Genesis 3

So Genesis chapter 3, this is definitely one of the most important chapters in all of the

Bible since it records the fall of man into sin. So the remaining 1 ,186 chapters of the

Bible are from this point on, it's all about fixing what went wrong right here in Genesis 3.

So the first two chapters, we know that God created everything. He created everything good.

He said, in fact, it was very good, but that's until Satan shows up in the form of the serpent.

And Satan is here with the purpose of trying to tempt man, trying to tempt

Eve to sin. So we see that Eve is what?

Deceived, right? But Adam just flat out disobeys God's command.

So in doing so, when Adam sins, that brings the entire, not just the human race, brings it into sin.

He brings the whole creation under the curse. So the first thing I want to start out with, and I know that probably everybody here knows this already, but just for maybe that one person or someone online, we believe that Genesis chapter 3, we believe this really happened, literally as written.

Yes, there was a talking snake. That's what it says. And that's what we believe.

And I bring it up because most of, if not most, certainly many of the denominational churches, they will either flat out deny that Adam and Eve were real people, or they'll say that the first several chapters of Genesis, they'll say, well, this is really just poetry.

It didn't really happen. It's just trying to communicate something else. So ironically,

I would say many ministries have fallen for the same trick that the serpent is trying to pull here.

God's word is clear, but you know what the devil does. He tries to cast doubt on whether or not, like, is this really true?

Did God really say this? Did this really happen? So a lot of churches, they don't have a biblical worldview.

So that's why they don't want to take the Bible literally. And if they can just get people to not take

Genesis literal, they almost certainly don't take Revelation literal. Well, probably there's nothing really literal in between.

And that's kind of how they get around things that they don't like. So that's where most of the big denominations, that's where they're at.

I would say they deny or reinterpret Genesis 3 or Genesis 1 through 12.

But we believe that this actually happened exactly as is written.

Amen. Okay. So chapter 3 begins with verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning.

Does anyone have a different word? Subtle, okay. Subtle or cunning.

The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has

God indeed said, you shall not eat. Every tree of the garden, did

God really say that to you? And of course, God didn't say that to her. God said it to who?

Adam. So Eve, we know, didn't hear this directly from God. She got it from Adam.

So we know, let's start out with who the serpent is. Again, this is something that I'm sure everyone in this room knows, but the serpent is the devil, right?

And Satan, how do we know that? Are we assuming that? I actually was listening to a,

I don't know, some pastor online, and he was saying that there's no evidence that the serpent was actually the devil.

And I'm like, what? I never, I never even heard anyone question that. But just in case someone isn't convinced,

John in Revelation 12, 9 refers to Satan as that serpent of old.

And then Paul in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, again, refers to Satan or the devil as the serpent.

So there's really no question that the serpent is the devil. Okay. So the word cunning or subtle in this context, it implies deceit.

So the serpent you might say is very sly. He's very crafty.

He's cunning. He didn't come right out. He didn't come on too strong and deny

God's word, you know, right off the bat. First, what he does, he starts out.

Yeah, he's subtle. So he's just planting seeds of doubt. He's just asking a question.

Have you ever heard somebody? Because if they come right out and say God's word isn't true, that's going to throw up red flags and Christians are going to be like, whoa, hold on.

But what people will often do is they'll ask a question. Is that really true? You know, they're not denying it outright, but they're asking questions.

And what's behind the question is doubt. So that's how a lot of people do it. And that's how the devil did it.

So he's planting seeds of doubt in Eve's mind.

And then he starts out with that tactic. Then he goes to the outright lie afterwards.

So the fact that Satan went to Eve first, I don't think that's a mistake.

Perhaps he knew that Eve would be the easier target. But we know for sure from last week that God gave the commandment to Adam and not

Eve. So let's go back to chapter two and just look at Genesis 2, 16 through 17.

Genesis 2, 16 and 17 says, and the Lord God commanded what the man saying of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it.

For in the day that you eat, you shall surely die. So God gave the commandment to Adam.

