Covenant Curses and Blessings

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Well, I had you turn in Genesis chapter 3. I want you to keep a finger there, but I'm going to take us somewhere else as well before we get to Genesis chapter 3.

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And before I take us anywhere else in the text of Scripture, I want to take us to a place in the world.

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If you were to board an airplane this afternoon and catch a flight to the

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Middle East, in the direction of the Middle East, if I were to put you on the right seat on the right plane, within a mere 24 hours, you would be able to find yourself not only on the other side of the world, but in this instance on the western edge of the nation of Israel, in the city of Tel Aviv.

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And upon arriving at the airport, if I were to load you into a car and ship you at least another hour's drive away, we would go northeast of the airport and find ourselves in a small city named

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Nablus in West Bank. That's assuming we can cross borders and other things like that.

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Now to many, it is not a city of much significance at all. It's nestled in a valley in the barren wilderness some 50 kilometers north of Jerusalem.

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It has a modest population of only about 120 ,000 people or so.

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And its economy is equally humble. The main or the most special export out of that city is a special kind of soap that is made with virgin olive oil.

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And after that, it's known only for the busy street markets, and then it's relatively less so for its unemployment and for its economic troubles.

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Yet if we were to go to the city of Nablus, a place you've probably never heard of before in your lives, and I were to take you to the center of the city, to a high spot in the city, so that you could see the surroundings, you would have a vantage point at one of the most important landscapes in all of the

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Old Testament. What you would see if you were to stand there in the city of Nablus, imagine this with me, and look to the north is the slopes that lead up to the top of Mount Ebal.

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And then to the south, the rocky crags on the edge of Mount Gerizim.

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And if you were especially well versed in history, you would then recall that you were standing in one of the oldest cities in the ancient world.

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The ancient city that used to be called Shechem, if you remember that from your

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Bibles. And the biblical significance of this particular place cannot be overstated.

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In Deuteronomy chapter 27, I said I was going to take us somewhere, with one finger in Genesis 3, turn with me there, to Deuteronomy 27.

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As Moses stood before the nation of Israel, just before they were about to cross the river to inherit the promised land,

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Moses commanded the people that upon crossing that river, once they entered in, they were to make a full stop at this place in ancient

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Shechem. There, on the edge of Mount Ebal, they were to construct an unhewn altar, meaning no carved stones, rough stones, an altar of stone.

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And there they were to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord their

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God. But that wasn't all. Once this altar was constructed, they were to write all of the words of the law on that stone altar.

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Then, after that was done, and only once that was done, roughly half of the nation, six of the tribes of Israel, approximately one million people, were to ascend

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Mount Ebal. The other one million or so from the remainder of the nation were to cross the valley and then ascend up to Mount Gerizim.

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In this place where there is a perfect natural amphitheater, according to God's providence, no doubt, the

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Levites then were to read in a loud voice the words of the covenant blessings and the covenant curses that were to be upon the nation of Israel.

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You see, God had called this nation to himself, as you are well aware, through the man

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Abraham. He delivered them after hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt.

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He preserved them for 40 years, an entire generation, in the wilderness, feeding them manna, enabling them to walk without their shoes wearing out.

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He made a covenant with them. He gave his law to them. And now, having given them his perfect law, here on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, he demanded of them covenant fidelity.

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So once they were to enter into this land and enjoy this foretaste of God's own covenant faithfulness, they were to hear, broadcasted in this valley, all that the

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Lord had for them, either for good or for bad. Now in chapter 28, if you look there with me, you'll see that if they were obedient, they would enjoy all of the covenant blessings of Mount Gerizim, to name only a few that are listed there.

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We see that they would enjoy fruitfulness and prosperity, that they would have full bread baskets and brimming barns, abounding livestock, military success and peace, big families.

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Who amongst us wouldn't want this? Those big families with healthy children and a special status as God's own holy people.

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These were the promises that were available to those who kept covenant with their

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God. And yet, we see, partway through chapter 28, that there's another half to that.

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But that if they were disobedient, they would inherit the covenant curses of Mount Ebal.

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Namely, barrenness and poverty, frustration and fever, wasting disease, drought and dust, blight and mildew, locusts, boils, tumors, scabs, rashes, military defeats and subjugation, madness, blindness, confusion of mind, horror and ultimately, destruction.

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Now, just for a moment, if we're here in Nablus, now, not only having traveled there, let's travel back in time.

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Imagine for a moment if you were one of those 2 million people, some 3 ,600 years ago, looking down into the valley where Nablus now stands and picture this dramatic scene with me.

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In that great throng, imagine that you are standing among the group on Mount Ebal.

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That mount of curses. How sobering it would have been to hear the

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Levites proclaim not only those 14 verses of blessing for covenant faithfulness, but those 53 verses, nearly four times as many covenant curses.

