WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.240 So we come in this section of Genesis 3 to both the effects of sin and the entry of God's grace. 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:17.160 ! This is a section that is crucial to our understanding of history. 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:25.600 ! But to make a different point, Augustine said this, he said, if we lack a Christian understanding 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:34.780 of history, including a grasp of its beginning and end, we are condemned to wander round in circles, 00:00:34.780 --> 00:00:44.799 finding neither a way in nor a way out. And God in His goodness has given us these wonderful bookends 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:52.140 at the beginning and end of the Bible in Genesis and Revelation, and we read the rest of the Bible, 00:00:52.140 --> 00:00:58.299 and indeed we read all of history as coming between these two bookends, so that we know 00:00:58.299 --> 00:01:05.200 that while things have been made perfect, Genesis 1 and 2, but have now gone wrong in the world, 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:11.819 Genesis 3, the effects of sin, we understand that God is working to make everything new. 00:01:12.620 --> 00:01:17.840 We get hints of that in Genesis 3, but we see it reach climax at the end of Revelation. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.120 And if we lose that sense of Christian history, that history is going somewhere, 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:30.079 that it may be that the chaos in our world today, maybe the struggles in our hearts today, they might 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:37.439 overwhelm us. We might think that we are doomed and the world is doomed to an endless cycle of painful 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:44.719 repeat, but that is not Christian history. That's not what we have in the story, God's story. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:51.819 But what we have already in Genesis 3 is that honest truth, that we live in a world that is both 00:01:51.819 --> 00:02:00.039 beautiful and it is broken. And we see the effects of sin bringing decay in so many ways, but we also 00:02:00.039 --> 00:02:08.639 get wonderful hints of hope. And maybe we are familiar with Genesis 3, 15 as the first word of the gospel, 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:18.159 this coming seed who would crush the head of the snake. The God who made all things is the God of the 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:26.479 covenant and he is not done. And he will work out his saving purposes. And to understand history, 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:35.359 to understand our own stories, we need to know God's story. God's great rescue story, God's commitment to 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:43.520 undo all the sin and the sorrow that we as people have brought into the world. And we can begin to trace 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:53.160 that story here in Genesis 3, so that when everything begins to unravel on account of human sin, we see the 00:02:53.160 --> 00:03:01.380 beginnings of God weaving together a wonderful tapestry of grace, so that in the end he will make everything new. 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:05.840 And we're going to see both of those side by side this morning, but we're going to start with the effects 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:11.819 of sin. That's the first big thing we're going to look at. Just a very brief recap of where we were 00:03:11.819 --> 00:03:19.620 last time. We saw that into God's perfect garden came the entry of evil in the form of the snake, 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:25.819 the Satan, and he tempted Adam and Eve to doubt God's goodness, to doubt God's truthfulness, 00:03:25.819 --> 00:03:31.879 encourage them to reach out and grab the forbidden fruit, to remove God from the throne, that they 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:39.639 might be there. And now we get the painful record of what happens next. We're going to see relationships 00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:45.479 are broken, that perfect creation is spoiled, that gender roles are distorted, that death enters their 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:53.819 story. And we're reminded again, and we said this last week, that the early chapters of the Bible 00:03:53.819 --> 00:04:01.599 help us to make sense of the world that we see, the way that the world is, the wars of aggression, 00:04:01.819 --> 00:04:09.919 the killing, the sadness, the suffering, online lies and hate, why we fear and hate death as an enemy. 00:04:12.419 --> 00:04:19.459 But it's so significant that the first thing that comes after they've eaten, the first way that sin 00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:27.079 is felt. Did you notice it? Look at verse 7 with me. The first effect of sin is shame. 