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Wes Terry

The Fall • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Lead Pastor Wes Terry preaches on Genesis 3:20-24 for the Palm Sunday sermon at Broadview Baptist Church on April 2nd, 2023.

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INTRODUCTION:

Today is Palm Sunday. On this day Christians remember the triumphal entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem riding on a young colt of a donkey.

People were waving Palm Branches and laying them down shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel.” (John 12:12-13)

Jesus had gained a following from his ministry of teaching and working miracles and was now coming to his final assignment there in the city of Jerusalem.

Many of the people waving Palm branches in the air assumed that final assignment was using his movement to overthrow Rome and establish God’s kingdom on the earth. That’s why they were giving Jesus a king’s welcome.

What they didn’t understand is that the Christ of the Old Testament who comes as a reigning king but first come as a suffering servant to atone for the sins of the world.

That was the assignment Jesus would meet during this last week of his life.

Finding Christ in the Old Testament

The cross loomed large and hardly any of his disciples really understood what was about to happen.

In fact, after Jesus’ crucifixion and death his disciples were hiding in houses unsure of what would happen.

It wasn’t the resurrection of Jesus that they began to reexamine their assumptions and reread the Old Testament in light of the person and work of Christ on the cross.

One of my favorite passages about this is Luke 24.

After God raised Jesus from the dead he met of a group of disciple’s on the Road to Emmaus and began explaining to them how all of the Law (Torah) and the Prophets (rest of OT) pointed and prepared the way for him. (Luke 24:27)

They described that experience in Luke 24:32 “They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

What a great question. Did our hearts not burn within us while he opened to us the Scriptures?

There’s a scarlet thread in every book of the Bible that leads us to the person and work of Christ.

We ought to be able to open up our Bibles, point to any verse, and see how it bleeds Christ who is the living Word of God.

Context to Genesis

How do we experience that same heart burn when we study the Old Testament? That’s what I want us to explore today in our final section of Genesis 3.

For those of you just now joining us, let me catch you up on where we’ve been.

The book of Genesis opens with God creating the heavens and the earth. First he created the forms then he filled the forms with significance and life. He took chaos and brought it into order. He took emptiness and filled it with meaning and significance.

Genesis 1 concluded with God’s creation of mankind. They were made “in God’s image” and for God’s glory. God gives them a mandate to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and have dominion over it.

Genesis 2 zooms in on the end of Genesis 1 with the creation of the first two humans. Before creating the woman God gives Adam a moral boundary to “eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat of that tree you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

After that, God makes Adam a helper. He responds with a song. “At last! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called ‘woman’ (Isha) because she was taken from ‘man’ (ish).” (Genesis 2:23)

God performs the first wedding and things are going well until Genesis 3 comes along and introduces us to “the Serpent.”

The serpent tempts the woman to violate God’s moral boundary and eventually Eve succumbs to the temptation. Adam, who was with her, does the same.

The consequences of sin immediately follow. Their eyes are opened, they see their nakedness and try and cover it up.

When that doesn’t work they run and hide from God and when God finally finds them they make excuses for themselves and accuse one another. Their hiding and blame shifting couldn’t save them from sin’s consequences, however.

The LORD God places a curse on the serpent and a curse on the ground. The implications of that curse affect the man and the woman at the very core of who they are.

God’s Promise, Provision & Protection

Genesis 3 begins with temptation, sin & the fall of man. It ends with a picture of God’s redeeming grace.

In verse 20 we see the grace God’s promise to us in Christ.

In verse 21 we see the grace of God’s provision for us in Christ.

In verses 22-24 see the grace of God’s protection of us in Christ.

Let’s read it together. Genesis 3:20-24.

Genesis 3:20–24 (ESV)

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

These four verses on the surface may not seem like much but they really contain the essential elements of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Genesis 3 begins with man’s fall into sin.

In the middle is the curse of sin on the world.

At the end is the grace of God in saving us from sin and redeeming us from the curse.

The Grace of God’s Promise

So in today’s message I want to us these demonstrations of God’s grace.

What’s amazing about Genesis 3 is we don’t just see God’s grace we also see how we should respond.

Let’s start with verse 20. It’s a pretty simple verse. “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.”

This is the first time the word Eve shows up in Genesis 3.

Adam’s decision to name his wife Eve is significant because it demonstrates a tremendous act of faith. Faith is trusting God enough to act on what he says.

