Starting Life in a Post-Fall World

Well, good morning, everyone. Great to see you all here this morning and Being able together as a community to open our hearts to God and, and express our worship to Him through song and through our prayers. And now in this part of our service to open our hearts to God and to listen. to him.

We do our best worship sometimes by listening to God and thankfully, God has spoken to us in His word and we are studying His word every Sunday together as a church community and lately we've been in the Book of Genesis. So I wanna have you turn to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3, we're, we're doing a study through the book of Genesis and as we continue in that study, we come to Genesis 3 verse 20 and my goal today is to try to cover verses 20. through 24. I'm gonna make 4 points in this message.

The first two are going to take, quite a bit of time, but then the last two, will, will go, much more, quickly. If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be Starting Life in a Post-Fall World. Starting Life in a post-fall world. How many of you have points or occasions in your life where you sometimes wish that you can go back to an earlier point in your life where you made some mistakes, to go back just prior to those mistakes and choose differently the next time around.

How many of you find yourself wishing for that? OK. my hand definitely would go up. I often find myself looking back and wishing that I could go back to a particular point in my life and make certain choices.

Over again. I think we all see brokenness in our lives and sometimes there's chains of consequences that our sinful choices have set in motion and we see those consequences as they play out on various levels and we find ourselves in many moments filled with regret and thinking, man, if I could just go back and live my life over again or just go back to this point in my life. And choose differently, I would in a heartbeat. It is easy to look back and to wish for do-overs.

But when we do that, We sometimes forget about the benefits of our present broken circumstances. We forget about the wisdom that we've gained from the lessons that we have learned the hard way. We forget about the humbling that those experiences have produced in us, a humbling that leaves us better people than we were before the wrong choices were actually made. We forget about How that we now cling so tightly to the good news of the gospel and how we understand the gospel better now today than we probably would have ever understood the gospel had we never made those past wrong choices and experienced the grace of redemption on the other side of those failures.

In such moments, we can forget the words of Jesus who says, he who has forgiven much, loves much. Our memory of those past sins, if you cap those things with the treasure of our forgiveness in Christ, it literally turns those memories of past sins and failures into engines that drive a deeper and a greater love for God. I don't share these things with you this morning to say that our past sins are good. I only share these things with you and with myself this morning to remind ourselves that a life in which we experience brokenness on the other side of our sin isn't the end of the world.

So long as God is with us, so long as God is for us. So long as there is a redemptive purpose to it all, and so long as those failures serve to take us deeper into the very grace and the heart of the gospel. I start off with these thoughts because I want you to imagine as we come into these verses today, how Adam must have felt when he finds himself at the end of God's pronouncements that we find in verses 14 through 19. All Adam has ever known has been perfection.

And beauty and innocence, and yet Adam and Eve have sinned, and God has just spoken to both of them and describe what life will now be like on the other side of Adam. And Eve's sin. After hearing God's pronouncements, Adam had every reason to think, what is this world coming to? And it's all because of me.

God uses the word curse two times in verses 14 through 19. The word multiply with regard to pain two times. He uses the word toil twice and bruise twice and enmity once. We see words like thorns and thistles and sweat and two statements made about death and returning to dust.

All of those things did not exist prior to Adam and Eve's sin. But God is now saying, this is what life is going to be like in a broken world on the other side of your sin, and as a result of your sin. Hearing such things, Adam had every reason to groan and long for the days before the fall. But if he focused only on that, He would have missed the beautiful graces that are found actually inside of God's pronouncements in verses 14 through 19.

In God's pronouncements that we have been studying in recent weeks in verses 14 through 19, there is beauty. There is a beautiful withholding of justice. There are also other positives that Adam could focus on and actually rejoice in. In a nutshell, here's what Adam would have been able, and it seems like he was able to infer these things from what God had said to Adam and Eve.

He would have been able to think, my wife, based on what God has said, will have pain. But she will have children. This means that she will not die today. She will live and she will not be barren.

He will also be able to listen to what God has said and conclude that in a battle of champions in some future day, a descendant of my wife will crush the head of this serpent, bringing about a victory that will bring resolution to the conflict that now rages. Adam would also have been able to conclude or infer from God's words that it seems like there will be mighty struggles in mine and my wife's marriage, but our marriage will continue. It will live on. He would also see that his work, he'll be able to think my work of cultivating the ground based on what God says is going to be much harder, but I will eat.

