Living by Faith

Thank you, Brother Greg, for the music ministry to us tonight.

What a wonderful choice of song there. If you will turn with me once again to the book of Genesis, chapter number three. Before I begin, I want to thank you all for the wonderful acts of hospitality that you have shown towards my family since Silas has been born, the wonderful gifts and meals and cards and flowers that the church gave us. We thank you for your hospitality towards us and how gently and kindly you have ministered to us. We deeply love you and thank you for how, as we have done our best to minister to you, you have likewise and even above and beyond in any way that we could hope to minister to you. You have ministered to my family. And so we thank you and thank the Lord for you all. Genesis, chapter number three. My goal is not to be extremely long.

Brother McDormand made it very clear that at an hour and 40 minutes he will be leaving the church. So I endeavor not to get near that that mark. This study has been like drinking from a fire hose. So I will admit, as the mountain preachers that I was brought up underneath said, I am wound up tighter than a termite and a yo-yo about this text. I'm quite excited about this passage tonight, so I hope it will minister to you. My desire is that perhaps it will help equip you in reading your Old Testament and seeing how the Bible, there is a string running through it and how it applies to you as a Christian. As Pastor Bartman said so well this morning and lately, our lessons, his sermons and my lessons have been tying together oddly well. And as he said this morning, the Old Testament scriptures are our scriptures to God's people.

We are a people of the book, of the whole book, and this is the book that God has given us to live and to be nourished by. And so with that said, we dive in to Genesis, chapter three tonight, and I'll tell you a story about a man in 1793. His name was William Carey. He was a missionary, the father of the modern missionary movement.

And should anyone ever doubt that our doctrines of grace stunt Calvinism or make that statement, they are unfamiliar with the modern Calvinistic movement. Anyway, we state this, William Carey made the trip in 1793 with his reluctant wife, Dorothy. She did not want to go and their son Felix. And while the trip was safely made, the hardships that awaited them in India would be enough to prevent probably any of us from persevering onward. It was there in the wet and tiger infested jungles of India that Carey's young son Peter, who was probably around the age of five, would die.

Following that, his wife Dorothy would develop severe mental issues to the extent where she would end up slandering her husband's name. To many of the people who he called a colleague, one of the men that went with him, John Thomas, a Baptist physician, would end up spending most of the missionary funds that they had there. And so he would work as an indigo farmer and trader there, managing those efforts to have money to support his people. It was while Carey was ministering in India that he would serve for seven years without seeing a single convert. While his wife's health was deteriorating mentally, while his son died, while he was sitting there and being betrayed by his friends, while most of the people who were with him would die, would leave, or would turn against him, Carey faced several issues. Finally, a few years before his wife's death, Carey would relocate to a new location.

And it was there, just a few months in, that he would witness his first convert of what would be over 1400, of a man by the name of Krishna Pao. Carey would go on to supervise the creation of India's first printing press, but on March 11th of 1812, a fire started in that printing room, and the fire burned all but five pieces of Carey's equipment. Carey's entire library. He's completed a Sanskrit dictionary, part of the Bengal dictionary, two grammar books, 10 translations of the Bible, which he started as an effort by himself were lost.

Gone also were the typesets for printing 14 different languages, vast quantities of English paper that they had just received from England, priceless dictionaries, deeds, accounting books, all of them were gone. Carey was out of town, but when he returned, he wept and he said this, in one short evening, the labors of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God. I had lately bought some things to the utmost perfection of which they seem capable and contemplated the missionary establishment with perhaps too much self congratulations.

The Lord has laid me low that I may look more simply to him. Although he was heartbroken, he didn't take much time to mourn with great resiliency. Carey wrote, the loss is heavily heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease than the first. So I trust the work will lose nothing of real value. We are not discouraged. Indeed, the work has already begun again in every language. We are cast down, but not in despair.

By 1832, Carey's rebuilt and expanded printing operation had published complete Bibles or portions of the Bible in 44 languages and dialects. We have all experienced tragedy to some degree, some of us serious, some of us perhaps less serious. But the reality of life within this sin curse world leads me to say with a fair amount of confidence that all of us have experienced heartaches and difficulties to some degree. Well this evening, I would like for you to look with me at Genesis chapter number three as it is here we find our first parents call them Adam and Eve is their name that we were given by the Lord God. They are placed within the Garden of Eden. They are free. They are free from the struggles of infertility, free from heartbroken mothers and the tear stained cheeks of children. They are free from marital and familial conflict. They are free from spousal abuses and spousal abandonment. They are free from the pains of old age. They are free from the forsaking of friends, free from sexual perversions, the abuse of the weaker people and manipulation abroad. They are free.

