WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.140 Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast. 00:04.880 --> 00:08.260 We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you, 00:08.480 --> 00:12.020 builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God. 00:12.560 --> 00:15.160 Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible 00:15.160 --> 00:17.840 and learn how you can apply it straight to your life. 00:18.240 --> 00:20.380 So welcome and enjoy the message. 00:21.240 --> 00:26.940 If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 3. We're going to be 00:26.940 --> 00:33.200 looking at the second half of this chapter this morning in a message I'm calling Sin Messed 00:33.200 --> 00:40.980 Everything Up. As we've seen over the last several weeks, God created a very good and beautiful world 00:40.980 --> 00:45.540 where there was no pain, there was no sickness, and there was no death. 00:45.600 --> 00:52.760 So the question is, what in the world happened? Well, sin happened. You see, God placed Adam and 00:52.760 --> 00:58.800 Eve in the Garden of Eden, and He said, you can eat all the fruit that you could possibly want 00:58.800 --> 01:05.480 from any of the trees except one. There's one tree that's poison, and if you eat it, you're going to die. 01:06.160 --> 01:11.480 Well, we saw last week that the serpent, that is the devil, came and tempted Adam and Eve, 01:11.480 --> 01:18.380 and they ate the poisonous fruit. And when they did, the virus of sin entered the world. 01:18.920 --> 01:27.660 And the sin virus is really the root of all other viruses, all other disease. Now, as Adam and Eve's physical, 01:28.480 --> 01:34.580 at that moment, their physical and DNA was altered, everything changed at that moment. 01:34.700 --> 01:41.460 And it didn't just change for them, it changed for all of us. Their sin altered every single 01:41.460 --> 01:46.060 aspect of creation. Even the ground itself was cursed. I assume 01:46.060 --> 01:52.340 that's the origin of earthquakes and typhoons and all kinds of other natural disasters. 01:52.840 --> 01:59.700 Now, up to this point in our study in Genesis, whenever God spoke, things happened exactly as 01:59.700 --> 02:05.260 He commanded them. Over and over again in chapter 1, it says, And God said, and then it says, and it was so. 02:05.740 --> 02:08.080 God said, and it was so. 02:08.140 --> 02:10.940 Well, this is the first time that God said, and it was not so. 02:11.680 --> 02:15.620 God said, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 02:15.740 --> 02:18.900 And his word was violated by Adam and Eve. 02:18.980 --> 02:23.960 In the warning that God gave to them, it came to pass. 02:24.380 --> 02:28.360 This world that was supposed to be filled with love, joy, 02:28.580 --> 02:36.020 peace, and life was now filled with pain, suffering, and death. Now, we left off last week in verse 02:36.020 --> 02:40.960 number 13, where God had just confronted Adam and Eve in their sin, and immediately they started 02:40.960 --> 02:45.740 pointing fingers. Adam said, that woman that you gave me, God, she made me do it. 02:45.760 --> 02:50.860 And Eve said, well, this serpent, he deceived me. Clearly they were not taking and owning 02:50.860 --> 02:57.720 responsibility for their own sin. So for the rest of the chapter, God is going to lay out the 02:57.720 --> 03:06.480 consequences of their sin in the rebellion. Now he addresses in this second part of the chapter, Satan, the woman, 03:07.340 --> 03:13.800 and the man. Today, we're going to skip over God's curse of Satan found in verses 14 and 15. Lord 03:13.800 --> 03:18.340 willing, we're going to have a message on those two verses next Sunday morning. So let's begin, 03:18.340 --> 03:35.680 rather, in verse number 16. It says, to's our principle. 03:36.460 --> 03:40.500 Sin is the cause of painful struggles for women. 03:41.560 --> 03:49.600 To quote James Brown, this is a man's world. Now, I know that many women feel that way, 03:49.600 --> 03:55.540 and I cannot speak from experience, but being a woman is hard. There are some unique challenges 03:55.540 --> 04:01.160 that women face that men simply don't face. Now, I don't want to get into all of those challenges 04:01.160 --> 04:07.100 today, but many of those challenges actually find themselves as a result of 04:07.100 --> 04:15.080 sin. Now, if we back up in Genesis chapter 2, we see that God gave Eve two incredible blessings 04:15.080 --> 04:21.320 in life, the joy of having kids and the joy of having a loving and fulfilling marriage. But 04:21.320 --> 04:26.340 because of sin, both of those blessings, while not completely removed, 04:26.960 --> 04:34.440 they will now be accompanied by pain and struggle, not only for Eve, but for every woman after her. 04:34.880 --> 04:41.060 Now, the first struggle that God speaks of is the pain of childbirth. Now, men, let me give you a 04:41.060 --> 04:50.280 word of caution here. If you're ever in a lot of pain for some reason, I would suggest not telling your wife that whatever you're going through is as bad as having a baby. 04:51.280 --> 04:56.960 Because I made that mistake once, and I was looking for some sympathy, and I didn't get any of that sympathy. 