God 3 times says, you will eat, you will eat, you will eat. He would also realize from God's words that yes, I will work hard, but there will be death which will release me from the toil. The toils of life that are being described here by God will come to an end when I breathe my last and die. There is much indeed in verses 14 to 19 to grieve about in God's words to Adam and Eve.

Yet among the thorns, there are roses to rejoice in and to find comfort and perspective in for Adam and Eve. And so God has been speaking in verses 14 through 19, and we have studied those verses, but the question is what happens now? The pronouncements have been made, the descriptions of life in a post-fall world have been delivered. So what now?

Starting in verse 20, the focus is on action, 4 actions. One of them is Adam's action. And 3 of them are God's actions, and we'll be looking at these four actions in verses 20 to 24 and see how they provide a framework for the practicalities of what life will look like in a broken in a post-fall world. Let me read these verses to you.

Beginning in verse 20. Here's how Adam responds. Says now the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim.

And the flaming sword, which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. This is the word of God, and may God help us to understand His words. This morning. As I said a moment ago, we'll be looking at 4 acts, 4 actions which establish man in his new life in a post-fall world.

And the first of these actions is done by Adam. And that first action, which is done by Adam is this, Adam hears these pronouncements from God and he turns toward his wife and he gives his wife a gospel name. He gives his wife a gospel name. It says, it says, now the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother.

Of all the living. This really, the more I studied this section in chapter 3, the more I realized how remarkable what Adam does here is. Some commentators are so baffled by it, they're like, this doesn't, this was inserted at a later time, this just doesn't fit in the flow of negativity of what God has just said and for Adam to turn around. And give his wife this name right after God says what he says in verses 14 through 19, that just doesn't fit.

But it does fit God has just given a powerful description of life in a post-fall world full of tough language about brokenness and hardship and pain and even death. And yet, as we've seen, there are rays of light and hope. All Adam has ever known up to this point is perfection and beauty and life, and now he hears these pronouncements from God. What will Adam do after hearing such things?

Will he throw a tantrum? Will he become angry and will his countenance fall as Cain will do in the next chapter. Will he pout and fuss and fume at God and take out his frustrations on his wife like Cain will do upon Abel in the next chapter? How will Adam Respond to these words from God.

We actually learn a ton about Adam and about his mindset by observing this, his first act upon hearing these pronouncements from God. He turns to his wife and he names her, and the name he gives her is a name of hope, a name of hope. The Hebrew name that Adam gives to Eve that to his wife that we pronounce today as Eve is the Hebrew word Chava, Chava, say that with me. Chava.

So it's just easier to say Eve, but it's literally Hava, which is where we get the name Eve. Eve is just an easy way of pronouncing the name Chava. That Adam, gives to his wife. Here.

it's frustrating, and, and a little bit humorous to see what some commentators do with Adam's naming of Eve in this verse. Based on a similar sounding word in Arabic and Aramaic, one commentator suggests that the name Eve means female serpent. and actually ancient Jewish rabbis suggested this. This is a very ancient interpretation of this name Chava that Adam is giving to Eve.

Eve was tricked by the serpent and then she turned right around and played the role of the serpent in Adam's life and so there were Jewish rabbis who believed and one commentator that I actually have in my office who says that Adam is naming her female serpent. And giving her this name. Another commentator interprets this verse as a judgment and a condemnation by Adam upon Eve. this commentator connects the word chava with a similar Arabic word that means to be empty.

or to fail. So according to this writer's line of thinking, Adam is naming his wife Emptiness. Fail, failure, deprivation and ruin because this is what Eve's actions have brought upon Adam and the human race. There's a feminist scholar that actually criticizes Adam for naming Eve at all and says that Adam in naming Eve, just like he earlier named the animals is reducing Eve to the status of an animal by calling her a name.

The scholar views, Adam naming Eve as Adam trying to demonstrate his lordship over her. All of these views are obscene. And horribly, hopelessly wrong, primarily because they ignore the explanation given in the text, right? according to the text, God called his wife's name Hava.

