We are going to read some of Genesis chapter 2 and some of chapter 3. Last week we focused on Eve's temptation and her sin. This week we're going to look at this passage again and see that not only was Adam fully complicit in Eve's sin, but his sin is far worse. And we're beginning in Genesis 2 at chapter 15, or verse 15, as we're reminded of the task and test that God gave to Adam in the garden, a task and a test that he would fail. in Genesis chapter 3. So Genesis chapter 2 verses 15 through 17. The Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now chapter three, verse one. 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 trees in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Let us now turn to Romans chapter 5. You can find that on page 942 of your Pew Bible. And in Romans chapter 5, we see that just as sin came to all through the first Adam's salvation, Now it comes to all who trust in Christ, the second Adam. Every place where Adam failed, Christ, the second Adam, is victorious. So Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 21. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift of grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification, for if Because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man. Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men. For as one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came came in to increase the trespass. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever and ever. Let's pray. Our loving God, you provide for our every need. You feed our bodies and our souls, and yet we do hunger to know and love you more and more. Nourish us with your word this morning. Through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray, amen. Well, last week, if you did miss it last week, I'm sure the sermon is on Sermon Audio if you want to catch up on that. We spent our time going into some detail on how the devil tempted Eve to sin and exactly what it was that Eve was tempted to do. One way we summarized that was we said that the devil tempted Eve to set herself above the Word of God. instead of placing herself under the Word of God. The evil one tempted Eve to think that she had it within herself to decide for herself, to be autonomous, to be her own law, and she took the fruit and she ate. And we also saw that she gave some to Adam, and I think we called him the silent moron who was with her the whole time, and he ate. So Adam was entirely complicit in Eve's sin, and her sin was his sin as he just sat there and he did nothing. He's also guilty. But Adam is not only guilty of the same sin as Eve, but Adam's guilt and sin is far worse. The effects of Adam's failure in the garden are far reaching as now every human being is born in sin and under the curse and judgment of God. So our plan this morning is to focus our attention on specifically how Adam sinned and how Adam failed miserably. And as we see the depths of Adam's sin, then we'll also see the heights of God's amazing grace secured for us through the work of Christ as the second Adam. And then we'll reflect on some practical application for us as believers. So that's our plan this morning. Our first point is the first Adam's failure. Second point, the second Adam's success. And our third point, some additional practical application for believers. If you didn't get one, there are sermon outlines if you want those there on the table out there. So in order for us to understand just how Adam sinned, we need to move back as we did in our reading to Genesis 2 just a little bit and be reminded of that task and that test that God had for Adam in the Garden of Eden. We looked at this, we talked about this arrangement, this covenant of works. We decided, at least I decided for us, we like the term covenant of life. And a summary of what God's covenant of life was for Adam, this task and test, a good summary is found in Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? Answer, when God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death. So as we reflected on this, we noted that Adam and in Adam, all of humanity, Adam, he was created perfect. but he was not complete. Adam was created at the beginning of his career. Adam was created holy, but he could still fall. He could still die. But there was a higher, unchangeable glory that awaited Adam. if he would be faithful and obey the Lord. So God gives Adam this task and this test to see if he would obey. If he was faithful and if he kept this covenant, then he would earn this eternal blessedness, this higher life for himself and for all of humanity. A lot of people say, well, what would have happened if Adam would have been obedient? Well, that's what would have happened. He would have ushered in eternal blessedness for him and for his posterity. Well, we read about this covenant arrangement again in Genesis 2.15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And in these words, to work and keep, God gives Adam priestly duties. The word for work the garden means to cultivate it, to care for it, it certainly would involve some agriculture and some gardening, but at the same time, it also would involve serving the Lord and worshiping the Lord. Adam's work is to be holy work in the service and worship of God in Eden on God's holy mountain. And Adam's also commanded to keep the garden. The Hebrew word for keep can also be translated guard and it is all over the Old Testament. Adam is to be jealous for the Lord's righteousness and holiness. He's instructed to take care of God's garden temple and he's called to guard it from evil and to guard it from the evil one. So this is Adam's holy task as a priest in the Garden of God, and it also involves the duties of a prophet, as Adam is