04:58.080 --> 05:03.280 You see, childbirth is excruciatingly painful experience according to God. 05:03.800 --> 05:05.700 I mean, if God said something's going to 05:05.700 --> 05:10.580 hurt a lot, that means it's going to hurt a lot. Kelsey and I have four kids, which means that 05:10.580 --> 05:16.320 Kelsey went through four labors. One of them turned into an emergency C-section. Two of them, 05:16.460 --> 05:21.600 Kelsey received an epidural that sort of helped her endure the pain. But with Ellie, our third 05:21.600 --> 05:27.060 child, things were different. The labor, her labor went so fast 05:27.060 --> 05:32.240 that by the time we made our way to the hospital, it was too late to get an epidural. And I'll never 05:32.240 --> 05:37.160 forget the look on Kelsey's face when the doctor told her that. It was a moment of panic, 05:38.020 --> 05:46.620 and then she faced what she had to face. And I'll tell you, that particular labor was intense. I mean, by the end of it, I was 05:46.620 --> 05:53.480 worn out, right? I was exhausted. The whole experience was exhausting. The stress of the 05:53.480 --> 06:01.960 intensity of that room, right? Now, in the midst of her pain, she screamed out at one point, 06:01.960 --> 06:07.240 God must really hate sin to do this to women, to cause the pain 06:07.240 --> 06:15.120 of labor. She was doing theology while she screamed in anguish. And you know, I think that's actually 06:15.120 --> 06:22.960 what these judgments are spelled out here for, to remind us of how bad our sin really is, and to 06:22.960 --> 06:28.260 remind us of our need for a Savior. Now, some believe that this verse 06:28.260 --> 06:34.680 is also referring to raising kids. I'm not sure that's the case or not, but we do know that while 06:34.680 --> 06:39.460 kids are a blessing, sometimes they're a sinful pain, aren't they? So maybe there's something 06:39.460 --> 06:47.260 there we're not sure. Now, God points out another judgment or another painful side effect of Adam and Eve's sin 06:47.260 --> 06:53.240 when he tells her that your desire shall be for your husband or towards your husband. 06:53.420 --> 06:54.780 He shall rule over you. 06:55.300 --> 07:01.780 Now, as a married couple, if you've ever wondered why you can't seem to see things eye to eye, 07:01.920 --> 07:03.419 this is why. 07:03.420 --> 07:06.640 Sin disrupted the marriage relationship. Now, we talked about 07:06.640 --> 07:12.300 this a couple weeks ago that both husbands and wives, God made you to be compatible with your 07:12.300 --> 07:18.880 spouse, meaning you're designed for each other. But because of sin, instead of a harmony, 07:19.920 --> 07:26.420 there's discord. So if you're feeling incompatible with your spouse today, for whatever reason, you think, man, we're just not compatible. 07:26.640 --> 07:27.740 That's actually not the case. 07:27.960 --> 07:31.520 You were created by God to be compatible, but there's a problem. 07:32.500 --> 07:33.519 Sin is the problem. 07:33.520 --> 07:36.760 At the root of your problem, whatever problem it is, 07:36.760 --> 07:38.120 I can tell you it's sin. 07:38.940 --> 07:44.300 Gary Thomas said that marriage is one sinner living with another sinner 07:44.300 --> 07:46.560 trying to get along. That's a pretty good 07:46.560 --> 07:52.640 definition. But God actually said and designed marriage to be one perfect person living with 07:52.640 --> 07:59.740 another perfect person perfectly getting along. But sin messed everything up. He says, your desire 07:59.740 --> 08:06.880 shall be for or towards your husband and he shall rule over you. It's hard to understand the translation 08:06.880 --> 08:11.520 here. It's hard to interpret it because there's disagreement on how to translate it. Is it to be 08:11.520 --> 08:16.640 for your husband? Is it to be towards your husband? One translation is contrary to your husband. 08:17.120 --> 08:25.660 Chapter four, there's the same linguistic construct in Hebrew that we won't have time to get into, but it leads me to my 08:25.660 --> 08:33.880 particular interpretation. Some people say that this means that even though sexual intimacy is 08:33.880 --> 08:39.580 ultimately going to lead to painful labor, the woman still has a desire for her husband. 08:40.300 --> 08:47.820 Others say, no, no, this means that a husband's position of headship, his position as leader in the marriage, is a result of sin. 08:47.980 --> 08:53.900 But we know that's not right because the New Testament roots headship not in sin, but in creation. 08:54.500 --> 09:07.360 So I think perhaps the most plausible explanation or most plausible interpretation is that ladies, now that you've sinned, and men, now that you've sinned, you both have a sin nature, 09:08.100 --> 09:13.100 there's going to be conflict in the marriage, specifically wives. It's going to be a struggle 09:13.100 --> 09:17.360 at times for you to be content with the role that God gave you in your marriage. There's going to 09:17.360 --> 09:23.240 be times when you want your husband's role of being leader of the family. Now, remember, 09:23.740 --> 09:26.980 God created Adam and Eve in a perfect state. They 09:26.980 --> 09:31.580 were in a perfect garden. They had the perfect life. They had this perfect love for one another. 09:31.580 --> 09:38.900 They did not have a single marital problem. Can you imagine that? But the moment that sin 09:38.900 --> 09:45.300 entered the world, Adam throws Eve under the bus, and this power struggle ensued. 09:45.880 --> 09:50.300 Instead of focusing on what they could give to each other, 09:50.960 --> 09:56.500 they began focusing on what they could get from each other, and self took root. 09:56.960 --> 10:01.260 Now, with that power struggle within the marriage of who's actually in charge, 10:01.260 --> 10:09.100 there's actually three basic ways that a husband will respond to that power struggle. 