Because she was the mother of all the high. OK. there is little doubt that the word chava is an archaic form of the Hebrew word chaya, which means life, and that's the explanation that we have in the text. In fact, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek Septuagim, translates the text this way.

Adam called the name of his wife, Zoe. Because she was the mother of all the zone tone, OK? Our word zoology comes from the word for life. He names her Zoe because she was the mother of all the zone tone.

He names her life because she was the mother of all the living ones is the idea. Anyone whose name is Zoe basically has the Greek, a name that is the Greek equivalent of Eve. Adam is giving his wife the name Life or some suggest giver of life because she will be. The mother of all the living.

I think that's a safe interpretation of the name Eve. And I'm, I'm thinking that it's safe because it's actually the interpretation given in the text. So our life is complicated enough, guys. Let's just go with what the Bible says.

And things like this will be very simple. This, if he is naming her, which he is, life or life giver, because he's declaring her in this moment to be the mother of all the living who will come. We see that this is an expression of tremendous hope on Adam's part. Embodied in this name is that, that he's giving to his wife is the belief that his wife Eve will live and that she will give birth to many and be the ancestor of every human being who will ever live.

This means that, that God is not gonna replace Eve. He's not getting rid of her and replacing her with some other woman who will be the mother of all the living. Adam knows that somehow through Eve, she is God's chosen instrument and life will go on and ultimately prevail over death through her. As one writer says, Adam was able to do this.

He was able to name Eve in this way because he had a very precise awareness of the overall significance of God's words to his wife. Adam had listened closely to God's speech to his spouse. He understood that one of her offspring would crush the head of the snake. He knew that his wife's pain and childbearing meant that the people would follow.

The same writer goes on to say that And Adam naming his wife with this name that it was an overwhelming shout of hope from the heart of Adam, and it was hope that was derived from the revelation God had just given to Adam and to Eve. Adam was listening to those words that God spoke to his wife and even the words God spoke to the serpent, and he's listening and he's exegeting very carefully God's revelation that God has just spoken. And he sees hope there. And he gives his wife this name of Hope.

This is interesting because already now we see that Adam back in chapter two has already named his wife once, right? He already called her by a name. The first time when God brought Eve to Adam in Genesis 2:23, Adam called her Isha. On the basis of where she came from.

Ish, I will call you Isha because you came from Ish. I will call you woman because you came from man. But on the second occasion, the first occasion, he names her on the basis of where she came from. On the 2nd occasion, he names her on the basis of her future destiny.

As he looks ahead, he names her Java. Because she will be the mother of all the high. He calls her the life giver because she will be the mother of all the living ones. Though Eve has not given birth to a child yet, Adam looks at her and does not just see her merely for what she was in the present.

He saw her for what she will become in the future, and he gave her this name of destiny. Ponder that. Think about that. Naming Eve was an act of authority.

Men think about this, husbands think about this. Naming Eve was definitely an act of authority on Adam's part, but he's using his authority in a way that blesses his flawed wife. And crowns her with hope. How do you use men, your authority?

With regard to your wife. What name or what names have you given to your wife? If I were to talk to your wife today and say, give me a one word title that represents what you think your husband thinks. Of you What name?

Would your wife give that represents How you view her, would it be a title of hope? Would it be a title of grace? Would it be a title of respect? Think about what Adam could have named Eve.

He could have named her the horrible things that I listed earlier that some commentators suggested. he could have named her Eater of the Forbidden Tree. He could have named her easily deceived one. He could have named her temptress.

He could have given her any name that would forever enshrine what she did in her worst moment, but Adam does not name Eve based on what she was and what she did in her worst moment. He names her based on what she will become according to the revelation and the good news that God had declared. In his words to Eve. And to Adam, and to the serpent.

It seems that Adam here is accepting his role as the vision keeper in the relationship. He's the keeper of the story, which is the role of every husband in a marriage. It also seems that Adam is falling in love not merely with what Eve is in the moment, but falling in love with what she is becoming. Adam is saying to his wife, I see who God is making you, and it excites me, and I wanna be a part of that, and I wanna be a part of the larger cosmic plan of what God is going to be using you for to accomplish his great purposes.