They are free. They are free from sin. This is where we find them. And this is where we find the introduction of one we will call the serpent. He will hang around all the way until the end of the scriptures in Revelation chapter 20.

He is going to be present. It is within this context of a sin free world that we find the serpent slithering onto the scene. It is there that he presents a series of tempting questions as we've just read to Eve in verses one through five. It has been said by many men throughout time that as you face these temptations so often do we to face three temptations that we will find in verses one through five. First to question God's word. Second to see God as burdensome as she adds to his word. He doesn't say anything about touching the fruit, but she adds that there. And also third, to think God is holding out on us.

R.C. Sproul of this, he writes, The most vulnerable point of Adam and Eve was that their confidence in the trustworthiness of God's word wasn't where it should be. The test we're going through today is the test of if we are going to live in trust of the word of God or whether we're going to negotiate with unbelief.

Well, and in case you haven't perhaps read this passage before, I do have a spoiler alert. They failed the test miserably, which we see as you rise your eyes to look around at the heartaches today. And as you read a few verses onward, you will find that they bite the fruit, which God has directly forbade them to do. In Genesis Chapter two verse 17. And it is with this reality as we lift our eyes to see the world that all the effects of it around us are still present here today. That is the magnitude of our sin. Unless we come in here today thinking our sin has no great volume, has no great effects.

This this declares unto us the magnitude of man's sinfulness against God. It is with this in mind that I want us to take a look at three things today as we think to ourselves as we read this text. How could our first parents bear to walk forward in this sin curse world after leaving behind all the garden entail?

The people I've spoken with in the heartaches of infertility, they walk from a world of a plenteousness into a world of of dealing with heartache, a world of of relational unity, into a world of relational dysfunction, into a world of of of fruitfulness, into a world of barrenness. How could they walk forward into such a world? And that is what we're going to look at today as we look at three points. Point one is going to be paradise lost and its implications. Point two is going to be a positive curse. Point three will be a promise holding faith.

Now, if you're titling this sermon in your notes or for sermon audio, we can just title it living by faith. A look at the fall and the faith of our first parents. And it is with that said that we dive into the word of God together this evening to look at first paradise lost and its implication. In the lion, the witch in the wardrobe, Edmund Pevensie allows jealousy and bitterness to bring him to betray his own siblings to the white witch. And even though he knew Aslan was coming and that the white witch was evil, his betrayal almost tears his family apart.

And if it were not for the sacrifice of Aslan upon the stone table, the Pevensie family would have been forced apart forever. We might not think our individual sins affect others today, but our sins have drastic consequences, as is the case here in Genesis three. And as we just read a moment ago, Adam and Eve have fallen to the serpent's temptation and they have rebelled against God. The interesting thing here is when God says or when Adam hears from the serpent that you will be like God, he is manipulating them. God has already made them in his image.

The temptation here is essentially this. Do you want to usurp God's authority? The desire of Adam and Eve here as they bite the fruit is to usurp God and to them themselves rebel against him and make themselves their own gods.

This is the magnitude of the rebellion that we find here. It is upon the eating of this fruit that verse seven reveals that they were aware of their nakedness. We can read that together in verse number seven. It says, Then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. This is a way of communicating an explanation of the loss of their purity and discomfort among the relationship. And so they do their best to reclaim some dignity. And it is within this act that they hear the footsteps of God making his way through the garden and they run to hide.

James Hamilton writes here and I tend to agree with them. God warned in chapter two verse 17 that eating from the tree would result in death. That warning has produced the fear of death that prompts the man and woman to hide after their transgression in chapter three verse eight. And it is what prompts them to refuse to confess their sins in chapter three, verse nine through 13. Well, God calls them out and it is within this scene that we discover the consequences of their sin.

First, what we will find here is that they will endure spiritual and physical death. In verse number 19 tonight, we will see this as he declares to Adam in the latter part of it in the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it, out of the ground you were taken for dust you are and to dust you shall return. It is in verse 19 that God declares clearly the future physical death sentence of Adam and Eve, but the reality of their spiritual deaths has already descended upon them. Notice how they hide from God.