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:32.839 Their eyes are open, they realize that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:40.919 and made coverings for themselves. In breaking God's commandment, there is this new awareness 00:04:40.919 --> 00:04:46.379 that they have rebelled against God, that they have acted against God's own heart. They know that 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:53.480 they have dishonored their loving creator. And there is shame. And the instinct that follows shame, 00:04:53.600 --> 00:05:02.779 which is to try and cover up. And ever since then, that's been the way that we have operated. We can 00:05:02.779 --> 00:05:08.819 think of the great scandals. Maybe we can think of Watergate. Or we think in the UK of the post office 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:16.560 accounting system, a cover-up scandal. Or we look much closer to home and we recognize from childhood, 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:26.560 it's been our instinct to claim, it wasn't me. Their eyes are open, but there's bitter disappointment. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:34.759 Their eyes are open to their own shame. They want to hide away. Innocence is gone. Transparency 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:45.740 is gone and it's replaced with shame. What is shame? Ed Welch, the biblical counselor, defines it this way. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:55.099 Shame is the deep sense that you are unacceptable because of something you did, something done to you, 00:05:55.100 --> 00:06:06.360 or something associated with you. This moves us beyond just bad behavior. Shame works to attack our sense of 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:20.379 identity. I am unclean. I am exposed. I must be unworthy of love. And shame will lead us to hiding and to 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:30.459 covering. And shame can become that label we attach to ourselves. Like Hester, Prince, Scarlet Letter, 00:06:30.579 --> 00:06:40.000 the badge of shame. Here are Adam and Eve created in the image of God. That was their initial perfect 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:48.060 label that God placed on them. But because of sin and because of shame, they're now labeling themselves as 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:59.519 unfit and unworthy. And shame is powerful. It has a power to make us feel unfit and unworthy, 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:09.579 to be consumed with self-hate. And so the first effect of sin is shame, but it doesn't stop there. 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:16.160 Sin's poisonous effects run further into the human bloodstream, and we see it in the breakdown 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:24.740 of relationships. In short measure, we see that every aspect of perfect relationship God created Adam 00:07:24.740 --> 00:07:32.820 and Eve in, it is now broken by the fall. We begin with the impact on the relationship with the 00:07:32.820 --> 00:07:40.960 environment. So in verse 17 to 19, we have this scene, a continuing scene. Here is God, the all-wise 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:47.459 judge, judge, and he comes, and he summons Adam and Eve to court. And this is the point where judgment 00:07:47.459 --> 00:07:55.459 falls on Adam. Verse 17, because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I 00:07:55.459 --> 00:08:04.099 commanded you, cursed is the ground. Through painful toil you will eat. It will produce thorns and thistles. 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:12.740 His sin was in the eating, and so his punishment becomes hardship and frustration in working and 00:08:12.740 --> 00:08:20.240 providing for food for himself and his family. That because of sin, the environment will both be his 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:29.460 friend and his enemy. Some of us are gardeners. You may have experienced this in a small way this 00:08:29.460 --> 00:08:33.759 week. The spring sunshine has been wonderful, and it's caused the flowers to bloom, but it also brings 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:41.960 the weeds. And so our relationship with the environment is damaged. And then there are the 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:50.220 human relationships that we begin to see break down. At God's inquest, verse 9, the Lord God called to 00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:58.539 the man, where are you? And you get this wonderful picture of God the Creator. He's now God the Redeemer. 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:06.860 And what does God the Redeemer do? He seeks the lost to bring them to himself. And so he comes to bring 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:18.240 Adam and Eve out of their hiding into honest confession. But what happens instead? How does Adam respond? 00:09:19.620 --> 00:09:25.019 Verse 11, when God asks him, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree? 00:09:25.019 --> 00:09:32.279 The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it. 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:38.919 Do you notice what he does? He's justifying himself. It was my circumstances, God. That was the cause. It 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:47.279 was fate that led me to this point. And there's the blame shifting. It was really the woman that you put 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:54.459 here. She's really responsible for leading me astray. And the accusation goes even further. 