The First Sacrifice In The Bible Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD, USA

www.mycrossway.org

View this and other messages at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/channels/8118

We are now coming to the closing verses of Chapter 3. We started this journey in July with our series, “Beginnings.” As we conclude this series, I hope you have drawn a more deep appreciation of the significance of God’s Word, especially when it comes to creation as it relates to our own redemption and salvation in Jesus Christ. With that in mind, I want to make a few more comments before we move into the text. We’re going to touch on some sensitive topics today and in the new year as it relates to our world. I’ve studied prophecy all of my Christian life, as I know many of you have as well. Never before have we witnessed our world the way it is today.

Where in history have you ever witnessed the entire world, as almost as if it has been orchestrated, to the point where the world responded to a situation like this puffed-up pandemic? Where? Never! Just this week I was reading an article of a young boy who was bribed to get the jab, without his parent’s consent for some pizza. The LAUSD has also taken it upon themselves to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for all children over the age of 12. They must receive the jab before January 10, 2022 or children will be forced into virtual learning and blocked from entering campus. The district follows a "safe schools to safe steps incentive program" that is meant to ensure measures are set for vaccinated students to get prizes. Think about this. Would you in 2019 believe what we are witnessing like the lockdowns, surrender of rights, schools indoctrinating our kids, parents being federally investigated and arrested for speaking out, quarantine camps, riots, forced injections, pastors being arrested, deceptions, communication control, and the control of global powers like we’ve never seen before.

The prophetic clock is moving at such a dizzying rate, it is almost hard to keep up with everything that is happening. I heard a pastor tell his congregation that someone asked him why he doesn’t talk about the Middle East as much as these other things. Think about it. It’s easy to talk about these things that are happening somewhere far away. But it’s a whole different ballgame when it’s happening right here and you are the center of it. Christians that only want sugar-coated messages and feel-good worship will have a hard time following God’s will and living for Him. We must know God’s Word and how it relates to us and the world around us.

What if I told you that everything going on today is part of God’s plan? Do you know that Satan is not in control? Do you think that any of this has caught God off-guard? No. It hasn’t. God is still in control. There are times when God’s love is tough love. Everything happening, however, is a part of God’s ultimate victory. In fact, Genesis 3 and specifically verses 20-24 are the commencement of the plan of God that is coming to fruition before our eyes.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7)

What is in the verses we are about to study is part of Christ woven throughout the Old Testament. If you remember from our previous weeks, Chapter 3 is the resultant judgment on the serpent, woman, and man for their rebellion against God’s command. And even before His judgment on the Woman and Man, while the Lord God was imposing judgment against Satan, God was providing words of hope and redemption for the man and woman. Then judgment is handed down to the Woman, and then the man. In each case, God’s grace abounds in His righteous judgment. In God’s judgment, there is provision and mercy. What we find now in this little section of Scripture today is nothing more than amazing. In these 4 verses, we have the necessary elements for salvation. So as soon as man falls, God sets in motion the means of redemption. Let’s read them together:

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 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—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 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. (Genesis 3:20–24)