called, to listen to the Word of God, to understand the Word of God, and to teach the Word of God to Eve and their future children. And as this task is given to Adam, he's also to be God's vice-regent. He's to be a king over creation. He's in charge of teaching, of guarding, and of governing the world and seeing the Great Commission being executed. And then in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, we come to the test of obedience. We got the task, now it's the test. And the Lord God commanded man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat it, for in the day you eat it you shall surely die. So this test involves guarding the garden from evil and obeying God's command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Passing the test would have looked like crushing the head of the serpent as God's faithful prophet, priest, and king. If Adam was successful, again, he would have earned that higher life. Theologians, especially if you listen to the Reform Forum, they like to call that eschatological life. They would earn that higher life, that heavenly life, that reward that was held out to Him at creation and for His children. And if He was successful at some point, then He would have been granted to eat of the tree of victory, the tree of life. Now, already as we sit here, we read in Romans 5 that Adam was a type, and we're starting to think, man, this arrangement sounds a lot like the work of Christ, how that's laid out for Jesus, and it is. This is the framework here for the work of Jesus Christ. Now there was a lot, as we see, riding then, a lot at stake, riding on Adam's obedience in Genesis 3. Now we know the story, but we're meant to wonder at this point, would he be obedient? Would he keep the covenant? Well, let's see how Adam did. Genesis 3.1, the test begins. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God has made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? So as soon as the serpent opens his mouth and begins speaking, Adam should have known that something was off. He should have dispatched the serpent immediately. Serpents don't talk. That's not what they do. Well, let's give Adam the benefit of the doubt here for just a minute. Let's say he was surprised that the serpent was speaking, and perhaps he needed a moment to process. Well, when the serpent began speaking then of God's command, and he got the command wrong intentionally, Adam should have seen immediately through the serpent's evil intentions. He should have seen what he was trying to do, and he should have grabbed that shovel and chopped the head of the snake off right there. He should have racked the slide on his mossberg and blown that snake to smithereens. He should have crushed the serpent immediately. So as a priest, Adam is called to guard the garden from all evil. And in verse one, he's already failing to guard God's holy place. He allows evil to speak and to continue to live, and he just sits there, and he does nothing. He's totally passive as evil comes into God's holy place. As a priest, Adam has failed, and his failure gets worse. In verses two and three, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Well, as we reflected on last week, Eve does not accurately repeat God's commands here. Well, Adam is the one that received the command directly from the Lord himself not to eat of this tree, lest you surely die. And as God's prophet, his responsibility would be to communicate this word of God to Eve. So as soon as Eve finished speaking, Adam should have said something like this, my dear bride, that is not exactly what the Lord said. I know we're new here. I know this is new information for both of us. So let me remind you this, this is what the Lord has said. But that's not what happened. Adam sat there and he said nothing. He did nothing. He said nothing. Now why would he do this? Was he ignorant of God's commands? No. Did he do a poor job of communicating God's word to Eve? I would say no because all of our marital communication problems are effects of the fall. Fall hasn't happened yet, right? Was he mesmerized by this talking serpent? Maybe. He's probably was happy, he's probably already processing what's going on here, and as we hear Eve questioning God's command out loud, Adam is questioning it likely in his own heart. He's probably pondering silently, and that's why he says nothing. So the serpent then silences Adam's tongue. A prophet is called to speak the truth of God, to defend it, and to correct errors as needed. Adam failed as God's prophet. and it gets worse. In verses four through six, we read of Adam's final failure. But when 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 the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that a 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. So it seems that Adam had one last chance here to exercise godly rule and to protect the garden of God and to protect his wife. from the evil one. He can grab the fruit from Eve so she doesn't eat it. He could cast Satan out, but it was too late. He could have refused the fruit, but he took it. Again, here Adam does something. He doesn't speak, he doesn't act, but he does something. He receives passively the fruit from and with Eve. So instead of ruling, And leading, as God's appointed vice-regent over creation, he lets the serpent set the stage. He lets the serpent be king. He makes himself passive and he eats what Eve gives him to eat. And he eats it right alongside with her. Along with Eve, he decided that he was his own man, his own king, and the ultimate judge of right and wrong. Adam failed as king. Adam and Eve, they certainly did become like God in some sense as the serpent promised. You'll know good and evil. Yet instead of knowing