Notice how when God summons them, they blame shift and will not confess their sin. Adam says, as God says, Where are you? And he finds out, he says this in verse number 12, Then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree in Ia. Verse 13, Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me in Ia. This hiding from God, this fear that they did not possess before, is a thing that we will see through the scripture to tell that they are no longer dwelling within the land of the living spiritually.

They are spiritually dead. It is descended upon them already. What we will also find is that, second of all, we've discovered relational conflicts. Not only do we see it as one blames the other, someone else in an attempt to take the blame off of themselves, but it is also see seen in the second half of verse 16. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. Now, most of our translations cause this passage to be difficult to understand. But guys, God is not saying that Eve is going to think that Adam is the biggest hunk alive. That is not what God's curse is upon them. The curse here is seen and clearly depicted in Chapter four, verse seven. Cain is fed up with God not accepting his sacrifice. And as he is mad at Abel, God walks to him and he says this, Cain, you better master your sin.

Sin is crouching at the door. It is describing a beast. Its desire is for you.

I don't think that means the beast thinks that Cain is a hunk either. This is where relational dysfunction descends upon the world. Eve will strive to control and manipulate Adam.

And in a new English translation captures this wonderfully well. And God says an Adam will dominate you. You will manipulate and desire to usurp and control Adam and he will dominate you. The aggression that is seen within here is wonderfully depicted to communicate this sense of relational dysfunction upon them. And we see this all the time, don't we? Sexual manipulation, spousal abuse, domestic violence, emasculation and more. Some of you have unfortunately experienced this. And this is the heinous consequences of sin against God. Spiritual and physical death and relational dysfunction. Third, man is sentenced to hardship upon the earth. Eve is going to face unbelievable agony in childbearing. And Adam will be made to suffer wearying and backbreaking labor just to eat. And it's as though God is saying Adam and Adam's name could be literally rendered the dirtling. The dirt which you are out of, you're going to have to work for it to give you food and you're going to go back into the dirt. So the dirtling is working dirt just to return to dirt at the end of the day.

It's just it's magnificent how this is laid out here. And Calvin captures as well. He says, Truly God pronounces as from his judgment seat that the life of man shall henceforth be miserable.

Because Adam had proved himself unworthy of that tranquil, happy and joyful state for which he had been created. Notice something interesting here. Snakes always slither. Women, regardless of perhaps what you may have seen online, women are the ones who always give birth. Astounding statement I have just made. And men are working beings.

This is what we do. I don't believe these are new things that are developed. Eve's body was biologically created to deliver children even before the fall.

Though we have no record of her having children beforehand. That is not what I'm stating. What I am saying is this. What the fall does is it takes all the goodness we were created for and it makes it unbearably burdensome and wearying. It takes everything of delight, everything of goodness, and wherever sin's presence reigns, it makes everything horrid. This is what is being communicated here. Everything is tainted. The very depth of who you are as a being, Adam.

A worker is tainted. Eve as a mother is tainted. Fourth, we find in verse 22 their last sentence, which is judgment by exile. It is not only judgment by exile, but it is the rescinding of God's direct presence upon the face of the earth. And God declares the finality of this arrangement by placing a chair of them at a guard with a sword. And this sword is an instrument of death, this instrument of execution of finality. Now, pay attention to that. We're going to come back to it later. It's important. But for now, we need to understand that sin has cost them everything.

Everything they have ever known has been tainted and sacrificed on the altar of their selfish lust all the way up to their highest price, which is sweet, direct, personal, intimate fellowship and communion with God. His presence is now rescinded. His direct presence is rescinded from the earth. I said it twice already.

I'll say it again. Let this text remove all doubt from our minds about the seriousness of sin. This brings about unbelievable burden, but notice, as I have read through here, as we have gone through here together, there is a text that I did skip, and I did that intentionally in Genesis 3 15. Genesis 3 15 is what I like to call a curse that is pregnant with promise. It is a glorious promise in that it is perhaps one of the most important verses in your scriptures.

It is known as the proto evangelium, the first gospel. Let's read it together and think about this for a moment tonight. God is sentencing the cursed one, the serpent in verse 15. He says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This leads us to our second point this evening, which is a positive curse, positive curse, quite opposite. Curses aren't necessarily positive, but this one is a curse that is pregnant with hope and promise. James Hamilton said, Once God has called them out and exposed their sin, the man and woman have no reason to think they will live. That is until God speaks to the serpent here.

