Let's turn to chapter 3,
we were looking at verse 14, where we
see that after God asked Adam what he
had done, and he blamed his wife, and
Adam asked Eve what she had done, and
she blamed the serpent.
And it would have been proper for God
to rebuke Adam and Eve first, and say,
why do you put the blame on each
other, or on someone else?
Why don't you take the blame yourself?
But we see that he doesn't do that.
He first of all judges the serpent.
It's very important for us to see that,
that he did not express his punishment and
curse on Adam and Eve, but on the
serpent.
That shows us that God is always on
our side against the devil.
Even when we have fallen, even when we
have sinned, he is against the devil still.
He's on our side against the devil, and
that's a tremendously encouraging thing.
The Lord God said to the serpent, first
of all.
He hasn't said a word of judgment yet
to Adam and Eve, that'll come, but first
to the serpent.
Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all cattle and more than every
beast of the field.
On your belly shall you go, and dust
shall you eat all the days of your
life.
And I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your seed and her
seed.
And he shall bruise you on the head,
and you shall bruise him on the heel.
We see here that the serpent obviously was
not one that crawled on his belly when
first created.
Today the serpent crawls on the ground, but
we don't know what shape the serpent had
before the curse came on it.
But we certainly know that it didn't crawl
on the ground, because that was the result
of the curse.
It was not created to crawl on its
belly.
And dust shall you eat means that it
lives in the dust, and the serpent lives
in the dust today.
And we see here in verse fifteen the
first prophecy in the word of God.
And it is a prophecy concerning the coming
of Jesus Christ.
In other words, very interesting and important to
see this.
Before a word of judgment is spoken upon
this fallen couple, Adam and Eve, God first
speaks a word of promise, that I am
going to make a provision for your sins.
And only after having said that does he
go on to speak a word of judgment
to Adam and Eve.
There is always a hope in God's rebuke
as well.
God's rebukes are not hopeless.
When men rebuke one another or when parents
rebuke their children, they almost give the impression
that the other person is hopeless.
God's not like that, and it's because man's
not like God that he behaves like that.
But God, He speaks the word of hope
first, saying the seed of the woman is
going to come and crush the head of
the serpent.
That's the first prophecy in Scripture.
It's a prophecy that Satan would be defeated.
And it's very important to see that, that
the first prophecy in Scripture is concerning the
defeat of Satan.
And that is what the devil doesn't want
believers to recommend, that he was finally defeated
on the cross.
That's why lots of believers are scared of
Satan, scared of evil spirits.
It's amazing to see how many believers there
are who are scared of evil spirits, scared
of Satan, and who don't believe that they
can ever be free from all the misery
and wretchedness that Satan has put upon their
life.
Why is that?
People live in defeat and defeat and defeat
and defeat, and don't believe that they can
be freed from that.
Why?
Because Satan has blinded them to the fact
that he was defeated on the cross.
That's the first prophecy in Scripture, that Satan
would be defeated.
Never forget it.
The first prophecy concerns the defeat of Satan
by Jesus Christ.
And when it says here, I will put
enmity between you and the woman, between your
seed and her seed.
You see, it doesn't say between you and
the man.
Why didn't God say, I will put enmity
between you and the man?
No, it's between you and the woman, and
between the woman's seeds.
Which is a prophecy concerning the fact that
Jesus Christ would be born without an earthly
father.
It would be of a virgin, of a
woman.
That's why God said, between you and the
woman.
It's all there in Scripture.
Between your seed and her seed.
Not Adam's.
Her seed, referring to the seed of the
woman.
That Jesus was finally born of the Virgin
Mary.
And we also see something else here.
That we know that this her seed refers
to Christ.
That's clear.
And we can turn to Galatians 4.4
and see something there.
This is a New Testament commentary on this.
When the fullness, Galatians 4.4, When the
fullness of the time came, God sent forth
His Son, born of a woman.
There it is, the fulfillment of that prophecy.
Born of a woman who was a virgin,
who was not married.
And when we see here in Genesis 3
.15 that Jesus Christ is called the seed
of that fallen woman, it implies that Jesus
Christ would come in the same flesh as
that fallen woman had.
Because it's going to be her seed.
That was not a prophecy given before sin
came into the world.
If that was a prophecy given in Genesis
chapter 1 or chapter 2, then we could
say perhaps it does not mean that Christ
came in the flesh.
But when we see that that prophecy was
given by God Himself after man and woman
had sinned, after their flesh had been corrupted,
to say that of her seed.
