Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19990620.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part II - The Source Of Calamity In Our Origins
B. Understanding And Productively Adjusting To Man's Basic Troubles
(Genesis 3:7-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. Job 5:7 states " . . . man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward." Trouble is thus par for this life!
    2. Well, knowing that fact is depressing unless we have hope and know how to adjust to it productively.
    3. When we look at the comprehensive trouble caused by sin in Genesis 3, we see God's explanations and directives regarding trouble and so are equipped to adjust to function well when we face it as follows:
  2. Understanding And Productively Adjusting To Man's Basic Troubles, Genesis 3:7-24.
    1. Genesis 3:7-13 describes the initial troubles and chaos that man's fall into sin created (as follows):
      1. When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from one another, Gen. 3:6-7. Marital bliss was corrupted.
      2. Additionally, man became estranged from fellowship with God, choosing to hide from God, 3:8-11.
      3. Both Adam and Eve became irresponsible, seeking to blame another for their own sins, Gen. 3:12-13.
    2. Well, God passed judgment to check the deterioration of order He had first established. However, these correctives themselves are troublesome, but to be shouldered by man as follows (Genesis 3:14-24):
      1. Since the serpent which was supposed to be subordinate to man (Gen. 1:28) was used of Satan to lead man into deception and sin, to check that influence, God cursed the serpent to a lowly environment, 14.
      2. Also, God put enmity between the serpent's seed and Eve's seed to cut down incorrect Satanic influence through the serpent on man, Gen. 3:15. This fact has a series of applications as follows:
        1. On the surface, this fact teaches humans and serpents have an enmity between them, Gen. 3:15.
        2. Spiritually, since unbelievers are children of the devil (John 8:44), God put enmity between believers and unbelievers [and demons] to hinder the spread of apostasy , 2 Cor. 6:14-18 [B.K.C., O.T., p. 33].
        3. By way of application, there would be a similar breach of fellowship between godly believers and carnal believers who are taken captive by Satan to do Satan's will, cf. 2 Tim. 2:22, 24-26!
        4. Ultimately, Jesus, the seed of the woman, would bruise the head of Satan at the cross where Satan would bruise his heel, or cause his suffering at the cross, cf. Colossians 2:14.
      3. To correct the woman's tendency to fall for the false lusts of the world (Gen. 3:6), God caused the woman to have pain in childbirth, a reality-awakener that counters such deception tendencies, 3:16a.
      4. Further, to counter the woman's tendency to usurp her husband's lead and lead him around, the woman was given a greater yearning for her husband, causing it to be easier for her to submit to him, 3:16b.
      5. For heeding his wife and sinning, Adam was judged to have to struggle to raise food for the family, a fact that would counter Adam's tendency to be irresponsible, making him take the proper lead, 3:17-19.
    3. God then provided a hope for man that lifts his spirits beyond the troubles and death of this life, 3:19-24:
      1. God provided skins for man's adequate clothing through the death of animals, prefiguring the death of Christ to provide a ground of restored fellowship with God and one another, Gen. 3:21.
      2. God guarded the tree of life so that after death, man might have opportunity to eat of it again through the eternal life offered through faith in Christ, Gen. 3:22-24 with 3:19 and Rev. 22:2-5.
Lesson: (1) Due to man's sin, mankind became irresponsible and alienated from fellowship with God and with other people. (2) These problems are generally corrected by mutual faith in Christ. (3) However, the burdens in this life of inc ompatibility between man and serpent, between believer and unbeliever, between the carnal and godly, between Christ and Satan, and the existence of childbirth pain, a woman's deep desire toward her husband and man's lifelong hardship in making a living are GOD'S assigned burdens made necessary to restrain disorder in the world caused by sin's tendencies. (4) Yet, we can bear these troubles by looking to the hope of a trouble-free life BEYOND this present one, a hope provided by one's personal faith i n Jesus Christ, God's sacrificial lamb!

Application: It is very wholesome for us to survey Genesis 3:7-24 to understand the burdens we bear, to adjust to them and to hope where we should with realistic optimism and productivity in this life.