good and evil perfectly and without sin as our Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience through what he suffered, they thought they knew better than God. The reward didn't quite pan out. They learned more about evil because they became evil. And we see what happened. We see the sin and shame, the immediate consequences in verse 7. And the eyes of both were opened, they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Now we're going to take a deeper dive in the coming weeks into the effects of Adam's failure here, but just for now, a summary, again from the Shorter Catechism. It asks, what did all mankind fall in Adam's transgression? The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. Next question, into what a state did the fall bring mankind? The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. So we see here that Adam is not only complicit in Eve's sin. He not only sins with Eve, but his sin is far worse. Adam rejects God's good purpose for him. He believes the lies of the evil one. He fails as God's priest as he lets evil into the presence of God in the garden. He fails as a prophet as he does not defend the word of God. And he fails as king as he even makes himself over judge of what is good and evil. So now Adam and Eve are in a state of sin and misery. And they need a savior. Thinking of our first readers and hearers of Genesis, we remember where they are. Yahweh just delivered Israel from the tyranny of evil and misery in Egypt, and now He's their new people, their new creation. He's starting over, and they need theological training, and He's training them up. And what He's doing here is He's teaching them to see that they need more than just deliverance from slavery and misery in Egypt. They also need deliverance from Adam's sin as well. And in Genesis 3, then, so we see the scaffolding or the framework for the person and work of this promised Savior. See, Israel is being taught even now that they would need a second Adam, a greater Adam to pay for their sin and to be faithful in every way that the first Adam was not. And the Lord teaches His people this over time. their need as he lays out prophets, priests, and kings in the Old Testament. And we see all their faults, and we see a need for a true and a greater prophet, priest, and king. And so these offices are established to teach us about the person and work of Christ, to teach us about the mediator that would embody all this threefold office here. So even from the fall in seed form, we also said as we started this series, all the seeds for every doctrine in the whole Bible, we can pretty much find them all in Genesis 1 through 3, especially in Genesis. But even from the fall here, we're already starting to see that the Lord is beginning to prepare the way of grace, to prepare us to understand the work of Jesus Christ. As we see God's prophets, priests, and kings throughout the Old Testament, we really do see Jesus on every single page. And one of the clearest places that we see this first Adam, second Adam structure is in Romans 5. In the New Testament, we have the full revelation of Jesus Christ. We're meant to look at the doctrines that are clearly taught in the Old Testament and then to look and see, to see what God's Word says in the Old Testament. We read the Old Testament through very clear New Testament glasses, and Romans chapter 5 gives us the glasses to help us see what we've been talking about here. Just remember one man, sin came through one man, the first Adam, and life comes through the second. I'm just going to read a little bit again of Romans chapter 5, about five verses or so. Twelve, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, And later, death reigned from Adam to Moses, verse 15, but the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. Verse 17, for if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." So we see this setup, this structure, this scaffolding here in our Genesis passage. Through Adam's one act, his sin in the garden led to death and condemnation for all. So we would need a second Adam who is greater than the first Adam. Because he would have more work to do than the first Adam. First, our Lord Jesus would have to pay for sin. Pay for the sin of Adam and pay for all sin. Our Lord Jesus did this. He took on human flesh. paid for the sin of Adam and the sins of all who would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He took that penalty that Adam and all of us deserve, a penalty that we deserve by birth in Adam and by choice as we continually sin. Christ took the punishment for our sins upon Himself. They were transferred to Him and He paid for all of these sins as He suffered and died on the cross. And the work of Christ did even more. See, Adam didn't have to pay for sin, because there wasn't any. Christ had to do this first. But he also needed to accomplish and to be successful in every way that Adam was not. Jesus Christ needed to be God's faithful and perfect prophet, priest, and king who was obedient and victorious in every way that Adam was not. And Jesus passed the test given to Adam in the garden. and He's declared to be righteous and victorious. And now, as those who are His, He gives that righteousness and victory to us. This is our justification as we are made right before God, and this will be our future glorification. And it's all by grace. We did nothing to earn this. Jesus paid it all. Jesus did it all. That blessed reward that was held out to Adam that He forfeited is restored and won for us by Jesus Christ. Jesus is God's true prophet who knows and reveals the perfect will of God for us through the Word of God. his will, and our salvation. Jesus is our true and holy priest who offered himself up for