Thus we know that Jesus Christ had the
same flesh that Mary, His mother, had because
He was born of her seed.
So we see that Christ manifests in the
flesh.
It's there right at the beginning of the
Old Testament.
As soon as man sinned, God is speaking
about Christ coming in the flesh.
That is not some special doctrine.
If we have eyes to see it, when
God opens our eyes, we see it from
Genesis to Revelation, not only from Matthew.
It's there.
Her seed.
It's not going to be a special body
that God would create inside Mary's womb without
any connection with Mary herself, so that Mary's
womb would be just like a little box
inside which some special body would be created.
No.
It would be Mary's seed.
Her own flesh.
Salvation would come through that.
And Satan would be defeated by one who
came in the flesh of the woman.
And there would be enmity between the seed
of the woman and the seed of the
serpent.
The seed of the serpent, we can say
literally, is going to be that person who
is going to arise finally called the Antichrist.
He is going to be the seed of
Satan.
And it also refers to all those who
are children of Satan even today.
There is an enmity between the children of
God and the children of the serpent.
That, God said, would be there right from
the beginning.
There's enmity because they are going in two
different directions.
Those who have the spirit of Christ who
is the seed of the woman and those
who have the spirit of the Antichrist which
is the seed of the serpent.
And now we see verse 16.
Then, after having pronounced this judgment on the
serpent and the curse.
The serpent is cursed.
I want you to notice one thing here.
In verse 14, God cursed the serpent.
That is, cursed Satan and the serpent.
But if you read the rest of the
chapter on to verse 16 to 19, you'll
find something that God never cursed man or
woman.
We must not think that God cursed Adam
and Eve because He didn't.
You read carefully, you find that He doesn't
curse Adam and Eve at all.
It would be a terrible thing to be
cursed by God.
No, it is the ground, verse 17, that
God cursed.
He didn't curse Adam.
He didn't curse Eve.
He's on our side, against the devil, even
when we have fallen.
If only we can be gripped by this.
He's not there to curse us.
He's there to help us.
And we mustn't believe these Pharisees who portray
God as someone who's ready to curse us
the moment we have slipped and fallen.
No.
He punishes us but He won't curse us.
There is a difference between punishment and curse.
It's an evil father who curses his children.
It's a loving father who punishes his children.
There's a lot of difference between cursing your
children and punishing your children.
God didn't curse Adam and Eve.
He punished them.
There is a curse we read that Jesus
redeemed us from in Galatians 3.13. That
is the curse of the law.
In the law, there was a curse that
if you didn't do these things, all this,
this, this, this, this, this would come upon
you.
That was a curse.
That curse Jesus has delivered us from.
But we read here in verse 16, To
the woman He said, I will greatly multiply
your pain in childbirth.
In other words, before sin came into the
world, and if she had not sinned, she
would not have had pain in childbirth.
Pain in childbirth is part of that judgment
of God that has come upon the human
race because of sin.
And every time there's pain in childbirth, it's
a reminder that we are still in this
body, and the new heavens and the new
earth have not yet come.
We have not yet received a glorified body.
And I will greatly multiply your pain in
childbirth, and in pain you shall bring forth
children, and yet your desire shall be for
your husband.
You will still be married, even though there's
pain in childbirth.
You will still long for your husband, and
he shall rule over you.
Man was authorized by God at this point
to rule over his wife.
There are people who say, but now Jesus
has come, and that punishment that God gave
to Eve has been removed.
Man doesn't have to rule over his wife
now.
But what about the previous part of that
verse?
Has pain from childbirth also been removed?
No, it hasn't.
What about verse seventeen?
Has the ground lost its curse?
No, all the things that God spoke to
Adam and Eve are still present even today,
even for believers.
Don't believing sisters have pain in childbirth?
Don't thorns and thistles grow in the compound
of believers?
Sure.
Doesn't sweat come forth from the body of
believers?
The curse is gone, but the punishment on
the human race given to Adam and Eve
is still there.
The final punishment is death, and even that
is there for believers.
So we must not think that anything mentioned
in verses sixteen to nineteen has been removed.
No.
Pain in childbirth has not been removed, the
thorns and thistles mentioned in verse eighteen has
not been removed, and the sweat and death
mentioned in verse nineteen have not been removed,
and therefore we say that a man ruling
over his wife in verse sixteen has also
not been removed.
And any God-fearing sister should understand that,
that it is God who authorized a man
to be the ruler over his wife.
First, because she was created to be man's
helper, the woman was created for the man,
man was not created for the woman.
