Good evening. Welcome to Friday Night at Eastgate. This is the first time. So y' all have come on a great night. I don't recall ever doing a Friday night service, so this is excellent.

It's a double whammy grate for me because if we were going to have church on Sunday, it was probably going to be just y' all sitting at home watching me on a screen, and I was going to have to preach to some empty seats. And so I'm thankful to preach to you with your smiling faces. And this is exciting, right? It's kind of strange. I'm walking around going, I feel more awake than normal.

I'm not a morning person, so I'm very awake right now. So what that'll mean for you, I don't know. We're gonna find out as we dig into a new series today called the Story. And this is a series that the Lord kind of laid on my heart over, like the last quarter of last year. I started feeling a sense that God was calling us to kind of do a kind of a grand narrative of the Scripture.

I started hearing more and more from people that there were certain miraculous things or certain stories of the Bible that maybe they'd heard, but they'd never really considered the validity of them. Very simple things that we take for granted. And so we're going to be walking through the Bible as a huge, like, metanarrative for the next 12 weeks. And we're going to go all the way from creation to the revelation to the consummation of things. Obviously, there's a lot of words in there.

We're not going to be able to cover them all. We're not even going to come close. I would encourage you. You're going to have to read them. All right?

But we're going to take on some big parts, big passages. We're going to start right away in Genesis, chapter one tonight. And I pray that what you'll see is God's incredible work. His hand in the midst of everything that's going on. Not just in the story of Scripture, but.

But your story. Because the story of Scripture is your story. It is the story, if you will. So I don't know if you've ever heard of this before. Some of you may.

There's a theory among scientists called the toe. Has anybody ever heard of the toe? It's the idea of the theory of everything, that there's some kind of formula or equation out there that would explain everything. Right? The T O E. The toe.

All right. The problem is, even if you found the perfect equation, and I would argue perhaps there is one inside of what God has done. But even if you could find some kind of equation that would explain existence, that would explain it all, it would still fail to explain some important questions. Here's one. Why do I exist?

Let's say there's a formula that proves what I am and how I came to be. Okay, but why? It doesn't prove why. Why does beauty. Why does the beauty of creation sometimes really move me?

Why, when I look at certain things, do I say, that's pretty, and I say, that's not strange? Why does love and loss, why do they cut so deeply? Why do I feel that on a different level? Why does this world at times feel glorious and then at other times terribly broken? How is it that equation would explain such a thing?

Here's the thing. Science can describe the mechanics, but only a story can give it meaning. And that's where I want to spend the next few weeks, is that the story of scripture is our story, and it's what gives meaning to life. The Bible doesn't just give us some sort of inspiration or some moral lessons. It's not just a story.

It's the story. Today we're going to begin like every good story should begin. Not with once upon a time, but in the beginning. In the beginning. Because if we don't understand the beginning of a story, we're going to miss.

We're going to misunderstand what's coming after it. So if we want to really understand who we are and why this world is broken or why Jesus had to come, all these things, we really have to start from the top. And I would argue this is what's wild. I think Genesis chapter one alone can explain so much of what's going on in your world. It can explain so much of what you're feeling and what you're seeking to understand.

It's the foundation of our reality. And so let's go. The story begins today. We're in the book of Genesis, chapter one. We see here Moses recorded the story of how God created the heavens and the earth, creating humanity in his own image.

And after humanity rebelled, we see a promise, a promised offspring that would redeem them. Now we can understand this. We can understand this story and how the fall, the creation, all of it explains this beauty that we long for and also this brokenness that we live with. So I'm going to encourage us now as we dig in, that we are going to see three foundational realities that explain our story. So here we go, I have to take this thing in bites.

This isn't my norm. Some of you have been at our church for a while. You know, normally I read the scripture and I preach it. We're going to read a little, preach a little, read a little. It's going to be fun.

All right, here we go. All right, so Genesis, chapter one. I'm going to take a few kind of bites. All right, we're going to do just verse one, and then we're going to take the end of it. Here we go.

Verse 1, chapter 1. It says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then it talks for days about what all he created in those first few days. And then we go down to verse 26, and we get this. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man here, this church created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him. Male and female. He created them, and God blessed them.

And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the Earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so.

And God saw. Listen to this. God saw that everything he had made. And behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished His work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. God bless the first reading in his word tonight.