Before the Fall, the man and woman communed with God because they lived by faith.

They trusted God enough to live by what he said. He said do this and don’t do this and they lived by that word and everything was great.

Faith/Communion Unbelief/Hell

Communion with God and living by faith always go hand in hand. Always.

The opposite of faith is unbelief. The opposite of communion with God is the absence of God. We might call that hell.

Faith results in communion with God. Unbelief results in separation from God.

The goal of the serpent was to destroy their communion with God and drag them into hell through unbelief.

Remember, Satan has always been jealous of God. He didn’t want them to believe in God he wanted them to believe in and worship HIM.

Satan’s Schemes

So he plants seed of doubt to give birth to unbelief.

God’s Word isn’t true (reliable.)

God’s motives are not pure (he’s jealous.)

God’s character isn’t really good. (He’s withholding.)

He’s not on your side, he’s restricting your joy because he doesn’t want you to be equal with HIM.

These are lies from the serpent to create doubt in God’s Word. Satan’s goal is their unbelief. And he succeeds.

They stop trusting in God start believing in Satan’s lies.

They eat of the tree and they are catapulted into brokenness.

For the woman, motherhood and marriage become a source of hardship and pain.

For the man, work becomes a burden as does his leadership in the home. He becomes harsh and abusive, denying his responsibilities as the head.

Adam’s Faith

But something changes in verse 20. Adam goes from hiding and blame shifting to trusting in God’s promise.

What is faith? Faith is trusting God enough to live by what he says.

The book of Romans says, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.”

Adam doesn’t have the “Word of God” like we do today. But he did have God’s promise in Genesis 3:15.

Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

By calling his wife “Eve,” Adam is believing God and holding him to his promise.

He’s agreeing with God that the wages of sin ARE death.

But he’s also agreeing with God that true life is in His promise.

“Eve” means “the mother of all living.” It’s as if Adam is saying, “I’m believing God that from the womb of this woman will come a ‘Life bringer and death defeater.’”

And with every child that came from her womb I imagine Adam thought the same. “Is this child the head crusher? Is this child the death defeater?”

Adam is moving from unbelief to belief. From brokenness and hell to God’s grace in salvation.

He’s expressing faith that Eve will become the mother of all living and that the death brought about by sin will be destroyed this one who has been promised by God.

What is the object of Adam’s faith? He has faith in an unseen Christ. Faith in Christ who is still long off in the distance.

He doesn’t have the same degree of clarity that Abraham would have or certainly Israel through Moses and the Torah or us with the hindsight of Christ death and resurrection.

But he has enough to be be saved by God’s grace because He’s trusting in God’s promise.

How OT Saints Are Saved

If you read the book of Hebrews this is how every Old Testament saint is saved. By grace, through faith, in Christ alone.

They didn’t know Jesus’ name but they believed in God’s provision through this promise.

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Genuine Repentance

Before we move on let me point out that saving faith is always preceded by genuine repentance.

It’s the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow.

Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of action.

But Adam’s mind changed at two different levels.

He changes his mind about God’s faithfulness to his promise.

He changes his mind about the severity of his sin.

So Adam is turning away from God and turning to God for salvation.

Adam wasn’t just sorry he got caught. He was sorry he stopped trusting in God’s word. That’s genuine repentance and it’s the soil out of which true faith is born.

There must be a genuine disgust over the ugliness of your sin before you can express genuine faith in God’s promise to save..

Repentance is DISAGREEING with Satan about his lies and agreeing again with God about the truth.

I’m assuming Eve is right there with Adam because she accepted her name and what happens next.

Looking —> Looking <—

What about us today? How do we respond to God’s promise?

What Adam looked forward to in hope we are now able to look back on in confidence.

Adam looked forward to God’s promise in Christ we are able to look back to Christ’s historical death and resurrection.

We know with certainty that death cannot win because Jesus destroyed death through death on the cross! Adam no longer had to live under guilt and condemnation and neither do we!

What is the object of our faith today? The same object as Adam’s. Salvation is by grace, through faith, in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

For Adam faith came by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. So also do we as we hear and respond to the Word of Christ.

Death Defeater

God sent his son Jesus Christ, the serpent slayer, to destroy the work of the devil.

