In this message, Paul will examine the reality of the fall of man on family life and the consequences. He will take us on a journey to understand the meaning of the fall and its impact on mankind.

It is such a great privilege for me to be here with you tonight. But remember I'm not just here with the adults. I'm also here with the teenagers and the children. And I want you to know that when we're preaching you're in our heart and mind. We want so much for you.

You're growing up in a world quite different from the one I knew as a child. But your God is not different. And he has lost no power. He's never voted out of office. There's never a changing of the guard.

The God who has been faithful to all generations will be faithful to you. Amen. But you must be faithful to him. Yes. Young people, you must employ all the gifts that God has given you to know God's story And to know the God of the story.

And to know that the greatest revelation of God that has ever or ever will be given is the person of Jesus Christ. Now we're going to begin by looking at the command. In Genesis chapter 2. A command is given in verse 16. The Lord God commanded the man saying.

From any tree of the garden you may eat freely but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. And thank you for the Holy Spirit. Please, strengthen us in our weakness.

Illuminate us in our dullness. You who help the weak, show yourself strong. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, I'm going to be talking about a part of redemptive history, But I want you young people to understand that I'm also preaching the Gospel to you. It's not enough to hear these things.

These things must enter into your heart. And you must ask yourself. Is it well with me? Is it well with me? Do I know the Lord?

Now, when we look at this command. First of all, there's some things that I want you to see. That if you can grasp what's going on here. Then it will help you through the entirety of your Christian life. It will help you understand man's relationship to God.

And what it really means to show Genuine devotion to God. Now when we look at this commandment. The first thing that we need to see. Is that it's counterintuitive. It is truly counterintuitive.

If we go over to chapter 3. And we look at verse 6. It says, 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 desirable.

Now. I suppose that they were well aware, at least in some way, of some of these things, prior to the fall. Prior to taking the first bite. When they looked at that tree. I would not be surprised if It was the most beautiful tree in the garden.

I would not be surprised if its aroma was extraordinary. I wouldn't be surprised if its fruit did not look absolutely delicious. Now what I'm trying to say is, there was nothing that they could see in that tree that would indicate that it would bring death. Absolutely nothing. There was no reason at all For them to think that that tree would do them harm.

Except one thing. The Word of God. And that's what the test is always about. Your relationship with God, is determined by your relationship to His Word. And if we go down through the history of Israel, if we go down through the history of the church, If we go down through our own brief history on this planet, we will see that this is always the battle.

It's always the battle. The battle never changes. Will I do what is right in my own eyes? Or will I trust the Word of God? That's always the question.

Now, why? Why is the test set up this way? And why is this whole matter of the word of God so important? It's important because of this. The greatest way.

That we can show true devotion or let me say it differently, The greatest demonstration of true piety is to believe God. Is to believe the word of God, because throughout the scripture, the word of God and the nature of God Are entirely or directly related. You can't have one without the other, if you disbelieve the word of God, then you disbelieve everything He says about his character. Now, this is very, very important, not just for the fall or the history of redemption, but for our own life. And this is the battle, isn't it?

Always. Will you believe the word of God? Will you? Because that's what he's calling Adam and Eve to do, you know how your parents will say, tell you to do something. Well, why should I do it?

Because it's right. Why is it right? Because I said so. Well, that doesn't work with parents. But it does work with God.

His word is an expression of his character. His character is a character that is flawless. It is pure. It is holy. It not only tells the truth, it knows the truth.

And so young person, listen to me, throughout your entire life, you're going to have to make a decision. What are you going to do about the Word of God? Because your relationship to the Word will determine your relationship with God. Your devotion to the word. When I was in seminary, I was constantly being worn by professors to be very careful of making an idol out of the Bible.

What a twisted lie. What a twisted lie they were feeding young men. Because there is a real sense in which God's word and God's character are one. And don't go parading yourself as someone who believes his character If you do not believe what he has spoken. Now, I want to show you that this is not just found her.

I want you to hold your place for a moment and I want you to just run over to our Lord in Matthew. Chapter four. Verse four. This is what's going on in the garden. And he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

If Adam and Eve had followed this. Everything would have been different. Everything would have been different. Now, go over just for a moment to the book of Romans. As I said, I'm going to treat this a little bit, sort of in an unusual way, because I wanted to have a true impact.