Amen. I pray that this would encourage you as we. This is maybe one of the most fascinating parts of scripture, and you've probably heard it before. It may be old news to you in some ways, but I want to apply some thoughts to this tonight. That maybe you've never considered the first reality is this, that we can recognize the beauty we long for from the creation.

We can recognize the beauty that we long for. God is the Creator of all things. Do you want to know what it means to have a Christian worldview? Do you want to know what it means to be a Christian? It means beginning here.

God created. We're not an accident. He did this on purpose. There's chaos, sure, but it's the result of fallenness. God created a perfect world.

And it says, in fact, that humanity is not only not an accident, humanity is the crown of God's creation, the only being on this earth that he made in his own image, in his own likeness. And it's the only time I didn't read all these verses. But it's the only time in this first chapter where God says, it is very good. He says, it's good. After day, one light separated the waters.

It's good. It's good. He makes man, mankind, male and female. He makes them and he calls it very good. He was proud of it.

He loves us. He created us, and he has a purpose for us. There's no accidents here. We weren't made in chaos. We were made for the glory of God.

Just that alone. Friends, am I not wrong? Just that alone reshapes a lot of worldviews. Because so many of us, perhaps at times even in our own lives or our friends, live in such a way that God doesn't have a plan. This is all accidental.

This is a big mess. No, we serve a holy God who is sovereign, who made us and knit us in our mother's womb. We're no accidents here. God Elohim here. This is the idea of God in the plural, in his holy sense.

In fact, we have the Trinitarian God on display in chapter one. This is why he says, let us make man in our image. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit make an appearance right here, right away. The Gospel is already on display. All of it's occurring right here in the first few chapters.

And it says in verse 26 that God said. Now, the Apostle John picks this up in chapter one in his Gospel, Chapter one, verse one, where he says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made.

So the Word, when it says here, here's what's crazy about the text. Verse 26, it says, God spoke. He said, let there be Light. He said, let us make man in our image, that word that speaking. The apostle John says the catalyst there is Jesus Christ himself.

That he was there. In fact, everything that was made was made for him and by Him. Isn't that incredible? Right away we've got the Trinitarian God who loves us and made us for a purpose. Let us make him in what, our image.

Now in the Latin it's the word imago dei. We are made in the image of God. And it's curious to me that he doesn't just say image. He says image and likeness. It sounds redundant, right?

Why would he say the same thing twice? Well, he hasn't. When he says make him in our image and in our likeness. Image has to do with the idea of role. We're God's ambassadors on this earth.

He gave us the power to create. Now you'll see animals create some pretty cool stuff sometimes, right? If you watch the birds out in your backyard. If you watch even some of your animals, like your dogs might dig things. And they don't make normally cool things, they just make messes.

But we love them anyway. But if you watch certain animals, squirrels, they'll hide things, they'll build little shelters. Beavers are, I think, particularly amazing what they'll build. But there's really. They're kind of one offs.

A bird's going to build a nest, a beaver is going to build a dam. That's what it does. I've never met or heard of a beaver that built the Internet and started making websites. I've never heard of that. And you know why?

You're never going to hear that. There's something unique about what God has done with us. We make skyscrapers and do crazy. I mean, we make planes and then jump out of them. We're a weird people, but we have this creative power.

We're the crown of his creation. This word image here has to do with our role, that what kings do. What kings do is they make statues of themselves in cities. They put resemblances of themselves out there. In a sense, this is what God has done with us.

He's called us to be in fellowship with Him. And this word, there's no messing around. In verse 26, he said, I want you to have dominion over the earth. This should be a place where you rule.

Now all that's kind of been messed up. He goes on to say in verse 26 that we're in his likeness. This has to do with nature. So a child who looks and acts like the father, that's what he's talking about here. We're not God.

Absolutely that's the case. But we are made to look and act like Him. That's the role of humanity, is to, hey, Dad, I want to hang out with you. Like, that's the greatest part. That's what God made us for, that a child would look like his father.

And in the fall, the image has been defaced, but not erased, friend. So male and female. It says he made them. He's very consistent. In chapter one, I heard recently someone say, it seems strange to them how often in chapter one, God says male and female, male and female.