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And all the while, as you're listening to this read out, the words of Moses from Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 19, part of that instruction from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim are ringing out in your ears.

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Deuteronomy 30, 19, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

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Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live.

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In that moment, if you were standing there, you would have an overwhelming appreciation for not only the kindness of God and not only the severity of God, but the importance of covenant with God.

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Now, why am I recounting this story? When God deals with his people, one of the basic principles of his dealings is that he always relates to his people through covenant.

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When God deals with his people, we see time and time again in the

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New Testament at the coming of Christ, he relates to us, with us, by covenant. In the

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Old Testament, in the lives of men like David and Abraham and Noah, we see covenant, we see covenant blessings, things like land and descendants and prosperity and life, or like the scene on Mount Ebal, the dire curses of covenant unfaithfulness like exile and sickness and death.

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But many of us, why this long -winded introduction? Many of us live as if covenants, and as if blessings and curses that accompany them are a thing of the past.

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We read accounts like this on the slopes of Mount Ebal, and I see it in some of your faces.

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We read it, we hear it, and we are curious, we are interested in it, but we think that it is ultimately of no consequence in our lives.

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But I ask you, is this really the case? Or is it possible that in our godless, nearly covenantless society, this category of covenants has been removed from our thinking?

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And could it be the case that our thinking about God and his dealings with us are greatly impoverished because of our failure to see

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God's covenants in God's Word? I will tell you point -blank that most

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Christians today have a truncated view of God and of the Bible because they do not understand

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God's covenants. These covenants, though they form the very backbone of the biblical narrative, are lost almost entirely in the mind of the

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Christian today. Perhaps you are one of them, and as a result, you do not stand in awe of God, sobered both by his severity towards sin and the undeserved covenant kindness that he shows you in Jesus Christ.

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And we have talked about sin at great length over these last couple of weeks.

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We are going to talk about sin at least one more time, but not so much emphasizing sin this week, but emphasizing the curses and the blessings of covenant.

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This week as we study in Genesis chapter 3, we can turn back there again. We come to a place where Adam and Eve receive the pronouncement of their covenant curse for their sin in the garden.

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And here we learn about the very real curses that they received after their fall.

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Not unlike the curses pronounced on Mount Ebal, these curses brought and still bring hardship and suffering, difficulty and death in the world.

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And we live, whether we believe it or not, whether we understand it or not, still in the wake of those covenant curses.

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Yet even, we will see, as God pronounces these curses, we find something astounding.

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Like a small seed, some of you will remember the great fire that happened in Jasper this year. Like a small seed that breaks forth out of the forest floor after a devastating fire and that brings new life in this barren landscape of God's overwhelming curses.

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We will see in Genesis chapter 3 the introduction of a new covenant promise of grace to God's people.

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So that as a result, and this is the big idea of today's sermon, this text prepares us to live in light of these two intersecting covenants.

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The violated covenant of works in the garden along with its curses and the glorious covenant of God's grace with its blessings that come to us ultimately through Jesus Christ.

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Now, I hope that doesn't sound too complicated. For those of you who wonder from time to time,

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I feel like I'm getting milk, I feel like I'm getting porridge, I feel like I'm getting cereal. When do

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I get the meat? Well, today we get the meat. Really, the meat of God's Word.

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Not a little steak, but a 32 -ounce prime rib steak. And what I've sought to do now is to cut it up into bite -size and digestible pieces.

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So please, track with me. Do not write this off. But today we're going to look at what emerges very naturally as three points in the text that deal with God's covenant curses as they are seen plain as day along with blessings, like little seeds that are bound up in each of those curses.

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So let's look for ourselves in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 14. And we'll begin by looking, this is the name of my first point, the serpent's curse.

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The very first one to be cursed in the garden was the serpent. And we read about it in verses 14 and 15.

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The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

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

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I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

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He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Now if you remember back to last week, you will recall that after the fall,

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God came to Adam and Eve in the garden looking for them. And upon finding them in hiding, he approached them in the order of their accountability.

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First man, and then woman. And going to the man as the head of his wife, he went with a gentle question.

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Do you remember that? The kindness of God. Not in coming with a sentence, but in coming with a question.

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And posing that question to Adam, we saw how Adam deflected that question to his wife.

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And then the Lord, again coming gently, patiently, kindly, comes to the woman with a question.

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A tender question posed to her. And then when Eve shifted the blame in truth, she told the

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Lord God that Satan had deceived her. Now we come in verse 14 to the

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Lord God's interaction with the serpent. Now if you were listening all last week going,

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Shane, does asking a question really indicate gentleness? Does it really indicate a level of patience and kindness toward Adam and Eve?