I want you to see that these things that went on in ancient times, They still go on today. The battle is always the same. Look over in Romans four. Verse 19. Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body now as good as dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. Now, look what's going on here. It's the same as in the garden. Abraham is asked to do the same thing Adam and Eve is asked to do. They look at the tree.

They study it. They examine it. They view it from afar. They view it close up. They smell it.

There is nothing that they could see to tell them that it was deadly. Except for the word of God. Now, look at Abraham, hope against hope. What does that mean? He looked at his own body and he saw that it was good as dead.

He looked at his wife, she was beyond the age of bearing children. He Had no reason whatsoever to believe that he would have a child. Except for one thing. The word of God. Now, I could go through the entirety of scripture and show you narratives, historical examples where men have either done this.

Or failed to do this. To believe God or not to believe God. Now, this shows us something very, very important. There are two deadly, deadly things. Listen to me, young person, you're young right now, you can begin to study the word right now.

You can change the course of your life. There are two deadly things. One of them is ignorance of God's word, ignorance. And everything that has happened in evangelicalism in the last few years. Part of it is the result of sheer ignorance of God's Word.

Ignorance. Or unbelief. Unbelief. You would be surprised how many times unbelief and disobedience are related in the Old and New Testament. You would be surprised that sometimes The word for obedience actually is belief and belief obedience.

The two are related. And here's the question. Not just will you understand Genesis 3 better after this evening is over. The question is, will you commit the same error? Or will you believe God, will you learn from our fallen parents?

Or will you continue to repeat the same error? Will you fall in the line of of judges who did what is right in their own eyes? Or will you follow the word of the living God and by doing so, give honor to God? Now, we know they disobeyed. If we go over to Genesis, chapter three, verse six, what do we see?

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 desirable to make one wise? She took from it. She took from its fruit and ate And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. She trusted in what she saw. She trusted in what she heard from another voice.

Maybe she trusted in what she smelled. And she fell. And her husband fell with her. Now so many times I hear people say, Yes, he fell because he listened to his wife. That's absurd.

He did not fall because he listened to his wife. My wife has given me many great counsels. My wife has helped me understand passages in scripture. I owe a lot to my wife. He fell, he sinned because he listened to his wife when she was saying things contrary to God.

Throughout your life there will be a lot of Isaacs that you will have to sacrifice. And what do I mean by that? There are so many voices in this world. And many of them dress themselves in sort of a religious garb. Even an evangelical garb.

Even a reformed garb. And they will say the same thing that the devil says here, Did God really say? And then in time, you'll hear out of the same fountain that it has devolved, God did not. You must know the Word. You must know the Word.

Why is disobedience to the Word so, so heinous? Why is it so vile? I mean, after all, it was it wasn't like they committed genocide or did they? It's a piece of fruit. See, young person, here's what you need to understand.

When I tell people they're a sinner. It has very little impact upon them, very little impact at all. They laugh at sin, they boast in sin, they think of new ways to do sin. Why does the word sin no longer have an impact? Because they don't know the one against whom they are sinning.

And I will have to say this is by and large the fault of preachers. Whenever a country is on the verge of destruction, don't chase down politicians. Chase down preachers. They know not God. I remember as a young man, full of zeal, street, the street preacher Lived with the street people.

All kinds of things. Wanted to study my Bible and everything. But not well instructed. And I remember someone sending me. It was a big video back then.

I put it in a little TV with a screen about that big. And it was RC Sproles, holiness of God. And I remember sitting back in the chair, plastic chair, watching it for a few minutes. Then I noticed that I was sitting on the edge of the chair and that it wasn't much longer that I was on my knees and then I realized I'm watching this video sometimes looking up at RC Sproul, sometimes down with my face to the floor, crying out to God. He introduced me to a God, The God of Scripture.

And you know what that view of God did? It changed my view of sin. It changed my view of me. It changed my view of salvation. It changed my view of everything.

Of everything. When you sin, you're not sinning against some, some mayor of a small town. You're sinning against the King of glory. Imagine this, he, on the day of creation, this God that they are defying on the day of creation. He told planets.

