The Fall
Genesis chapter 3, 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. 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. 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. 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. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. 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, and 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 of 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. Let's start in prayer. That's a good place to start, isn't it? Father, we pray that you might prepare our hearts now. Steady us, free us from distraction, that we may be ready to hear your word. Pray that you may help it to proclaim it clearly. and Father that we all may be edified and built up today. pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I had an article forwarded me in my email and it was a good little article about sin. fitting for this week, don't you think? And it talks specifically about the fact that Christians nowadays are less and less believing that sin is actually a real thing. Or even more that we just like, okay, we might be sinful, but we're good at heart, right? And even better yet, said apparently they did this survey where they researched and went through this big domain full of sermons. analyzed all the content and tried to find which ones mentioned sin and which ones didn't. And they said 3 % of them overall mentioned sin at all. And so guys, buckle in. We're gonna do the sinful one, then for the next 32 weeks, you are not gonna have to hear about sin at all from me. Because we've only got to do it 3 % of the time apparently. That is not at all the case. You are gonna be hearing about it every single Sunday for the rest of your lives as long as you hear. I'm sorry that you have to hear that, but the reality is I'm not even gonna be sitting up here just telling you about how to deal with it. Sometimes I'm just gonna be up here telling you how sinful you are, because that's part of the reminder that we all need, because we're all continually forgetting it. And so today, we are looking at the very first, not the very first sin, but the very first human sin, because there was a sinful one who led Eve and Adam into sin, of course, the serpent. But here we are really getting a picture of sin. This is what you'd call the essence or the foundation of sin, because every sin after this one follows this pattern. They come in different shape, different sizes, but you boil it all down, they all come out the same. It's the same boilerplate. All right? So we'll start. Looking at verses one through six, we'll read through it again slowly, just going through it verse by verse. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? 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. 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 open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, for there was a light to the eyes and that the tree was desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband and ate, who was with her and he ate. So, so far the story of Genesis, right? Genesis one and two, it's all about God's creation, his making humanity, his resting on the seventh day. It's all about creation. And then Genesis three is almost like, We're given an episode in the life of Adam and Eve in the garden. This is the one snapshot that we're given of what life was actually like there. I have so many questions about what it was like before the fall. And so many of those questions I will not get an answer to, not on this side of eternity. There is so much shrouded in mystery before the fall that we don't know about. Did all of the animals talk? Was it just because Satan somehow came as a ser... I don't know. There are so many things that I don't understand. We don't even know if this was the next day or 100 years down the road. I don't know. But we are given the things that we need to know. That is the one thing you can hands down believe everything you need to know, everything you need to know about the fall, about creation is in these first three chapters, not verses. So we're introduced to this serpent, not given much about him, just told. He was more crafty than any other beast. Does that mean he likes arts and craft? I don't know. What does crafting mean, right? Other translations might say he's cunning or he's clever. And you see, the important thing to understand, this trait is not inherently an evil one, all right? Because you see, the same word is used in Proverbs. From Proverbs 14, 15, says, the simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. It's the same word for prudent. And this is talking about a good thing. It's constantly emphasized. One should be prudent. One should almost be like the serpent in a way, as in taking this trait of being clever and cunning. But see the difference between the serpent and the wise man from Proverbs is the aim of the trait. But what is it used? Is one cleverly using their wisdom to honor God or to dishonor him? to glorify Him or to drag others into sin. What do you think the serpent was doing? Not the good part, right? He was trying to drag others into sin with Him. Better yet, you'll actually notice that He is trying to drag them into the very sin into which led to His exile. So we come upon His first target, Eve, everyone's mum, all right? We all came from Eve, every single one of us. And he starts by asking what seems like a rather dumb question, because he knows he was there in the beginning, all right? Not the very beginning, but at least the beginning of creation. He knows what God said to Adam, all right? That you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But he puts this question to her. And of course she responds, right? We may eat of the fruit of the trees that are in the garden. She knows, I've been eating from these treats for the last couple days. I know we're allowed to eat from them. God gave them to us freely. So what was the point in him asking such a question when you see he actually gained something through asking this question? You see, because he knew it was a silly thing to ask, but in it he