10:09.720 --> 10:16.120 He can become a tyrant, establishing his dominance over his wife, which is unbiblical, and the wife loses. 10:16.680 --> 10:32.960 Or he can become passive and disengaged, letting her take over his responsibility, which is also unbiblical, and the wife still loses. Or he can lead her with love, patience, and strength, which is biblical, 10:33.560 --> 10:40.100 and now the wife wins. Now, for most of history, it seems like men have ruled over their wives 10:40.100 --> 10:47.120 as tyrants. Today, it seems like many men do the opposite. They are passive and disengaged, 10:47.220 --> 10:52.460 but there's a better way through Christ Jesus, our Lord. A husband and a wife who are both 10:52.460 --> 10:56.880 following after the Lord and whose hearts are being transformed into the image of Christ, 10:57.360 --> 11:03.580 they can learn how to live out God's created design with love and joy so that every decision 11:03.580 --> 11:06.180 that's made, every disagreement that they have 11:06.180 --> 11:12.200 is not a power struggle that ends with wrecking havoc, but instead there's love and respect in 11:12.200 --> 11:18.880 the midst of it. There's patience and there's selflessness. In verse number 17, he moves to 11:18.880 --> 11:23.840 the man and says, then to Adam, he said, because you've heeded the voice of your wife and have 11:23.840 --> 11:31.260 eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil, 11:31.260 --> 11:35.900 you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles that you'll bring forth 11:35.900 --> 11:40.360 to you. And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread 11:40.360 --> 11:47.180 till you return to the ground. Here's our principle. Sin is the cause of painful struggles 11:47.180 --> 11:53.640 for men. Now, some of you ladies are reading this verse and you think that us men, we got off easy 11:53.640 --> 11:59.440 compared to you. But God's not giving us an exhaustive list here for Adam or Eve, either one 11:59.440 --> 12:12.580 of all the ways sin messed up, messed things up, of all the ways that we're going to struggle. Instead, I think God is describing some specific ways he blessed them, Adam and Eve, in chapter 2, that now that 12:12.580 --> 12:17.520 blessing is going to remain, but it's going to be accompanied by pain. For women, that is marriage 12:17.520 --> 12:23.160 and having kids. For men, it was our work, our exercising dominion over the earth. You see, 12:23.460 --> 12:25.180 work is not a result of sin. We were created in the image of God to work, to exercise dominion over the earth. You see, work is not a result of sin. 12:25.280 --> 12:27.580 We were created in the image of God to work, 12:27.860 --> 12:31.400 to exercise dominion over creation like God does. 12:31.400 --> 12:37.780 But now, after sin, what used to be relatively easy and enjoyable 12:37.780 --> 12:41.320 comes a lot of stress, a lot of strain. 12:41.900 --> 12:46.500 Instead of picking some perfect fruit with very little effort, we're going to have 12:46.500 --> 12:51.680 to really work hard to get just a little bit of a crop. There's going to be some stress involved. 12:51.780 --> 12:55.140 There's going to be a lot of strain involved. The sweat of our brow, we're going to have to deal with 12:55.140 --> 13:03.260 weeds and thorns and thistles. Growing up, we used to visit my grandparents in Oklahoma a couple 13:03.260 --> 13:05.760 times a year. My papa was a dry land farmer. 13:05.880 --> 13:07.420 That means they didn't irrigate the land. 13:07.560 --> 13:11.720 It's relied upon the rain, which causes a lot of stress for our farmer, by the way. 13:12.220 --> 13:14.160 But in his later years, he became a rancher. 13:14.720 --> 13:19.560 Now, in that part of the country, grass burrs are really bad. 13:19.780 --> 13:22.200 Now, we call them stickers around here, okay? 13:22.600 --> 13:26.800 So ranchers, they've got to spray for graspers in the spring. 13:26.920 --> 13:31.040 Now, if they spray a little bit too early or they spray a little bit too late, 13:31.460 --> 13:34.000 the graspers have potential to take over the pasture. 13:34.340 --> 13:38.140 So they're not able to run cattle, as many cattle as they could. 13:38.140 --> 13:50.280 So it's a big deal, but sometimes the rancher misses the timing. When I was about three or four years old, our family was down at the pond in Oklahoma, 13:50.280 --> 13:55.300 and we were fishing, and I can't remember exactly why, but I ran back towards the house. 13:55.640 --> 13:58.480 And as I'm running, unfortunately, I tripped, and I fell, 13:58.620 --> 14:02.520 and I tumbled and rolled through the biggest sticker patch you can imagine. 14:03.660 --> 14:07.580 Now, I had, if I remember right, short sleeves on. I had 14:07.580 --> 14:13.460 some of those short 80s shorts that my mom put me in. It was one of the earliest memories I can 14:13.460 --> 14:18.500 remember rolling through that sticker patch, and then my mom and my mamie stripping me down, putting 14:18.500 --> 14:25.580 me in the tub, humiliating me, and they both worked for what seemed like hours getting out hundreds with tweezers, hundreds 14:25.580 --> 14:31.820 or thousands of these little tiny stickers. And if you're wondering, yes, I cried. 14:33.120 --> 14:40.040 Every time I read this verse, 35 plus years later, I think about that sticker patch. 14:40.800 --> 14:45.120 Listen, kids, if you're listening, there's no stickers in heaven. There was no stickers originally. 14:45.620 --> 14:49.800 People, farmers, people who work in the garden, there's no thorns originally. 