And secondly, after the fall, as a punishment
also, God says, because of what you did,
because of your trying to take over the
headship from Adam, because of your taking that
fruit without consulting your husband, and because you
tried to be the head of your home,
do you know who was the first woman
who tried to be the head of the
home?
Eve.
And that's how sin came.
And there are many believing sisters, I'm sorry
to say, who haven't got light on that,
who boss their husbands, who rule their husbands,
following in the steps of sinful Eve.
No.
So, God has commanded and authorized man to
rule over his wife.
It was first a law, and a punishment,
second.
Then we see, in verse seventeen, to Adam,
and this is also important for men to
recognize, what was Adam's crime?
Read it carefully.
You listened to the voice of your wife.
That was his sin.
Now, there's nothing wrong in listening to the
advice of your wife if it is godly
advice.
It's a very good thing.
In fact, later on, I'll give you an
example of it, in Genesis chapter twenty-one.
We read in Genesis twenty-one, when Isaac
was born to Abraham and Sarah, there was
a feast, we read in Genesis twenty-one,
verse eight.
And Ishmael, verse nine, Hagar's son, was mocking
Isaac and Sarah's boy.
And she went to Abraham, verse ten, and
said, Drive out this maid and her son,
for the son of this maid's servant shall
not be an heir with my son Isaac.
And for your information, those words are quoted
in Galatians 4.30 as an Old Testament
quotation by the Holy Spirit in the New
Testament.
But who spoke those words?
Sarah, the son of this maid's servant shall
not be an heir with the son born
of promise.
It's quoted in Galatians 4.30. And when
Abraham was distressed greatly because of it, God
said to Abraham, the middle of verse twelve,
Listen to your wife.
So that's the balance.
Do not listen to your wife, and listen
to your wife.
What is the difference?
The difference is, is her advice according to
the word of God?
That's the point.
The point is, not, she's a woman, we
don't listen to women.
That's heathenism.
If that's your attitude, you're a heathen.
But, that's not the reason why God says
to old Adam, you sin in listening to
your wife.
The reason was, you listened to the voice
of your wife when my voice told you
to do something else.
That's the point.
That when God tells us to do something,
and our darling wife tells us to do
something else, then we have to decide whether
we're going to follow Adam, or whether we're
going to be like Jesus who told his
mother, What have I to do with you,
woman?
Think of that.
People say we must never make our parents
we.
Oh, no.
Think how hard-hearted Jesus is.
We have gentle spiritual brothers today, but Jesus
was so carnal and hard-hearted to talk
to his mother, Woman, what have I to
do with you?
There is a whole-heartedness which today's so
-called gentle spiritual brothers just don't understand because
they don't love God so whole-heartedly as
Jesus did.
That's the reason.
That's why they are defeated in sin also.
Jesus was never defeated because he was whole
-hearted.
He wouldn't allow his mother or father, or
mother or Joseph or brothers or anyone to
allow him to sin.
No.
Nobody.
He would be strong when it came to
God's Word, God's standards.
Nobody would stand before him.
And none of these human reasoning things, how
she cared for you when you were a
little baby, would have no influence on Jesus
because if it's against God's Word, she would
stand against anybody, even if they cared for
him when he was small.
Makes no difference.
If it's against God's Word, it's against God's
Word.
We must not allow these emotional feelings to
lead us away from whole-hearted obedience to
God's Word.
And I've seen something through the years, my
brothers and sisters, that those who have whole
-heartedly stood against their relatives for God's Word
are the ones who've really accomplished something for
God on this earth.
The other diplomatic compromisers, they drift along.
They drift along.
We're not saying they're evil, but they drift
along.
And God's mighty blessing never seems to be
their portion, as it would have been if
they had loved God a little more.
So the principle of discipleship that Jesus spoke
about, any man who will come after me,
he must date his father, mother, brother, sister,
wife, and children, and his own life begins
here.
Adam, because you loved your wife more than
you loved me, because you listened to the
voice of your wife more than you listened
to my voice, therefore, you shall not eat
from you, because you did not listen to
my voice.
That's the contrast.
You see, in verse 17, you have listened
to the voice of your wife, and you
have not listened to my voice, which said,
you shall not eat from it.
Notice the contrast in verse 17.
It's a contrast.
My voice said, you shall not eat from
it.
Your wife's voice said, eat from it.
And you listened to your wife.
Therefore, Jesus said, if any man will come
after me, let him, first of all, hate
his father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, and
his own life if he wants to be
my disciple.
And I will tell you something.
I've noticed this also.