He continues. God promises to put enmity between the serpent and the woman and enmity entails ongoing conflict. And ongoing conflict requires ongoing life. It is in the presence of unfathomable heartache that God's mercy and justice shine forth with radiant light. As he reveals, what I just said is the proto evangelium, the first gospel. Yes, Adam and Eve, you will die, but not without hope.

In Genesis one, God speaks life into darkness, and in Genesis three, God speaks life into deadness. This is miraculous. This is unfathomable. Why is this so exciting? Why does this grant us peace and hope? Why is this such an important, important text? Because God has just promised that a deliverer who is Jesus Christ will come to deliver them from pain, and he will crush the head of this great deceiver.

He is coming. Now I'm aware that I just made a huge assumption, but let me prove it. Pastor Bartman alluded to it as he prayed about Christ, who is the seed. But let's not just assume it. The statements we make, we are willing to back up with scripture.

So let's ask two questions here tonight. First, who is the seed of the serpent? Who is the seed of the serpent? Well, in verse 14, God curses the serpent, but he does not say cursed are you to Adam and Eve. And so in Genesis 4 11, after Cain murders Abel, God says you are cursed from the ground. Moses is making connection here between Cain and the seed of the serpent. Essentially, what we find here is that those who are the seed of the serpent are those who do not love God and those who do not love neighbor. That is who the seed of the serpent is. You may have remembered a few months ago I preached on David and Goliath, and I brought out how the Hebrew there describes Goliath as wearing a chainmail that is made of scales. Goliath is depicted as a serpent with that imagery. And how does Goliath die?

A rock crushes his forehead. It is an imagery of Christ who is to come. So the seed of the serpent is those who defy the people of the living God. Look with me also in Romans 16 20. The context here is false teachers within the church. And what does Paul say to them to encourage them? The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. It is in this context that Paul is stating that God will work through his people, the body of believers here in Rome, to eliminate false teachers which are sowing discord amongst the body of Christ.

It goes again well with what he was preaching this morning. So who is the seed of the serpent? Those who do not love God and love neighbor. Those who sow discord amongst the body of Christ. Those who teach false doctrine.

Who is the chiefest of the seed. It's in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 we read this. And the great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

And I'll just read it because it's beautiful. He was thrown down to earth, to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. From this we leave knowing that the seed of the serpent is Satan in all of his cronies. The seed of the serpent is everyone who defies God and Satan. It is Satan and all those who walk in his way. Who is the seed of the serpent?

Everyone who hates God. That is the seed of the serpent. What does Christ say to the Pharisees? You are of your father, the devil. He is connecting them to the serpent. All those who stand against Christ in his way are the seed of the serpent.

But who is the seed of the woman? The Targums are an ancient Aramaic translation of the Old Testament. Hebrew was dying out by means to preserve them just before the Christian era came along. They translated it into Aramaic.

Listen, this is interesting. This is before Christ comes and so there's no bias, anti-Christ bias here. Listen to how they translate Numbers 24, 17. I see him but not now, I behold him but not near, a king is to arise from the house of Jacob and a redeemer and ruler from the house of Israel who will slay the strong ones of the Moabites.

If you consult a few earlier sources, the text reads this way. A king is to arise from the house of Jacob and a Messiah from the house of Israel who will crush the forehead of Moab. Notice the allusion to Genesis 3.15 here. Here we find that Israel will produce Messiah who will in power crush the enemies of the people of God. In Psalm 68 verse 21, the New American Standard reads, surely God will shatter the heads of his enemies.

Psalm 110 verse 11, one of my favorite in all of the Psalms. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you. Christ will rest his feet upon all who defy him. He has delivered this fatal blow unto Satan. Christ is whom the Father promises.

His feet will rest upon the imagery. Looking back at the seed imagery, Paul writes in Galatians 3.16, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say to offsprings, referring to many but referring to one, and to your offspring who is Christ. Now if you were reading from the New King James tonight, Genesis 3.15 capitalizes her capital S seed.

