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The Consequences of the Fall, Gen. 3:8-24

     “The wages of sin is death” – so Paul wrote to the church of Rome. We all know what a wage is – payment received for labor rendered. We expect to gain profit from the work that we do on a regular basis in this life. But that is not the kind of wage Paul was talking about. He is talking about the just payment for all the sins we commit. We deserve death – physically, spiritually, and eternally for the countless acts of disobedience we have committed against God. We sin because we are sinners, and we are sinners because we sin. The origin of this horrible truth is described for us in Gen. 3.      The first man, Adam, had only one commandment to obey, 2:16-17. God gave it to test the trust and obedience of Adam, and the penalty for disobedience would be death. Adam and his wife had no reason to eat from that tree. God had freely provided them a superabundance of fruit from which they could take daily sustenance. His intention was for them to enjoy ...
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Satan's Subtle Seduction, Gen. 3:1-24

       We live in a world filled with “isms” and ideologies, all of which claim to be the best course for human existence. Capitalism, communism, socialism, spiritism, individualism, etc., represent different beliefs about how the world should be governed, how people should live, and what is best for society. But the problem with all of these is another “ism”, humanism – man’s determination to create his own utopia, his own paradise. It is all a rejection of the first two chapters of Genesis, the book of beginnings, which informs us that God created the universe and humanity. He provided a perfect environment in which he placed the first man and woman. In this paradise we call the Garden of Eden, God provided their every need and expected them to trust him for all things good and obey his word. The result would be perfect harmony with their Creator God and the continuation of a perfect world.      But Genesis three tells us this perfect conditio...
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The Completion of Man in Paradise, Gen. 2:18-25

       Our Lord Jesus was once approached by a group of religious leaders who posed a question about divorce. They asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” In answer to their question, Jesus appealed to God’s original intent for marriage when God made the first woman and presented her as a companion for the first man. He quoted Gen. 2:24 – “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh…therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” He went on to say that the reason an allowance was made for divorce in the law of Moses was because of the hardness of the human heart. Unfortunately, and sadly, we live in a day where the institution of marriage ordained by God is ignored and trampled upon. The divorce rate in our country is nearly 1 of every 2 marriages. Couples living outside of a marriage relationship is mushrooming, and now people of the same s...
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