Put yourself there and there and there and they obeyed. He told stars, galaxies, solar systems, start here, run to there And then run back again. And they obeyed. He told mountains, be lifted up, valleys be cast down and they obeyed. He told the great sea, you will come to this border And you will go no further.

And the sea worshipped him. And then he looked at two little specks of dust, breathing air that he had given them. And said, in only one thing, obey me. No. No.

That's why on the day of judgment, even creation itself will stand up and testify to the justice of God when he sends men to hell. You can't You can't understand how heinous this sin. If you do not understand God. So young people, for all you're getting, the Book of Proverbs tells us, get wisdom and for all you're getting of wisdom, get wisdom about God. So that you learn to walk in the fear of God.

Now, look at the immediate consequences of sin. It's amazing, it says. In verse seven of Chapter three, Then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings. Made themselves loin coverings.

They heard the sound of the Lord 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. Now look at two things. They were made by God For God. And now they're hiding themselves from God.

But look at this. And this is a very important point, young person. Especially those of you who are about thinking about marriage. Verse 23. The man said, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she has she was taken out of man. So both of them created by God Are hiding from God. And now you have. Two individuals made by God that have become one bone of bone and flesh of flesh. And now what's going on?

They're hiding from each other. Young person, listen. Our world is filled with so much controversy and chaos. Absurdity. Stupidity.

Danger. So many complex problems. But the root of it is not complex. It's not complex At all. The root of the problem is sin.

And the only answer to that problem, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So if you wanna heal the world, Don't run after some social construct. Don't chase philosophies of men born out of speculation, give rise to speculation and heal nothing. The gospel for healing relationships, vertical relationships between God and man. The gospel for healing relationships horizontally between individuals, between men and women.

Between peoples of all different shapes and sizes and types and colors. All of it has a solution only in one place. The gospel of Jesus Christ, where the root of sin is destroyed. It is only, only there. Now, let's look at the judgment.

Chapter three. The judgment. On the woman and the man. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.

Then he said to Adam. Then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you in toil. You will eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles. It shall grow for you And you will eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.

You will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken for you are dust. And to dust You shall return. They say that philosophy was born somewhere around five centuries or fifth century B.C. Some attributed to Thales, others to others. But if you could bring all those men into a room.

This is what they dealt with. You see, there's something in us that is finds mortality disagreeable. That there's something still in us that says we weren't made to die. There is something about death that fills us full of anguish because it's just not right. It's just not Natural.

It's because it's not natural. If your nature is adverse to it, there's a reason for it, it's not natural, it's supernatural, it's imposed and punishment. And it is the bane of all thinking men. Many of you young people, you've probably seen works of art where you see either a monk or a philosopher's looking out a window of a cathedral Or of an academy. And he's standing there and he has a skull in his hands.

You think, oh, how morbid is this person? We're not understanding what's going on here. He's not delighting in death. He's contemplating his own existence. He's contemplating his mortality.

He's trying to come to grips with, what am I? Because now the definition is Lost to death. Why do I exist? What is the meaning of life? I remember, I was a young man, I was 17, I was kind of full of life.

I didn't really have a worry in the world. My father was a very strong man, a very intelligent man. I wanted to be like him. I just wanted to be like him. We were rolling out wire one day.

We raised quarter horses in Charley cattle, And we were rolling out wire one day. Around, we raised quarter horses in Charley cattle. And we were rolling out wire one day. And I had one side of the bar, he had the other side of the bar. We were talking about the upcoming basketball year and everything.

All of a sudden I was looking forward, but I heard him scream. I remember the wire dropped on the other side and I saw him fall and I caught him. We fell to the ground. He was dead. At that moment, something happened.

I joined, although not academically trained, I joined that long list of philosophers, didn't I? And I became angry because I had no answer. You see, I wanted to be like him. He's dead. I never thought I would measure up to him, but even if I did, I would die, I would follow him.

So what does it matter? What does it matter if I'm a youth in my prime? I will grow old. What does it matter if I train my mind and can do mathematics like my father could? I will lose my mind one day.

Possibly all at once, possibly gradually, gradually, I'll sit on a couch as an old man and watch my thoughts just drift away. What if I fall in love? I mean, what is the use of poetry now? My wife will die. I will die.