Even in the church, there are people who
hate their father and mother who will not
hate their wife.
It's amazing.
They seem to have lost out part of
that verse.
They are zealous in hating their father and
mother, but not so zealous in hating their
wife and children.
That is a human hatred then.
If it were divine, it would be to
all relatives, and it would only have relation
to disobedience to God's word.
Nothing else.
But, lots of people take these commands in
a human way.
They've got something against their parents, so they
take up that verse which the devil whispers
in their ears, and they begin to hate
their father and mother.
No, that's not the meaning.
The point is, if they tell you to
do something against God's word, then only this
hatred should operate.
That's the contrast in this verse.
My voice said, don't eat it.
And that other voice from your loved one
said, eat it.
There was a conflict there between God's voice
and the voice of the loved one.
And it is in that context that our
discipleship is tested, and there and there alone
are we to stand against father, mother, brother,
sister, wife, children, and even our own life,
which may tell us something contrary to God's
word.
So we see, this is the reason why
Jesus made that the first condition of discipleship.
Because man sins because he loves someone more
than he loved God.
And that danger is there for every one
of us, that when we love a relative
more than we love God, we are in
danger of falling into sin just like Adam.
And so we need to ensure that in
the day of judgment the Lord never has
to say to any of us, like he
said to Adam, because you listened to the
voice of your father when I told you
to do something else, because you listened to
the voice of your mother when I told
you to do something else, because you listened
to the voice of your wife when I
told you to do something else, or your
son, or your daughter, or your brother, or
your sister, when I told you to do
something else, then we can say, if God
has to say that to any of us
in the day of judgment, we can say
we have profited nothing from the example that
we read in Genesis chapter 3.
God took that very seriously.
But God could never, there was no opportunity
for God to say that to Jesus.
No.
He'd never have to say to Jesus that
you listened to the voice of your mother
and you didn't listen to my voice.
No.
He said, what have I to do with
you woman?
He was going to listen to the voice
of God.
There is an example for us there, the
way Adam went and the way Jesus Christ
went.
There is a price to be paid in
following Jesus Christ.
And a carnal, worldly believer can never understand
it.
And if we are carnal and worldly, that
message will sound like harsh and hard to
us.
And we will even think that Jesus is
harsh and hard.
But when we are spiritually minded, God shows
us what that means.
And because of that, he said, cursed is
the ground because of you.
In toil you shall eat it.
In sorrow, as it says in the margin,
in sorrow you shall eat it all the
days of your life.
There is sorrow for the woman.
In verse 16, pain, there is sorrow for
the man.
Verse 18, both thorns and thistles, it will
grow for you.
There were no thorns and thistles before sin
came into the world.
And this phrase, in the middle of verse
17, cursed is the ground because of you.
In other words, because of you, Adam.
You disobeyed me.
Therefore, this earth which I placed under your
dominion is also cursed.
And the animals who were also placed under
your dominion have also received a judgment.
The lion and the tiger have become wild.
The snake has become poisonous and scorpions have
their sting and everything was affected on earth
because man, the ruler of the earth, allowed
the devil to occupy him, to fool him,
and therefore his home, which was the earth,
also came under the control of Satan.
A warning to us that when a man
allows the devil to influence his life, his
home also becomes affected because of you, the
head of the home, not honoring me, God
says.
Therefore, there is a punishment even upon your
home.
Think of that.
It can be the other way too.
Because you, as the head of the home,
have honored me, therefore there will be a
blessing upon your home too.
I've seen that again and again.
That's where, particularly the head of the home,
really seeks to honor God.
Even where he has a carnal wife, God
still blesses that home.
And where a person, as the head of
the home, does not honor God, the blessing
of God doesn't come on that home.
It's a tremendous responsibility that is upon the
head of the home.
All men have to take that very seriously.
Very seriously.
So much of what happens in your home
depends on how you live and honor God
in your personal life.
And you shall eat the plants of the
field by the sweat of your face.
You shall eat bread.
God has ordained hard work for man.
There is a verse in Ecclesiastes which says
the sleep of the hard-working man is
sweet.
It's the person who is lazy who finds
it difficult to sleep at night.
Sleep is a blessing that God has given
us if we work hard during the day.
And God has ordained hard work for man
and by the sweat of your face you
shall earn your living.
And that's why in the New Testament we
read in 2 Thessalonians 3 that if a
man does not work neither should he eat.
2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 10.
And I believe that this is referring particularly
to those who left their jobs and decided
to become full-time workers.
Do you know that this word full-time
worker is actually a misnomer because most full
-time workers work less than those who are
not full-time workers.