Probably for thousands of years, people were like, we get it. Like, good grief, we see it. I think perhaps God wrote this for our generation, where we've gotten a little bit confused about what God's perfect plan was. He didn't say this to harm you. He didn't.

He said this to help you. This is his perfect world, his perfect creation. Then it says in chapter one or chapter two, verse one, that then he rested. Now, here's what's fascinating about this. It's the only time in the whole beginning of this scripture we.

Where it doesn't say, and there was morning and there was evening. All the first six days. There was morning and there was evening. There's no morning and evening on the seventh. Do you know why?

Because God's initial plan was that we would be at rest with him for all of eternity. This is what heaven is going to be like. A place with all of this wonder and all this glory, where we get to have dominion and have this creative energy, but without the sinful nature. The world was meant to be at peace. So God has placed this longing now, this feeling that you have that's like a fleeting feeling of.

And you're constantly chasing it. You're chasing, like, the next beach trip, the next opportunity you get to see or experience something cool, something great. That's not accidental. That's the spirit of God working in every human being. Ecclesiastes 3.

It says it this way. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. We may seem small in our own eyes.

We might even feel like, well, maybe humanity wasn't an accident, but I kind of feel like one. It's not true. In fact, the psalmist puts it this way. Jesus, chapter eight, he says, when I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. What is man?

That you're mindful of him and the Son of Man, that you care for him, yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. I would imagine almost every one of you have stood somewhere and just looked at something beautiful. You've been by the ocean at the right time of day. Maybe you got up early and saw the sun rise over the ocean. That's a beautiful thing to see.

Maybe it's snow capped mountains. Maybe it's finally getting somewhere with the least amount of light pollution where you can actually see. If you ever get somewhere where there's very little light, you'll see stuff you didn't know was up there and it's awesome. You'll start seeing things moving. You'll see stars you've never noticed.

And it makes you kind of go, hmm, I have a sense of awe and almost a sense of, I wish I could keep this moment. But it also strikes you with a sense of ache. The ache is because you can't hold on to it. These moments fade. In fact, most of us go on like great vacations and we enjoy them in the moment.

But when we get home, we're like, I kind of wish I had another one. Like back to back vacations. Sometimes I'm so tired from my vacation I just want another one till I finally get some rest. But we have this ache. The trip ends.

Real life comes rushing back. Here's what C.S. lewis said about that. I've never heard anyone put it more plainly or perfectly than this. But he says, I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy.

The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. He's right about this. In fact, here's what's curious about it. We were made for this world, but not in the state that it's in. And that's what it's going to be when Christ comes again.

This is what he's up to in redemption is returning the thing in which he created to its former state. Your identity and your purpose. Then, friends, here's why this is important. Your identity and your purpose are not determined by you, nor are they determined by those around you. Your identity and your purpose were settled at creation.

You're made in the image of God, in his image and likeness. Male and female. You've been created and God has a plan for you. This is why this is important. This is why we go back to the very beginning.

As we begin to unpack, this idea of why is the world this way. And why is the story so corrupt? And why did Jesus have to come? We have to begin with, okay? But that's not what God made.

What God made was good, very good. And he has a plan. So let's keep going. Genesis chapter three is when everything falls apart. Alright, you'll notice I skipped Genesis chapter two.

My friend, you're going to have to read most of that. That's where you really get some pretty hilarious things, where God forms man. And that's some great stuff going on there. But let's turn there to Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 13. Here we see the fall of man.

It says, now there was a serpent. 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 saw 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 loin cloths. 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, that woman whom 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 thing that you've done?

The woman said, well, that serpent deceived me and I ate. Okay, you've heard some of this perhaps before. I think most people have Heard some aspects of this story before. The second essential, if you will, is we can understand the brokenness we live with in the fall. You know what?

This story is dreadful in the sense of what happened and now that we have to live in it. But there's some really interesting things about it. The anatomy of the first sin is so much like much of the sin in my life and much of the sin that I see around me. Here's where I think the evil one always starts. It's where he always starts.

And he's probably done this in your life and he will maybe attempt it again in your life. Here's where he begins. Did God really say it's his favorite words. You'll notice if you go back and read chapter two and on you'll notice every time it says, and the Lord God, and the Lord God did, and the Lord God made. And then when the serpent, the evil one, shows up, it says, and did God say, not Lord God.