With this title of faith and hope, Adam is equipping his flawed wife with the vision needed for life in a post-fall world. Eve will need this reminder so that she sees herself in this way, and she will also need the encouragement of knowing that her husband sees her this way also. Adam, just here in this verse, he's come a long way from the man who earlier in this chapter called his wife out and blamed her for his sin. But here instead of crowning her with blame, he's crowning her with hope.

And with destiny This is a great start. To them getting set up for life in a post-fall world. Adam is manifesting faith in God's promises, he's manifesting love for his wife, and naming her, he's accepting her afresh. Think about this, when God first brought Eve to Adam, he received her and he symbolized his reception or receiving of her by naming her.

Now God brings Adam's wife to him once again, only now she is a flawed and a fallen woman who has sinned, and Adam here receives her afresh and symbolic of that receiving, he names her again on the basis of her future destiny, found in God's words. So far, so good, right? For getting started for life in a post-fall world, but something else is needed. This first action was something Adam did, but the next three actions are done by God as he gets man situated.

For life in a post-fall world, and here's the action that God does. God clothes Adam and Eve with gospel clothes. God clothes, Adam and Eve. With gospel clothes.

It says, and the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them. Based on what is said here, God specifically does two things in particular. He made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, and then he personally clothed them. And because these are the skins of an animal, we can infer that God would have had to slay an animal in order to use its skins in order to clothe Adam and Eve.

So basically, God does three things here. He slays an animal, he makes garments from the skin of that animal, and he clothes Adam and Eve. With those garments. Let's ponder those three actions.

Firstly, he slays an animal. We have here the first death, the first animal being slain in history, and millions more will be slain for the sins of mankind. Secondly, God doesn't slay an animal and then rip off its skin and then throw the skins to Adam and Eve and say, here, make yourself something to wear. No, the text tells us that God Himself made The garments for them.

The verb that is translated made is a word that is used throughout the creation account. God made everything in 6 days and then rested on the 7th day, but here, as it were, God is coming out of his rest and he's making yet one more thing. This is actually the final thing that God makes in the Genesis story. He makes garments to cover Adam and Eve.

And then notice that God doesn't just make the garments and then toss them to Adam and Eve and say, here, put these on. No, the text tells us that God Himself clothed them. So no doubt God would have approached Adam and personally Dressed him, clothed him with the clothing he had made. God would have then approached Eve and then clothed her with the clothing that he had made for her.

And I just, just imagine what a tender, poignant, Moment that would have been. And how it must have been forever enshrined in Adam and Eve's memory of God slaying an animal. Of God making garments from the skins of that animal and then God personally approaching Adam and Eve and dressing them, clothing them in the clothing that he had made for them. So God does 3 things.

He slays an animal, makes clothing. And he actually closed Adam and Eve, and that leaves us with the question, why does God do this? Why does he do this? Let's ponder a few reasons as to what God is up to here.

I think we can say that what God is doing here is he's obviously providing atonement and he's showing. Adam and Eve, that atonement entails death. And all of this obviously is pointing to Christ who would one day be the ultimate sacrifice. As John MacArthur says, the first physical death should have been the man and his wife, but instead it was an animal, a shadow of the reality that God would someday kill a substitute to redeem.

sinners Keep in mind that initially Adam and Eve, as soon as they had sinned, they realized that they were naked and they felt ashamed and they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves, but compare that attempt with this attempt. The first attempt at clothing required no death at all, but this right now does require death. The first attempt was Adam and Eve doing this themselves. The second attempt is something that God is doing.

The first clothing was essentially man-made. This is God-made. The first attempt at clothing costs nothing. The second attempt cost the life of an innocent animal.

The first attempt at clothing did not achieve its desired end, right? Cause they dressed themselves in fig leaves and when God showed up, they hid. And God said to Adam, where are you? And Adam says, Well, I was naked.

So I hid So the fig leaves didn't work. This, by all indications, did work. It was effective. But it required the death.

Of an animal who was slain because of Adam and Eve's sins. As one writer says, suffering must ever follow wrongdoing. From the first to the last, the track of the sinner is marked with blood. It was made apparent that sin was a real and deep evil and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be restored.

Adam had to learn that sin could be covered not by a bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by, but only by pain. And by blood. The rest of the Pentateuch, the 1st 5 books of the Bible will drip with the blood of a million animals. The sacrificial system that will be explained in these books as the law is given to Israel will detail the multiple kinds of sacrifices that the Jews will be required to carry out.