learnt something about Eve. He learnt something in her reply. We want to compare God's command. to what Eve said. Was it verbatim the same thing or were there some differences? So read first God's command, Genesis 2, you may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. And then Genesis 3, this is an Eve, right? Does anyone want to their hand up and tell me what the difference was between the two? Yes, exactly. She added to what God had said. Now this is interesting because she says, right, lest you touch it, God never said that. They could touch of the fruit. It'd be a silly thing to do. And look, maybe that was even some wisdom, some accountability, like we always take 15 steps to the other side of that thing just so we don't fall for it, right? It almost seems like a wisdom, a good thing. But it was actually showing that there was something that she didn't, there was some ignorance at play in her understanding. She didn't fully know God's word verbatim. It's not saying, this isn't a whole sermon about memorizing God's word. But something showed either one that her husband had failed to communicate the truth to her, because she was not there. He was. He had a job to tell her what God had told him. for their good. And if he had, she in her own laziness had not bothered to truly remember or abide by it. For knowing, imagine God gave you this whole creation, he's like, here's one rule, one rule. Wouldn't you just print that thing everywhere? You'd probably tattoo it on your forehead just so you didn't forget. Of course they didn't probably have mirrors back then so wouldn't be any good putting it on forehead. But here he sees something. She is not fully grounded in the word. She does not fully, maybe I can slip something in here. And so he says this, introduces the lie. You won't die. You'll be like God, you will know good and evil. And so the first thing, get three things gonna pull out of these first points really. The snake uses half trues. He's not going to just, he doesn't normally blatantly lie. Normally does he, normally, and he doesn't normally give you the whole truth. Actually, he never does. But notice something, right? He says, you will not surely die and you will be like God knowing good and evil. You know, it's the interesting thing. Both of those two things actually come to pass. They do not die on that day and they do know good and evil. So what is the half truth? Just seems like he was telling the truth, right? But did Adam and Eve actually get what they expected? Right. Did they die? No. Physically, they did not. But did Satan ultimately care about their physical death? No, but he did care about something even more deeply, their spiritual death. As in the breaking of the relationship between them and God, right? When we say the relationship between me and my sister is dead, it's because we're so estranged it's never gonna happen. That's what we're saying with God, it's dead. It is broken. And so they also became like God. Their innocence was taken away. They now knew what evil was. They could see good and evil completely and fully. But did it lead to what they wanted? Which was, they didn't want to see like God, they wanted to be God. And it didn't lead to that, rather just simply their eyes were open, but they were not put in the place of God instead, where were they put? Under Satan. In submission to him now, in slavery to him. So you see, he lied in half-truths. So our enemy is smart, understand this, doesn't command, Satan never commands, but he does tempt and seduce. That's the way he works. He will never command you to sin, he will make you want to do it. That is always how he works. And so on that second point, notice what makes Eve desire the fruit after her defenses have come down. In Genesis, in the verse 6, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desired to make one why she took of its fruit and ate. It was good, it looked good, and she thought it would be good for her. So essentially this parallels something. 1 John 2, 16. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. This, you know, we talk, there's this trifecta of spiritual enemies against us, the world, the flesh and the devil, right? The world being this pantry just filled with all these beautiful delicacies for you to eat from. Summarized here in this passage as the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. Better yet, it is that which looks good, which feels good and which you think will be good for you. And so you see, this is the way in which sin works. This is how you sin every time you choose to. You work through a process. Sometimes it's so subconscious we don't even realize it. But we get to a point where there is a sin before us and we say, I know I shouldn't have, but it looks so good and it feels good. And I, there is some good for me in it. You will not commit a sin until you believe almost all of those things. All right. And He will tempt you and seduce you into believing all those things. All right. Because just think, do you just... Do you just vent about someone knowing full well that it's probably sinful? Sitting there and just being like, man, that person is just really getting on my nerves, but it'll be better for me to blow off the steam because it'll be better for them, better for me. I'm not angry at them then, right? You see, you've just made it better for you. Better yet, I just have to, it's good for me to work a 60 hour work week. Why? Because it's supporting my family. Better yet, Pastor Matt, don't worry, I'll give 20 % tithe. We don't do tithes here, but you know, look at the good, right? We do these things because we perceive good in them. If you thought it was all bad, you wouldn't do it. And so you see sin is always externally good and pleasurable. We don't do it because we hate it, we do it because we love it. but the blessing of God's word, of His command that He gave to Adam and Eve was to say, it may look good on the outside, but what is underneath? Poison. Not that the actual fruit was poison itself, but at that time, because of God's command, it would do them no good. And so then we also see the way to resist