sin, reconciling us to God, and who even now still intercedes for us before the throne of grace. Jesus prays for us as our great high priest. And our Lord Jesus is almighty and true king, who first, the first thing that he conquers in our life is us. He subdues us to himself, makes us his own, and then he defends us and he conquers all of our enemies and his enemies. Christ is all that Adam should have been but was not. Christ was faithful when Adam was faithless. Christ is almighty when Adam, we saw, was spineless. Christ earned the reward of blessedness for the people of God that was held out to Adam. Jesus paid for our sin. He fulfilled the covenant of life for us so that we might have eternal life. This is our justification. This is why we're righteous before God. So already in Genesis 3, we see here, we see fall, we see death, we see sin, and we're going to see misery. But we also see the future victory of Jesus Christ. Christ, the faithful Adam, and God's faithful prophet, priest, and king. And before we get into some practical application of this as New Testament believers, I want each of us to stop and ask ourselves a question here this morning, perhaps two questions. First, is Jesus my prophet, priest, and king? Or if I would say, yes, he is, am I emphasizing and focusing on one of those offices above the others? See, some want, they just want Christ to be their prophet. They think that Jesus had some wise things to say that's helpful for life, like do unto others, love your neighbor. So they like Jesus as prophet. But as priest and king? Well, to acknowledge Jesus as priest would be to acknowledge that they're sinners and need a savior. Well, I'm a pretty good person. To acknowledge Jesus as king means they live for someone else, not themselves. So prophet, I like that idea, but priest and king, I don't need that. Some just want Jesus as their priest. This person believes God is holy, I have sinned, I need a savior, the cross is where I find forgiveness. But I'm not really gonna pay attention to what Christ says. I don't really feel the need to obey him. He's my savior, but not my Lord. Well, my friends, our Lord's threefold office here is a package deal. You cannot pick and choose and make your own custom Jesus just the way that you want. Either Christ is your true prophet, priest, and king, or He's nothing to you. He's not even a good teacher because you don't listen to Him. He's not even an effective Savior because you don't believe you owe Him obedience. So I pray that we see this, and that all of us here would seek to make Jesus our prophet, our priest, and our king. And for all who say, yes, Lord. That's what I believe. That's what Jesus is to me. For all who have fellowship with him, with Jesus as prophet, priest, and king, he is worthy of all praise and worthy of all thanks. And as we think of our Lord's unique work and victory in these areas that causes us to praise him, but sometimes even as Christians, We tend to over-focus, especially on just our Lord's work of priest, and we sometimes tend to neglect Him as our prophet and our king. So may we have a full appreciation of Christ's threefold work as mediator. Let us be thankful, show gratitude for His priestly work, seek to listen to Him as our prophet, and seek to obey Him then as our king. Not so He will love us more because that's impossible, but because He has already loved us and He proved that love by dying for us on the cross. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us so that we might have life and be made holy and live with God forever and ever. So let us strive to show our gratitude now, thinking of Christ's work for us. We need to respond to Christ's work. We need to seek to be faithful then, where Adam was not in our own lives. We need to do this, especially in the realm of our own families. The Puritans called the family the little church that meets in your house. Together, parents, but especially fathers, especially speaking to fathers here this morning. God's grace for us in Christ should seek us to be like Jesus and to seek to lead as a faithful prophet, priest, and king at home. Now all Christians, male and female, share in Christ's anointing and they function in various ways as prophets, priests, and kings in our world. That's true of everyone. But men You're called to be the leader that Adam failed to be in your own household, now that you are redeemed. You're called to lead your family as a prophet. And this doesn't mean that you have a direct revelation from the Lord, and that you get to say, listen, kids, this is what God says, now do it. No, it's prophet with a lowercase p. You're to point your family to the truth of God's word. It means that you model that God's word is the standard for your own life. and that you seek to read it and teach it to your family. You make sure all are ready for church and is best able to hear the word of God. This is your God-given role as a prophet. It also means as a priest for your family that you definitely pray for your family, as Job prayed for his children lest they sinned and didn't know it and didn't repent of their sins. You pray for your family, you pray with your family, and also it means that you lead family worship at home. It means having a regular time of Bible study and reading and prayer together. And your lovely bride, she's there to help you and to assist you in doing this, but she's not there to do it for you. And so if you haven't been able to make this happen yet, I encourage you this morning to start small as leading family worship in your own house. Take a few minutes around a mealtime. Try to eat together at least once a day. For most people, this works out to be dinner. For our family, it's always been in the