And given all of those provisions that are found in the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament, the first of which is the Book of Genesis. Looking all of that, at all of that blood sacrifice, we would expect somewhere in this narrative to find the death of an animal and it is here that we find it. Even though by inference. This is the first statement of God informing man that atonement.

True covering requires blood sacrifice. There's a second thing God's up to in slaying this animal and clothing Adam and Eve with it, and that is to prepare them for the harsher life that awaits them outside of the garden. Adam and Eve don't know it yet, but they're about to be expelled from the garden into the harsher environment of life outside of the garden. And it's actually quite touching to me that God stops and he clothes them before he expels them from the garden.

Listen to what one writer says. He says, it is important for understanding the drift of this chapter that we note that the clothing precedes expulsion. from the garden. I don't think I have, yeah, here we go.

God's act of grace comes before his act of judgment. The couple are not expelled nude from the garden. They are not sent beyond the garden totally vulnerable. The same is true for us.

We live in a broken world and we find ourselves even in broken circumstances as a result of our own sin, and yet we have a God who is always for us if we are believers in Jesus, and He never sends us into any broken circumstance that he does not fully. Anticipate and equip us for. And so before he expels them, he dresses them with the clothing they will need. There's a 3rd reason I think that God slays an animal and then makes clothes for Adam and Eve to wear, and that is to serve as a perpetual reminder of the atonement that God had actually provided for them.

Think about it, God could have just slain an animal and provided atonement for them. but he doesn't do that, he slays the animal, provides atonement, and then he dresses Adam and Eve in that atoning garb so that they can walk around in that atoning garb day by day, which God had provided for them. Apparently, God is wanting Adam and Eve to see themselves in the days ahead, dressed in the atoning garb that he had provided them. God knows that in the days to come, there are going to be moments where Adam is seized with regret and with guilt.

God wants Adam in such moments to observe and probably even feel the atoning garb that is on his body and to know that he is forgiven. God knows that Eve will experience similar moments of guilt and remorse, and God wants Eve in such moments to look upon. The atoning garb that he had given to her and to know that God provided this for me on the other side of my sin, and he loves me. He's a God who has forgiven me and given me His mercy, and who has personally dressed me.

God also knows that in the days ahead, There may be moments where Adam might wake up some morning feeling kicked at Eve. For what she did. That would be true to human experience, right? Adam might be thinking about it at a later moment and just feeling angry at Eve for why did, why did she eat of that tree and then why did she bring that to me?

I gave her instructions, she did not follow them, and he might start seething with resentment against her, but in such moments, God wants Adam to be able to look at his wife and to see her dressed in the atoning garb. That he had provided for Eve. How could Adam hold his sin against his wife when he sees her dressed? And the clothing that God Himself made and dressed her in.

In the skins of an animal that God had slain for her sins. God probably knows that there will be moments when Eve might be angry at Adam for not protecting her better or maybe be mad at Adam for giving in to her and not standing up to her like he should have, but in such moments, God wants Eve to be able to look at Adam and see him dressed in the atoning garb, the skins of the animal that God had slain for their sins. God knows probably that Adam and Eve will experience moments where they're afraid to approach God, fearful that he's angry against them for what they had done, and in such moments, God wants them to look at their garments.

I know that this is from a slain animal.

God made these, He gave these to me, he dressed me in these on the other side of my sin. And all is well between me and God, and I can approach him without fear. Of him being angry with me. It seems that God is wanting Adam and Eve to see themselves and to see each other inside the context of the promises that he has made and in the context of the atonement that he has provided for them and literally clothed them in.

God knows that their marriage will need this in the days to come. There's a 4th thing and there's probably more we can add to this, but let's ponder one that is a no-brainer, but We actually need to address it and that is to affirm the appropriateness of clothing. How about that? the word for garments generally is the word for tunics.

one writer describes the garments God is making here as a tunic that reached to their knees or ankles. I don't even know how we can be that specific, and know for sure the size and the length of the garments, but it's, I think it's sufficient for us to recognize that God is clothing Adam and Eve and in so doing, he is showing his approval of wearing clothes in a post-fall world. Maybe you've wondered why do human beings wear clothes, or most human beings wear clothes, but, but animals don't.