In fact, people who are not full-time
workers work more full-time than those who
are so-called full-time workers.
Most full-time workers just work for two
evenings a week for a couple of hours
of meetings and that's what they call work.
No, he says, we gave you an example
because we, verse 7, we did not act
in an undisciplined manner but working with labor
and hardship night and day, verse 8 to
be an example for you we gave you
this order, verse 10 if anyone will not
work neither let him eat because we hear
that some of you are leading an undisciplined
life doing no work at all.
That means they gave up their jobs and
they just went around acting like busybodies, it
says here.
And lots of people like that in our
country.
Be careful that you don't get deceived by
any of them thinking that they are God's
servants.
They are not God's servants, they are the
devil's servants.
Just going around doing no work and sponging
off all the other believers.
We are not to encourage such people.
If they do not work, they should not
eat.
Paul is a good example of how to
serve the Lord.
So, by the sweat of your face you
shall eat your bread means that you must
work and earn your living.
God has ordained that.
And that hard work is man's protection today
in a fallen world.
You know in western countries where they have
a five day week and I think a
four day week in some places and lot
of free time and they have no religion
they have no interest in anything spiritual young
people who don't work are given money from
security systems in the government and the result
is so much of evil so much of
sin because they don't have to work hard.
Hard work is a protection that God has
given.
And then he says in Genesis chapter 3
in verse 19 that till you return to
the ground till the day you die, you
got to work hard because from it you
were taken.
You were taken from the ground and listen
to this word YOU ARE DUST That's a
good word that we have to remember always.
God looking at you and saying you are
dust and say yes Lord.
How much will you buy dust for?
Do you pay money to buy dust?
Has dust got any value?
No.
You are dust and that teaches me one
thing I have to face up to it
with all my cleverness I'm dust with all
your good looks you're dust.
Have you heard it?
You are dust.
You look into the mirror the mirror may
tell you something else You look into your
school report or college report or the degrees
after your name that may tell you something
else but God says the whole lot of
you you are dust and it's better to
hear his voice.
You are dust.
Remember that when you look into the mirror
remember that when you think of your qualifications
and your abilities and your intellect and all
your capabilities and your talents and everything else.
You are dust.
I need to hear that every day and
that teaches me that the only thing that
there is of value in me is what
the Holy Spirit has been able to accomplish
and the only thing that there is of
value in you is what the Holy Spirit
has been able to accomplish in your heart
and if he's done nothing in your heart
you're just dust full stop.
But praise the Lord that if we allow
the Holy Spirit to lead us along the
way of the cross before we finish our
earthly life though about our earthly part God
still has to say you are dust yet
within that earthly picture within that earthen vessel
God has been able to accumulate a treasure
of the divine nature that's the only thing
that God counts as of any value God's
not impressed by beautiful dust, intellectual dust, talented
dust.
No.
All dust.
The only thing that has any value is
what the Holy Spirit has been able to
work of the nature of Christ in us
only we can remember that all our lives
what God looks straight into Adam's face and
says you're dust.
And I need to hear see God looking
straight into my face and saying you are
dust.
Saying yeah Lord that's right I agree with
you 100%.
With all that I think I am, I'm
dust.
And that's why we need to put our
face in the dust the Bible says in
the book of Lamentations very wonderful verse Lamentations
3 and verse 29 says for man
let him put his mouth in the dust
and then perhaps there will be hope for
him when he puts his mouth in the
dust and recognizes that he is but dust
and ashes like Abraham said Lord I am
dust and ashes Job said that whenever when
a man got a revelation of God in
the Bible he always put his face in
the dust.
He realized what he was.
And when God stood face to face before
Adam, Adam had no doubt that he was
dust.
And we forget it when we don't stand
face to face before God.
When I forget that I'm dust, that is
the clearest proof that I'm not living before
the face of God anymore.
I'm living before the face of man.
If I were living before the face of
God, I would recognize that I'm dust every
day of my life.
All those who live before God's face will
recognize that they are dust.
People say how to handle this problem of
pride.
How to handle the problem of pride when
I'm so gifted and so talented and God
blesses me and has given me ability and
this that and the other.
There is no solution brother.
You just got to live before God's face,
that's all.
And when you live before God's face you
don't have a problem with pride at all
because you get a revelation of what you
are, that you are dust.
We get puffed up and we get big
ideas about ourselves.
The moment we begin to get those big
ideas, it is the clearest indication that we
have stopped living before God's face.
We've stopped, we wandered off.