There's a correlation here. So what God is promising here to us is that one day Christ would come and he would face an experience that would injure him, injure his heel, we might say that this is a temporal setback, but in return he would utterly crush Satan and all who stand against his truth. He will do what Adam failed to do. Now guys, Adam may have failed in the temptations of the garden. Adam is prophet, priest, and king. He is to keep the garden clear. He is to keep out the serpent.

He should have killed him immediately. Perhaps we'll look at that in a few months. I don't know. But where Adam failed in the garden, Christ succeeded in the wilderness. The serpent comes on Adam, God's turf, in the garden of abundance, of plethora of life. Christ stands on, if we could call it this way reverently, the turf of the devil in the barren wilderness, and he overcomes what Adam could not overcome. He is the greater Adam who will come and suffer, yet he will ultimately succeed. And where do we see this?

Where does he ultimately succeed? Beloved, look no further than Calvary. We look at Calvary. It is Calvary where Christ's hand and feet are pierced, and it is where Christ's cross pierces Golgotha, which in the Hebrew is called the place of the skull. It is there where Christ's hands and feet are pierced, the bruising of his heel, that he crushes the head of the serpent. It is there that a mortal wound is delivered to Satan. And though he has not yet utterly been destroyed, his time is coming.

He is mortally wounded. In the meantime, Christ is moving through his body, the church as we saw in Romans 16. An interesting proposition I have for you is perhaps Luke 10, 18 through 20.

Think of this with me. Jesus says this, And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. I find that marvelously interesting that the eternal son of God sees Satan fall from heaven. He is the one who Genesis 3 15 says will crush the serpent. And he is the one who looks at his apostles and said, you have power. I give you power to tread over serpents. They shall not afflict you.

That is a marvelous thing there to notice. This leads me to my last point, which is a promise holding faith. Yes, beloved, the effects of sin are vast and horrifying, yet in the gloomy fog of judgment sparkles the jewel of God's grace. We ask how in the world could Adam and Eve bear to go on from paradise to life in this sin sick world? Answer, they live by faith. Notice in Genesis 3 20, they should expect to die. God gives them this promise.

You will have a seed. And what does Adam say? She doesn't have a name yet. But look with me at verse 20 in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis. Adam looks at her, and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was to be the mother of all living. That's marvelously beautiful there.

Just a few moments ago, they were hopeless. They just knew that God's wrath would utterly consume them. Yet here he promises a deliverer, and the hand of Adam's faith reaches out and grasps hold of this promise. And it is evidenced as he looks at his wife and he says, Your name's Eve. You are to be the mother of all the living. God is bringing, as though to say, God is bringing deliverance for us and will be.

He will be faithful to keep this promise. Adam's heart swells at the promises of Christ here. But what about Eve? Chapter 4, verse 1, Eve is pregnant, and she births Cain. And she cries out, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. Now what is fascinating here is that Cain's name is to acquire.

And there is some debate concerning the sentence structure here, but it would seem that this verse could read, I have gotten a man, the Lord. It would seem to me that Eve's faith in the promise of God was so strong and expected that she presumed that Cain, her firstborn, was Him. What kind of faith that is that she possesses? She was wrong.

She was quite wrong. But how evident her faith was, and I would believe that probably early on she realized that because Abel's name is vanity or breathlessness. And so it would seem as though she is quite without hope at this point. But let us be encouraged by her faith. Let us be encouraged by their faith as they reach out and grab hold of the promises of God.

Beloved, how do we endure a life in this sin-sick world? We walk by faith. Our father and mother, they looked in one dark and dim glass, and we see things far more clearly than they ever could. They knew there was a seed, but they didn't know His name.

We know who He is. He is Christ. That cherubim I told you about earlier to remember, remember it stood with authority, seeming to state finality and a separation. It was barring them from ever getting back into the presence of God. Later on in the Bible, God institutes the temple, and what does He have guarding the Holy of Holies? A veil. What does 2 Chronicles 3.14 tell us is on that veil? And He made a veil of blue and purple with crimson fabrics and fine linen, and He put a cherubim on it as though to continue to guard the Holy of Holies. Well, what happened with this beautiful veil working to remind us of the cherubim in the garden and barring us from the presence of God?

Well, in Matthew 27 and 51, the Lord Jesus Christ has just given up the ghost, and what happens? And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The cherubim, whose sword stood to declare that there was no entrance into the Holy of Holies, that sword of wrath, the wrath of God, has fallen upon Christ for us, and the veil has been written to as though God openly declares to all of us who are the seed of Christ by faith to come unto Me.