Then I think about what about all the things I've Seeing stars, moons, autumns, sunrises, sunsets. My sister dancing. With flowers in her hair. On top of a horse riding in its full strength. It will all be lost.

And because it will be lost. It doesn't matter. Maybe the contemporary philosophers after Jean Polsart were right that... Everything's just absurd. Maybe Solomon was right.

The day of a man's death is better than his birth. Because at least the anguish of death would cease. You see this is all because of sin. All of it is because of sin. Once our vertical relationship, our relationship with our creator was severed.

Everything else dissolved. And that's the way we are, aren't we? Imagine the idiocy. The stupidity of a man hooked up to a life support system. Who is using whatever strength he has.

To rip the cord out of the wall. Sin. That's why the Puritans referred to sin As insanity. And this is the judgment of God. And that is why even even those peoples who in times past were outside of Israel.

Who did not have the oracles of the law, they still struggled with this uncomfortable idea that something in my existence is dislocated, It's just not right. So what do you do? You can be a thinking man in misery. You can eat and drink and satiate your lust. Because tomorrow we die.

Or, in this judgment, You can find mercy. You can find mercy. And what is that mercy? Pain in childbirth, what is that mercy? Futility of labor and life.

You say those are judgments, not mercy. Yes, they are judgments, but they are the greatest mercies, if you understand them correctly. Every time a woman is giving birth and suffering pain, pain, pain. God is screaming out to that woman, fallen, Fallen, fallen, return, return. Every time a man gets up in the morning before the sun and goes out to work for hours and hours a day to reap nothing, and he comes back to the home defeated, It is God's mercy crying out to him, fallen, fallen, fallen.

Return, return, return. Every time a man and a woman are torn apart at the seams, our parents from children, and there's nothing but fighting, there is a grace in that. It is a warning of things to come. You are fallen, fallen, fallen. Return, return, return to me.

That's one aspect of repentance that isn't emphasized enough. It's not just feel sad. The pagan philosopher can do that. It's return. But to return you must believe God.

Now, return, return. But now here is the question of the ages. For theologian, for philosopher, How shall we return? How can we return? Our Father.

And yes, We all have one Father. Our Father has fallen and we have fallen with him. And we have not only fallen with him, We have followed him in his rebellion against God. How can we return? Is it not absolutely spectacular?

The highest demonstration of wisdom. That in God's judgment upon the serpent. He brings us hope. Look at verse 315. Thy will put enmity between you, speaking to the devil and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise you on the head. And you shall bruise him on the heel. Now, first of all, let's look at a general application here. This is more than what has to do with men and their adversity, common adversity to snakes. But it does have a lot to do with something that we're going to see immediately after this chapter.

In Chapter four, we're going to see. That there will be a redeemed people, but That redeemed people will have to live and struggle and fight and suffer in a fallen world because the Bible sees two lines that are going to spring out. We have Abel believing. We have Cain unbelieving and the one persecutes the other even unto death. There will be a people of God throughout human history, but that people who has rejected mercy will fight against that people until the very end and the consummation of all things.

That's one application. But the greater application is this. He is speaking, as the rabbi says, he is speaking of Messiah. He is speaking of Christ in the very curse given to the devil, in the very judgment pronounced upon him we find the proto evangelicum we find the first promise of the gospel that God would send someone born of our line bone of our bone flesh of our flesh. An elder brother, if you will.

Who would destroy the works of the devil. And bring his people back to God. Never forget in the story of redemption. There is only one hero. Only one hero.

In every category There is only one hero. It is Messiah. It is Christ. You know him as Jesus. Now.

We're going to go on with this, but I want before we leave this chapter, I just want you to see something. That. Verse 21. After receiving the promise that someone would come, we have a hint, Just a hint that somehow with that someone who comes sacrifice will be involved. Twenty one, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Covered them. Now we get to chapter four and what's going on? Sin spreads like gangrene. A true pandemic, a True plague. So we see we have Cain and Abel.

And what do we notice, especially about the family, because because the closest relationship that we can have, humanly speaking, is family and what happens, the vertical relationship is destroyed And what happens in the family? Destruction and death hold your place here for just a moment. And I want to show you how quickly man became vile. Go to first, John. And go to Chapter three.