14:50.460 --> 14:52.460 God didn't create the world that way. 14:52.460 --> 14:56.720 The ground even itself produced a perfect crop. 14:57.900 --> 15:02.880 But those things came along because of the hardships that come with sin, 15:03.060 --> 15:07.620 the brokenness of our world. Work is now harder because of our 15:07.620 --> 15:13.740 rebellion. And that's all forms of work. We get tired, don't we? We grow weary. We stress out and 15:13.740 --> 15:17.680 we worry, are we going to have enough money to make ends meet to pay our bills? Are we going to 15:17.680 --> 15:25.340 have enough food to feed our family? There's the stress and the pressure of working ground that is hard to work, of working a job that with 15:25.340 --> 15:33.340 difficult people, life got harder. Verse number 19, he says, in the sweat of your face, you shall 15:33.340 --> 15:39.400 eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust 15:39.400 --> 15:46.840 you shall return. Now, I want you to remember with me that in chapter two, God made Adam from the dust 15:46.840 --> 15:54.100 of the ground. And he says here that because of your sin, your body's going to go back and return 15:54.100 --> 16:00.540 to dust. In other words, your body's going to die, and then it's going to decay, and then it's going 16:00.540 --> 16:05.500 to turn to dirt. Here's our principle. Sin is the cause of the painful 16:05.500 --> 16:14.000 struggle of death. I'm telling you, death is a painful struggle, mentally, emotionally, 16:15.200 --> 16:22.540 physically. I'll tell you what, I hate death. I mean, I hate it with a passion. 16:23.340 --> 16:26.540 And the older I've gotten, the more I hate death. 16:26.640 --> 16:27.639 It grows. 16:27.640 --> 16:29.120 My hatred grows of it. 16:29.520 --> 16:34.300 When my mamie died, I watched the strongest, one of the strongest men I knew, my papa, 16:34.520 --> 16:38.340 weep and wail for days, and my hatred for death grew. 16:39.000 --> 16:45.220 When my dad died and his dead, lifeless, cold body laid there 16:45.220 --> 16:46.680 and they willed his body. 16:46.820 --> 16:49.960 Strangers from the mortuary willed his body out of the house. 16:50.280 --> 16:54.640 My hatred of death grew when our family stood over his body. 16:54.800 --> 16:57.620 As they lowered his body six feet underground, 16:57.900 --> 16:59.540 my hatred of death grew. 17:00.720 --> 17:02.920 Death is not normal. 17:03.300 --> 17:05.180 It is not the way God intended it. 17:05.320 --> 17:09.040 It's a result of the brokenness of the sin-filled world, 17:09.200 --> 17:10.920 and it comes in all kinds of ways. 17:11.180 --> 17:14.460 Sometimes death comes upon a family suddenly with sudden tragedy. 17:14.560 --> 17:16.280 There's no time to say goodbyes. 17:16.460 --> 17:19.020 Other times it comes slowly upon a person, 17:19.120 --> 17:20.940 and there's a great suffering that happens. 17:21.240 --> 17:22.380 Both ways are horrible. 17:22.380 --> 17:29.060 All forms of death are not God's original intention. So I hate 17:29.060 --> 17:37.180 it. But did you know, did you know that every single one of us are going to die? See, the stats 17:37.180 --> 17:44.120 are staggering. It's one out of one. Every single one of us, our heart is going to beat for the very 17:44.120 --> 17:45.480 last time with the Lord tarries. Every last one of us, our lungs is going to beat for the very last time if the Lord tarries. 17:45.800 --> 17:50.980 Every last one of us, our lungs, they're going to be filled with air for the very last time. 17:51.220 --> 17:52.340 Someday you're going to die. 17:52.500 --> 17:53.900 Someday I'm going to die. 17:54.640 --> 17:57.000 And honestly, it's not going to be that long from now. 17:57.440 --> 17:59.820 Maybe a few decades at most. 18:00.000 --> 18:01.860 The Bible says that life is like a vapor. 18:02.100 --> 18:04.540 It's here for just a brief moment, and then it's gone. 18:04.540 --> 18:09.160 You go out in the cold on a winter day, even here in Bakersfield, and you breathe out. 18:09.320 --> 18:11.320 There's a little bit of fog that happens. 18:11.420 --> 18:13.680 It's like a vapor, and then the fog's gone. 18:14.100 --> 18:14.759 Then it's gone. 18:14.760 --> 18:17.720 That's how life is, and death comes. 18:17.720 --> 18:24.460 Did you know that we rarely, as a church, go a week without someone in our church dying? 18:25.140 --> 18:26.340 That is very rare. 18:27.500 --> 18:30.980 In fact, there's a very good chance that someone that's in one of our services this morning 18:30.980 --> 18:33.520 will be dead and gone by this time next week. 18:35.600 --> 18:37.240 I hope that's a humbling thought. 18:38.100 --> 18:42.200 Because most of the time we live our lives as if death is never going to come our way. 18:42.280 --> 18:45.760 But I'm telling you, death is no respecter of persons. 18:46.420 --> 18:51.000 It comes for the rich and the poor. It comes for the healthy and the unhealthy. It comes for the 18:51.000 --> 18:56.280 young and the old. It comes for the saved and the unsaved. Death is coming for us all. Why? 18:57.940 --> 19:07.000 Because of our sin. The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death. God told Adam and Eve, if you eat the forbidden fruit, 19:07.160 --> 19:13.340 if you violate my word, if you join Satan and his rebellion against me, you're going to die. 19:14.180 --> 19:19.700 Now, you may not like that judgment. You may judge God at times in your heart, and you may say, 19:19.780 --> 19:27.080 that's not fair. That's not right. But I want you to look around. What is the state of reality? The state of 19:27.080 --> 19:33.880 reality is that death is a fact of life. Why? Because God is holy, and God is just, and he's 19:33.880 --> 19:40.340 always right, and he punishes that which is evil and wrong. Verse number 20, it continues. 