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I want you to look at the way that he directs his attention at Satan, the serpent, in verse 14.

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In verse 14, he does not come with a question. He does not come with a patient inquiry.

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But God Almighty comes to Satan with an immediate pronouncement of condemnation and a curse.

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He says, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock.

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Now this point someone might ask, and it's a fair question, what even is a curse? To define it in the most simple of terms, a biblical curse is the exact opposite of a blessing.

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Rather than the promise of a good thing, it is the promise of misery and misfortune.

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It is an invocation of God's judgment where the certainty of this judgment and its accompanying affliction is completely guaranteed.

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And here we see the nature of this curse experienced by the serpent. In contrast to the livestock and to the beasts of the field who could walk and graze, this serpent would be made to slither on its belly all the days of its life.

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Now some have argued on this point that the serpent up to this point had legs.

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Some men like John MacArthur would say that prior to this condemnation and curse, that the serpent, you could find it, maybe it had four legs, maybe it had a hundred legs, but it had legs and it could crawl.

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Now there are others who would argue against that. I think that if we were to wade into it, it would be very interesting, but it would only be mere speculation at best.

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But one of the things that I think is most important about the serpent going on its belly is this, that it was made to be the lowest of all creatures.

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R .C. Sproul, as he comments on it, he says that it was made to eat the dust all the days of its life and this is symbolic of its abject humiliation, of an indignity that lasts forever.

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And this is not simply the case where a subset of reptiles catches the curse on Satan's behalf and then

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Satan gets away as if somehow the serpent were to propitiate that curse, but it speaks to Satan's status in creation.

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That Satan, upon the uttering of this curse, not only was the tempter of men and the very means by which sin entered the world, but he became the lowest of all creatures.

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Where he was once one of the most beautiful angels, perhaps the most beautiful angel in all of God's creation, he now became the most odious and repulsive creature imaginable.

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And his place is not one, though he sought to exalt himself, not one of exaltation, but of dishonor and of disgrace.

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And what we often find as this serpent comes and eats the dust of the ground, that this mention of dust is representative of judgment throughout the

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Bible. Oftentimes, when we find this idea of dust, it's encountered in the context of repentance and humiliation or in judgment.

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When God delivered the nation of Israel prior to the exodus from Egypt, he judged them with swarming gnats that came from the dust.

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When Israel's golden calf was discovered, it was ground down into dust.

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The nation of Babylon, Isaiah prophesied, would be made to sit in the dust even as the

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Lord Jesus Christ sent his disciples into the cities and the towns to proclaim the gospel when they did not receive him.

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Then what were they to do but to sweep the dust off their feet as a sign of their judgment?

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Even on a Mount Ebal, if we were to use that as an example, in Deuteronomy 28, verse 24, we see the curse of dust for covenant unfaithfulness.

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There it says, The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

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Now I want you to recognize what we are seeing here before us. Why does

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God dish out these curses rather than simply deliver Satan over to swift destruction?

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Wouldn't that make sense? That here you have Satan, the very tempter of mankind, the originator of sin itself in the world.

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Why not strike him dead and move on? Why the curses? Well, just as we saw warned on Mount Ebal, what would amount to thousands of years later, what we're seeing here is not the final judgment of God, but a preliminary form of judgment resulting from covenant disobedience in the garden.

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And from that covenant disobedience, an exaction, a pronouncement of covenant curse.

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If we were to look into Genesis 2, verse 15, we would actually see that here in Genesis 2 we find the building blocks of covenant.

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There we read that the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

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We're familiar with that much. Then in verse 6, the Lord God commanded the man saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

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Now some have looked at this and said, there's no covenant here. I don't see any language of covenant. Show me the word covenant and I will believe it is a covenant.

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But I'm going to give you three reasons why in fact we are seeing the outcome of covenant unfaithfulness and proof that there was indeed a covenant between God and Adam.

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Speaking on this verse, Richard Barcellas, he notes that here we see everything that we would expect to find in a covenant.

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He defines a covenant, for those of you who are wondering what it even is, as a divinely sanctioned relationship.

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A relationship that God himself designs between God and man.

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And Barcellas points out that the five elements of a biblical covenant are here present in Genesis 2.

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For one, we see that God sovereignly imposes this sanctioned relationship.

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That here God who created man dictates the parameters of this relationship.

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Number two, we see covenant representation. We read later in the New Testament about how all those in Adam die.

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What does that mean that Adam himself was our federal head, a covenant head between God and man?

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The third aspect that we see is that there is a conditional element. And that being the obedience of man.

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The conditions of this covenant were conditioned on man's obedience. There's a penalty for disobedience being death.

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And a reward for obedience being life that comes from eating from the tree of life.