That means Eve heard it secondhand. And when you hear something secondhand, not directly from the source,

I mean, if for no other reason, Eve is more susceptible just for that reason alone, if nothing else.

So when the serpent asked her, did God really say it's meant to get her thinking, get her questioning, yeah, did, did

God say that? What did Adam tell me? What did God say? And now she's thinking about it.

And that's where Satan comes in. And actually from the beginning, he's really twisting the word of God.

You hear me say this often how people twist the word of God.

This is really the first time that it happened. And this is the devil's tactic even today, but he's twisting the meaning.

What he said sounds similar to what God told Adam. It sounds similar, but not quite.

The meaning has been changed, but it still sounds close. So he asked that question.

And then Eve responds in verses two and three. She says, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden.

That's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God has said, you shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it.

Lest you die. Now, is that true? Is that what God said? Why not?

Right. Yeah. You both agree that she has added something to what

God said. God said nothing about, you can't touch it. He just said, you can't eat it. Now it's reasonable to think maybe you shouldn't touch it either, but still, that's not what

God said. So Eve is already making a few mistakes here. Number one, she's in a conversation with the devil, which you never want to do that.

I don't even know if she realizes who or what she's dealing with. Maybe she doesn't.

But, you know, there's a lot of people today who actually talk to the devil. You know, they bind the devil.

They're rebuking the devil. They're, they're praying and admonishing the devil.

And I've heard pastors do this. Don't even pay attention to the devil. Don't ever talk to him.

What does the Bible say? Resist, right? Resist the devil. That's all we should ever do. So what?

Yeah. Resist and he will flee from you. You should never talk to him. Certainly don't think you can reason with them or outsmart him.

So that's maybe the first mistake. And then, yeah, the second mistake is Eve is adding to what

God's word, you know, to what God has said. So I think the devil knows at this point, he really has his hook center.

And that's when he comes out with the outright lie. So in verses four and five, the devil, now he says, no, you will not surely die.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

So the tactics the devil uses are as follows. If you take notes, write this down because we want to know what tactics the devil and his people use.

So if we know the tactics, then we won't fall for them. So number one, Satan, he always cast out on the word of God.

That's number one. Number two, he twists God's word.

Slightly changing it a little bit, adding, taking away. So he cast out on the word of God.

He twists God's word. And then number three, he cast doubt. He'll cast out on whether or not

God is truly good. Okay, so he's questioning the goodness of God, which a lot of people fall for this one.

They've gone through something very difficult in their life. They've gone through some tragedies, some hardship.

And maybe that's when the devil sends that fiery dart. And I don't know if he can put thoughts in people's minds or not, but people start to question the goodness of God because of something that happened.

But here, it's like, here's what the devil's doing. He's putting another seed in her mind.

Like if God is so good, why is he holding back? And he's made all these trees and here's this beautiful tree here.

And look how good the fruit is. If God is so good, why won't he allow you? To eat of it.

Why would he put it there if you can't eat it? Like God is God is maybe not so good.

He's holding something back. And of course, you know, there's a little bit of truth to every lie.

Anyone who's a good liar, you know, politicians in particular, like there's always truth to what they say, right?

Every good lie contains some truth. So because if you come out with just full blown lies, it's too easy to spot.

So you have to blend it with the truth. So that's the other tactic the devil will use.

He'll mix truth and error. So when they ate the fruit, let's look at this.

Did he mix truth with error? When they ate the fruit, were their eyes open? That's what he promised them.

Right. Yeah. So in a sense, yes, that's what happened.

Their eyes were open. Did they now know? Do they now know good and evil?

I mean, before you say they only knew good. Now they know evil. Well, but the devil is framing this as though it's a good thing.

Are they like God knowing good and evil? Well, they're not really like God. Certainly not in the way that the devil tried to make it out is that it's going to be this good thing.

You will be like God. That didn't really happen. But there's a little bit of truth in what he's saying. Now, as far as them dying,

God did say the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Isn't that what God said?