This is actually where it started.

right here. God could have rebuked Adam and Eve and said, how dare you try to dress yourself with fig leaves, take them off. I created you naked. And that's why I want you to live your life, but he doesn't do that.

God actually replaces their fig leaves with other clothes that he is providing for them and what he's communicating by this is the fact that in a post-fall world, God is saying, I want people to wear clothes. Clothing was not needed in a perfect world of innocence before the fall, but because that innocence has been lost and because man has become corrupted by sin and is now subject to death, clothing is necessary. God here is approving. The sense of shame that Adam and Eve felt wherein they desire to clothe themselves.

God is saying that sense of shame is good and appropriate to a post-fall world. And so you do need to dress yourself. You do need to wear clothes and God provides for them this first set of clothing. Henry Morris, let's see if I got this on here.

Listen to what he says that That God would provide Adam and Eve with clothing is a divine affirmation that a sense of shame relative to nakedness is entirely appropriate. Modern, nudist and hedonists, despite protestations about the beauty of the human body and the freedom and naturalness of displaying it openly, should recall that God Himself took pains to provide clothing to cover the nakedness of the first man. And woman here. And we probably could do a whole sermon on this, but just ponder this for a moment.

Often when we think about clothing and the need for clothing, The first thing we think about is sexual modesty and immorality and the prevention of immorality and that indeed absolutely is a big part of what's going on with why clothing is needed in a post-fall world. But note here that God is clothing Adam and Eve, a husband and wife when in fact they are the only ones on the planet. So something deeper is going on than merely preventing. sexual immorality.

God is covering their bodies, I think, and other writers would suggest this partly because their bodies have suffered a loss of glory. Because their bodies are now less than what they were before the fall. Their bodies are now corrupted and subject to decay, and covering the body with clothing is a humble acknowledgment. Of that.

John Piper says this. about wearing clothes and what God is essentially saying by this act. he says you wear clothing not to conceal. That you are not what you should be.

But to confess that you are not what you should be. God ordains clothes to witness to the glory. We've lost. Just something to think about, to put it succinctly, clothing and covering one's body is an act of confession.

That our bodies have lost the glory that they once had prior to the fall compared to what the human body was prior to the fall. Our bodies this side of the fall are presently in a humbled state subject to decay and death, and so we cover. We also wear clothing as an acknowledgement that the people around us are fallen. They are not what they would have been apart from the fall, and because of that we poorly serve them by walking around naked in front of them.

Wearing clothing literally, guys, is an act of humility and an act of consideration for the fallenness of others. It's a humble recognition of the fallen condition of the human race. And that's why in the Bible nakedness. Should only occur within the deepest covenantal confines of the marriage relationship.

It is preserved only for that. Moving on. There's something else that God does, like in this passage, we see Adam's act and then we see God's act of essentially slaying an animal and then clothing Adam and Eve. With the garments that he makes for them from the skins of the animal that he had slain, no doubt for their sins.

the, the tone of these first two actions, seem quite tender. And positive. Adam names his wife, life giver. God does what he does and clothing them.

This is all poignant and tender and relational, but then notice what happens next with a broken heart, God engages in the next action, and that is God removes man from the garden. God removes man from the garden. It says, therefore, the Lord God sent him, the man, out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken, so he drove the man out. He sends him out of the garden.

The text tells us he did so with a twofold agenda, and the first part of that agenda is to keep Adam and Eve from the tree of life. God removes man from the garden because the tree of the, of life is in the garden. In verse 22, the text says, and the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden.

God is speaking to Himself within the Trinitarian Godhead, and he's observing that man has become like Him in the sense of knowing good and evil. Man has crossed that line and become like God and knowing something, knowing good and evil. But man is not like God in his ability to handle that knowledge. Man now has to endure the consequences and the broken relationships and all the evil that knowledge is going to unleash upon the world, and God is looking at man with this knowledge and all that it will unleash.

In terms of suffering and evil, and God determines, I cannot let man in this fallen state eat of the tree of life and thus live forever in a fallen and corrupted state of existence. This is actually a mercy from the Lord. God does not want man to live forever in a fallen state. That's the worst fate.