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Now if that isn't enough, some have suggested that God's covenant with Noah is in fact the first covenant that we find between God and man in the

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Bible. But is that in fact the case? If we were to go forward a little bit more to Genesis chapter 6 and verse 18.

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If you look there with me for a moment. What does it say there with respect to the covenant?

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God says, but I will establish my covenant with you. And you shall come into the ark, you your sons, your wife and your son's wife with you.

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In chapter 9 verse 9 we see that same language again. The establishment of a covenant.

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Now what does that mean? It's actually very important language. That the establishment of a covenant does not mean that a new covenant is made.

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But that an old covenant is being confirmed. In the

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Hebrew language it uses the expression hakim barit. We don't need to know how to spell that or pronounce it.

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But what it means is that here we see the confirmation of a covenant. Rather than a covenant that is initiated.

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Or as they used to say to cut a covenant. And so here is God deals with Noah.

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He is saying I am not making a new covenant with you. But merely establishing, confirming the covenant that was already made with your father

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Adam. It's simply a continuation of the first covenant with Adam.

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And so the first covenant in human history is not that made with Noah. But that made with Adam. But then even more than that.

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If you want explicit language. Show me one place where the Bible says that there was a covenant with Adam.

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I'll take you to Hosea chapter 6 and verse 7. And there in Hosea as he is bringing charges against God's people.

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He says, but like Adam they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me.

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Now theologians have come to call this the Adamic covenant. But because it extends even beyond Adam as we will see.

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It also has become known as the covenant of works. At least within the covenant theology framework.

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Because it was and is a covenant promising life. That is contingent upon man's works of disobedience.

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Or sorry, man's works of obedience. That if you obey then you have life.

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If you work at righteousness then all will be well with you. But if not, death.

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And thus we find this covenant curse in Genesis chapter 3.

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And this curse upon the serpent is not limited to Satan only. But affects all of us as well.

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Verse 15 explains that this curse would create enmity between Satan and man.

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Between Satan and the woman. Between Satan and her offspring. And I want to pose a few questions to you.

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Why is in scripture Satan likened to a roaring lion who is ready to devour and destroy your soul?

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Why is Satan like that in his interactions, in his ambitions towards us?

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Why, let me ask you, does the world love darkness and hate light? Why did the world persecute our

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Lord and now seeks to persecute us? Is it because God made the world this way?

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Well of course the answer is no. Then why? What is the cause for this enmity in the world?

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This is a result of the covenant curse that was first uttered in the

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Garden of Eden. Matthew Henry, that famous Bible commentator.

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He says about this passage in Genesis 3 .15. He says, war is proclaimed between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

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It is the fruit of this enmity that there is continual warfare between grace and corruption in the hearts of God's people.

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Satan, by their corruptions, buffets them, sifts them and seeks to devour them.

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Heaven and hell can never be reconciled, nor light and darkness. No man, sorry, no more can

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Satan and his sanctified soul. Also there is a continual struggle between the wicked and the godly in this world.

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Now think again, if I were to bring us to Mount Ebal one more time, looking into the valley, hearing those covenant curses, many of them echoing what we see in the curses here in the garden.

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With what fear and trepidation you would stand there and think, oh that we would never, ever, ever, ever, ever violate this covenant, that these curses would come upon us.

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And yet I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, the reason why you struggle in this world with sin, the reason why you experience hardship, the reason why we experience persecution, the reason why we are at war with evil and with Satan himself at every moment is because we live now in this cursed world as a result of covenant unfaithfulness in the garden.

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Adam and Eve at one time had two paths that were before them.

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They had at that time in an uncorrupted state the ability to choose left or right, to choose life and peace forevermore, or to choose death and disorder.

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And Adam, responsible as our covenant head, chose death and disorder.

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Therefore we live in a world of enmity. If you want to know why our

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Lord Jesus Christ is maligned in the world today, it is because of Genesis chapter 3.

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If you want to know why you, like our Lord Jesus Christ, are maligned in the world today,

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I point you no further than Genesis chapter 3. If you want to know why the gospel is detested and denied and disobeyed and dishonored, look no further than Genesis chapter 3.

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If you want to know why it seems as though sin and Satan are always biting at your heels, look no further than Genesis chapter 3.

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Earlier today I took us to Nablus. We're going a whole bunch of different places today.

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Let me take us to North Korea, to one of their internment prisons, where they imprison

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Christians not for murder, not for rape, not for robbery, but for their

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Christian faith. And there as they are in those cells alone, brothers and sisters, we are sitting here in freedom with our

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Bibles on our laps. As they sit there alone, many of them, who knows, maybe it has been years or decades without the word of God to nourish their souls.

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Why are they there? Because of the evils of sin and the consequences of that sin.

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Because of covenant curses. Because of the cursed nature in this world.