Now, did they die the day they ate? No. So the way this is usually explained, they did not die physically that day.

That's clear because Adam lived another 900 and some odd years.

Did they die spiritually that day? And that's usually what people say. They died spiritually.

There was a separation, an alienation between them and God. You could also say they started to die.

The dying process, even though they lived a very long time, the process of death started.

The clock started ticking, you could say. But at the very least, they died spiritually.

I think that's true. Now, why didn't they die physically? Because you take it at face value.

They probably should have died physically. Does God have the right to show grace?

I mean, there's been plenty of times in the Bible. God says, hey, if you do this, here's going to be the result.

And then someone does it. And then there's intercession. God shows mercy. So I think

God probably did mean you would die that day. But he showed grace.

I think that's another way to look at it. So Romans 6 .23 says that the wages of sin is death.

And in Romans 5, this is a very important point. In Romans 5, the Apostle Paul explains that death came into the world through Adam, through sin.

So the reason why anything dies is because of sin. So if they had never sinned, they'd still be alive today, right?

So death has come into the world because of sin. And by the way, that's another reason why

I believe in a young Earth, why I really do believe the Earth is about 6 ,000, 6 ,300 years old, give or take.

Because if the Earth is billions and billions of years old, then you had death for the dinosaurs dying,

Neanderthal man dying. You had death for billions of years before Adam came along 6 ,000 years.

So this is another reason why I believe in a young Earth. Because if the Earth is very old and death existed before sin,

Paul's words in Romans 5 are not true, which is a huge problem and has implications for the gospel.

And we talked about that in our study months ago about the age of the

Earth. But you have something else? Well, I have a question that I've always wondered about. Sure. Is what would have happened if Adam had not eaten, and then

Eve gave him the apple? Because then he wouldn't have known sin, he wouldn't have been separated from God, but she would have been.

I know it's jumping to conclusions, but I've really always wondered, you know, because when they sinned and he told them to multiply, there would have been no, we wouldn't be here.

Yeah, so everyone heard the question. What would have happened if, yes,

Eve ate, but what if Adam said no? The only thing I'd say about that,

Adam is the one who has headship. God made the covenant with Adam.

So Adam needed to sin for the human race to be cast into, you know, darkness.

Adam would have had to sin. And God knew before this happened that it was going to.

I mean, God knew, right? He knew. And another question that I have along with this lesson, too, is that is

Satan Lucifer? Was this the punishment that he had trying to overthrow God?

I see a say, I believe Lucifer is the name that Satan was given originally.

So Lucifer would have been the holy angel and then he fell and became the devil.

But I think he had fallen before this. Like, I think we talked about this in the study in chapter one, that I think the angels were created before Genesis one, one, and the fall of Lucifer probably happened before Genesis one, one.

But, you know, that's, that's speculation. So. Right.

Yeah. I mean, the Bible doesn't really tell us, so we can't say for sure. All right.

Any, anything else before we move on? Okay.

So the scripture is very clear about this. The reason people die and more importantly, the reason why people need to be saved from sin and its penalty, which is death, physical death and spiritual death is because of this, what happened right here, the fall of man into sin.

So this chapter really sets up the whole narrative of the Bible because the Bible is one big redemption story.

So chapter one, everything's good. Chapter two, it's good. Chapter three, everything goes downhill.

And then yes, the rest of the Bible is the story of redemption. So the serpent is in the process of deceiving

Eve. Look at verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

So again, Satan is framing this as though this would be a good thing.

If you eat, you're going to receive, you're going to be like God. You're going to receive some special hidden, you know, knowledge.

So notice how Eve was deceived. She was lied to. She was tricked into it.

Really. Satan has to convince her. But Adam, you know, on the other hand, he just goes along with it.

I'll put it this way. Adam took that universal, you know, marriage advice that everyone gives to men, right?

Eve told him to eat the fruit and Adam was like, yes, dear. And that's, that's the way it was.