He will always say, he will always speak against God's lordship and he will always show up with doubt. Doesn't start with a deed. It starts with a distrust. So then it begins this threefold, like fracturing. This is so common in how we respond to things.

It's isolation. I'm going to hide it's shame. I'm covering myself. And now it's conflict. It's all there.

It's all there. It's the way that often I approach my sinfulness. I'm hiding myself from the Lord. I'm ashamed of it. So I'm covering it up.

And then conflict ensues. I start blaming others. That woman you gave me, did you notice that he was standing with her? You may have seen that before. Noticed that before.

He was standing there. Alright, so he's completely to blame. He's listening to the conversation, it would seem, oh, here, it's good for food. He has nothing to say. It's like the epitome of the passive man, which is typically the man's most common problem is passivity.

And this is initially right. What we have in Adam, did God really say? And then he goes on in verse four to say something that is so. So it's wrong. It's messed up.

Now let me say this of this serpent, because I spent some time on this again this week and this is the kind of stuff that's starting to kind of unnerve me when it comes to how people approach the scripture. They see this story and they go, are you telling me there was a talking snake? You want me to believe this. There's a talking snake. Well, guess what, church, There's a talking donkey in another place.

So don't let the snake bother you. And guess what? If God did create. If God did create, then he can do this, right? But this isn't the case here.

This serpent. I don't think what we have here is in the Garden of Eden, all the animals were talking about. I think that's the most unlikely thing, that all the animals were talking. That'd be cool. I'm sure in heaven you'd be like, I hope my dogs can talk to me.

And that'd be cool. I'm not saying that couldn't happen. I think what's most likely going on here though, is that this serpent, a real serpent, has been possessed. We see this in other passages of scripture. We see, in fact Jesus bring a demon out of a man and put it into some pigs and then they run off a cliff.

So clearly they can possess creatures. I think that's the case here. One commentator says it, I think, better than I can. He says, either this is only a serpent in appearance and in reality it's the prince of fallen angels, Satan, or it's a real serpent possessed and actuated by him. Here's a passage of scripture that makes me think it's the evil one possessing this creature.

Revelation talks of it several times, But Revelation chapter 20 puts it plainly. In verse 2, it says, he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil is Satan. I think that's meant to be a bookmark, a look back. The book as a whole is closing in some ways, like it opened.

And then he goes on to say, the evil one here, I think most likely this is Satan saying, you will not surely die. The Hebrew here is fascinating. You will not surely die. You'll read in your English translation. In the Hebrew, it's literally this.

You will not die, die. It's double worded, muth, muth in the Hebrew. You will not die, die. I don't know how exactly they heard him say something like that and said, well, I guess we can eat it. In fact, he in some ways wasn't completely lying to them.

They did not physically die after they ate this, but they did spiritually die. There's something now cut off in man. When we come into this world, our spiritual nature has fallen. In Romans we see this, put this way, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is how a child enters the world.

Any parent in the room knows this full well. You never, ever have to teach a child to. To sin. You don't have to teach it. They know it from day one.

They come out that way. You have to teach them to do right and obey and to share and to say, I'm sorry. They won't do that on their own. It's because of this break that happened right here in the garden. He says, you will not die, die.

Instead, you'll be like God.

As I was studying this this week, it really just hurt my feelings all over again to think about it. Because here we are. God has made us in his image, in his likeness, in so many ways. He has already given us the thing that Satan promises. You will be like God.

We, in a way, already had that. You'll get to have fun, fellowship with the Creator of all. You will have dominion over this world. There will be no brokenness and falling. We already had it.

He promises them something he could not give. And then this poor lady and I imagine Adam right there beside her, doo de doo, looking at it. I mean, I agree, I guess it looks good. Looks like a tasty snack. We often normally see it as an apple.

There's nothing here that says it was an apple. Who knows? I mean, I'm kind of down with an apple, but like, I'm thinking it was something tastier. I'm going mango. Personally, that's just me.

You're like, ugh, mango. Maybe it was a banana, I don't know. But they said it was good for food, and she said it was a delight to the eyes. Verse 6 says, it's desired to make one wise. This is in fact, the Bible repeats this triad several times.