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And when they do not recant, and when they do not deny the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are placed on sidewalks and overrun by paving machines, why is it?

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It is because of sin. Because of the same covenant curses that we experience.

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When our brothers and sisters in Christ are killed by their own family members in Pakistan, why is it?

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We need look no further than Genesis chapter 3. Brethren, some of you will ask, why all the hoopla about covenants?

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Why are you making such a big deal of God's covenants? Because when there is covenant unfaithfulness, we see consequences like this.

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Because this enmity that we experience every single day of our lives is a result of covenant unfaithfulness.

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That sin is real. And the effects of sin are real. And they are real in this accursed world in which we live.

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Hopefully by now, over these last number of weeks, we have learned just how destructive, and how evil, and how deadly, and how brutal sin is.

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So that when we are tempted by it, it is the very last thing that we would ever want near to us.

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And yet, in Genesis 3, as we look at verses 14 and 15, though Adam and Eve were in the garden, and were given a covenant of works righteousness, and though they fell from that covenant, in the midst of these curses that we see leveled upon Satan, and that overflow to us, upon the black backdrop of this wickedness and corruption, we find,

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I want you to see it with me, a single pinprick of light coming through.

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At the tail end of verse 15, we get a glimpse of God's gracious plan for humanity.

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Out of this enmity with Satan, an offspring, we are told, would come from the woman who would contend with the serpent.

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And though the serpent would bruise his heel, this offspring would bruise its head. That Hebrew word for bruise can be translated as crush.

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And what this tells us is that God, even before he addresses the punishment of the man and woman, has already prepared a savior for them.

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One who would come in human flesh as an offspring of the woman. Incarnate.

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One who, being bit by the serpent, would suffer to rescue man. And yet, this one, who was bit by the serpent, in the flesh, would reign victorious over the powers of sin and death.

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Now, theologians have a fantastic word for Genesis, or expression, for Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15.

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It's been widely called the Proto -Evangelion. Now, most of you don't necessarily understand

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Greek, but proto is first, or a variation of first, and evangelion, or euangelion, is gospel.

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But here, in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, in the midst of this curse is the first gospel.

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Because in it we have a portrait of the one who would usher in a new covenant, not of works, but of grace.

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The great serpent crusher, the Lord Jesus Christ. One commentator says,

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No sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed. The gracious revelation of a savior came, unasked and unlooked for.

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By faith in this promise, our first parents and the patriarchs were justified and saved.

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And so here we have this covenant curse, followed by, included with, this covenant promise.

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The promise of Jesus Christ. Not in Matthew, not in Isaiah, not in 2

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Samuel, but in Genesis chapter 3. That though we are great sinners, there is a great savior coming.

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But there's more. This is my longest point, just so you know, this last point, because I had to establish the premise of covenant.

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The next two are much quicker. Our second point is this, the woman's curse. In verse 16,

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To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children.

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Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.

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Working now in this reverse order, we've seen that the curse of the serpent, now the curse of the woman.

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God next pronounces two curses upon the woman that will lead to, Sisters, I want you to hear this.

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Wives, mothers. Curses that will lead to tremendous domestic frustrations that will impact her two primary roles in life.

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That as this curse comes, it doesn't come after our recreation.

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The effects of sin in our life, they don't affect the fringes of our lives.

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As if the fringe of our garments. But they affect the center and the very core of our existence as men and women in the world.

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The first curse is this. That it will multiply the pain that she experiences in childbearing.

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And then the second curse, that it will bring marital strife. Now, if you've not seen this curse in effect, in action, in your lives or in the lives of people around you.

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I have to conclude that you've been living under a rock. Some of the biggest difficulties that we experience in marriage and family are an outcome of the curse.

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Scripture itself testifies that childbearing now mingles this mix of great pain and difficulty.

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The pain of giving birth to a child which is then forgotten with the blessing and the joy of the birth of that child.

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Hear this with me, Sisters. That sin affects the very thing that makes you as a woman, a woman.

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It affects your ability to bear children. In fact, it is such a significant curse that now one of the main things that your body has been designed to do aside from know

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God and glorify Him. Is now one of the most painful things in the human experience to give birth to a child.

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And then meanwhile, in addition to that, last week I noted that the very first marital conflict that was experienced.

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Came only after Adam and Eve's fall in the garden. So under this curse, that marital conflict.

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As Adam points to Eve and says, Lord it was this woman that you gave me. That becomes the very first of a lifetime of battles between the sexes in the marriage relationship.

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So the curse not only affects what makes a woman, a woman. But it frustrates her most important relationship in her life.

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At least human relationship. The relationship that she is to enjoy with her husband.

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John MacArthur says in this, he says, Sin has turned the harmonious system of God -ordained roles into distasteful struggles of self -will.