We can say I'm not interested in the
honor of men.
You can say what you like but you're
not living before God's face because spiritual pride
has started coming in.
Or pride in something else.
Pride in your family, pride in your talents,
pride in 101 stupid things like that.
And we have forgotten what God said to
Adam straight to his face.
You are dust.
Let's hear it.
And to dust you shall return.
Everything that the Holy Spirit has not accomplished
in us has got new eternal value.
That's what we need to recognize.
Your intellectual abilities have got zero eternal value.
Your capabilities and accomplishments in all types of
fields in the world have got zero eternal
value.
Your home and all the things you have
accumulated and all the things that you have
laid up for your children have got zero
eternal value.
Only what the Holy Spirit has accomplished has
got an eternal value.
Of all the rest we can say dust.
Dust.
And like I said the other day, this
word dust, from which man was made, is
translated in Nehemiah 4 as rubbish.
So it is quite scriptural when we say
that all these earthly things are garbage.
Because God calls it garbage, we call it
garbage.
Because Jesus said that all that is big
and great in the eyes of men is
an abomination to God, therefore God calls it
rubbish, we call it rubbish.
Everything is rubbish if it's not accomplished by
the Holy Spirit.
Even so-called Christian work.
There's a lot of Christian work which is
not under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
It's just man's clever ideas of how to
serve God.
That also is dust.
Rubbish.
We need to see that.
We need to grow in discernment, to see
what is dust and rubbish in so-called
Christian work, and what has got eternal value.
The Bible speaks of wood, hay, and straw,
which will all be reduced to dust and
ashes in the fire, and that which has
got real value.
We don't want to go into all that
now, but to just mention that here.
And then verse 20, And now the man
called his wife's name Eve, because she was
a mother.
What did God say she was to be
in Genesis 2, 18?
A helper.
And what did in God's presence, what did
Adam name Eve?
A mother.
Two titles for woman in Genesis 2 and
Genesis 3.
Not business executive.
Not preacher.
Man's helper, number one.
And mother, number two.
That was in the clear light of God's
immediate presence when God was face to face
with man and woman.
They knew clearly what the calling of the
woman was.
A helper to her husband, and a mother
to her children.
But now, since six thousand years, woman has
drifted further and further and further millions of
miles away from God.
Now she thinks that she's not to be
a mother.
What to do if I've got such a
stupid husband?
I've got to put some things into his
head.
I've got to run the house.
And some of these people think they're spiritual.
Some of these women think they're spiritual.
Just because they know a little bit of
the Bible and they fast and pray.
All your fasting and praying is garbage if
you do not know that your calling is
first of all to submit to your husband
as a helper.
And to be a mother to your children
first of all.
To neglect your children and run off to
work.
To make more money.
Well, that's because man's drifted away so much
from God.
They think in terms of all that.
The primary calling of a woman is to
be a wife and a mother.
That's in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3.
In the clear light of God's presence.
He called his wife's name Eve or Living
or Life because she was the mother of
all the living.
First a helper, second a mother.
It's important to know that order also.
Not first a mother and then a wife.
First a wife.
God gave Eve to Adam as a wife
long before she became a mother.
And God gives you to somebody as a
wife long before you become a mother.
And never forget that priority.
Your first priority is to be a wife.
Second, a mother.
In heathenism it's not like that.
They care more for their children than they
care for their husbands.
They love their children more than they love
their husbands.
And all women who are like that, we
can say they are heathen.
They have no understanding of God.
Because one who has a true understanding of
God will love her husband more than she
loves her children.
And it's very difficult for a woman to
be spiritual in this area.
The mark of a spiritual woman is this.
And someone said that it would be impossible
for a wife to be in the bride
of Christ if she did not learn before
she left this earth how to submit to
her husband.
I believe that.
God has given one commandment to children.
Honor your father and mother.
Then come all the other commandments.
Don't steal, don't kill, don't...
all these other things.
Likewise, he's given one commandment to wives.
Submit to your husband as the church is
to Christ.
Then comes all the others.
And if she neglects the first one, even
if she talks about the new and living
way, I do not believe that she will
ever be a part of the bride of
Christ.
Because she has not understood to keep the
first and foremost commandment that God gave.
Take that seriously.
That is true Christianity.
What we see in the world today is
a Christianity polluted and adulterated with human traditions.
And that's why when Paul was writing to
Titus seeking to establish New Testament churches in
the island of Crete, he says to Titus,
I want you to speak, Titus 2, 1,
the things which are fitting for healthy doctrine.