against the devil. How do we resist the devil? How do you fight? How do you combat temptation? Do you get the accountability people? Do you have someone to talk to? Do you, I don't know. There's a million different strategies to deal with, but there is one thing that must sit at the foundation of it all. All right, you can have every strategy, but it is like Michael building his house. Alright, or Betty, he's scrapping the one that he's got right now. He's building a better house, a dream house. He's got six million dollars now, right? And he goes out, he's going to Mitre 10 because he doesn't even care about the markup and doesn't want to go to Bunnings, alright? And he buys everything. He's got the timber, the gyprock, he's got everything, nails, screws, right? All he needs, every fixture. And he's like, alright, I'm ready to build. And he forgot to book to some Entruck. You can't do anything now, right? And that is what happens when we forget the primary way in which we combat temptation, which is to combat it the same way Jesus did. Jesus went through the same temptation of Eve in what we call the temptation, right? In Luke four, Jesus has been baptized. Then it goes through his genealogy, connecting him to Adam. And then he goes out into the wilderness facing the same temptation, three temptations. which correlate to the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. And every time he overcomes Satan, and what does he do? He uses scripture. Satan is even using God's word against him, just as used it against Eve. But he knows God's word truthfully. He is not manipulating it, he knows it, and that is... is key to battling against Satan. And so you see here, this thing is the only way you make it. It will do us no good if we do not know the words of God. Maybe by God's grace He might speak to you one day from heaven and you'll be like, oh wow, that's exactly the word I needed. He will not do that every time because He has spoken to you in His word. Every key, every solution to overcoming The troubles of our lives is in here, or at least to making it through them. So going on from there, right. This was the pattern for temptation, okay? Every time you fall into sin because you love sin and he goes about it the same way through his half-truths. But looking at verse seven and 10, what do we get, right? They say your laborer deserves his wages. So what do we get for our choosing to sin? Verses seven to 10, read through it now. The eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 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. 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. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. This is one of the hardest things about sin. You don't realize it in the moment, right? It's just like, because you're just sitting there just thinking like, okay, but like, I know I probably shouldn't, but there's just these things pushing me at the moment, the pressure. And again, for most of us now, it's just so subconscious, we barely even feel the pressure. But we get to that point, and then afterwards, One's eyes are opened. One feels the guilt and the shame and the conviction is the hardest thing because maybe there was some conviction beforehand but then our eyes are open and we're like, why did I bother doing that? There was no benefit in that. And the guilt and the shame comes. This is one of the most grief inducing moments for us as Christians. To realize how now God must see us. To be like Adam and Eve to want to hide from God because we're like, I know what was wrong and I did it. I have to hide now. It's an empty pleasure sin every time. You jump into it thinking there might be some good in it. Thinking I just need to vent about this person one more time. I need to jump into sexual morality one more time to think about this person. I don't know. I don't know all the sins of you guys, but I know you do. every time it leaves. There is no joy in it afterwards. but it always leaves the consequences behind the shame and the guilt. And then one of the worst things, onto a second thing they also lose. This passage has to be, I was almost not an emotional person and I'm not doing this to put on some kind of show. It almost made me cry. When I read this, that they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden of court and the man and the wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. They were afraid, filled with fear. What had God done to scare them? Give them a whole world? Give them trees to endlessly eat from? He had done nothing but show them endless love. And yet they are filled with terror at the idea of coming before God. And He has done nothing. All right? This is almost like the parenting approach where you just, never say no. He's just given them everything and yet for some reason they are terrified. It is like you just imagine some little girl, your daughter, is just running away from you terrified because of what she has done, thinking there's no way you can ever love her again. When full well you know her father loves her so deeply. This is what sin does for you. Makes you want to run away from the person who's never done anything but love you. And yet we keep choosing it. And better yet, it comes and wrecks all our relationships, all of them. Look, Adam and Eve had a perfect happy marriage. And now they're ashamed to even look at each other, right? They cannot deal with the shame or the insecurity and division comes into every one of our relationships because of sin every time. And so then moving on to a third incredibly sad thing. We lose our joy. You see, Adam and Eve thought there was, they thought the pastor was greener on the other side, right? You'll be like God after we eat the fruit. The one thing God has said we can't do is eat the fruit, but if we eat the fruit, it's gonna be better on the other side. Man, I cannot believe how well this lie works on us, because it works on me every time. I just think, yes, it is gonna be better on the other side of me doing this sin. And it just never is. and they thought, yes, it's going to be better on the other side. If we leave God's way, our