00:09:55.100 --> 00:10:01.339 God, it's the woman you put here with me. You brought the trouble. So there's the justifying 00:10:01.339 --> 00:10:10.399 and the blame shifting that moves into the arguing and the bitterness within this first marriage. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:16.199 The last time we heard Adam speak, well, he wasn't really speaking at all. He was singing 00:10:16.199 --> 00:10:25.139 a wonderful love song in Genesis 2, 23. As he meets his wife, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:30.720 Now it's a very different way of talking about his wife. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:41.600 When God speaks to Eve, what is this you have done? She too passes the blame. The snake deceived me. 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:48.019 And as we get to verse 16 and as God's judgment comes on the woman, 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:54.800 I will make your pains and childbearing very severe with painful labor. You will give birth to children. 00:10:55.420 --> 00:11:00.560 Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. We hear something of the 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:06.899 disruption that there will be in relationships. That even now the gift of bringing children into the 00:11:06.899 --> 00:11:14.839 world brings pain and suffering. That this marriage that God has created good now brings struggle. 00:11:14.839 --> 00:11:22.039 There is this reminder of tension that the battle of the sexes. Here is a wife who's unwilling to 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:27.699 submit to the husband's leading and here is a husband not leading in a loving and sacrificial way. 00:11:27.700 --> 00:11:39.500 And it comes because of sin. Sin is the hand grenade thrown into God's design for marriage and relationship 00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:47.040 and human community. And sadly, we don't need to look too far or think too back in our own experience 00:11:47.040 --> 00:11:53.700 to see some of its harmful effects. Those painful memories of fights that we have had with those 00:11:53.700 --> 00:12:03.000 closest to us. The unresolved conflict that we often have to live with. The abuse, the dishonor 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:12.020 that we hear far too much of. But there is the breakdown of another relationship here in Genesis 3 00:12:12.020 --> 00:12:19.140 and it's the relationship with God Himself. Genesis 3 verse 8, the man and his wife heard the sound of 00:12:19.139 --> 00:12:25.019 the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among 00:12:25.019 --> 00:12:30.279 the trees of the garden. So we've said this before that Eden was designed to be like a temple. 00:12:31.019 --> 00:12:36.799 It was a holy place. It was the place where God and His people could meet together. 00:12:38.699 --> 00:12:42.699 And so here is this picture of God coming to meet with His people, but now because of sin, 00:12:42.700 --> 00:12:52.080 they run and they hide. Remember they bought into the lie, the lie of the evil one. So now they're 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:57.060 thinking, does God really care about me? Does God really want my best? Does God really love me? Can I 00:12:57.060 --> 00:13:08.120 trust Him? And it's wonderful to see that even after the people sin, God comes. And notice in verse 8, 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:18.659 He is still the Lord God. He is still the personal covenant-making God. And so because that is true, 00:13:18.899 --> 00:13:25.139 there is hope beyond human sin. But we need to understand that it's going to take God's work 00:13:25.139 --> 00:13:31.899 of seeking and saving for there to be any hope. Otherwise, we're left with fig leaves and trees and 00:13:31.899 --> 00:13:40.579 hiding and believing the lie about God. Why is it that so many people choose to worship created things 00:13:40.579 --> 00:13:47.899 rather than God the Creator? Why is it that we can be so quick in our hearts to attribute wrong motives 00:13:47.899 --> 00:13:53.980 to God? How is it that we can think the worst of God despite receiving His goodness and mercy and 00:13:53.980 --> 00:14:01.519 knowing the gospel? Again, it's the effect of sin in our hearts that leads to this breakdown. 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:11.959 And the climax of this breakdown and the tragic loss that the chapter closes with is exile. 00:14:13.299 --> 00:14:23.399 Chapter 3, verse 22 to 24. So we saw that Adam and Eve, they took matters into their own hands. They 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:28.539 reached out for the forbidden fruit, saying to themselves, do you know what? I'm going to decide 00:14:28.539 --> 00:14:34.599 what is good and evil, what's right and wrong. I'm going to push God to one side. 00:14:36.839 --> 00:14:43.219 But God takes something out of their hands. The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. 00:14:43.339 --> 00:14:48.399 He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and eat and live forever. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:51.120 And do you know what? That's an act of God's mercy. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:15:01.139 If God were to leave us to live in rebellion forever, separated from, estranged from God, 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:07.200 that would be misery. But God in His mercy says, I'm not going to allow people to live that way forever. 