I want you to teach that the older
women, verse 3, should listen to this, older
women must be reverent.
The last part of verse 3, they must
teach what is good.
What is that?
They should encourage the younger women, the wives,
one, to love their husbands, notice the order,
second, to love their children.
That is Genesis 2 and Genesis 3.
That, Paul says, is sound doctrine.
And verse 15, these things speak and exhort
and reprove with all authority.
If there are some women who don't like
to listen to this, rebuke them with all
authority.
Teach them their proper place to submit to
their wives, to their husbands, and to love
their children, not neglect them, not ever to
think that the children are a burden, a
nuisance.
To be workers at home, it says in
the next verse.
Adam understood that.
It's important that as we come into the
New Testament, we come back to understand God's
purpose for man and woman from the beginning.
Then we read in verse 21, and the
Lord God made garments of skin for Adam
and his wife, and clothed them.
We know that those fig leaves would dry
up in no time.
Adam indeed didn't know that, but God knew
it, that when the leaf is taken off
from the tree, it doesn't last long in
that fresh condition, dries up.
And that covering was inadequate, not sufficient, and
so God clothed Adam and Eve.
After sin has come into the world, there
has become a necessity for men and women
to be clothed.
It was only when there was no sin
that man and woman could remain unclothed.
But after sin has come, it is necessary
God Himself was the first person who made
proper clothes for man and woman.
And you can be sure of one thing,
that what God does, the devil will do
the opposite.
And that's why the devil is in the
business of unclothing the women, particularly in the
cinema, on the beaches, in the swimming pools,
and other places.
Who does that?
The devil.
Who gives those tailors those fashionable ideas to
unclothe the woman a little more by raising
the height of her blouse a little more?
Do you think God inspires those tailors to
do that?
You've got to be an idiot to believe
God's inspiring those tailors to do such things.
Who inspires those women to wear their sari
so low down?
Do you think it's God who's inspiring some
women to put their sari so low down?
You've got to be an idiot to believe
God inspires such things.
God believes in clothing men and women.
Don't forget that.
Don't get your inspiration from the devil.
A lot of today's fashionable society has got
its inspiration not a lot, the whole lot
of it has got its inspiration from Satan,
who's doing the opposite of what God does.
He clothes the man and the woman with
proper, durable clothing that would cover much more
of their body than a few fig leaves.
Learn something from that.
Learn something there that God expects a woman
to be modest.
All these things in the New Testament are
found here in Genesis 3.
The woman's calling to be a wife and
a mother, to be modestly dressed, it's all
here.
When Paul teaches these things, that a woman
should not teach because she was diseased, all
those things you read in 1 Timothy 2,
you find it all in Genesis 3.
That was God's original intention.
The thing is, the devil is so confused
and deceived people that people haven't gone back
to see that this was God's original intention
for fallen man and woman.
And of course, the other thing here is
that this is a picture of the way
God clothes us with the righteousness of Christ.
Because in order for God to clothe Adam
and Eve with garments of skin, He had
to kill one or more animals.
We can say this is the first time
that blood was shed in the history of
the universe.
The first time that blood was shed in
the universe when God killed an animal, or
more than one, and took the skins of
those animals and made a covering for Adam
and Eve.
A picture of what would come in the
future where the Lamb of God would shed
His blood and His skin, the righteousness of
Christ, would cover us.
What are the fig leaves a picture of?
The fig leaves are a picture of my
righteousness.
The Bible says in Isaiah 64 and verse
6 that our righteousness are like
a filthy garment in God's eyes.
And it's a pretty abominable piece of cloth
that the original Hebrew here is referring to.
A filthy, abominable, stinking, dirty piece of cloth
is all our righteousness.
Not our unrighteousness, not our sins, but our
good deeds with which we think we can
find acceptance before God, are like a filthy
garment, like fig leaves.
And in place of that, we read in
Isaiah 61.10, Isaiah 61.10, I will
rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will
exult in my God, for He, who?
He has clothed me with the garments of
salvation.
He has put a coat of skin around
me.
He has wrapped me with a robe of
righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.
And we read the fulfillment of that in
the New Testament, that Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians
1.30, has become righteousness to us.
This is justification, and we see that in
Genesis chapter 3, that when we try to
cover ourselves with our fig leaves and come
before God, God says, throw away your fig
leaves, let me give you something better, something
more durable, something that will keep you covered
all your lifetime.
You know that animal skins can last a
whole lifetime.
And God gave them animal skins, not even
cloth or perylene or any such thing.
Animal skins, that would last a lifetime.