Now, as soon as they eat, they instantly lose their innocence because now they're guilty in this moment.

Now they're guilty of wrongdoing. So immediately they become self -conscious and uncomfortable.

They are now for the first time experiencing shame because these things always go together.

Guilt leads to shame. So first it's the nakedness and they try to cover themselves up.

They make aprons made of fig leaves. So they're covering themselves.

They, they make these themselves. And then later on, we're going to see that this isn't good enough. And then God will clothe them.

And that clothing that God provides is symbolic for salvation and being clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

But we'll get to that later on. So the first thing they experience, okay, we're naked.

They experience shame because they're guilty. The next thing they experience is fear.

Look at verse eight says, then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And Lord God, these are two names. So Jehovah Elohim. So they heard God coming.

And it says that Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

And the way it's described, it makes it sound like that God is walking through the garden in physical form.

I mean, that's the way I read it. That's the impression that I get. Do you agree?

This is just the way it sounds, which means God could have been in human form, even as the pre -incarnate

Christ. That's speculation, but that's the way it sounds to me. Verse nine.

And then the Lord God called to, so they're hiding and the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you?

So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which

I commanded you that you should not eat? Now, does God know the answer to these questions?

Right? He does. Why is God asking if he already knows the answer?

I think, I think what God wants from Adam is for Adam to come clean, to just come out and admit what he has done, right?

This is what God always wants from us when we do something wrong. This is what first John one nine says.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So I think that's why God is asking, not because he doesn't know, but he wants Adam to confess. Does Adam confess?

Adam does not confess. Adam shifts the blame so he doesn't admit wrongdoing.

Well, it's Eve's fault. And then Eve, well, it's the serpent. So everyone's blaming each other.

Janet, you had a hand. Okay. All right.

But what's happening here is what has happened throughout history. Mankind runs from God.

Mankind is hiding from God. Here, they're literally hiding from God. But metaphorically speaking, people are hiding from God right now.

And God still today continues to seek man. It's never the other way around.

A lot of people believe you've heard of seeker -friendly churches and people talk about, oh, there's these people out there seeking

God and we need to cater to them. Well, the Bible says in Romans three that no man seeks after God.

I think it's stated in Psalm 14 as well. No person, no man seeks after God.

It's always God seeking us. So mankind is running from God, hiding from God.

And it's God who seeks us out, not the other way around. So Adam is not seeking

God. He doesn't want to find God. He's hiding. But I think God is giving him the opportunity to do the right thing.

But like people normally do when they're caught, they tend to shift the blame.

So we see that in verse 12, the man said, the woman that you gave me, that you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.

So you could see this as Adam blaming God. Really? It's the woman you get.

Now, maybe that's not how he meant it, but maybe it is. At the very least,

Adam is blaming Eve. That's clear. So what does Eve do? Does she acknowledge wrongdoing?

No, she blames the serpent. So Adam blames

Eve. Eve shifts blame to the serpent. And of course, the serpent has no leg to stand on.

So he just kind of takes it. I know that that's getting old. I say that every time we come to this, but okay.

As long as you laugh, I'm going to keep saying it. So verse 14.

So the Lord said to the serpent, because now here are the consequences. You're guilty.

Here's what's going to happen. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field.

And on your belly, you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

This would imply that the serpent, before this happened, walked upright.

Or that the serpent had legs. Something like that. But now, from this point onward, the serpent is seen as a loathsome creature.

Like people and snakes just don't mix. So most people have an inherent fear of snakes.

You can see other animals out in the wild and it doesn't really bother us.

But if you come across a snake, usually you jump, right? Like you have that instant reaction from snakes or because of snakes.

And that may be something that God put in us because of this. I don't know. I think that's possible.

But God is handing out punishments. And the serpent is the first one to be punished.

Now, obviously, Satan isn't a snake, okay? He inhabited the body of a snake.

And because of this, because that's the creature that the devil chose to possess, now all snakes go on their belly, according to this.

So I believe that's true. That's why it is the way it is. So God's handing out punishment.

