The Gospel Promised: From Eden to Eternity

Let’s Pray

Last week we looked at Romans 1:1 and the power of Jesus and the Gospel to transform lives.

Paul went from killing Christians and persecuting Jesus to a fully surrendered servant of Christ Jesus!

The Gospel still transforms lives today

This morning we will look at the Gospel of God and how He promised it before hand

Romans 1:2

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Romans 1:2 ESV

which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

Before we can look at the beforehand promise we must understand the Gospel of God

Before we can truly understand the Gospel of God we must understand sin

before we can understand sin we must understand the fall

before we can understand the fall we must understand life before the fall

Genesis 2:4-17

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Genesis 2:4–17 ESV

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And 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.”

God created man

no big bang

no evolving from monkeys

God created man

formed him out of the dust and breathed life into him

God created man with a purpose first communion with Him and second work the garden of Eden

What a wonderful world

a world completely dependent upon God

Genesis 2:5

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Genesis 2:5 ESV

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,

Nothing happened because God had not caused it to happen yet

you and i get caught up in trying to build our kingdoms

you an di get caught up trying to cause things to happen

then we fail and wonder why

it is God that causes or allows all things to happen

Until we truly depend upon Him we can never be fully used by Him

He doesn’t need your help

He has it all under control

however He loves you and wants to use you but only when you get out of the way and fully surrender to Him

God did give man a commandment

you may eat of every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

eat of that tree and you shall surely die

Genesis 2:18-25

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Genesis 2:18–25 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Again God created you

He created 2 sexes

2 genders

male

and

female

He did not create non-binary whatever that is

He did not create transgender

He did not create you homosexual

Male

or

Female

Just because you may not like the truth that doesnt stop it from being the truth

Woman was taken out of man’s body....his rib....and formed by God and both were naked and unashamed

Unity

God and each other

what a beautiful picture of how life is supposed to be lived!!!!!!

we have made life so complicated and busy

God designed us.....

God created us to be simple

Love Him and do the work he created for us to do

Fully dependent upon God Himself

Why do we push God away

why do we struggle so much with being fully dependent upon God

because we want control

we want to depend upon us

we want to depend upon our wisdom

we want to depend upon our own provision

after all we are to look out for number 1

you are to do you

you are to live your best life

you are to live your truth

what a joke and disgrace to God when we do that!!!!!

Life was created by the Lord God to be simple and fully focused and dependent upon Him but that wasn’t enough for Adam and Eve

that isn’t enough for you or I today either most days

Genesis 3:1-3

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Genesis 3:1–3 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

God never said anything about touching the fruit

you have to be so careful not to add to or take away from God’s Word

In fact it is mentioned in the Old and New testament

Deuteronomy 4:2

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Deuteronomy 4:2 ESV

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

And again

Revelation 22:18-19

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Revelation 22:18–19 ESV

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Pretty scary stuff isn’t it

by the way it is okay to fear God

many times in scripture when we see fear it means respect however we are to be afraid of God’s wrath

as Christians we know we will not face it but those we love who are lost will

that should scare us into action

Adding to and taking away from God’s Word will result in consequences the worst of all could be leading someone astray and costing them salvation!!!!!

God’s Word is perfect just as it is

You can’t add anything to it

and you can’t take anything away from it

some of God’s teachings are hard and cost us a lot so human nature is to take away from them and change them

sometimes we don’t understand God’s truth so we try to add to it to make it easier to understand

both are very dangerous and wrong

When we do that we cheapen God’s Word and put ourselves in a place where we don’t respect it making it so much easier to sin!!!!!!

Genesis 3:4-7

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Genesis 3:4–7 ESV

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Classic move by the enemy

entice you through your pride

I believe that pride is the root of most sin

God says love of money is root of all kinds of evil

I Timothy 6:10

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1 Timothy 6:10 ESV

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

You and I know that is true....we all have done....maybe are doing....and will for sure do evils because of the love of money

Same is true with pride......

Proverbs 16:18

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Proverbs 16:18 ESV

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride goes before destruction

Pride leads to sin 100% of the time and most of the sin we commit is the because of our pride

satan attacks Eves pride here

when you look at it from this side of the cross and history it makes no sense to commit this sin

Adam and Eve already knew good

They knew God and God is always and truly good

they knew good why on earth would they want to know evil

that is how the devil gets us......he gets us thinking and acting in our pride and then rational thoughts leave our head

Godly wisdom says why on earth would you want to know evil

pride says someone has something I don’t

I want it regardless of the cost

so many times we chase something out of pride

and when we catch it we realize it costs us so much more than we are wiling or prepared or able to pay

we get it and think why did I want this?

My friends be content in God and God alone

His provision is perfect

Genesis 3:8

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Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Sin always separates you from God

so many times we want to hide thinking avoiding it makes it go away

false

it makes it worse

Unrepentant sin destroys your relationship with God as well as others

unrepentant sin always wants to isolate you

unrepentant sin always fills you with guilt and shame

unrepentant sin always tries to make you believe you are the only one who has done this

unrepentant sin tells you it will harm you greatly to confess and repent and deal with your sin

Genesis 3:9-13

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Genesis 3:9–13 ESV

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Pointing fingers at someone else

deflecting blame

trying to justify your wrong doing by placing blame on another person

this is still the natural reaction of our world and society

Adam and Eve were caught and were now trying to do damage control

if you react this way you are following the world and not God

God gives us direct instruction on how to deal with sin

I John 1:9

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1 John 1:9 ESV

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

If we confess

opposite of what Adam and Eve did here

opposite of how the world and society reacts to sin

when we as Christians are convicted by God of our sin our response must be confession and repentance

not sorry you are caught but taking ownership of your sin and talking to God in a real way

God I am so sorry i sinned against you

i am so sorry I drove the nails into Jesus

i have failed you and you alone please forgive me

please give me a clean heart

then if that sin affected someone else you must go have a conversation with them

Genesis 3:14-24

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Genesis 3:14–24 ESV

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; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 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, and to dust you shall return.” The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

God gave consequences to all three

life long and generational consequences

Forgiveness doesnt mean lack of consequences

consequences are up to God and just because you receive consequences for your sin doesnt mean you are not forgiven of that sin

God often times allow consequences in our lives because that is how we learn and get motivated to not repeat that sin

We also see God pointing to the cost of sin.....blood

God shed the blood of an animal because He made clothing for them out of skins

blood shed to appease God’s Wrath due to the sin

Many today argue over Old Testament and what applies what doesn’t apply etc

The Old Testament was where God promised beforehand through His prophets about the gospel of God

It points to Jesus

the law and the festivals and the food laws etc were all pointing to and displaying that Jesus was better

Jesus fulfilled most of the Old Testament because His death on the cross paid for sin and He freely offers salvation to those who will accept it

The Gospel of God is His plan for permanent....eternal way to deal with sin

John 3:16-17

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John 3:16–17 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God tells us the wages of sin is death

sometimes physical death but always spiritual death

you and i could not pay those wages so God sent Jesus to pay those wages

to live a perfect life and die a perfect death to shed His blood to pay for your and my sin debt

when we accept that payment to our sin by repenting and being saved......making Jesus our Lord and Savior at that moment we are endwelled with the Holy Spirit and He transforms us from the inside out

Throughout all of scripture Jesus is pointed to like a neon sign

the old testament pointed to Him

the new testament explains about Him and our response to Him

God is so good

Maybe you need transformation this morning

come

invitation