserve him from eternal death. If he 
reached out and takes from the tree of life when he's in this 
state, it's going to be bad. We need the Redeemer to come. We need the mediator to come. 
We need a righteousness that avails with God. We need blood 
atonement that is efficacious before we ever go out and reach 
out for the tree of life. It's Christ who brings us the 
tree of life. That's why the tree of life is 
in Revelation 21 and 22. That's why it's there in the 
New Jerusalem. You see, John the seer is finishing 
what Moses starts in Genesis. We have paradise lost and paradise 
restored. and it hinges upon not the faithfulness 
and the obedience of Adam the first, not on the faithfulness 
and the obedience of Israel, but on the faithfulness and the 
obedience of Jesus Christ, Adam the last. Well, brethren, we 
will conclude there, just a couple of thoughts, and then we'll close. 
First, the programmatic nature of Genesis 3.15. Again, Bavink, 
he says, in principle, Genesis 3 contains the entire history 
of humankind. I don't think that's hyperbolic 
at all. I think some people might hear that and say, oh, come on, 
that's overdoing it. You want to know why the world 
looks like the world does? Look at Genesis 3. You want to 
know why the New Testament reads the way it does and why there's 
these allusions to this section of scripture? It's all here. It's programmatic. That means 
it's a program for the future. It is a description of what's 
going to happen subsequent. So back to Bavink, all the ways 
of God for the salvation of the lost and the victory over sin. 
In substance, the whole gospel, the entire covenant of grace 
is present here. All that follows is the development 
of what has been germinally planted here. I think that's accurate. As well, and I want to highlight 
this once again by way of application. The fact that we are called to 
work, the fact that men are called to lead in the home, and the 
fact that women are called to submit to their own husband, 
not every husband, not every man. Don't misunderstand Paul. 
Paul is not a Muslim. Paul is not telling women they 
need to submit to men. Paul says wives submit to your 
own husbands, as to the Lord. Now, again, that word has been 
freighted or weighted down with a whole bunch of bad stuff. Submission 
is bad. Jesus submitted to the Father. 
Submission is not bad. Submission, as it's often practiced, 
is bad. Headship, as it is often practiced, 
is bad. But 1 Corinthians 11 shows us 
the Father is the head of Christ, not in terms of deity, but in 
terms of mediatorship. Christ willingly submits himself 
to the Father according to his humanity. That's a blessed and 
a good thing. But the thing to notice from 
the Genesis account is that this is not a penalty of sin. It was always God's intention 
for husbands to love their wives like Christ, love the church, 
and give themselves for her and lead her. It was always God's 
intention for a wife to submit to her own husband. Sin distorts 
it, sin twists it, sin makes it challenging, but it doesn't 
militate against it. And we need to make sure that 
we understand that. Your role as a husband, your 
role as a wife, is not because of the fall into sin. The fall 
into sin affects it, But you, as new men and women in Christ 
Jesus, have the ability and the power and the resources to do 
what you're supposed to do. And then as well, labor. Labor. Society shouldn't be a society 
full of deadbeats. It shouldn't be the case that 
everybody's sitting around or laying around watching TV all 
day. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. What part 
of that do we miss? What part of that are we absent 
on? We live for the weekends. We 
live for retirement. We live for off time. Brethren, 
find blessing in labor. I really am committed to the 
thought that if you work hard, you don't have time to do a bunch 
of other foolish stuff. A lot of people that get into 
trouble, it's because they're not doing what they're supposed to 
be doing. Wasn't this one of David's downfalls 
when David fell into sin with Bathsheba? I don't want to moralize 
the text. I don't think that's the point, 
ultimately. But having given that qualification, 
you ever notice that people say, I'm not of this, but, and then 
they are that. I'm not a racist, but, and then 
they say something very racist. So I'm going to say, I don't 
want to moralize, but I'm going to moralize. At the time when 
kings went out to battle, David didn't go. David, if you would 
have went, if you'd have been with your troops, if you'd have 
been leading them into battle, destroying Philistines for the 
glory of Yahweh, you wouldn't have been on your roof, you wouldn't 
have looked at Bathsheba, and you wouldn't have went into her. 