Verse 11, For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. This is Adam's son. But look what's already happened. This son is now, His chief characteristic, The thing that describes him above every other description is this. He is of the evil one.

That quick. He's of him. Defined by him. Empowered by him. Described by him.

If you wanted to know the chief characteristic of Cain. He was of the evil one. And what does he do? He kills his brother. You say, yes, here in this case, we have a demonstration of violence, brother against brother.

I think we have something far deeper. Because when John says that Cain killed Abel, He uses a very specific word, spazo. Which is oftentimes used in religious literature with regard to sacrifice. To butcher, yes, to murder, Yes, but oftentimes with regard to sacrifice, I believe that what we're seeing here is such a hatred now manifested to God by this young man. That it basically the narrative goes like this.

You didn't accept my sacrifice. You didn't like my sacrifice. You liked my brother's sacrifice. You liked his sacrifice so much. I'll give you a sacrifice.

I wouldn't be surprised, as many Greek scholars have said, that he not only killed his brother, he sacrificed him. Here we can see something that men refuse to believe we are not only fallen, We are not only in love with sin, delighting in sin. But we are a race that vehemently hates God. And why do we hate God? Well that's easy.

Because he's good. Why do we hate God? When I'm speaking at a university, They're always about, you know, they try to use the idea, we're opposed to God because of this archaic view of holiness. And I said, no, you hate God because he's good. You hate God because God is love.

And you are loveless and evil. That's man. As a matter of fact, I find it quite amazing when I'm preaching that if I use the word sin or sinner, no one really has a problem with it. But if I tell the congregation they're evil, it's a whole different story. Here we see, look what we see in one half generation.

We go from. A man and a woman created in the image of God. To someone filled with hatred for God. And then we make our way over to chapter six, and what do we see, the corruption of mankind, the end of any separation, it seems between godly and ungodly, the ancients believed it was an alliance even with the demonic. However, you want to take this know that it just keeps going down Hill.

Until there is nothing left. But judgment. But judgment, but judgment. What did man look like before the flood? Look in Genesis Chapter six.

Look at verse five, then the Lord saw the wickedness of man. It was great on the earth that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It seems like a hyperbole, doesn't it? Like an exaggeration. But it's not apart from the restraining grace of God.

Men, women, children run run headlong in to evil. Now, so that you don't detach yourself from this narrative. If I could take out your heart. Every thought you've ever thought. Every deed you've ever done.

And I could put it on a thumb drive And I held that thumb drive up. And I said, now I'm going to place it into the computer. And we're going to show it on this screen. You would jump out of your seat screaming, no, you would run up here and if necessary by violence, you would take it out of my hand. Why?

Young person, listen to me, because you have thought things so vile, so wicked that you can't even share them with your closest friend. You see, this is not some detached narrative. This is true. How do I know that? Because I'm a prophet, no.

Because that's what the word of God teaches and because it's my own reality, it's everyone's reality. We are a defiled race. A defiled race. Now look at man after the flood, chapter eight. Verse 21, and the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and the Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Now, this word youth can also include a very, very young child. Isn't it amazing? You do not have to teach a child to do evil. You have to teach a child to do good. And that by discipline.

And reward. Let's say that I take a four year old child, and they're in an observation room, and I have a four year old child. And I present before that child the most fantastic Toys that anyone's ever created. Until finally I find a toy that every time I put it in the child's hand, the child throws it down. So I pick it up, put it in its hand again, throws it down, put it in its hand again.

Doesn't want the toy begins to cry and throws the toy across the room. How can I get that child to want that toy more than any other toy that I have presented? I just bring another four year old in and I give that other child the toy. What happens? World War three.

See, even from our youth, this is ontological. This is not a learned behavior. This is not something cultivated, my friend. This is essence. This is nature by nature, children of wrath.

By nature, sinners. Theologically, philosophically, there is no there is no separation between will and nature. Nature demonstrates will. I was on the Amazon years And years ago, I was very young and. I remember walking down this one stretch of the river.