That could have befallen man on this side of the fall. We know from the rest of biblical revelation that God wants man to live forever. Does God want people to live forever? Absolutely, but not in a corrupted state.

God in scripture we see will set in motion a wonderful chain of events that will result in man's ultimate glorification and perfection and eternal life, but for this to happen, man needs to be prevented from living forever in his fallen and corrupted state. There must be a way for this chapter of fallen existence to come to a close, and so God intentionally seeks to prevent man from eating of the tree of life and thus living forever. God says, so that the man will not be able to literally send forth his hand and eat of the tree of life.

God then cuts off the sentence and sends man forth from the garden.

But God's intention is not all negative. The text says that God gave Adam a mission, so there would be life and that is to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. Adam, I'm sending you out. so that not only you will not be able to eat at the tree of life and live forever in a fallen existence, but also I'm giving you a mission, a job to do, and that is to cultivate the ground outside of the garden, the ground from which you were taken.

And so God sends him out with a mission. This ground that Adam would be cultivating will not be as lush and well watered. And garden-like as it was in the Garden of Eden, it will yield up its produce more reluctantly to Adam. It will yield thorns and thistles, and Adam will have to work hard in cultivating the ground, but the ground will yield up its fruit for him, and he will eat.

And life will be provided for and God basically says, I don't want you to eat of this tree. I have to protect you from this. I'm sending you out of the garden and I'm giving you a mission to cultivate the ground outside of the garden. The text seems to indicate that Adam was not happy to go.

Adam didn't say, oh, OK, you want me to leave, and go cultivate that? Yes, I'll go right now. Adam was very reluctant to go because the text says in verse 24, so he drove the man out. That word drove is a stronger word than the word for sin.

This is the word used in the Old Testament to speak of the Israelites driving out the Canaanites from the promised land, and if you read the narratives of them, Coming into the land of Promise, you see that the Canaanites were not happy to go. They had to be driven out and God is driving the man out of the garden, dispossessing Adam of the garden. The garden is no longer home to him like it once was. He cannot live in this garden anymore, so God drives him out.

Even though Adam is not excited to go or even willing to go, God almost forcefully drives him out. Of the garden. Adam may not have felt this in the moment, but God is driving him out of the garden for his good and for his protection so that he will not eat of the tree of life and live forever in a fallen state. It also seems that once God succeeded in driving Adam out of the garden, That Adam gave every indication of trying to get back in to the garden and so that leads to the final, the 4th and final act of God as he sets up life for men.

In a post-fall world, and that is God guards the way to the tree of life. He guards the way to the tree of life. It says, so he drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. The chair beam or like angelic beings of some sort, winged beings, angelic beings, and God stations the cheru beam.

This is a plural, so it's at least two of them that God stations here at the entrance to the garden. And he stations them at this entrance in order to keep man from coming back into the garden after God had successfully driven him out. It is not coincidental that the Ark of the Covenant. That you read about later in the Old Testament would be housed in the Holy of Holies, and it would have attached to it and hovering over it to cherubim with their wings as it were hovering over the Ark of the Covenant which represented the special presence of God with his people and Moses knows who's reading this account.

It's the Israelites who are traveling through the wilderness and they know what the Ark of the Covenant. is all about and about the cherubim that are over the Ark of the Covenant representing the special presence of God. These Israelites have been traveling with God's special presence leading them with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day. They know that God's special presence is in the holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant and the Cherubim are.

And part of what I think Moses wants the Israelites to know is that what Adam was cut off from here in this passage, the Jews had access to at least by means of their high priest who once a year would be able to enter into the holy of holies. Such an experience still fell short of what Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall, but it was awesome nonetheless, and it would be later that Christ Himself would enter into the holy of holies with his own blood and make atonement for all of our sins once and for all, he would be crucified and when he was crucified, the veil of the temple would be torn from top to bottom, which is God's way of saying you have access.

Into my presence, the way has been opened for you to come into my presence and I now invite you to come into my presence, day by day and moment by moment. In verse 24, the text tells us that God also put a flaming sword at the entrance which turned in every direction.

This would let Adam know that you are not welcome to come back in here right now and if you tried, You will be killed instantly by this sword. Which would be thrust into you. It's hard to maybe grasp a visual of this one writer. gives us this visual.