19:41.860 --> 19:47.340 It says, and Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 19:48.180 --> 19:51.780 Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. We're going to 19:51.780 --> 19:55.660 come back to that verse in just a moment, but let's skip to verse number 22. It says, then the 19:55.660 --> 20:03.080 Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now lest he put 20:03.080 --> 20:05.460 out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat 20:05.460 --> 20:09.980 and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground 20:09.980 --> 20:15.360 from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden 20:15.360 --> 20:21.480 of Eden. And a flaming sword was turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. 20:22.640 --> 20:27.000 So God says here, he says, mankind's now become like one of us, knowing good 20:27.000 --> 20:32.800 from evil. What does that mean? Well, it means that man has now experienced the effects of evil 20:32.800 --> 20:43.500 as God does. You see, God knew what evil would do, and now man knows what evil has done. So God 20:43.500 --> 20:46.760 kicks Adam and Eve out of the garden as an act of judgment, 20:46.980 --> 20:53.020 but I also believe as an act of mercy. You see, it says that God sends them away because apparently 20:53.020 --> 20:59.200 if they were to eat of the tree of life, they would have lived forever in that painful state 20:59.200 --> 21:13.520 of sin. So God banishes them from the garden and he places these cherubim angels on the east side of the garden and a flaming sword going back every which way to guard Adam and Eve from the tree of life so they would not make a bad situation worse. 21:15.080 --> 21:27.760 Now, this banishment from the Garden of Eden also, I believe, serves as a symbol of Adam and Eve's banishment from intimacy with God. Here's a principle. 21:28.500 --> 21:36.680 Sin is the cause of the painful struggle of being separated from God, to be distant from God, 21:36.680 --> 21:41.800 so that people, they know that there's a maker, but they don't feel like they really know him. 21:42.880 --> 21:46.400 That's a result of sin. Prior to sin, Adam and Eve, they walked 21:46.400 --> 21:52.040 with God. They had this special intimate relationship with him, but the moment they 21:52.040 --> 21:58.260 sinned, they died, spiritually speaking, and that special relationship with God was no more. 21:59.140 --> 22:07.720 The Bible teaches that all of us have been born in the image of Adam, corrupted by sin. We're sinners by nature 22:07.720 --> 22:14.700 and also by choice. The Bible says in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory 22:14.700 --> 22:30.480 of God. Every single one of us have sinned. And so because we're all sinners, we all experience the pain and the separation from God. It was Pascal that I think 22:30.480 --> 22:37.240 originally said that within the heart of every human being is a God-shaped vacuum, a hole, a void, 22:37.460 --> 22:43.260 and we all try to fill that hole and void, that emptiness inside. We try to fill it with all 22:43.260 --> 22:51.020 kinds of different things, but nothing fits because it's shaped like God. When God departed from us in our sin, he left a void, 22:51.180 --> 22:56.320 and it's shaped like the Spirit of God. And so we're all left wanting, and what we really want 22:56.320 --> 23:01.140 is a connection with our Maker, the one who formed us, the one who loves us, the one that we were 23:01.140 --> 23:08.000 made for, the Spirit of God. Now in Genesis Genesis 2, we see that mankind was uniquely created. 23:08.680 --> 23:11.540 He was created differently than the animals. 23:11.620 --> 23:13.840 The animals were also created out of the dust of the ground, 23:13.900 --> 23:16.000 but there was something unique about Adam's creation. 23:16.120 --> 23:17.620 In verse 7, it says, 23:17.760 --> 23:19.860 And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground 23:19.860 --> 23:28.080 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now, 23:28.080 --> 23:35.360 the word breath and spirit in Hebrew are the same word. So, this shows us that God, I believe, 23:35.460 --> 23:52.280 breathed a spirit into Adam. Now, our spirit that God gives each and every human being is created to be connected to the spirit of God in a relationship, in a real life giving way. 23:53.100 --> 23:59.200 But sin caused the spirit of God to depart from our spirit and judgment. 23:59.200 --> 24:07.000 That's why that's why Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he said, no one can enter the kingdom of God 24:07.000 --> 24:14.320 unless he's born again of the Spirit. Unless his spirit is rejuvenated and comes back to life, 24:14.460 --> 24:21.720 you cannot be born of the Spirit unless you believe in Jesus. Now, John chapter 20, 24:21.900 --> 24:27.940 verse number 22 says, and when he said this, this Jesus, he breathed on them and said to them, 24:28.040 --> 24:29.960 Receive the Holy Spirit. 24:30.500 --> 24:33.100 Now, let me ask you, or you may ask, 24:33.500 --> 24:36.900 Well, why doesn't God just breathe his spirit on everyone? 24:37.840 --> 24:39.080 Why didn't he just do that? 24:40.340 --> 24:42.279 Because of sin. 24:42.280 --> 24:47.820 See, God is a holy and a perfect, just God. He can't tolerate sin. He's a good judge. 