This is what one author calls the trilogy of temptation. And the apostle John puts it this way plainly. In First John, chapter two, he says, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. This is exactly what Eve, what Adam were feeling here as they looked at this temptation. Then they go on in verse 8 and in verse 10, they hide themselves.

The original show, naked and afraid. Right here in chapter one, chapter three, actually. I wonder if the showrunners got that idea from this. I mean, it literally says that there. And isn't this what happens to you and I?

I mean, if we're honest and you don't have to raise your hand and admit to this today. But look, we're all in this together. This is what we do when we mess up. We feel ashamed and we hide. In fact, I've heard believers many times, and I've felt this myself.

I can't come back to God. I can't approach him right now. I've screwed up too much. And that's a crazy thing to say because you can never come to him clean. In fact, you need him to be clean.

So you're doing the very opposite of the thing you most need to approach Him. It's wild, but this is how I am. This is how you are. This is how my kids are. Watch your kids sometimes.

You know full well when they've messed up. You don't have to be a parent long to know that kid's up to something. At my house, if things get quiet, bad news, my house is loud. If it's loud, probably normal. If it gets quiet, somebody's hurt, somebody's done something terrible.

Back when my kids were potty training, I can remember some of them. And I think every kid does some kind of version of this. But, like, you'll see them go stand in the corner and get that, like, deadpan look, like a fish out of water. You're like, you're doing something. I know, and you know better.

We're working on this. They go hide somewhere. Like, one of my kids, I can't remember which one. I think it might have been Kenzie, but I feel like she gets too much of the blame. So we'll say it was one of the other ones, but they would literally, like, get in a crack somewhere around the couch to like, do their weird thing.

This is how we are as human beings, though we hide ourselves. This sin and this death, it's part of the brokenness that's now in the world. And through Adam, we're all born into this. But in Christ Jesus, something's changed. And that's certainly where we're going to end today.

Romans, chapter 5. It puts it this way. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man. Notice Adam gets the blame here. Friends, ladies, feel good about this if you want.

I mean, I wouldn't. We're all in this together as a brokenness, but he's the one that gets the blame. That sin and death came this way. Romans goes on to say, death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all had sinned.

Adam's sin brought this curse of sin. But one day, here's what it says later in Romans 8. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in Glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning, as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.

It made me think of this story that I heard some time ago. And for some reason you all know of the Mona Lisa, I'm sure, and there's some debate as to whether or not that woman is actually pretty. But certainly the work is really impressive, right? And it's a well known painting. Right.

For some reason, this painting, though, people keep trying to destroy it. I would encourage you to look this up. It's been. Someone has tried to destroy this thing like 10 times now. And a story came to my mind as I was thinking about this.

In 1956, there was this guy that threw a rock at it. And when he was interviewed about it, he said, well, I had a rock and I felt like breaking something. It's like, okay, not premeditated, but you're strange, right? Like, I just happen to have a rock in the, in the Louvre in Paris. Why do you have a rock but I have a rock and I felt like breaking something?

Pretty interesting. He throws this thing. And there was some protective glass, but it was still able to chip some of the paint off of the left elbow there. And what's interesting about that, as I was pondering that idea, is it didn't. It marred the beauty.

But it doesn't change the fact that this is a beautiful painting made by Leonardo da Vinci. That sure rocks. And there's been occasions where they've thrown acid at it. Someone tried to spray paint it one time. I don't know why.

People just want to do devious things. But it's part of our fallen nature, I suppose. But no matter what, you couldn't take away the fact that it was painted by a famous artist. This is what I believe has happened here to us in Genesis, chapter three. Sin didn't stop us from being made in the image of God.

It just chipped the paint. The image has not been erased, it's been defaced. And this is what so much of what we're experiencing in life. We are masterpieces. But we've been vandalized by sin, often our own sin, our own rebellion.

Why do you hide then? Why do you fear being fully known?

We don't just do. This is part of what it looks like. To have a biblical worldview is to take ownership, to begin to say, I don't just do bad stuff. Sometimes I have a bent nature. There's something in me where I doubt God's goodness, where I want his gifts.

But I don't really want his rule. I want him to be like Santa Claus, but I don't want him to be my king. This is human nature. And the result then is exactly what we get here in Eden. And this is how many of us live.