The devil, I think, gets the worst of it. Do you agree with that? I think so. So but in the midst of all of this bad news, and this is, yeah, it's punishment, it's judgment, it's bad news.

But in the midst of the bad news, we see some good news. So verse 15, verse 15 may be the most important verse in all of the chapter.

This is called the Proto -Evangelium, okay? So that means the first gospel,

Proto -Evangelium. Who's heard of that term? Okay. So wait, you say, well, how is this the first gospel?

Let's read it. Verse 15, God says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

And you say, Pastor, that doesn't sound like the gospel to me. Well, it's not the gospel, but it's the first hint of the gospel, if you will.

It's the first, albeit cryptic, it's not clear, but it's the first hint that a

Savior would be sent into the world. So let's just kind of explain this verse. Enmity means what?

What's another word? Does anyone have a different word? Hostility or what? Separation.

Okay. I will put, let's just go with hostility. I will put hostility between you and the woman.

So between the serpent, Satan and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

So in other words, for the past 6 ,000 years, there has been hostility between Satan and Jesus, Satan and the

Lord, and there's been hostility between believers and unbelievers. Okay. So Satan is the serpent and his seed or his children are unbelievers.

Okay. Jesus calls unbelievers in John 8, 44, he calls them children of the devil.

Now, there are some unbelievers that haven't been saved yet. So technically, I wouldn't say every unbeliever is a child of the devil, but just generally speaking, that's how it breaks down.

So the devil has his people, unbelievers, Christ Lord has his people, believers, and there's this hostility between the two.

Okay. But how is this the gospel? It's the promise that Christ is going to crush the head of the serpent, right?

So Jesus will defeat Satan. Jesus will crush the devil's head.

But then in the process, he will bruise the Lord's heel, which is probably just a reference to the temporary pain that Christ suffered on the cross.

So the cross was an immense, it was torture. It was a terrible, but it was temporary.

You know, Christ rose again, but the devil, once his head is crushed, that's it. It's permanent for all time.

Okay. So do you see how that's a promise of what's to come? And it does sort of foreshadow the gospel.

So that's the punishment for Satan. He will be crushed for Eve. We see the punishment in verse 16.

The Lord says, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception in pain.

You shall bring forth children. So we see that pain in childbirth is part of the curse, which if that's true, then if, you know, in theory, if Eve never sinned, then you could have child after child and it would never be painful.

Childbirth could be, could be an easy thing to go through. Now I hear that it's very difficult, but it wasn't that way originally.

So I will great, this is one of those things where bringing a child into the world should be, and I guess it is still, it is one of the greatest things you can do, but it's, it's now going to be accompanied by all of this pain and suffering.

And of course, a lot of women, especially in olden times, a lot of women died.

During childbirth, that was very common. So, but that, that was never the way it was meant to be originally, but that's all the result of, of the curse.

Okay. The next statement is somewhat debated as to what this means.

So it's translated differently depending on the Bible translation that you use, but the new

King James says this, the Lord says to Eve, your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.

Does anyone else have something different? Your desire shall be for your husband.

Okay. Shall be to your husband. What does yours say? Okay. Okay. So what do you love?

Okay. So there's three main ways this is rendered. Your desire shall be for your husband, which probably is not the best way to put it.

Cause you're like, okay, what does that mean? You're going to desire your husband. Is that bad? Like I want him to have a thing.

Yeah. Um, so the other translation is your desire shall be to control your husband.

You want to be in charge. You want to kind of wrestle. He has the headship, but you want to be in charge.

And then the other one was, uh, your desire shall be contrary to your husband.

So now, you know, you would have had all these years of marriage. You're just living in harmony, agreeing on everything and your partners and everything's great, but now you're going to be fighting all the time.

Cause he wants to do one thing and you want to do something else. So now there's this constant, you know, back and forth.

That's probably the best way to rent. Cause that's, I mean, what's true.

They're all true, I guess. Um, so the first part is translated different, but usually the second part is always translated the same.