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And don't you know that every time you see that reared up, that ugly head reared up in your life.

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It is an effect, it is a consequence of sin. And so I ask you, how important is covenant really?

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Dear sisters, mothers, expectant mothers and experienced mothers.

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Every pain in childbearing is a result of the fall. Every miscarriage.

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For those of you who have experienced the sadness, the devastating effects of a miscarriage.

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This too is an outcome of the curse. Those of you sisters who have not yet had children.

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You don't know about this necessarily yet, but you will. When you're woken up in the middle of the night with heartburn.

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And you're uncomfortable in every possible position. That too is an effect, a consequence of the curse and the fall.

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Sin is heinous and vile. It shows us that God is real.

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That sin is evil and that God keeps his covenants. Even his curses. Yet even in this curse we find a second pinprick of light.

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That this child rearing would ultimately point to...

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We just came through Christmas and everyone is celebrating baby Jesus. Would point to that baby

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Jesus Christ. That incarnate Lord. That incarnate God -man.

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As one commentator writes, pain is experienced even at the point of great fulfillment for the woman.

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The birth of her children. Nevertheless, in her role of bearing and raising children, a promise in Jesus Christ.

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The woman is privileged to participate in God's plan to create a people for himself.

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In 1 Timothy 2 and verse 15. People read that verse and they wonder what in the world does this mean?

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Yet she will be saved through childbearing. If they continue in faith and love and holiness and self -control.

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It points primarily to the giving of the son through the womb of the woman.

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But in addition to that, the carrying out of the woman's function in the world in Christ.

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In Hebrews 2 we read in verse 14. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood.

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He himself likewise partook in the same things. That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.

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That is the devil. We endure these tremendous difficulties as a result of this curse.

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Yet in the midst of it we have the promise of the incarnate son of God. As if that were not enough, when the

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Lord Jesus did come. We know that he did. He not only has redeemed us through that womb of a child.

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Coming out of the woman to save us. To crush the head of the serpent. But in renewing and teaching us that the blessings of the covenant of marriage.

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We again are able to proclaim the gospel of Christ through that marriage. So there is a curse.

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But through that woman and through her seed comes the reversal of that curse. I said they were going to be fast points.

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I'm going to my third point. The man's curse. And to Adam he said.

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Because you have listened to the voice of your wife. And have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you.

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You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you.

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In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.

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And you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.

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Till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. For you are dust and to dust you shall return.

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So not only do we see this curse upon the serpent that extends to man.

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And this curse upon the woman that extends to all those around them. But now the curse upon the man.

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The one who bears primary responsibility. And we see there that God demands something of Adam.

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That he did not demand of Eve in verse 17. He says. Because you have listened to the voice of your wife.

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And have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you. You shall not eat. Therefore here is the curse.

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And brethren we. We have all experienced the outcome of this curse.

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In Isaiah 24. In verses 5 and 6. We read about the effects of this curse on the world in which we live.

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And there we read that it says. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants. For they have transgressed the laws.

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Violated the statutes. Broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth.

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And its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched.

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And few men are left. It has had a devastating effect on the earth.

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So that when man looks at hurricanes. That wipe out cities.

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And natural disasters. And earthquakes. And floods. And they want to attribute it to man.

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I say amen. It is absolutely man made. But it's not man made climate change.

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In the way that you think of it. It did not happen at the invention of the automobile.

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Or the invention of the factory. During the industrial revolution. But it happened when? In Genesis chapter 3.

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And we see the plight of this creation unfold. In Jeremiah 12 and verse 4. You don't have to turn there.

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But you can write it down. How long will the land mourn. And the grass of every field wither. For the evil of those who dwell in it.

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The beasts and the birds are swept away. Because they said. He will not see our latter end.

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Or in Romans chapter 8. We're told how the whole of creation. Awaits the reversal of this curse.

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For the creation was subjected to futility. Not willingly. But because of him who subjected it.

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In order that the creation itself. Will be set free from its bondage to corruption.

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And obtain the freedom. Of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation.

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Has been groaning together. In the pains of childbirth. Until now. And what does this result in?

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But difficulty in our work. And this is for those of us. Whether you're a student.

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Or whether you're an employee. You're acquainted with this. Every single day. I remember before I had any.

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Understanding whatsoever. Of this understanding of the curse. I used to go to work.

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Day after day after day. And expect that somehow. If I found the right job.

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The right setting. The right frame of mind. The right amount of Bible reading. The right prayer habits.

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Whatever it is. I would go to work. And that all would go smoothly. And that all would go well.

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And that I would love my job. And it would be perfect. Let me tell you. Even those people who say.

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Find that thing that you love. And do your job there. Work in that field. They are going there.