We hide from God, we cover ourselves in shame, and we blame everybody else. At some point we have to say no. The brokenness in this world, it's real. But it starts here. This is why you don't have to get very far in the Bible to find out God created a good world, but it got messed up real bad.

And I'm in the story and I'm part of the problem.

Don't worry, though. I'm not going to leave you there. We're not stopping there. We've got one more part, and it's a short part. So buckle up, here we go.

Genesis 3:14, 15, 21, it says, then God said to the serpent, because you've 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 shall bruise his heel. And then he goes on in verse 21 to say, and the Lord God made for Adam and Eve, or for Adam and for his wife, garments of skins and clothed them.

So the third essential is a promise we can trust in the certainty of redemption in the Savior. Okay, Jonathan, Okay. You're given this point, I don't see it. Okay. I can see why you wouldn't see it.

We've got to dig in a little bit to figure out where this is. In fact, in verse 15, theologians have called this for a long time. They've called this the Protoevangelium. Like, if you want to sound smart, next week around your co workers, the proto evangelium, there you go. I've given you one.

Literally, all that means is the first gospel, the first good news. This is a promise. It's more than just a curse. It's a promise. He says, yeah, I'm going to make you.

Apparently. Maybe this serpent was something that didn't have to crawl. Now this serpent's got to crawl. Every snake I've ever seen, praise God, has to crawl. If those suckers start growing legs, I'm out.

But this is what's happened here. And then he goes on in V15, this is where the first gospel is. I will put enmity between you. And. And it goes on to say, he will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.

This is the idea that there's a promise coming. There's an offspring coming. In fact, the word here, offspring is the word seed between you and the woman. Now, the reason that that is something specific and something amazing is if you know anything about biology, women don't have a seed. So this makes no sense biologically, unless what he's saying is there's a promised one coming that's going to be something immaculate, something unique.

He's speaking here of Jesus. Did you know that Jesus is in chapter three of Genesis? He's all in there. He's in the whole text. This whole story is about redemption and about him and about how he's going to set us free.

And it begins right here. This word bruise has to do with, like, snapping at, like, literally, like a snake. You're going to bite his heel, but he's going to crush your head.

Then verse 21 goes on to say something that would be easy to miss. Let me read it again. The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. At this point, they'd been living in existence with no clothing, was no issue. They had no awareness of anything promiscuous or sinful about this.

Then all of a sudden, their eyes are open and they're like, what's going on here? And immediately it's leaf. The leaf outfit, sure, a great look, but not something that they were going to keep going with. The reason that God does this is not because all of a sudden they realize they're cold. I don't see that in the story at all.

To you, like all the fun, we're freezing. We need skins. That's not the case. There's something bigger going on here. The Lord God made for them garments of skins.

Now, I'll tell you, this church, I don't know how else you make someone a garment of skin without something's skin. This is dark, right? Ooh, I don't know about this. This means that God, in fact, was the first to make a sacrifice, that something died in order to clothe them. This truth of the gospel has been here since chapter three.

In order for sin to be covered, something has to be sacrificed. That's what started here and what comes to full conclusion in Christ Jesus. This is where the sacrificial system really begins. The idea that the people of God throughout the Old Testament had to come before the high priest, come into the temple and repent of their sins. And of their brokenness.

And there were sacrifices made. And this was meant to cover their sin. The first covering. The first sin covering. God does he covers them with skins.

I could go to many places in the Scriptures to prove this point, but I'll give you just a couple. It says in Hebrews, chapter nine, very plainly, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. First Peter, chapter one. It says, for you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was paid, not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.

It was paid with what? The precious blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. So this is why this is the first gospel. Adam and Eve actually had to witness their first death. It would seem the first time they saw an innocent creature have to die for their sin, God closed them with these skins.

They learned this really painful truth. A truth that I pray you would be able to hear tonight. It's this. God created a great world. It was perfect.

It was beautiful. In fact, to this very day. We long for it. It's a fact. We long for it.

Something broke it. Something broke us. And yeah, you weren't there. You didn't do it. And you can be mad about that if you want.

And you might have a right to be. Man, Adam and Eve, what a bunch of you could be mad about that. But it doesn't change anything. We all come into this world inside of this existence where our spiritual nature has been cut off from God.

But he made a promise. This is why God's story is still a good story. If it ended at chapter 3, verse 13, this would be a tragedy. This would be like, I'm not reading this. I'm certainly not preaching this.