We were barred from His presence. We were barred from enjoying Him, but now the veil is torn, and He opens His arm and declares unto the world, Come, come, My people, come, My redeemed ones, come, My elect, come unto Me. Experience unhindered and glorious fellowship with Me.

Enjoy this. It has been torn in two. The cherubim no longer stands, keeping us out. We come, beloved, not by our own efforts, but by the finished work of Christ.

It has removed the cherubim. That word desire I told you about, referring to relational dysfunction in the beast. It's only used one more time, aside from those two in the Old Testament that I can find, and it's in the Song of Solomon, chapter 7, verse 10. And I believe it's referring to how the Lord and His church are working, and the Lord is fixing things aright.

And listen to this beautiful imagery here. It seems the writer is speaking of the one who turns things back to the way it should be. And it says, I am my beloved's, and His desire is for me. Christ is the one who the sword has fallen upon. Christ is the one who is turning things back to the way it should be. The serpent who see that you have looked around, and you see wreaking havoc all around you, Christ has dealt a mortal wound to him. But one day, Revelation 27 through 10 will come to pass. Let me give you context in Revelation 20, verse 2. And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And chapter 20, verse 7, reads this. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, and he will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

Yes, the consequences of sin are heavy. Yes, this battle is hard, but Christ gives us the victory. It is by him that we are more than conquerors. And due to this, we can lift our weary heads and rejoice knowing that indeed we are on the winning side.

So, in conclusion, I'm getting close to Brother McDormand leaving. What do we learn about walking in this sin-cursed world from this information today? First, we learn that we are in need of a deliverer. The efforts of Adam and Eve's hands to cover up their shortcomings never suffice, and neither do yours. Your good old boy salvation is worth nothing more than filthy rags. Friend, if you're trusting anything aside from the finished work of Jesus Christ, on behalf of sinners, you're hopelessly lost. You must be delivered. If you learn anything from this today, I pray that it is that God is just.

He will not let sin slide, yet he is also merciful. Throw yourself at the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Death, as a result of the fall, is coming quickly.

It's coming quickly for us all. And let us throw off these efforts of our hands and let us cling to Christ. Throw yourself at his feet.

Kiss the Son while he is near. Run to Christ. Run to Christ.

He is the serpent crusher. You have been hopelessly deceived from your birth, but Christ, where we have fallen, has overcome. He is your only hope in life and death. Look to Christ, who has overcome death itself. Second, we learn the reality of sin's effect.

Growing up, it was often said, you can choose your actions, but you can't choose your consequences. Sin is a rock that is thrown into a calm lake that sends ripples to affect everything around it. And as we experience death and heartaches and relational dysfunction and pains, might they work to intensify our hatred for our sins against God? The sin that we see around us, the death, the heartache, the manipulation, the sexual perversions, might they work to intensify our hatred for our sins, our sins against God?

Third, we learn gratitude. Beloved, the only reason that we can raise our wearied voices and cry out, how much longer, O Lord, is not that we deserve deliverance from this sin-cursed world? No, the only reason that we can raise our tired and wearied voices and cry out, how long, O Lord, is because our Lord has promised us deliverance from it.

And fourth, we learn to trust the promises of God from this text. Has God promised us a serpent crusher? Yes. Has God provided us a serpent crusher?

Yes. Christ has come and delivered the blow at Calvary. And if he's faithful to bring forth this first promise, I'd say there's no reason why we, like our first parents, shouldn't latch hold upon his promises and walk through this dark world living by faith. When Adam and Eve looked up after their banishment from Eden, the hands that grabbed the fruit of disobedience were now empty of all they once held dear.

But the hand of faith fully clenched around the promises of God as they walked into this sin-cursed world. May this be said of us as we pilgrimage through this life together. May the Lord bless the reading and preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the mercy that you have shown unto us, your people, Lord, you have them spread abroad all around us and perhaps there is one here who does not realize or has not previously realized the magnitude of their sin and the results that it brings. May you be pleased to give them repentant faith. Lord, call them unto yourself. We would be so pleased to see that. Lord, for those who are tired and wearied, saints who are marching forward, beaten down, exhausted, may we by the hand of faith clench onto the promises that you have given unto us as we walk living by faith. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.