Through his substitutionary atoning sacrifice Jesus crushed the head of the serpent and destroyed Satan’s power and authority.

He destroyed death through death!

It was PALM SUNDAY in John 12:31 when Jesus said of his death “...now will the ruler of this world be cast out.”

Satan has been defanged. He’s no longer who he used to be.

That’s not to say Satan isn’t powerful. It is to say Satan is NOTHING compared to our great God.

The Grace of God’s Provision

The second demonstration of God’s grace is in verse 22. No only does Adam believe in God’s promise. Adam also receives God’s provision.

Verse 21 shows God’s grace in providing skin garments to cover Adam and Eve in their nakedness.

Genesis 3:21 (ESV)

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Many theologians believe this is the first animal death. Imagine the impact that must’ve had on Adam and Eve. This is the first time they’ve witnessed death. For them. For their sin.

Insufficient Coverings

Do you remember the first thing Adam and Eve did when they sinned against God and realized they were naked?

They went and they made clothes. They sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness.

The coverings that Adam and Eve made for themselves were insufficient.

They were meager attempts of self-salvation. “I’ll cover my sin… I’ll deal with it… I’ll fix my problem.”

This is man’s universal response to Sin outside of God’s grace in salvation. This is the response of the flesh.

Human efforts to cover up sin will never be sufficient to deliver us from it’s consequences.

We don’t run to God for help we run from God to hide. Some attempt is made to “cover up” what’s lacking.

The problem is, as Romans 6:23 makes clear, “the wages of sin is death.” The only response sufficient to cover sin against a God infinite in holiness is a death of eternal separation from him.

Only God Can Provide

A life must be given. But the life must be a perfect life. A spotless sacrifice. Adam could not provide that. So God does it for him.

The Lord is the one who is active in this verse. He doesn’t tell Adam to make the sacrifice. He performs the sacrifice himself. He sheds the blood of the innocent.

God makes a sufficient covering for our sin through the death of an innocent.

The Hebrew word used is actually used to describe a tunic. So we’re not talking about underwear but a long robe to cover them completely.

Beautiful garments that cover them from head to toe.

**The word is used most often to describe the robes priests wore in the temple. **

This substitutionary atonement in Genesis ultimately points to Jesus.

The truth is, the blood of an animal isn’t really sufficient to cover for our sins against each other much less a holy God who created us.

The covering we need is a covering that ONLY GOD can provide. And the Lord God has provided that covering through the death of an innocent substitute. The sinless perfect life of on his one and only son.

When Jesus died on the cross he didn’t just pay the price for our sins so that we could be forgiven.

God actually goes beyond that in providing us a robe of perfect righteousness.

And just as that innocent animal in Genesis didn’t do anything wrong or deserve to die neither did Jesus, the sinless Son of God who lived a perfect life of love and obedience before God the Father.

Our Response to God’s Provision

What does this mean for us? We must believe AND receive. What begins in the mind must shift to the heart!

What does that mean? It means you no longer trust in your own coverings but you cling to Christ alone as your righteousness and justification before God.

You must admit somebody else has to die in my life for my sin. I need God to do for me what I cannot do for myself.

It’s free for us. It costs us nothing. But it cost God everything.

I wonder if we Christians sometimes forget that. God lost his beloved son, allowed him to be beaten and tortured by the very people he came to save.

God’s mercy is shown in not giving us what we truly deserve. God is merciful. But God is also gracious.

God’s grace is shown in giving us what we could’ve never earned ourselves. A robe of perfect righteousness that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

What Does Your Life Say?

Are you standing in the grace of God and robe of Christ’s righteousness?

Have you received God’s provision in Christ and rejected any attempt of your own to save yourself or deliver yourself from your sins?

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and rightouesness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name! On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

“Have you been to JESUS for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in HIS GRACE this hour, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are your garments spotless, are they white as snow, are you washed in the blood of the lamb? The soul cleansing blood of the lamb?”

Have you looked upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you seen him there, on the cross, dying in your place for your sin and have you cast yourself fully on the mercy of God for his forgiveness, mercy and grace?

Have you received in Christ the covering for your sin and shame? The covering ONLY God can provide?

And, if you have, does your life communicate that fact? What does your life say about your experience of God’s grace?

Are you celebrating that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus?

Are you crippled with anxiety and shame or are you strengthened by the grace that is in our Lord Jesus Christ?