So the woman shall, her, her desire shall be contrary, uh, to her husband, but he shall rule over you.

So obviously this is, uh, one of the most controversial because we live in the 20th century.

So this is, maybe it was always controversial. I don't know. But this, this idea, I think we talked about it on Sunday with Ephesians five wives submit to your own husbands, like never a popular topic, but that's some people would say, well, that's part of the curse.

I don't think that's part of the curse because Adam had headship to start with. So what's part of the curse.

It's just the turmoil, you know, the, the different opinion in the bickering and the, the different ideas.

So now there's going to be, you know, strife, uh, within the marriage relationship.

Any comments on that? I think that's, uh, what's being said, but notice, uh, he says to Eve, he shall rule over you and say, well, okay, what does that mean to rule?

Well, just at the very least, you could say that throughout human history, uh, men have been men typically have been the ones, you know, in leadership presidents,

Kings, they've sort of controlled the world, ruled the world and women sort of have that desire that, well, why can't we be in charge?

And that's, again, all part of, you know, the, the curse where instead of working together the way it was supposed to be, now there's this, uh, battle back and forth.

Okay. All right. So look at verse 17, that's the punishment for Eve.

So Satan has got his judgment. Eve has her punishment. Now it comes down to Adam.

It's his turn, verse 17. Then Adam, uh, he said, because you have heated the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which

I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it. Here it is. Cursed is the ground or cursed is the ground for your sake in toil.

You shall eat it all the days of your life or eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the herb of the field and the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it.

You are taken for dust. You are, and to dust you shall return.

So part of what God is saying is, you know, you're going to work hard all your life and then you're going to die.

Okay. So death is part of the, I mean, that's the big takeaway that the curse sin leads to death.

So Adam, you're going to die. That wouldn't have happened if he never ate. Now, Janet's question, if Eve ate and Adam never ate, and that's a hypothetical,

I don't think they would have died if Adam never ate. But that's again, that's just not, that's not what happened.

And God knew that's not what was going to take place. What else is God saying to Adam?

Well, is some people think that work is part of the curse. Work is not part of the curse because remember

Adam was placed in the garden and his job was to tend and keep the garden. So man was given work to do.

And that's, it was a blessing. Work is a blessing. A lot of men find joy and purpose in their work and that's the way it should be.

But now work is going to be very difficult. And of course, back then mankind, originally there were farmers, you know, that's not something that a lot of people do today.

But originally if you wanted to survive, you needed to plant, you hunted, you would hunt and you planted crops.

And I think we all know anyone who's ever planted a garden, you know, it takes a lot of work to get a good crop of vegetables.

It takes zero work to get weeds and thorns and that. So it's a lot of hard work for things to go right.

It's easy, takes no work for things to go wrong. And that's kind of the way the world is. Things are just, if you just leave things as they are, things tend now towards decay.

So it's like with a house. You have a house, you need to do upkeep. You constantly have to be doing things, improving it, fixing it, because anything left to itself now is just over time going to just break down and crumble and be destroyed.

But again, it was never supposed to be like that. All right. Verse 20.

And so the judgments have been handed out and now we see that Adam called his wife's name

Eve because she was the mother of all the living. So the name Eve literally means life giver or the one who gives life.

Now there's something I haven't mentioned here because this is another important takeaway from chapter three.

I didn't know where to insert it, so we'll just do it now. But because Adam ate the fruit, he is now what?

He is a sinner. And Eve is a sinner. Adam really gets most of the blame, but Eve is a sinner.

So you have Adam, a sinner. He comes together with Eve, another sinner. And now they're going to produce what?

Sinners. Okay. So this is what we would call original sin. So the doctrine of original sin is a fundamental

Christian teaching. That term is not found in the Bible, but it's very important. We understand what original sin refers to.

If you've heard me talk about this before, I always say the same thing. Original sin does not refer to the first or original sin.

It refers to the effects of the first sin. So original sin is not

Adam eating the fruit. Original sin is the fact that Adam and the human race, it is in our nature.