24:48.240 --> 24:54.280 If we had a judge in our judicial system who looked upon evil, a pedophile, a rapist, a murderer, 24:54.360 --> 24:59.840 whatever it is, and he looked upon the evil and he just said, hey, let him go. That would not be a 24:59.840 --> 25:06.620 good judge. That would be an evil judge. God is a good judge. He cannot tolerate sin. Sin must be punished 25:06.620 --> 25:12.700 and dealt with. Sin must be banished from his presence. It must be sent away. That's why Jesus 25:12.700 --> 25:19.700 came. Jesus came because we couldn't do it ourselves, to pay for the penalty of our sin and 25:19.700 --> 25:25.800 take our sin away from the presence of God, to banish it from His presence so His Spirit could 25:25.800 --> 25:33.880 come live within us. Now, verse number 21 is a foreshadowing of what God would do for us 25:33.880 --> 25:37.280 through His Son, Jesus Christ. I want to read it again. It says, 25:37.420 --> 25:48.240 it also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Now, if you remember, when Adam and Eve sinned, 25:48.240 --> 25:53.860 their eyes were opened to their shame and their nakedness, and so they went and 25:53.860 --> 26:02.480 found fig leaves and made for themselves coverings. And now God looks on them, I think, 26:02.520 --> 26:08.760 as an act of mercy, and He covers them with some more durable clothes that he had made from animal skin. 26:09.180 --> 26:18.540 And this verse, this act of God, is pointing forward to the sacrificial system found in the book of Leviticus. 26:18.760 --> 26:24.080 It's pointing forward even more importantly to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. 26:24.560 --> 26:28.640 We see here a picture of substitutionary 26:28.640 --> 26:37.680 atonement. The animal that was killed for the skin as a substitute for Adam and Eve, 26:37.680 --> 26:48.220 the animal's death in place of Adam and Eve's death. We also see atonement. The word atonement means covering. Here's our principle. We can't 26:48.220 --> 26:57.860 possibly cover our sin and our shame. Only God can. That's the gospel. That we can't work hard 26:57.860 --> 27:06.480 enough to earn favor with God. God's got to do a work for us. Adam and Eve made coverings out of leaves that probably wasn't all 27:06.480 --> 27:11.460 that effective, but then God made them a covering that got the job done. It's the same thing 27:11.460 --> 27:17.080 spiritually with our sin. Whenever we sin, it's very natural to try to cover it up, to not speak 27:17.080 --> 27:22.540 of it, to not think about it, to try to hide it. But no matter how hard we try, we can't hide it 27:22.540 --> 27:27.460 from God. We can't cover our sin the way it needs to be covered 27:27.460 --> 27:29.340 so the justice of God is satisfied. 27:29.760 --> 27:33.880 Only God can do that for us through his son, Jesus. 27:34.980 --> 27:36.520 Here's our last principle. 27:37.520 --> 27:40.320 Jesus came to fix and restore everything 27:40.320 --> 27:44.360 that was broken by sin, everything that sin messed up. 27:47.400 --> 27:49.000 The Bible says in John 3, 16, 27:54.320 --> 28:10.560 that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Sin causes death, but in God's love, he desires to give us life. But that life can only be found through his son, Jesus, who paid for our death. 28:12.360 --> 28:19.460 As we wrap up, I want to point out a few very important trees that we find throughout Scripture. 28:20.940 --> 28:24.620 A couple of them at the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, we've looked at them, 28:24.660 --> 28:27.720 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. 28:27.800 --> 28:29.579 That's at the beginning. 28:29.580 --> 28:32.940 Then if you fast forward in your mind, in the New Testament, 28:32.940 --> 28:36.880 there's another very important tree in a very important garden. 28:38.260 --> 28:50.040 And Jesus was crucified on that tree, the cross. And the Old Testament says that cursed is the man who hangs upon a tree. 28:51.000 --> 28:53.320 Galatians chapter 3, verse number 13 says, 28:53.320 --> 28:54.640 Christ has redeemed us. 28:54.780 --> 29:00.160 He's purchased us and freed us from the curse of the law. 29:00.680 --> 29:02.840 Having become a curse for us, for it is written, 29:03.040 --> 29:05.220 cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. 29:14.200 --> 29:20.460 You see, Jesus hung on a tree, and He became a curse for us. Genesis chapter 3 records the fall of humankind, the fall of creation from the good state in which God created it in. But it also 29:20.460 --> 29:27.380 records for us the curse of God upon sin. You're not going to tolerate it. You're not going to tolerate this brokenness. 29:28.760 --> 29:33.040 The curse of sin must always be paid. 29:34.200 --> 29:35.760 And here's the good news of the Bible, 29:36.200 --> 29:39.060 that God sent his only begotten son, 29:39.440 --> 29:41.820 and the son of God, Jesus, 29:42.400 --> 29:46.960 willingly came to pay for the curse of our sin. 29:47.680 --> 29:51.680 And then on the third day, he rose in victory. 29:53.540 --> 29:56.920 Now, anyone can pay for their sin. 29:59.060 --> 30:01.220 It'll take you an eternity to do so. 30:01.920 --> 30:04.860 But anyone can choose that route to pay for their own sin. 30:06.040 --> 30:15.020 But what you can't do is rise in victory. And yet, that's exactly what Jesus did. He rose victorious over the grave, 30:15.280 --> 30:21.840 over sin itself, because it had been defeated, it had been paid for. Now, there's another tree I 30:21.840 --> 30:25.200 want to point out at the very end of our scriptures in the book of Revelation. 