It had actually had a kind of a sandy beach, which was very unusual, And I was walking down it and there were two children playing. And just for a moment, there was a. There was just this careless thought in my mind, very careless, very stupid. And I thought to myself, look at these two children, unstained by television, by media. They've not the evil of this world has not been presented to them, and there they are playing.

Well, I walked down the beach for about five minutes and I came back and they were tearing one another apart. I said, goodbye, paradise, hello, Cain and Abel, It is within us. You know what's wrong with this culture? It's always somebody else. It's always somebody else.

It's always somebody else. Hell is full of people is full of people with that philosophy. No, it's me. It's me. It's me.

It is me. So before the flood, we have sinners after the flood, nothing has changed. All that water couldn't wash clean the race of humanity. All that judgment could not instill fear, even in those whom God saved. Immediately after Noah's drunk.

Noah is drunk. Then there is the perversion of his son Ham. And then in chapter 11, there is the Tower of Babel. Then in chapter 18 and 19, there is Sodom and Gomorrah. And As man spread throughout the world, so did his moral corruption.

And it has blanketed the planet now, I want us to go quickly run over to the Book of Romans. In Chapter one. In chapter one. Romans one, two and three is very, very important. What is Paul seeking to do?

What is his primary purpose in Romans 1, 2 and 3? To condemn the entire world and leave it without hope. That's his purpose. To condemn the entire world. Now, we will divide this up a bit.

18 through 32 of Chapter one, it is very possible Paul is talking about that wild barbarian. The pagan of pagans. And he begins to point after sin, after sin, after sin, he points to he describes it very clearly. And as Paul goes on condemning the pagan of pagans, what happens? Well, the philosopher stands up and he says, Paul, We had no idea.

We had no idea. Although you're not part of our company. You have hit the nail on the head, those barbarians, those pagan barbarians, those uneducated, uncouth, uncivilized people outside of the Roman Empire. They are vile. Paul, we applaud you.

Extremely insightful and helpful, your lecture. And then Paul turns his finger and goes, and woe is you. Because you're the same thing. And then he tears into the moralist and the ethicist. I remember before I was converted in philosophy or literature and and reading poetry about virtue and love and all sorts of things.

And I would sit there and go, Words, words, words, words, words. Where can it be shown? Where can it be seen? Useless words. So when they applaud Paul, Paul turns on them and says, woe is you, because you are just as vile with all your academics, all your high thinking, all your philosophy has done you no good.

At that moment, Paul caught the attention of even his greatest enemies. The rabbis, the Judaizers, They stood up and said, Paul, maybe we need to rethink this. You have brilliantly denounced the barbarian and the moralist. You're right, Paul. And then Paul, making no friends, turned his finger on them and said, And woe is you above all men, because you were granted the very oracles of God.

And you have not obeyed. And so Paul leaves the entire world condemned. So from that fall. We now go thousands of years into the future. We have one of the most sophisticated civilizations coming out of the Greek civilization, The Roman Empire.

And we see that nothing has changed. And then we go forward another two thousand years and we see that nothing has changed. Sin is deadly. Now let's go back to Genesis 9. Verse 8.

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying, Now behold, I myself do establish my covenant with you. Notice, We don't have time to go into it. I myself establish my covenant with you. That's a very important language, extremely important language. This is not Noah and God sitting down at the table.

And having negotiations, covenants aren't that way, not covenants with God. Says, I myself do establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you And with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle and every beast of the earth with you and all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you and all flesh shall never again be cut off by water of the flood. Neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. God said this is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations, I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.

This is known as the noatic covenant. But I prefer another title. It is the covenant of preservation. Write that down, it'll help you understand what's going on here. The old scholars, the old men referred to this primarily as the covenant of preservation.

Why? Because if you look closely, this is what is being said. Are you ready? Listen, Noah. All of you should die every day.

Every one of you who came out of the ark, you should die every day. And as the long years, centuries of history have gone by, there hasn't been a day on this planet in which God should not have killed everyone. And that's what you've got to understand. You must understand this, it is because of covenant that God does not wipe everyone off the face of the earth every day of human history. Just turn with me, hold your place real quick.

I'll show you something. Just go to Matthew. Chapter five. Verse forty five, verse forty four, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. You know how that happens?