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:14.679 And so they are removed from the garden. There is that terrifying no entry sign fixed at the entrance, 00:15:14.679 --> 00:15:20.039 the flaming sword, the flaming sword, and the angels of judgment. And so we see them in exile. 00:15:21.799 --> 00:15:29.759 They have lost the right to live in God's perfect presence, to live in God's perfect place, 00:15:30.079 --> 00:15:38.779 and to live there forever. And exile in the Bible becomes this image of judgment, 00:15:38.779 --> 00:15:45.220 of what it looks like to be far away from God and outside of communion and community with God. 00:15:45.579 --> 00:15:51.419 And we see it when the people of Israel are in the promised land, enjoying God's goodness, 00:15:51.539 --> 00:15:57.959 but then they turn their back on God. Ultimately, the judgment is exile. They can no longer live in God's 00:15:57.959 --> 00:16:08.539 land. And it's striking when Jesus comes. Jesus, who so many people recognize as the most loving man 00:16:08.539 --> 00:16:15.819 who ever lived, that Jesus is also the person who spoke most in the Bible about the realities of hell 00:16:15.819 --> 00:16:26.339 and judgment. And it's striking how often the language that He uses is exile language. Think about those 00:16:26.339 --> 00:16:36.579 parables of people who are cast out, those people who are denied access into the King's presence, 00:16:36.580 --> 00:16:46.400 the reality of tears and torment for those on the outside. Picture of Genesis 3. We may have a bunch of 00:16:46.400 --> 00:16:52.160 if-onlys. If only there was a way back. If only there was a way to reverse all this. If only 00:16:52.160 --> 00:16:54.500 they hadn't done it in the first place. 00:16:54.500 --> 00:17:05.960 But the good news that we find within Genesis 3 is that even when everything falls apart, 00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:16.099 God comes as the Redeemer for the lost. He comes to show us He is a God who brings grace. He is a God 00:17:16.099 --> 00:17:23.180 who writes a better story. So we've thought about the effects of sin. Now we need to think about the 00:17:23.180 --> 00:17:29.980 entry of God's grace together. And just to pull our minds back to Augustine and to recognize that God 00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:34.220 in His kindness, He doesn't want us to wander around in circles with a sense of despair. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:40.420 He doesn't want us not to be clear on where history is heading. He wants us to know that you and I, 00:17:40.420 --> 00:17:46.360 we can have hope because of the Christian view of history that's presented in the Bible. 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:55.879 Bible. And within Genesis 3 itself, there are wonderful gospel threads, wonderful themes. 00:17:57.259 --> 00:18:02.459 And what we're going to do is we're going to pull on three of these themes. And they will take us all 00:18:02.459 --> 00:18:07.899 the way to the story of Jesus as we encounter Him in the gospels, but they will take us right to the 00:18:07.900 --> 00:18:16.019 end of history and to the promise of new creation in Revelation. So the first of these threads we find 00:18:16.019 --> 00:18:24.540 in verse 21, and it's all about the clothing. Look at Genesis 3 verse 21, simple words, 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:31.040 the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. So in the beginning, 00:18:31.380 --> 00:18:36.560 without sin, made with nothing to hide physically or spiritually. But now sin has brought shame and 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:43.480 disgrace. And we heard their best attempts to cover themselves with these fig leaves. And Genesis 3 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:51.379 highlights for us that as people, we lack the power to cover our sin and shame and bring the cleansing 00:18:51.379 --> 00:19:03.240 and honor we need. But the God of grace provides proper clothing. The God of love, He covers their 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:15.519 dishonor and we discover a God whose grace can overcome our disgrace. Now how does He do that? What is needed 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:28.359 for shame to be covered? Well it's here in the clothing. It's garments of skin. Blood sacrifice must be made 00:19:28.359 --> 00:19:37.599 for sin and shame for sin and shame to be covered, for us to be clothed. Significantly it's the same idea in 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:47.319 the temple. God established very elaborate clothing for the priests to make. That covering, that clothing 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:55.119 was provided by God. And as the priests were to serve in the temple, they must themselves be sprinkled, 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.719 even their clothing must be sprinkled with blood. And that sounds really gruesome, but it's really 00:19:59.719 --> 00:20:04.939 significant. Because it was a message to the priests and the people, and it's a message for us that we 00:20:04.939 --> 00:20:13.859 cannot approach God unless we are clothed with His righteousness. Unless there is a blood sacrifice to 00:20:13.859 --> 00:20:20.939 cover our sin and our shame. And that takes us directly, doesn't it, to the message of the gospel. 