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And they are experiencing. The consequences. The outcome of sin. And the curse. Do you deal with hassles at work?

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Every day. It's not just because of you. Or just because of your job.

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It is because of the curse. Brother Steve and I. We work together.

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And some days we have situations. Where it feels like. Our whole job is on fire.

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We are one man. Trying to set. To put out 20 or 30 fires. Around us. And the question is.

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Why? And the people around us say. Oh it's because. You've got a bad case load.

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It's because there is a full moon. It's because of this. It's because of that. I say no. It's because of the curse.

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It's because of sin. In the world. And it's effects on us. From the moment that Adam and Eve.

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Fell into sin. Until now. It is the effects of sin. They are devastating. And they do everything.

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They ruin everything. It seems that we touch. In this world. So that the woman's primary calling.

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Is a curse. And the man. Is the provider. And protector of his home. His calling too. Is a curse.

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Matthew Henry says. Uneasiness. And weariness. With labor. Are just punishment.

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Which we must patiently submit to. Since they are less. Than our iniquities deserve.

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And so yet. We experience. While we experience. This curse. What is he saying? It's even less.

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Severe. Than the punishment that we deserve. And so as we go about our days.

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Experiencing the effect. The effects of covenant. Unfaithfulness. By God's grace.

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We are better than we deserve. Now I don't know about you.

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I don't listen to a lot of Dave Ramsey. I know many of you. You know exactly where I'm going with this.

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Dave Ramsey has some beneficial things to say. Some things he says. I think are totally nuts.

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One of the things that I love. Is every. And you know what. He set up for it. Every single caller.

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How are you doing today? I'm doing well. They ask. How are you doing? What does he say? I'm better than I deserve.

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That must be our attitude. Every day of our lives. As we encounter every single thorn.

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And thistle in the world. How are we doing today? Well. I'm enduring the consequences.

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Of my own sin. And the covenant consequences. Of my father's sin. And yet. I am better than I deserve.

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And here we get. Into the real substance. Of this covenant curse. In verse 19.

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By the sweat of your face. You shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground. For out of it. You were taken. For you are dust.

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And to dust. You shall. Return. What does it mean. To return to dust.

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Here are man and woman. Placed in the garden. In a period of probation. I believe.

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To choose. Either the tree of life. Which leads to life eternal. Or the tree of the knowledge.

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Of good and evil. That leads to death. They choose death. They go to dust. They die.

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The wages of sin. Is death. And Adam.

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Because he is our covenant head. This death spreads. From Adam. To all of us.

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So I'll pose the question one more time. Why is it important. For us to understand covenant.

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Because it is the reason. Why we all die. The greatest challenge.

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In the human life. Itself. Is a result. Of covenant. Curses. It is death.

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Itself. In 1st Corinthians 15 .22. We see this. For as in Adam.

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All die. So also. What does it say next.

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So in Christ. Shall all be made alive. Now where am

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I going. With all of this. Well dear brethren. If you belong to the covenant of works.

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If you belong to that covenant. That says do this. And you shall live.

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Then let me tell you. You in line with your covenant head. Adam. You shall surely die.

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And you will go to the place. That you deserve. Which is what God promised. Exactly as he did in the garden.

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A place of death. A place of separation from God. But if you.

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Are a Christian. That you have repented. Of your sins. And you have placed your faith.

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In the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you are not. Any longer a partaker.

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In that covenant of works. As a system of righteousness. But you are part of a new covenant.

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A covenant of grace. What the bible tells. Or calls the superior covenant.

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The new covenant of God. So that in Matthew chapter 5.

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Sorry. Romans chapter 5. And verse 17 we read this. For because of one man's trespass.

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Death reigned through that one man. Much more will those. Who received the abundance of grace.

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And the free gift of righteousness. Reign in life. Through the one man.

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Jesus Christ. And so let me ask you. Brothers and sisters. If we can just have a bit of a word picture.

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If I were to take you. Once more to Mount Ebal. And to Mount Gerizim.

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Is it your desire. To live. On the mount of blessing. Or on the mount of curses.

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If you are outside of Christ. You have only. Covenant curses.

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To look forward to. But dear saints. If you have believed on Christ.

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Then you have every covenant blessing. To look forward to. Not because you earned it.

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But because of God's grace. Mediated through Jesus Christ. That's why.

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When we understand curses. And covenants. We can read passages like. Galatians 3 .13.

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Where it says. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. By becoming a curse for us.

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For it is written. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Now we have seen.

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Looking at the black backdrop. Of that curse. Towards Satan. That pin prick of light.

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That promise of a seed. That would come. And crush the head of the serpent.

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We see that. That pin prick of light is there. Looking at the woman.