It's covenantal. This, I believe, relates directly back to the noatic covenant. How can a holy, righteous God be kind to evil men? How can he do anything but destroy them? Because he himself has made a covenant of preservation.

And what is the purpose of that covenant of preservation? Oh, it is glorious. What is the purpose of the covenant of preservation? You should die every day. But I will preserve the earth.

In order to carry out my work of redemption and bring forward the fulfillment of my promise in Genesis 3 15. Why does God preserve the earth for his own glory? Because upon this earth, he has determined to do a work of recommendation, a work of of redemption, of salvation. Yes, motivated by the fact that He is love. But so far beyond that, to reveal to all of creation, both heaven and earth, who He is, Everything in the great mystery of God's providence, yea, even the fall has been decreed.

So that through it, both men and angels may know God. That they may know God. Now, I want to get to the marrow of this. The marrow of this. God is doing a work of redemption.

He is saving a people for himself. But this work of redemption can only be carried out in a manner That is consistent with the attributes of God. Let me show you the problem. From the sparse knowledge we have from scripture, we can draw certain conclusions regarding Satan. That when he fell.

He met with perfect Justice. Perfect justice. No mercy. Perfect justice. Can you imagine how it shook the heaven when Adam and Eve, although met with perfect justice.

They also found a promise of redemption. You're not hearing me. This this this troubled heaven, you see, man says they're troubled about the fact God judges men. Heaven is troubled by the fact that God saves them. When God showed perfect justice to Satan and the angels who rebelled with him, there was no murmuring in heaven, there was no philosophical problem.

But when man fell and God offered mercy, there began the problem of the ages that is not solved until Christ dies on Calvary. How can a just God justify unrighteous men. How can he do it? Adam should have died that moment. Without one promise, That would have been right.

Here's another problem. Noah should have died in the flood with everyone else. Do you ever realize that? Well but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And why do you suppose that is?

That was sovereign grace. That was not a result of Noah's merit. And the distinction in Noah's morality compared with the rest of the world is the result of God's active grace working in him. But mark it down, the whole thing goes back to God's sovereign grace. Noah should have died.

And Abraham, A friend of God? Where's your justice, God? He doubted you. He put his wife in jeopardy. He should have died.

And Israel, Israel, Your people. Can you imagine Satan standing there accusing. Your people. They worshipped me in the desert, not you. That you said so yourself.

They should die. Oh, and David, David, really? A man after your own heart. He's a murderer. And an adult.

He should die. He should die. The problem of the ages, the divine dilemma. They should all die. How can God forgive them?

How can God redeem a people, a sinful, rebellious, wicked, corrupt people, while at the same time maintain his justice. At the risk of over dramatizing the matter. Can you imagine? The railings of the accuser against God over and over and over, Don't you know that that's how he had the power of death? Accusations, accusations, accusations.

This one should die. Where is your justice? That one should die. Where is your justice? This whole people should die.

Where is your justice? This redemptive plan throughout the ages. How can you call these your people? As the justice of God diminished. Well, all those questions were answered.

Two thousand years ago. For the sake of illustration, let's say God calls Satan before the throne. Do you want to know how I can Give those fallen first parents a promise of hope. Do you want to know how I can call David my son. Look to Calvary.

Look to Calvary. Because right now my son bears the sin and the curse of them all. And my wrath falls down upon him. Until my justice is fully appeased, Satisfied. You see, here's something that you need to understand.

The the the the Puritans. Octavius, Winslow, Bates, especially Bates. So many. Bates wrote a book. William Bates, the harmony of the attributes of God.

You say, well, what do you mean? Well. You see, there's a problem, let me show it to you, let me use biblical language to show it to you, look in, look in Romans. In verse 25, whom God displayed publicly, speaking of Jesus Christ, he placarded him, as Martin Lloyd-Jones used to say, loved to say, you know, placards like when you go to somewhere in this area where you're wanting to see the beautiful mountainside and you can't see it because there's billboards everywhere. He billboarded him, he placarded him.

Why did God have his son die? In the religious center of the universe, hanging upon a tree. Why? Verse 25, this was to demonstrate his righteousness, hold it, Why does God have to demonstrate he's righteous? Why would he have to do that?