We are now sinners by nature. That's the effect. So original sin teaches that mankind now has this inherited sin nature because of what

Adam did. Okay. Any questions on that? You understand original sin? So every person born into this world, a little child.

Now, we do think children are innocent because they have never committed personal sin.

Like a six month old baby cannot sin. I don't think.

I mean, someone would argue with that, I guess. Because they don't know the difference between right and wrong. Now, as soon as they're able to, they will because it's in their nature.

But still, we can say that child is a sinner because we're all sinners by nature.

Okay. So that's the sin nature. All right. Any questions? All right.

Let's go. Let's just skip 21 for a moment. We'll come back to that and finish with that. But look at verses 22 and 23.

This appears to be a conversation within the Godhead. So God is speaking. God isn't talking to himself.

His father is talking to son and son to father. That's what this looks like.

So verse 22. Then the Lord God. So Jehovah Elohim said, behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil.

And again, there you see us. God refers to himself in plural form. So it's yet another hint at the triune nature of God, father, son, and spirit.

So the man has become like one of us. God, I do not think is talking to the angels because the angels are not us.

They're not God. So now he says, let last man put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

Okay. So what, and to put it another way, God is saying, you know, we have a problem here.

If we allow Adam to stay in the garden, now that Adam is a sinner. If we allow him to stay in the garden, he's going to keep eating of the tree of life.

He's going to live forever. Now, why is that a problem? I mean, that's eternal life, isn't it?

It is eternal life, but it's eternal life living in your sin. So is

Adam a happy, joyful person right now? I mean, I don't know. It doesn't really say, but you know, you can't really experience the fullness of God's joy.

When you're in the flesh and you're in sin. So God does not want, here's the point. God does not want people living in sin forever and ever because that's not really eternal life.

That's not the life abundant that God wants for his people. So it's better that man is removed from the garden.

That's his, that's his punishment. But in a sense, it's an act of mercy because now man can be redeemed and live forever without sin instead of just leaving him there to live forever in sin.

Okay. So that's why Adam gets kicked out. Verse 24. So he that is the

Lord drove out the man and he placed cherubim, which would be the plural word for angels.

So the angels are at the east of the garden of Eden, which would be, I guess, the entrance and a flaming sword.

They were given, I guess, this flaming sword or had it, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

So angels were preventing Adam from entering back in. So that was the purpose.

So he wouldn't eat of the fruit and live forever. So in a sense, it's a punishment, but it's also seen as an act of mercy at the same time.

Now, after you say, well, the, okay. So the tree of life is on earth somewhere, right?

I mean, it was the garden of Eden on earth somewhere. Well, after the flood, the, uh, you know, the face of the earth has radically changed.

I'm sure it's not there wherever it was. I mean, things are just completely different now, but we do see in revelation 21 and 22.

Once there's a new heaven and the new earth, what happens? The tree of life, what shows shows back up, right?

All right. We'll close with verse 21. This'll be the last thing we look at. And this is really important.

We'll end with this. I'd like to talk about how this applies to Christ and the gospel.

So it says also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.

So this picture's the gospel. How so? Well, remember the aprons that Adam and Eve made, they made aprons made of what?

Big leaves. You sort of remember when this will be in the next chapter, I guess, when

Cain and Abel offer sacrifices, when the sacrifice of the vegetables is offered, did

God accept it? No, because that represents man's works. God wanted what?

The blood sacrifice, which pictures Christ in the gospel. So they made this covering of fig leaves.

And that's symbolic for the fact that we cannot take care of our own guilt with our works.

We cannot take care of that. God has to take care of that. So God killed,

God made tunics of skin, which implies that will have to happen. An animal had to die.

So this would be the first animal sacrifice. So God kills this innocent animal.

And this is, again, where we see a little foreshadow of the gospel.

The innocent dying for the guilty. So this speaks about the shed blood of Christ.

It's symbolic of Christ's blood and being clothed in Christ's righteousness.