00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:30.940 It takes us to Jesus on the cross. It takes us to Jesus stripped and dying in shame so that, 00:20:31.840 --> 00:20:38.960 by God's grace, your sin and mine can be forgiven. That we can know honor in place of dishonor. That 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:46.920 there might be grace to overcome our disgrace. That by faith, as a gift of God, we are clothed in 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:54.880 Christ's perfect righteousness. That's how God sees us, perfect in His Son, the Lord Jesus. That's how we 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:03.860 can draw near. So when we read in Revelation of the wedding and of the bride's clothes and of the white 00:21:03.860 --> 00:21:10.320 robes, and you read about them again in Revelation 19, those white robes are saying to us, in the new 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:19.879 creation, all sin is cleansed and forgiven and removed, and shame is gone, and it's gone forever. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:32.379 So the Bible promises that human shame, human sin can be met by God's grace through the sacrifice He provides. 00:21:32.380 --> 00:21:40.460 And so it's an invitation to us to trust in Jesus. Let's pull on our next gospel thread. 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:47.960 And this takes us to the walk. The walk of God, or the God of the walk. Remember verse 8? 00:21:48.560 --> 00:21:54.180 The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden. To walk with 00:21:54.180 --> 00:22:00.160 someone, to have a walk with someone, most often involves some quality time, doesn't it? Involves being 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.060 side by side with someone else, it becomes a picture of relationship, of friendship, of intimacy. 00:22:06.660 --> 00:22:15.040 And the story of the Bible is of our Creator God walking with His people. Here in this perfect 00:22:15.040 --> 00:22:22.940 garden, He established perfect relationship, perfect friendship. But even after the entry of sin, 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:33.559 God's coming to walk in the garden, where Adam and Eve were, it gives us hope. God comes on the walk, 00:22:33.559 --> 00:22:41.720 and He calls out to Adam, where are you? This isn't because of ignorance on God's part. This is God, 00:22:41.779 --> 00:22:48.559 the loving Father, who wants His child to confess, to bring His wrongdoing into the open. 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:57.599 So that at the same time that God will send out Adam and Eve from the garden, they are banished. 00:22:58.579 --> 00:23:04.299 We are still reminded that He is the God of covenant love, who will make a way to walk with 00:23:04.299 --> 00:23:12.299 His people. And that theme picks up. It picks up in the story of Abraham. It picks up in the story of 00:23:12.299 --> 00:23:18.599 Moses and of the people of Israel. There is God right there with His people in the heart of the camp. 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:22.919 And the climax of that great theme, of course, is none other than the Lord Jesus. 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:30.359 Here is the Son of God who literally walks among us. He has come and He has walked in our shoes, 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:37.639 and He has walked on this earth on His kingdom mission. He has walked among rich and poor, 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:45.880 men and women, clean and unclean. He has walked up a mountain, and He has shone with the glory of God. 00:23:47.840 --> 00:23:55.160 And He has walked up Mount Calvary to die on a Roman cross. And He would walk out of the tomb 00:23:55.160 --> 00:24:01.600 in victory. And the wonderful thing is that the God of the walk still walks with His people today, 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:10.099 because Jesus has sent the Spirit to live among us. And in the new creation, what do we discover? 00:24:11.059 --> 00:24:18.139 We discover the great hope that is held out to us in the good news of the Bible is that we will once again 00:24:18.139 --> 00:24:25.139 walk with our God and our Savior forever in a beautiful, physical, redeemed creation. 00:24:25.140 --> 00:24:33.960 We discover a God and Savior who comes so close as to wipe away every tear. 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:43.660 And so the answer to our loneliness and our isolation, the answer to the reality of God feeling far from us, 00:24:44.320 --> 00:24:50.580 is of God graciously coming to us, of God calling to us in the Lord Jesus. 00:24:50.579 --> 00:24:59.299 It's of the Lord God walking the road to the cross in order to forgive and to save us. 00:25:00.879 --> 00:25:06.619 There's one more thread that we need to pull on, and it's the thread of the sword and the tree. 00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:13.159 It's there at the end of Genesis 3. What does that flaming sword that guards the garden represent? 00:25:13.160 --> 00:25:21.540 It represents God's holy judgment on sin. It bars the way back into His presence, 00:25:21.660 --> 00:25:25.100 so the access to the tree of life is now forbidden. 