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Who is to bear children. That woman who was to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. In the earth. But let me tell you.

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There is one other pin prick of light. In this passage in Genesis 3.

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That even as. This man works. And toils in the field.

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It points to something else. These thorns. And these thistles. They point to something else.

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The sweat on his face. It points to something else. What in the world does it point to?

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I quoted Matthew Henry a lot. Because he is very helpful here. I thought of ways that I might read this.

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And ingest it. And then regurgitate it. In a helpful way. And then I realized.

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The best thing I can do is just read it to you. He says this. And how admirably.

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The satisfaction. Of our Lord Jesus. That by his death.

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And sufferings. Answered the sentence. Passed on our first parents.

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That Christ himself answers it all. He said. Did travailings.

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Did working pains. Come with sin. We read of the travail.

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Of Christ's soul. In Isaiah 53. 11. We read about the pains.

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Of death. That he was held by. Did subjection.

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Come with sin. Christ was made under the law. And became a curse.

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Did the curse come. In sin. Christ was made a curse for us. He died a curse of death.

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Did thorns. Think of this. Have you ever thought about this before? Did thorns come with sin.

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He was crowned with thorns. For us. Did sweat come with sin.

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He sweat for us. As it had been great. Drops of blood. Did sorrow come with sin.

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He was a man of sorrows. His soul was in agony. Exceedingly sorrowful.

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Did death come with sin. He became obedient. Even unto death.

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Thus is the plaster. As wide as the wound. Blessed be

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God. For his son. Our Lord Jesus Christ. We see the consequences.

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Of all of these sins. We see the effects. Of this covenant. Unfaithfulness.

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And yet we see a Christ. Who in the words of Matthew Henry. Has a plaster.

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As wide as the wounds. Who was dealt with every curse. That we are subject to.

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In his own body. Coming in the form of human flesh. Dying on the cross for our sins. And reconciling us to God.

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So that men like John Knox. Who as he was. Was perishing.

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As he was dying. He fell into a slumber. And as he was sleeping.

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He began to moan heavily. And someone asked him why? Why the deep sighs?

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And he said. I have during my life. Sustained many assaults of Satan. But present.

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He has assailed me more fearfully. And put forth all his strength. To make an end to me at once.

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The cunning serpent has labored. To persuade me. That I have merited heaven.

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And eternal blessedness. By the faithful discharge. Of my ministry.

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But blessed be God. He has quenched me. Or he has enabled me.

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To quench this fiery dart. By suggesting to me. Such passages as these. What hast thou.

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That thou hast not received. By God's grace. I am what I am.

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That once we were under. A covenant of works. And the law hung over us.

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Calling out. Only a sentence. A punishment for us. But now under the covenant.

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Of God's grace. We are what we are in Christ Jesus. And what we are in the sight of God.

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Is perfect and holy. And beloved in him. So praise

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God. That Christ has come. To crush the head of the serpent. What's more.

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He has come to reverse the curse. That Christ came to take. That covenant curse for us.

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We just sang it a few weeks ago. Isaac Watt's hymn. Joy to the world. When you sing this hymn now.

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If you didn't know it before. You will know exactly what verse 3 means. He starts in verse 1.

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Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart.

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Prepare him room. And heaven and nature sing. And then in verse 3. No more let sins and sorrows grow.

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Nor thorns infest the ground. He comes. To make his blessings flow.

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As far as the curse is found. That wherever Christ is.

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That curse is gone. Though we experience a temporal aspect of it. It is in truth.

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It is gone forever. And so believers in Christ.

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Are you a partaker in this new covenant? Have you believed on the

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Lord Jesus Christ? Has he given you. A law to obey? We are not antinomians.

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But he has given us. Instruction for life. He has given us covenant conditions. Consider the.

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The saints of old on Mount Ebal. And the covenant curses.

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That they most assuredly. Assuredly experienced. Consider the covenant curses.

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Of our first parents. Adam and Eve. Brothers and sisters. We have entered into a new covenant.

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Let us keep this covenant. With our God. Not a covenant of works.

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But a covenant of grace. And as Paul says. The God of peace.

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Will soon crush Satan under your feet. And if you are an unbeliever.

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If you are sitting here. And you said. I have never once. Not only believed on Christ.

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But had a desire to believe on Christ. Then God's covenant blessings.

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Are not yours. But only covenant curses. But you do not have to die.

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Under this curse. Christ has come. To rescue lost sinners.

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And bring them to himself. To take the curse. On your behalf. But you must come.

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And so I put before us. Brothers and sisters. The words of Moses. In Deuteronomy 30.

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In verse 19. I call heaven and earth. To witness against you today.

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That I have set before you. Life and death. Blessing and curse. Therefore choose life.

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That you and your offspring may live. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. God bless you.