But it's only the beginning of a fascinating and beautiful story of God's salvation to us, friends. There's not enough fig leaves out there for us to sow together to cover up our guilt, and I'm chief among them. Friends, don't feel like, hey, you know, I'm calling you out. I'm in the same boat with you. There's not enough leaves out there to cover it.

I'm a mess. And Jesus makes it even more intense for me because in the Sermon on the Mount, he reminds me of some stuff. Oh, I've never killed anybody. Okay, hopefully that's most of you in the room. I mean, don't raise your hands if you're the one.

We don't need to know. God's absolved you of that as well. But I've never killed. I've never cheated on my wife. I've never.

You know, you could raise your hands for a lot of those things. And then all of a sudden, Jesus comes on the Sermon on the Mount and says some stuff that's hard. He says, hey, if you've called your brother Raca, which simply means empty head, then you've committed murder in your heart. Well, I have an older brother, y'. All.

I've called him way worse than that. I've been way, way farther along than that. If you lust for a woman in your heart and you've committed adultery, oh, man. Why'd you have to say that? I thought I was good.

No, I've. I've committed all of these things, so there's no amount of covering that I can create. Success won't cover it up. Religion won't even cover it up. Being a good person will not cover it up.

But the great news is this. What God required, God also provided. Just as he clothed Adam and Eve, he saw their sin and he covered it. He's done the same for you and me. The question then is, will you receive that?

The question then is, I'm going to reject that. I'm going to say no to that. There's no way. There's no way that all this brokenness has been repaired by the Son of God, by this Jesus, this crucifixion. You can make that decision.

But that's the covering God provided. That's what he gave.

He clothes us now, those of us who trust in Jesus, not with animal skins anymore, but with the righteousness of his son. So this is how the Bible begins. I hope you're excited about these next 12 weeks. I hope you'll come back and check out where we're going to go. As we see the Bible tell the story of your life through these fascinating.

These fascinating moments. It's not a theory. It's not. It's not some kind of theoretical story. No, it's an explanation for all of life's most important questions.

It tells us why we long for beauty and for meaning. It's because we were made for a better world. It tells us why we experience brokenness and suffering. It's because we rebelled and we fell into sin. And then lastly, it tells us why we still have hope.

Because God has promised and provided a Savior. I pray you would believe and receive this tonight. Let's pray now together. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would guide us to your son, Jesus, that as we approach this story, the story of Creation of the beauty that you made us in your image, that you love us and that we're the crown of your creation. And that your intention for us was.

Was wonderful. But also there's brokenness and we messed up and we continue personally, every one of us continue to struggle. God help us tonight to not only hear that, but to be able to receive the promise to this wonderful promise that Jesus Christ has come, has died on the cross for us, has redeemed us of our sin, has risen. This is the good news of the gospel. This is the good news that was already foretold in Genesis, chapter three.

God, thank you so much for Jesus. I'm asking now, dear friend, if you're in prayer with me right now and you're believing you're ready to make the next step of receiving by faith this salvation in Jesus, would you pray a simple prayer with me? It says in God's Word in Romans, chapter 10 that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. I want to give you an opportunity to make a confession of faith. Say with me this.

Pray with me this Jesus, I believe tonight that you are Lord. You are my Savior. God, I believe that you made an incredible world, but we've messed it up and I'm a mess myself. But I'm thankful tonight that you offered a sacrifice for me that covers my sin, my mistakes, my brokenness. I believe tonight in the cross of Christ and God.

I believe that you raised Jesus from the dead. This gives me hope. Not just a fleeting hope, but a hope for eternity. God, you're at work in my life, dear friend. If you prayed that prayer with me just now, welcome to the family of God.

I'm praying for you that you would more and more understand the scripture and this biblical worldview that we get as we approach God and his Word. I'm praying that over our church. God, would you give us favor in this, that as we read your Word and study your Word, we would understand it, we'd be able to live according to it, that even when the world or the culture tells us one thing that is in opposition to your Word, we wouldn't let that tempt us or distract us, but we would know full well the truth of the scripture. God, be with us. Be with your church.

Help us to be a lighthouse in our city. God, I pray that you would send us out tonight as ambassadors of reconciliation. I pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.