00:25:28.100 --> 00:25:35.519 Verse 19, we heard those words to Adam, 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:42.220 For dust you are, and to dust you will return. 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:46.160 Now the access to the tree of life is forbidden. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.920 Every death, every funeral reminds us of this dust-to-dust reality 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:56.480 and leaves us with a longing as we read this. 00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:58.259 Is there a way back to life? 00:25:59.379 --> 00:26:02.079 Is there a way back to life in a perfect world? 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:04.359 Is there a way for relationships to be restored? 00:26:05.099 --> 00:26:07.939 Is there a way back to life with God Himself? 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:11.079 And is there a way back to the tree of life? 00:26:11.139 --> 00:26:12.559 And to find that answer, 00:26:13.659 --> 00:26:17.319 the Bible invites us again to go to another tree, 00:26:18.339 --> 00:26:22.439 to go to that wooden cross upon which Jesus died, 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:24.179 and to ask ourselves the question, 00:26:24.419 --> 00:26:26.259 What is happening there? 00:26:26.259 --> 00:26:31.119 And what's happening there is that Jesus, 00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:33.460 the sinless Son of God, 00:26:33.539 --> 00:26:34.579 He cries out, 00:26:34.700 --> 00:26:36.279 My God, my God, 00:26:37.099 --> 00:26:39.039 why have you forsaken me? 00:26:40.039 --> 00:26:42.140 He feels as if He is in exile. 00:26:42.379 --> 00:26:45.059 He endures spiritual agony. 00:26:45.220 --> 00:26:48.299 He tastes death as judgment. 00:26:48.500 --> 00:26:51.319 And in that moment, on that tree, 00:26:51.319 --> 00:26:53.879 Jesus Himself, the Son of God, 00:26:53.980 --> 00:26:58.759 goes under the flaming sword of God's judgment, 00:26:59.700 --> 00:27:03.500 so that by His grace and through faith, 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:07.200 the way of access to God is open once more. 00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:10.200 And the great signal to that was that 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:12.179 when Jesus died down in the temple, 00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:14.460 the curtain was torn from top to bottom. 00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:18.460 God is doing it through the death 00:27:18.460 --> 00:27:20.620 and then the resurrection of His Son, Jesus. 00:27:20.740 --> 00:27:22.819 He is opening the way back to God 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:24.600 and the way back to life. 00:27:25.120 --> 00:27:28.579 God is beckoning us back into His glorious presence 00:27:28.579 --> 00:27:30.160 as we would trust in Him. 00:27:31.100 --> 00:27:32.779 Jesus tastes death 00:27:32.779 --> 00:27:36.279 so we can once more eat from the tree of life. 00:27:37.579 --> 00:27:40.720 We heard it in that picture of the future, 00:27:41.059 --> 00:27:44.400 that picture of life in the new creation. 00:27:45.460 --> 00:27:48.620 As we heard from Revelation 21 and 22, 00:27:49.140 --> 00:27:49.900 the new creation, 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:51.279 it's like a temple. 00:27:52.539 --> 00:27:53.860 And it's like a garden. 00:27:54.819 --> 00:27:56.180 And it's like a city. 00:27:58.100 --> 00:27:59.700 And it's a place of life. 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:02.400 And it's a place of perfection. 00:28:03.220 --> 00:28:06.900 And it's a place of God and His people together forever. 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:11.100 And it reminds us that the effects of sin, 00:28:11.480 --> 00:28:13.460 they do not have the last word. 00:28:13.460 --> 00:28:15.600 That is not the end of the story. 00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:20.160 Instead, God's grace brings us the joy of life with God now 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:23.539 and the promise of life for all eternity. 00:28:25.259 --> 00:28:27.920 Listen in once again to Revelation 22. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:31.360 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, 00:28:31.660 --> 00:28:33.800 as clear as crystal, 00:28:33.980 --> 00:28:36.840 flowing down from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 00:28:37.700 --> 00:28:39.860 down the middle of the great tree of the city, 00:28:39.980 --> 00:28:40.759 street of the city. 00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:43.759 On each side of the river stood the tree of life, 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:47.700 bearing 12 crops of fruit, 00:28:48.580 --> 00:28:50.900 yielding its fruit every month. 00:28:50.900 --> 00:29:00.280 There is a way back to life with God. 00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:14.220 There is a way back to life with God. 00:29:14.779 --> 00:29:17.559 There is access once again to the tree of life, 00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:19.500 to eternal life, to perfect life, 00:29:19.559 --> 00:29:21.000 the life that we were made for. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:24.880 And it comes through faith in the Lord Jesus.