He says the flaming sword turning in every direction is none other than the lightning flashes which appear as a sharp sword drawn by the hand of the cherubim. However you want to visualize it, it's a very intimidating sight, the cherubim guarding the way. To the tree of life, preventing man entrance and with these lightning bolts or flaming sword, turning in every direction to let men know, do not come through here or you will die. God has cut men off.

From access to the tree of life. And what? It's a mercy. That he does so here.

John MacArthur says it this way, God's concern was that man not live forever in his pitifully cursed condition. Driving the man and his wife out of the garden was an act of merciful grace to prevent them from being sustained forever by the tree of life in a fallen condition. It's not that God doesn't want anyone to eat from the tree of life. He wants that.

But he does not want man in his fallen condition to do that. But after Christ would come into the world and provide perfect atonement, and after Christ, as we celebrated last Sunday would be raised from the dead with a glorified body that is like the one that we who believe in Him will also be raised with, then in the new heaven and the new earth, guess what? When you go to the very end of the Bible, there's the tree of life. That all who believed in Jesus are invited to, welcome to partake of.

In Revelation 22, the apostle John describes what he sees when he looks at the new heavens and the new earth, and he says it this way, and he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree. Of life. There it is, at the end. The tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing.

Of the nations. And there shall be no longer any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his bond servant shall serve him. This is all on the front end of the most amazing story that the world has ever known. And God protects man and his fallen condition from the tree of life, and he just says, trust me, I can't let you eat of this right now in your condition or it will be perpetuated forever and that's the worst thing that could happen.

To you, but I have a plan. I have a plan. In place that ultimately, by sending the seed of the woman, my son into the world to suffer and to die the death that you deserve to die, he come into this world and live amongst you and suffer the pains and the sorrows and the sufferings of this broken world that you are now living in as a result of your sin, and he will suffer and die for your sins, and he will be buried and on the 3rd day, he will rise again. And he will be ascended to my right hand.

And if you look to him and you believe in him as your Lord and Savior, you will be saved and the day will come when you will be able to eat of the tree of life. It will be opened up for you. And you can eat freely to your heart's content and live forever in a completed, perfect, innocent existence. which Christ has obtained.

For you. What we witness here is the start of life in a broken and a fallen world. You read through the rest of the Bible and it's There's no story like it. It's an amazing love story, and you're in that love story as God shows His great love for man and providing a way for us to come to the tree of life, come into his presence to eat freely and live forever.

I close with this in Revelation 22:14. John says, blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. Not everyone has this right, read the context, not everyone has this right, but those whose robes are washed. They have the right.

There's only one way, and that is through Christ. There's only one way to get your robes washed, and that is through Christ and is shed blood. There's only one way to enter into the glory and into the access to the tree of life, and that is through Christ. And if you have never believed in him.

And look to him as your Lord and Savior. I plead with you to do so today. Let's pray together Lord, what we see in our passage today is beauty and brokenness. Tenderness and severity, we see a wisdom that is so infinitely beyond what we could have ever grasped or created on our own.

We see you speaking words that Adam was able to Find great hope and to be able to look at his fallen imperfect wife and give her this name of hope as life or life giver, and as you slay an animal and then make clothes for Adam and Eve and then clothe them with those garments. Showing your tenderness, your care, your love for them, and then you thrust them out of the garden. In ways that must have just been devastating to them, but little did they know that this was for their good.

Because there would later be a way provided.

For mankind to have access anew to the tree of life, and it would be through Christ. Lord, make us all in this room believers in this Christ, believers in Jesus. Humble us By these things. And help us to believe day by day.

To Embrace the atonement you've provided and to wear it, to be dressed in it. To see ourselves, if we have believed in Jesus in this atonement and, and our brothers and sisters who believed in Jesus, to see them dressed and This atonement and our spouses who know you, Lord, to see them dressed in this atonement, and our spouses and anyone else in our life, Lord, who's wounded us by their sins, if they're a believer in you that we would see them dressed in this atonement even for the sins that they've committed that have proven hurtful to us.

Open our hearts to these things, Lord, and take us deep in an understanding of your amazing grace. Amazing grace.

We thank you for this opportunity to give up our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds that we give this morning and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, And