30:26.000 --> 30:29.200 We see, at the very end, we see a picture of heaven. 30:29.920 --> 30:34.580 And placed in heaven is the tree of life. 30:36.020 --> 30:41.600 The tree of life that we were banished from at the end of chapter 3. 30:42.100 --> 30:46.560 No longer are we banished from it. We have access to it once again in heaven 30:46.560 --> 30:54.740 because the Bible says that in heaven there will be no more curse because the curse has been reversed 30:54.740 --> 31:01.640 through the blood of Jesus. In Revelation chapter 21 verse number 4, it speaks of heaven. I want you 31:01.640 --> 31:06.340 to just imagine with me a world like this, because this 31:06.340 --> 31:13.200 is our future. All those who trust Jesus as their Savior, it says, and God will wipe away every tear 31:13.200 --> 31:19.880 from their eyes. There should be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more 31:19.880 --> 31:30.020 pain, for the former things have passed away. We experience an incredible amount of pain 31:30.020 --> 31:38.280 and heartache. The world is corrupt. We just look around. It doesn't take long to know that 31:38.280 --> 31:48.820 things are turned upside down. And the result of that is a lot of suffering, a lot of loneliness, a lot of heartache, a lot of 31:48.820 --> 31:55.900 struggle. Rest assured, for those of us who have received Jesus as our Savior, the curse has been 31:55.900 --> 32:02.640 reversed for us. The Bible says, whosoever, whosoever, does that include you? Well, it does 32:02.640 --> 32:07.800 if you're willing. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 32:07.900 --> 32:08.739 Saved from what? 32:08.740 --> 32:12.960 Saved from the curse of sin and the curse of death. 32:13.900 --> 32:20.380 Now I want to read and end our time by reading the words of Jesus found in John 11, verse 25. 32:21.300 --> 32:28.400 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, 32:29.260 --> 32:53.300 he shall live. Amen? Amen. Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, both here and at Olive Drive. When we give our life to Jesus, something real happens, 32:53.980 --> 32:57.180 not in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm. 32:58.080 --> 33:00.960 Our sin is paid for, and that means we're forgiven 33:00.960 --> 33:03.760 when we receive Jesus as our Savior by faith. 33:04.100 --> 33:05.500 It's by the grace of God. We're forgiven. It's not that we Savior by faith. It's by the grace of God. 33:05.680 --> 33:06.479 We're forgiven. 33:06.480 --> 33:07.540 It's not that we've earned it. 33:07.600 --> 33:08.760 It's that we've received it. 33:09.520 --> 33:12.840 So we really are forgiven at that point, and we're made clean. 33:16.600 --> 33:21.700 The weight of our sin and our guilt and our shame is taken away, 33:23.080 --> 33:27.160 and it's nailed to the cross. 33:29.200 --> 33:31.160 And when sin is paid for, 33:37.760 --> 33:41.960 we can be reconnected to God at that moment and our spirit is made alive, 33:42.060 --> 33:43.080 it's regenerated 33:43.080 --> 33:46.580 by the spirit of God. 33:46.860 --> 33:47.920 Brought new life. 33:48.480 --> 33:50.120 We become new creations in Christ. 33:50.220 --> 33:53.240 All things that passed away, behold, all things become new. 33:55.800 --> 34:02.420 But the truth of the matter is that while we receive spiritual life, 34:03.640 --> 34:07.660 physically speaking, we still experience the consequence 34:07.660 --> 34:10.379 of our sin. 34:10.380 --> 34:16.880 Adam and Eve, they died spiritually immediately, but it took them a long time to die physically, 34:17.080 --> 34:19.100 but their cells began to die. 34:20.200 --> 34:26.080 They began to age. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 34:26.580 --> 34:29.540 beautiful chapter of Scripture that talks about 34:29.540 --> 34:34.420 Paul connecting the dots by the Holy Spirit. 34:34.560 --> 34:37.960 It lets us know that because Christ is risen, 34:38.740 --> 34:39.780 we will rise too. 34:42.560 --> 34:50.420 And he talks about how the mortal shall put on immortality. 34:52.480 --> 34:57.640 That is, that our bodies are growing weaker towards death. 34:58.380 --> 35:07.080 As Christians, at the same time, our spirits should be growing stronger towards life. 35:11.560 --> 35:16.139 Someday, our bodies even will be immortal. 35:16.140 --> 35:18.599 Because our spirit is going to be reconnected to our bodies, 35:18.600 --> 35:22.219 whether that be a body that's dust or ashes. 35:22.220 --> 35:23.720 It will be reconstituted someday, the Bible speaks of it. 35:26.600 --> 35:30.740 Because the Bible says that Jesus is coming back no one knows the day or the hour we just know he's coming 35:30.740 --> 35:35.280 and when he comes the scriptures say that he's going to come from heaven 35:35.280 --> 35:42.420 I don't wherever that is another realm who knows he's going to come riding on the clouds and he's 35:42.420 --> 35:49.500 going to come with a great shout the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 35:50.360 --> 35:56.080 And those who remain when he returns will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. 35:56.400 --> 35:59.260 And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 35:59.440 --> 36:07.560 That's what we have to look forward to, that someday our loved ones, those of us that do die before Jesus, 36:07.560 --> 36:14.960 our bodies are going to come out of the ground. A great miracle because Jesus came forth. 