And having gone into her and having impregnated her, you certainly 
wouldn't have then had to murder her husband Uriah. All because 
you didn't go to work. Brethren, work is good. Work is a blessing. If God's 
given you work, praise him for it. Now, there's a need for rest. Don't overwork to be rich, Solomon 
says in the Proverbs. Don't work your fingers to the 
bone. Don't be the guy with nubs because 
he never takes time off. That's not righteous either. 
Jesus said to the disciples, come apart and rest a while. 
The fourth commandment, six days you shall labor. The seventh 
is a day of rest. God's not anti-rest. God gives 
his beloved sleep, according to the Psalms. Jesus, according 
to his humanity or in his humanity, went into that boat, picked up 
a pillow, laid his head down and slept. He dignified the nap. Praise God Almighty for the goodness 
of our Savior. Labor is good, rest is good, 
but make sure that the ratio is six to one. The commandment 
stipulates that. Now, there's always some sensitive 
soul out there that's going to say, oh, but my employer, they 
make me take Saturday and Sunday off. Should I go to my employer, 
tell him I must work on Saturday? Work around your house. Do your 
honey do's. Make your wife happy. That's 
labor, too. Take the trash out. Mow the lawn. 
Pressure wash. Rip the wood off. Whatever it 
is, do those things. But be busy, brethren. The more 
time we have on our hands, the more likely we are to sin. Now, 
the subtle devices of Satan, we ought to appreciate that in 
the passage, or at least understand that. 2 Corinthians 2.11, the 
apostle says, "...lest Satan should take advantage of us, 
for we are not ignorant of his devices." Seems to me, within 
the Christian church, there are two extremes with reference to 
the devil. One is to deify him, and one is to completely defang 
him. The deifiers see the devil as omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. They see the devil as having 
all authority and power. He can make us do things. The 
devil made me do this. No, you did this willingly, freely, 
and happily. It's not the devil. He doesn't 
have that power. He can entice, he can incite, he can tempt, 
but it's you who sins. So the devil is deified in some 
corners of the Christian church, but then he's defanged in others. 
Brethren, he is a real foe. He roams about like a roaring 
lion, seeking whom he may devour. This is what 1 Peter 5 tells 
us. And so we with Paul ought not 
to be ignorant of his devices. We ought to be conscious of his 
devices. And I think that some of those 
are seen here in the tempter's work with reference to Adam and 
Eve. The devil works with cunning. 
I mean, does that surprise us? He doesn't just come and say, 
look, I want you to sin against God and reap for yourself hell, 
damnation, pain, and suffering. He doesn't do it that way, any 
more than when we go fishing, we just put a big fat hook right 
in the water and say, OK, fish, I want you to put that hook in 
your mouth. No, we bait it. We deceive. We 
use subterfuge. We make it look good and tasty 
and lovely so that the fish will eat it. Well, that's what the 
devil does. He doesn't say, I want you to look at this porn because 
you're going to end up in hell. No, I want you to have joy. I 
want you to have happiness. I want you to have delight. I 
want you to rob this bank because you're going to get caught, you're 
going to go to prison, or better yet, in a state that has the 
death penalty, you're going to be executed. He doesn't do that. 
Think of what you'll get. Think of the benefits. Think 
of the reward. He does this cost-reward analysis. And it's going to tip in your 
favor every time when the devil is selling his wares. It's just 
the way he does it. He doesn't say, put this big 
nasty hook in your mouth so that you can be dragged off into hell. 
No, he works through cunning. As well, he works through deception. 