way, we will enjoy it more. But yet, what does Psalm 16 and 11 say? You make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand, are pleasures forevermore. Sin does one thing primarily, takes you out of the presence of God. All right? Separates you from Him. At least makes you feel separated from Him as Christians. It takes you away from joy because that is where it is. Joy can be found nowhere else but in the presence of God, lasting joy. And so we exchange infinite joy, infinite pleasure. We exchange relationship with our Creator. We exchange the joy of everything. for this world. Are you guys happy with your choice? You're kind of wishing you'd gone back and maybe make a different one? Yeah, I think we all do. Because this was not worth it. Genesis 3 shows us our wages. What we get for sinning, there is nothing good in it. And so you see how I've been saying, this Genesis 3 is the essence of sin, the foundation, the boilerplate that shows us what sin is about. Temptation happens the same way. The wages are the same each time, always ending in death. And so we come down to verse 11, 13. Every time we deal with it the same way. This is how we deal with the consequences of our sin. Once we have found out before God. So, verse 11, he said, told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me the 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. So, Adam and Eve fallen into temptation, disobeyed God and they've hidden. God discovers them and he demands answers. What do they do? He has given them a chance. God knows. Why do you think he's asking the question? Because he wants to give them the opportunity. They haven't fully stepped out of the grace of God yet. Right, he's saying, come to me. Acknowledge your sin, take responsibility for it. And what does Adam do? She made me do it. Right? Wow. Granted, he may have only been actually like a year old at this point. So maybe that's fair, but he was an actual grown man. So this is essentially what, if you guys read the devotions, they call one the blame game. That's what this third point is called. I think if there's a thing there. So let's look at Adam's excuse, right? Genesis 312, the man said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. So Adam blames Eve and then even by extension God, because oh look, the woman gave it to me. And you're the one who made the woman, so I think you can figure out the logic, God, right? And you see, this is an age-old excuse, right? If this thing wasn't here, if you hadn't led me to this place or put me in this place or put these circumstances in such a way, I wouldn't have sinned, right? We love to use this to just shift the blame onto someone else or something else. We love doing that. But it's virtually like blaming God for you stabbing someone purely because you took the knife from his kitchen, right? It's just idiocy. And then you come onto Eve's excuse, you see. She says, oh well, I guess I did do that to Adam, but well, it was the snake that deceived me and then I ate. So Eve blames the serpent. You know, she's... I never stood a chance. And look, we almost think she never stood a chance, right? She's up against the serpent Satan, the deceiver himself, the tempter. Better yet, don't we even have more validity to use this excuse? Because don't we have a sinful flesh, a heart? We've got a world full of temptations. We're being faced by so many enemies. God, how can you expect me? I just, I have to give in sometimes. But you see, why were they held responsible? They both stated it in their excuse. I ate. No one forced them to do it. Like I said at the start, no one forces you to sin. They were tempted and chose to disobey and this remains true today. Every time we choose to disobey God. and Christians by the power of the Holy Spirit, you have the choice. Will you walk by the Spirit or will you pursue the desires of the flesh? But what about the unbelievers? They're stuck in slavery to sin. They don't have a choice. God can't blame them. But yet, what do they do while they are stuck in slavery to sin? Are they sitting there beating on the door, on the jail bars saying, God help us? No, they're sitting back in the sofa. Loving it, soaking it up, just loving life. Unbelievers aren't unhappy where they are. They might beware all the hard things of life, but they're never gonna turn to God for the answer. but I can trust you, sorry, you can trust me that God will always answer the prayer of those who cry out for mercy, for His grace, for those who say, like David, creating me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Or like the tax collector when he said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, there is one obstacle that stands in the way of everyone accepting the gospel. This is the hurdle. that no one in humanity seemingly has been able to cross, that humans will just not own up to, and that is to take the responsibility and the blame for their own sin. This is because you just see this, we're just told in the Bible there's this mountain of just garbage, right? Our sin all there, but we're like, but I can, we can scribble a different name on that. I can put a different, until you put your name onto that thing, you will never be able to accept the gospel. You cannot come to God until you put your name on that. It's not because of circumstances, it's not because of God, it's not because of Satan, it's because of you. See, we are some reason born with this victim mentality that it is everything else in the world and not us. It is not even our upbringing or our families that make us this way. It is us. It is the heart at the core of who we are. And until we accept responsibility, there is no hope. But there is hope for those who do take responsibility. Let's read on. This is my fourth point now. Sorry, I haven't following the points very well, we're keeping updated, but hope remains. This is the rest of the passage now. We'll just read down to chapter, verse 19. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I'll put enmity between you and the woman, 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 and 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 that 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 were dust and to dust you shall return. So think about it at this point. They've been found out. God knows. They've pointed fingers and now God deals out his punishment. And he starts, he started Adam, then went to Eve, then to the serpent. And now he goes from serpent to Eve to Adam. You got to imagine at the start, Adam and Eve were probably like, whew, he actually went for the serpent thing. Okay, he's just blaming a serpent. See how he's cursing him? We're gonna get off scot-free. We're good. We were right, guys, we made it. and he does give it worst of all to the serpent. He is the one who receives the greatest punishment. you will go on your belly, right? Seems to actually be speaking of snakes. There's a reason most, and it's good Tammy's not here, we don't like snakes, all right? Okay, okay, we're not meant to say we kill snakes, but that's what humanity has virtually always done, okay? There has always been this amnesty between us and serpents, and so it also signifies the battle between us and Satan, right? There has always been a battle between good and evil. Even when evil overcomes, there is always good on the horizon somewhere. And it also speaks of the crushing of the head. It speaks to Satan's future humiliation that will happen at the hands of the woman's offspring. And then notice the hope. This serpent has been cursed. Adam and Eve cursed, not themselves, but it is the ground that is cursed because of them. So understand this, that there is still the hope of redemption for them, but they must feel the consequences of the curse. But yet there is hope for it to be undone for them. See, they have to deal. Now this is what we're living in, the curse, the frustration. pain in childbearing and rearing, right, in relationships, let alone the fact that all of us have to deal with work, which is, look, we live in the 21st century, we've got aircons and all kinds of things, we're doing quite a good job at almost reversing it, but nonetheless, we must work by the sweat of our brows. But yet within the curse is a seed of hope, right, like I said earlier, right, Genesis 3.15. that I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel." This is known in theology as the first gospel, because it was the first time it was proclaimed. Who do you guys think the offspring was? This is the Sunday School question. Does anyone want to answer? Jesus, yeah, cool. Yep, glad you guys figured that out. There will be an offspring who will arise, who will defeat the serpent and succeed where Adam and Eve failed. we know it to be Jesus. Because Eve should have obeyed. Adam should have protected. What did Jesus do? He faced the temptation. He faced up to Satan in the desert, in the wilderness. And he stood up against him, resisted and obeyed God. And so too now, he protected us from the serpent Hau by dying on the cross, by taking away the sting of death. by releasing us from slavery to sin, by taking away our sin. Jesus has become our hope where Adam failed. You see, so sin defeats you guys every time. You will have no hope before it. It will overcome you. Sin will drag you into hell with all its might, if it can. Unless what? We have the right strategies in place, unless we avoid the right people. No, unless you trust in the one who has power to save you, Jesus. You see, hope has come to us in the form of a man, but it was not a man, it was God himself. We have no hope in this life apart from him. All right. So in our struggles, as we deal with the guilt of our sin in our lives, if you're not feeling any guilt about your sin, please start. because you should start feeling guilty. But as we deal with the guilt, how do you deal with it? Stop looking at yourself. Look at Jesus. Look at Him in His word. Be overwhelmed by the love. Don't be like Adam and Eve that were so terrified and afraid that they forgot the love that He had shown them. God has shown you love. Don't think He won't always show it to you. He always will. That is the testimony of the cross. He has done everything. He will never turn you away. And so, as we draw to a close now, that's actually all of it. But do you guys, have you understood some parts? Have you guys gotten something out of that? Right? Here in this series, right, I kind of thought of a good name for it after we started, but the foundations series, right? Because that is what Genesis is. That is really what the first five books of the Bible are, the Torah, as we call them, the law. They are the foundation that lay the groundwork for everything else in the Bible. All right. And so we here are building an understanding that will help us as we read through the rest. Most of you guys will know it because you've read through the Bible many times. You've been in Sunday school, you've just been Christians for numbers of years. But nonetheless, it is never a bad thing to revisit the foundation. And so as we go through, we will continue to build. This is just the foundation of sin. We will continue to build our understanding. And so, I just want you to understand the core principles. We attempted the same way. The reward is the same. Don't think it's gonna be different. and we always deal with it the same way. Don't deal with it the same way. Take the responsibility and put your hope where? Gosh, that was so begrudging, guys. Have a bit of joy, Jesus, yeah, cool, Anyway, so we'll finish up in prayer now and then the worship team can come up. Dear Father, You have purchased hope for us that in the moment when it seemed so good, Genesis 1 and 2, life was great, everything was perfect. Adam and Eve ruined it. That is not to say that any of us would have done any better. All of us would have fallen for the trap, Lord. And we all continue to fall for it every day. But thank you that we now have the hope, the hope that is always there because you are a God of compassion and mercy. Let us never forget that. Let us always hold fast to the hope, never trusting in ourselves, but always in you and your power to save and redeem. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. And then.