36:15.560 --> 36:26.060 So I want to encourage you that whatever you're facing today, to know that you know that you know, that you have a confident expectation deep within you 36:26.060 --> 36:28.660 that Jesus is your hope. 36:29.300 --> 36:31.440 In fact, Jesus is your only hope. 36:31.560 --> 36:33.059 Did you know that? 36:33.060 --> 36:36.440 There is not a single thing this world offers us 36:36.440 --> 36:39.760 for eternal hope except for Jesus Christ. 36:40.440 --> 36:43.260 You were made for more than this life. 36:43.880 --> 36:47.800 You were made for more than the brokenness that we live in. 36:48.960 --> 36:55.420 I want to encourage you that today and every day that you live in the light of eternity. 36:56.180 --> 36:59.580 None of us know how many days we have. 37:00.100 --> 37:03.540 The Bible says it's appointed for men to die once and then the judgment. 37:03.780 --> 37:05.920 Every one of us will face it if the Lord tarries. 37:06.060 --> 37:07.060 Are we ready for it? 37:08.280 --> 37:09.760 Are you ready for it? 37:12.500 --> 37:17.220 Now, if you haven't received Jesus as your Savior, I want to invite you to do that today. 37:17.620 --> 37:19.259 God loves you. 37:19.260 --> 37:20.700 Oh, and he loves you more. 37:21.460 --> 37:24.460 I'm telling you, he loves you more than you can imagine. 37:27.200 --> 37:29.200 You say, how could that be true? 37:33.740 --> 37:38.300 With all my sin and all the failure of my life, I'm telling you, it's true. The Bible says, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He loves you. 37:41.700 --> 37:46.240 And if you sense your sin and you have an awareness of it, 37:46.260 --> 37:49.060 I believe that's the Spirit of God calling you out of your sin, 37:49.420 --> 37:50.780 calling out of your brokenness, 37:51.060 --> 37:53.580 calling you out of your death into spiritual life, 37:53.600 --> 37:55.960 and it only comes through faith in Jesus. 37:57.000 --> 38:01.940 I want to invite you to surrender your life to Jesus today, 38:02.040 --> 38:03.740 here in just a moment, either campus. 38:03.740 --> 38:06.640 We're going to have pastors and other leaders here at the front. 38:08.520 --> 38:11.840 We're going to invite you to step down and walk down one of these aisles, walk down one of these 38:11.840 --> 38:14.980 staircases and say, I want to give my life to Jesus. 38:15.740 --> 38:19.980 I want to be forgiven. I want the curse to be reversed in my life. 38:21.860 --> 38:23.800 These guys, these ladies, 38:24.380 --> 38:27.180 all of them will know exactly how to help you. 38:28.820 --> 38:33.520 Maybe you say, I want to be baptized like others today, or I want to become a family member here 38:33.520 --> 38:37.060 at Valley Baptist Church. Let us know. We'd love to visit with you about that. Or maybe you just 38:37.060 --> 38:42.400 want to come to these steps and pray. However God leads in just a moment as we sing, please come. 38:42.400 --> 38:47.300 Let's pray. Father, 38:49.540 --> 38:50.419 we recognize today and are reminded 38:50.420 --> 38:54.360 about how serious our sin is. 38:55.700 --> 38:57.740 And we're reminded, Lord, 38:58.480 --> 39:00.340 and it's been revealed to us today 39:00.340 --> 39:14.700 of how holy you are. Lord, the scriptures say that no one can look upon you and live, 39:15.200 --> 39:25.460 and yet we also know because of the grace of God, we can come boldly before your throne of grace. 39:28.660 --> 39:33.739 Thank you, Lord, for all your work in us. 39:33.740 --> 39:38.099 And I pray, Lord, if that work has not yet been realized in some people's lives, Lord, 39:38.100 --> 39:40.359 that you would tug on their heart, that you would open their eyes, 39:40.360 --> 39:43.360 that you would clear their mind, 39:47.660 --> 39:50.260 soften their heart to receive you and your word. 39:58.180 --> 40:01.320 Lord, we love you and we are so thankful that in you there's life and there's forgiveness. 40:06.260 --> 40:13.219 Lord, would you do a work that none of us can do, and that's a work of your spirit, 40:13.220 --> 40:14.300 to touch people's spirit, to bring life, to bring conviction of sin, to bring an awareness, Lord. 40:19.380 --> 40:22.300 Help them trust you. Help them see your beauty and your love and what you've done for them. 40:25.460 --> 40:26.660 Lord, as a church family, would you strengthen our faith? 40:30.760 --> 40:33.599 Would you make us bold and courageous to live for you? 40:33.600 --> 40:35.839 We ask in Jesus' name, amen. 40:35.840 --> 40:37.679 Thanks for listening today. 40:37.680 --> 40:39.859 We hope you enjoyed this message. 40:39.860 --> 40:41.040 And if you did, we would be so grateful if you left us a review. 40:41.700 --> 40:43.800 Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast 40:43.800 --> 40:45.220 if you would like to be notified 40:45.220 --> 40:46.660 when a new sermon is released. 40:47.300 --> 40:48.940 If you feel the Lord calling you 40:48.940 --> 40:50.400 to take the next step in faith 40:50.400 --> 40:53.040 through salvation, service, or giving, 40:53.640 --> 40:55.019 don't wait. 40:55.020 --> 40:58.020 Reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988. 40:58.360 --> 41:00.660 That's podcast to 88988 41:00.660 --> 41:03.580 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms. 41:04.240 --> 41:07.360 You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org, 41:07.460 --> 41:09.340 to find even more great resources. 41:10.020 --> 41:11.700 No matter where you are in your journey, 41:12.260 --> 41:14.680 know that we love you, we're praying for you, 41:14.780 --> 41:17.660 and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.