morning. We try dinner, and when we do that, we just fail. But in the morning, and just start small. It's not overwhelming. Just get in the same place, gather together, open your Bibles, Read something in the Bible, talk about it a little bit, and pray together. You can add catechism, confession, singing, like wonderful, great things. You can add those later. But even if you never get to those things, just eat together once a day, open the Word of God, read something, talk about it, and pray. Teach them how to love Jesus Christ and serve him and love one another. And one last practical tip on starting to do this or picking it up if you feel like you're not doing it very well. Ideally, it would be great, man, if we did this once every day, twice every day, but you know, I'm giving you permission right now. How do you know if it's been a good week in family worship? Here's how I measure. This is my own bar. Okay? If I do it more days of the week than I don't, that's a good week. If it's about 50-50, that's an average week. Okay? So, what that means is, three or four times a week, I consider that a pretty good week. Lastly, you're called to lead your family as a king. Now this is not as a Lord where they're there to serve you and do everything that you tell them to do. As we see our Lord Jesus Christ model this, you're to protect your family from evil creeping into your house. It means you can't be like Adam and be silent and absent and just sit there. and let the world catechize your children. It means you also can't be passive and say, well, my wife does it all in homeschool. My wife monitors the devices. If you're letting your wife do everything, you're abdicating, you're not being king as you ought at home. You must not just sit there and be silent like Adam. God calls you to lead at home. Now, there's a lot more, of course, we could say in this topic, and I know that Jim's got some man time on the calendar coming up, as we're gonna continue to encourage each other in these things, but I would encourage every man to think on these things, and to seek God's grace, and to begin to be who God has called you to be at home, and to seek out other men and opportunities to help keep you accountable and grow in this area. Now I know this can be a sensitive topic. It is. And in a lot of our families, they don't look like this. They don't look like they ought. A parent's missing through death or divorce or one parent is unbelieving. So I want to be clear, okay? We have many great women who are strong leaders and we praise God for them. I'm not encouraging our wives to stop leading. I'm encouraging our men to start and to stand up, right? And if those families, if they don't have that structure, they don't have a husband or father at home, or at least not a godly one, the Lord has a special place in his heart for the fatherless and the widow. And he will minister to you. And one way he seeks to do this is that the rest of us here in the body of Christ come alongside you and encourage you. And we have a responsibility to do this and help you raise your children in the Lord. In fact, we have this responsibility for all children. Sometimes, I won't say this often, but Rome got at least part of something right when it comes to having godparents, because they take on a special official role and responsibility to be an important spiritual person in that child's life. Well, we don't have godparents and we don't need them. Because when we baptize, we administer covenant baptism here, I ask the congregation a question, something like, do you, the people of the Lord, promise to receive this child in love, pray for him, help care for him in the instruction in faith, and encourage and sustain him in the fellowship of believers? And the congregation responds, we do, God helping us. It's an encouragement to those that say, I don't have this and I want it. Well, it's a good thing to want. Be content where you are. Pray that the Lord might change your husband and become this man or might provide you with a godly man. But if he doesn't, the Lord will sustain you and the congregation walks with you together. So as we think of this, may the Lord help us to be thankful for Christ's work as prophet, priest, and king. Let us seek to serve Him faithfully as lowercase prophet, priest, and king. Men in our homes, every Christian everywhere, want to flesh that out in our workplaces and our lives. And we have to finish up here, but this would be good discussion. Thinking about the roles of prophet, priest, and king. Well, how do I exercise those roles? Not just at home, but I'm out in the world. That'd be a good thing to talk about. And one additional challenge that we have, we've closed with some clear to-do, like here's what you should do application. Well, that's law, and when we start doing that again, then we start feeling guilty again because we fall short. So as we close, as we prepare to receive more grace through the taking of the Lord's Supper, let's leave remembering the glorious work of Christ here this morning. The first Adam's failure as prophet, priest, and king shows us our need for a greater Adam and points us to the victory of Christ and to his faithfulness as our true prophet, priest, and king. And even now, the Lord Jesus sends us his Holy Spirit to equip us and encourage us as pilgrims on the way. Let's pray. Our Lord God, as we see Adam's failure, we see Christ's victory. We thank you for Christ, our mediator, and for the threefold work of his office. We do pray that we would listen to Christ as our prophet, that we would praise him, cherish him as our priest, and that we would worship him as our king. Our prophet, priest, and king who rules now and forever and ever, in his name we pray, amen.