This is the fuel for living the Christian life. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. We must believe in God’s promise and receive God’s provision.

Silencing Accusation

What does this look like practically? I think the most powerful outcome of receiving God’s provision is our ability to silence the voice of accusation.

I’ve rarely met a Christian who doesn’t struggle with Satan’s accusation.

It’s one of Satan’s greatest weapons. It’s a prison that Satan attempts to lock us within.

“You aren’t worthy of being saved.

Look at how pathetic, sinful, wicked, hopeless you are.

You deserve to be justly condemned forever. You’re of no value to God.”

But God’s provision in Christ is a key of liberation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Jesus says, “That gun no longer has a bullet in the chamber.” Jesus as destroyed the accuser because God made God on his promise in the person of Jesus Christ.

So, in the words of Revelation 12:10, Let us rejoice “for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”

The Grace of God’s Protection

The final demonstration of God’s grace is in verses 22-24.

We see the grace of God’s promise as we believe,

the grace of God’s provision as we receive.

Finally we see the grace of God’s protection.

Genesis 3:22–24 (ESV)

It’s easy to look at all of this as judgment but this is actually another demonstration of God’s grace.

Listen to the discussion God has with himself. There’s a concern that Adam and Eve would remain in the Garden and live forever in their state of brokenness.

Adam and Eve were not created as immortal beings. Their long lives were a result of eating from the tree of life.

So if Adam and Eve - in this state of brokenness - go back and eat from the tree of life - they will live forever in this state of brokenness and decay. They would literally become “the walking dead.”

God’s discipline of Adam and Eve in driving them from the garden was actually an act of gracious protection.

God’s Grace in Judgment

To do otherwise would’ve consigned them to a life of eternal hell.

Instead of walking forever in communion with God they would spend eternity separated from God. This would’ve been a literal hell.

Truth, goodness and beauty forever out of their grasp and sight. That’s the definition of hell.

So their banishment from the garden is actually a gift of grace. Physical death becomes a mercy. It’s not a grave into which we go into a state of eternal darkness. It’s a departure from this brokenness into something so much better.

The irony is still tragic.

Adam and Eve were created to guard the garden of Eden and now the garden of Eden is being guarded from them.

That’s what sin does. It cuts us off from enjoying the presence of God. Adam and Eve were cast out of this garden and the joy of God’s presence but that access would not be cut off forever.

Foreshadowing God’s Presence

In fact, this language of being driven out “east of Eden” and the “the cherubim” the “flaming sword” and the “tree of life.” is all foreshadowing of things to come.

Each of them reminders that we are exiles yearning for the home we lost in the Fall. That home is ultimately the presence of and glory of God.

You know that because later on in Exodus we see God’s glory and presence located in the Arc of the Covenant between the two cherubim inscribed on the mercy seat. (Num 7:89)

Moses would experience God’s presence in that place and speak with him face to face. The rest of God’s people were largely cut off. There had to be some kind of mediator and the access was limited.

After the tabernacle there was the temple. Inside the temple was the holy place. Separating the holy from the common were curtains inscribed with cherubim just like the tabernacle.

And inside the holy of holies was the Golden Lampstand/Menorah just like the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. It’s all the symbolism of Genesis 3, guarding the presence of God in the paradise of his presence.

Generation after generation God’s people are exiles in search of God’s presence and glory being restored. They are living lives East of Eden eagerly waiting on God’s salvation by grace.

The Curtain is Torn

But something changes with the coming of Jesus Christ.

The fullness of God’s presence dwelt bodily in him. Reconciliation with God was made available through Him.

And if it wasn’t clear enough through his life and teaching of the Gospel, God made one final demonstration through Jesus death on the cross.

As Jesus is hanging there on the cross and breathes his last breath, the ground begins to shake and the curtain in the temple that separated the holy of holies was torn in two. (Matthew 27:51)

Paradise lost gets restored through Jesus Christ. His death inaugurates something totally new.

It was torn top to bottom - not bottom to top - proving that GOD is the one who did it. (just as he did the covering for Adam)

The old system separating sinful people from the presence of a holy God has been torn down.

We can be reconciled to God and brought back into his presence and glory.

We are welcomed back into Eden, back into Paradise.

How? By grace alone, through faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.

He is our Eastern Gate back into paradise and he invites each of us in if we will just believe.