Part of his art is to distort the truth in subtle ways. It 
is intriguing that what he says would happen happened, but it 
was the implications that he attached to it that was absolutely 
positively wrong. God knows that in the day you 
eat of it, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, 
that's precisely what God says in 322. But the devil made it 
seem like this would be a good thing. You will be like God, 
knowing good and evil. This was the reason why God expels 
him from the garden, why God exiles him and banishes him from 
the garden, because he has sought to be like God, thinking man's 
thoughts after man, instead of with an orientation to God. The 
devil works through a knowledge of man's susceptibility. Man's 
susceptibility. The woman being deceived, Paul 
tells us. I don't think Paul means that 
every woman is always susceptible to being deceived. I don't think 
that's what Paul means in 1 Timothy 2. But it was there. There was a susceptibility there. And he comes to her and he plies 
her with these particular things that are appropriate to her situation. It was a tree that was good for 
food. which she didn't need because 
there was a whole tree filled with good food, or a whole garden 
filled with good food. It was a tree that was pleasant 
to the eyes, which again, there was a whole garden filled with 
trees that were pleasant to the eyes. But it was that desirable 
to make one wise. She's susceptible at that point. 
And so he gets her. It's like Jesus in the wilderness. 
When the devil comes to tempt him, he goes for food. Brethren, 
40 days and 40 nights without food makes a man very hungry. 
And when the devil comes, he doesn't say, OK, I want you to 
do this. No, he says, I want you to change 
these stones into bread. Now, the Bible tells us that 
Jesus was tempted in all points like us and yet without sin. 
Jesus' temptations were real. We oftentimes do not contemplate 
it that way because, after all, Jesus is God. Remember, Jesus 
is God and man. The hypostatic union, the one 
person of God, two natures, humanity and divinity. According to his 
humanity, he is tempted by the devil to do something that any 
human would want, to eat bread. So the devil comes to us knowing 
our, not knowing, I think, in an omniscient way, but guessing, 
and typically guessing pretty well what our susceptibilities 
are. And then the devil works through 
a character assassination upon God. Anything that comes from 
without that makes God look bad is to be resisted. Notice in 
verse five, God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes 
will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 
What's the implication? God's petty. God's small. God doesn't want any competitors 
in the God realm. God wants to keep you down. God 
wants to hinder you from being all that you can be. God's good 
with you being at this point, but He doesn't want you to rise 
to that other point. This is a direct assault upon the character 
of who God is. And then, of course, the final 
application is Genesis 3.15. We ought to rejoice that it's 
in our Bibles. We ought to rejoice that it's 
there concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ought to rejoice 
in those passages that I mentioned previously. Colossians 1.13, 
Colossians 2.15, Hebrews 2, 1 John 3. The Son of God was manifested 
to destroy the works of the devil. It's the skull-crushing seed 
of the woman that brought decisive victory at the cross. for his 
people. If you don't know this skull-crushing 
seed of the woman, the way is by grace through faith in him. 
It is to believe the gospel, to believe all that the Bible 
says, generally, but to believe all that the Bible says specifically 
concerning the Lord Christ. The principal acts of saving 
faith has to do with who Jesus is, his life of obedience, his 
death at Calvary, and his resurrection the third day. All those who 
believe in him will have everlasting life. Well, let's close in a 
word of prayer. Father, thank you for Genesis 
3. Thank you for the entirety of your Word. And Lord God, help 
us to see the connection. Help us to see that what is promised 
in the old is fulfilled in the new. Help us to see that anticipation 
of the old is realized in the new. And help us to see that 
Jesus Christ is that seed of the woman, that one who did crush 
the skull of the devil, that one who renders that decisive 
victory at the cross and that one who will come again in glory 
to judge the living and the dead. May it be the case, Almighty 
God, that we would all be clothed in His righteousness, that we 
would all be covered and clothed in His righteousness by the same 
God who killed the animals and made tunics for Adam and Eve. 
Thank you for your graciousness. Thank you for your mercy. Thank 
you for all of your kindness. And we pray now that you would 
go with us into this coming week, help us to glorify you, help 
us to honor you, and please protect us, and please watch over us, 
and please grant us your peace and your mercy. And we pray these 
things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.