There, how God clothes us with the righteousness
of Christ, so that we can be covered.
He has clothed me.
He didn't tell Adam to go and manufacture
it.
No.
He didn't tell Adam to go and kill
the animals.
God did it all.
God was the one who thought of it
and arranged for Christ to be slain on
the cross.
And He's the one who has clothed me.
And I need to just receive it.
What did Adam have to pay for it?
Did he have to pay anything for it?
Nothing.
And that is how we receive justification freely.
Nothing in my hands I bring.
I just receive this garments that God gives
me freely.
The righteousness of Christ to clothe me and
cover me so that I can stand before
Him.
You see, because we are so sinful, and
sinful people can't stand in God's presence.
So while we are working out our salvation
and becoming sanctified, how can we get into
God's presence?
Only one way.
If we are clothed with the righteousness of
Christ.
I can't come into God's presence because I
say, Lord, I'm working out my salvation.
If you say that, God will say, that's
good, but you're still not good enough.
But I praise God that while working out
my salvation, because I'm still not good enough,
I can be clothed with the righteousness of
Christ.
And therefore, I have constant acceptance in God's
presence.
And that's pictured there, too.
Verse 22, Then the Lord God said, Behold,
the man has become like one of us,
knowing good and evil.
Yes, man became like God in the wrong
way.
He's become like one of us, but in
the wrong way.
Not in character, but in knowledge of good
and evil.
And now, lest he stretch out his hands
and take from the tree of life and
eat and live forever.
God wanted to prevent man from living forever.
Why?
Then he would live forever as a sinner.
So God said, I want to save him
from living forever as a sinner.
Let him die, so that he can be
raised up to a new life.
And so it was a mercy of God
that God took Adam away from the garden
of Eden, so that he wouldn't eat of
the tree of life and live forever as
a sinner.
Now he could die and salvation has come
through death.
We can get another body because we're going
to die.
Isn't death a good thing?
Would any of you like to live in
this body forever and ever and ever and
ever?
I certainly wouldn't.
I'm sure you wouldn't.
Praise God that he's not allowed us to
live forever in this body.
Therefore the Lord sent him out from the
garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from
which he was taken.
There's mercy with God.
He didn't send him to hell.
We saw that God was strict.
For one sin he punished, but he didn't
send him to hell.
There's mercy with God.
He just sent him out.
There's hope.
God is strict, yet he's merciful.
And we can say he was sent out
to serve the ground.
To cultivate the ground.
That's the condition of the human race.
Serving the ground.
Serving for earthly things.
And now Jesus has come that we might
have our minds set on the things above
so that we don't cultivate the ground and
just live for the grounds, and for the
things of the grounds, but for the things
of eternity.
So he drove the man out.
It's a pretty strong word.
He just chased him out.
And at the east of the garden of
Eden he stationed the turban and the flaming
sword, which turned every direction to guard the
way to the tree of life.
A sword and a fire on all sides.
It stands on every side of the tree
of life.
It went round and round and round and
round.
Protecting that tree.
The only way to reach that tree now
is to allow that sword to fall on
our flesh.
It fell on Christ first.
And when we are crucified with Christ, they
that are crucified with Christ have crucified the
flesh with their affections and lusts.
The sword and the fire fall on our
flesh, then we can partake of the tree
of life.
There's no other way to the tree of
life.
That's why we have to always preach the
sword and the fire in the church if
we want to gather round the tree of
life.
In many churches they gather round the tree
of knowledge.
There's no sword, no fire.
I never in my life want to belong
to any church like that.
If I were in a place where there's
no church like that, I'd rather sit at
home, rather than go and sit in a
church where all they're interested in is knowledge,
no sword, no fire.
There's a sword and fire round the tree
of life.
I just want to say one more thing.
In closing, we know that everything that Adam
lost, we have received in Christ.
We notice these words.
Curse, verse 17.
Sorrow.
All these were fulfilled in Christ.
Jesus became a curse.
Sorrow, verse 17.
Margin.
Jesus became a man of sorrows.
Thorns, verse 18.
Upon his head was a crown of thorns
and thistles.
Sweat, verse 19.
He sweat great drops of blood.
Dust, we read in Psalm 22, 15.
Jesus came to the dust of death.
The sword fell on Jesus on Calvary, and
death.
He was cast out.
He drove the man out.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?
Jesus was cast out.
Everything that is there, that judgment fell on
Christ.
So that where sin abounded, grace abounded much
more.
So that in Christ, we not only get
back everything that Adam lost, but more than
Adam had.