Well, because he in the forbearance of God, he passed over sins previously committed. That's what my illustration was about. Adam and Eve should have died. Judged immediately with no hope. Noah should have died.

Abraham should have died. The fact that they didn't means God's got some explaining to do. Is He as righteous as He says He is? David should have died. He didn't.

Is God really righteous? Because he passed over sins previously committed 26 for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time. Again, why Is God having to demonstrate that he is a righteous God? Again, I want to go back to this in our stupid, pitiful little world. We hold court against God and we say, if God judges us, He can't be righteous.

And yet Heaven's Court says, if God doesn't judge us all. He's not righteous. But God demonstrated Himself to be righteous. And merciful, That's why Bates wrote about the harmony of the attributes of God in the cross of Christ. This, no one preached the gospel in ancient days without talking about this.

And yet some of you have never heard it. That's why our Gospel preaching is so poor. You see this whole thing. Someone said one time to me, they said, Well, Jesus had to die because of the fall. And I said, Well, there had to be a fall so that Jesus could die.

Because it was only in that, that all the attributes of God could be revealed to men and angels in perfect harmony. And that's what's going on in Calvary. In Calvary is the greatest. I'm not speaking in superlative or hyperbole. Mark it down.

The greatest revelation of God that has ever been given. Ever will be given. Is the cross of Jesus Christ. Where he proved to be merciful through it. Our sins are pardoned and he proved to be just in what way?

When his own son bore our sins as our substitute God crushed him under the fury of his wrath until justice said satisfied not justice as some overarching principle to which God had to submit but the very justice of God and in him now in the cross all the attributes all the glories of God are there are there that's why The cross was everything for Paul. Everything. Everything. The cross, the cross, the cross. The cross.

The son of God. Is the last Adam. Bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Our champion. We had two great problems, mankind.

We are devoid of righteousness, we have none. And we were under penalty of the covenant of works. Because of our disobedience, Christ solved both of those problems. He dealt with the penalty in that he died under it. But.

Oh, don't miss this part. He dealt with our poverty. Our destitution of righteousness, and that he not only died for us, he lived for us. He obeyed for us. And then.

He's far greater than Joseph. Joseph did not share his coat of many colors with his brethren. But praise God, Christ shared his coat of righteousness with his people, Even the most destitute. He has done it all. Brother Paul, do you believe we're saved by works?

Oh yes. Oh yes I do. The works of Christ. God making covenant with God. Our brother.

Our brother. Oh the majesty of that one. Oh take the royal diadem. And crown him Lord of all. Remember young people, only one hero in this story.

Run to him. Say I have no strength. Take hold of him. My grip is slight. Then fall upon him.

You can fall, can't you? Just give up. Fall. Fall. Fall.

And he will catch you. Fall upon him. He is a Rock bigger than the world. Fall upon him. Trust in him, trust his word.

Don't wait to get yourself right. Don't wait to get yourself clean. It's fall. Fall believing. It's fall.

Fall. Believing that for God so loved the world, he gave his only son. But whoever Believes in him. Will not perish. But have everlasting life.

My son Evan came to me. When he was about 12 or 13. He said, Dad. I said what? He said all night.

All night, what? I couldn't sleep, Dad. All night, it was just Christ. It's just Christ, Dad. I couldn't sleep.

It was so beautiful. It was just Christ. I believe he saved me. I said, really, I said, well, let's just we'll continue studying the word, we'll go talk to our elders, But let's just continue studying the Word. Okay.

A year later. He comes back. He said, Dad. Remember when I told you that? Yes I do son.

He goes, it was true. But Dad. I've been reading the Gospel of John. Do you know what I've learned? What?

I think God has saved me. Last year? No. Today. Why?

Well, because I was reading the Gospel of John. And I realized something. You're not saved. Because you have an experience. No matter how real or wonderful it may be, or you think it is, you are saved because you find yourself believing the word of Christ.

Dad, I believe the words of Christ. So young people, so many times we use wrong language. And we make you think that you must have something. To add to simple faith. No, trust, trust in his word.

Believe his word. Believe his word. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your mercies.

Thank you for weakness. If weakness is necessary to drive us to Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.