Tonight the topic is "Cursed is the Ground" and we will be studying what sin does - not only to ourselves, for we know those consequences well enough in many cases. I mean those things we don't often think about, the long-term, more far-reaching effects.

Just as each Godly act, each good deed or obedient action, based on faith, can have blessings we can't see, so can wrongdoing damage and delay the progress of others in ways was that may at first seem subtle and insignificant.

Now, I am glad for everyone who made it out tonight, but I encourage you also to stay to the end. This is a two-parter, this week and next... Be warned, you won't get the FULL story here tonight, only the first half. And the things you learn here tonight, combined with those we will go over next week... they may change the way you see yourself, and your relationship to your fellow man. You may consider them a supplement to CruxHost's "Message of the Cross" series, with this first study being the prologue, and next week's being the epilogue - you will see how it all fits together, I pray.

Okay, so... let's consider our first main passage this evening. We'll go back to the very first sin, and see what happened there. After the disobedience in Eden concerning the Tree of Knowledge, the Creator pronounced three sentences. The first was on the cause of the trouble: "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, 'Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'" (Gen 3:14-15)

Even in this first curse, we see a blessing - a promise for the future, and that's a topic in itself... but perhaps for another night. The second curse was upon the woman: "Unto the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.'" (Gen 3:16)

Speaking of this "Seed," God increases childbirth pains. Ouch. But again, we see a blessing attached. Christ made this plainer when He said: "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world." (John 16:21)

We know that Enoch, for example, learned more about the nature of his Heavenly Father after his son was born... "And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters." (Gen 5:22)

In every curse, our merciful Lord provides a teaching, a lesson to bring us closer. I find it disturbing that even among Christians there are those who have this image of God as a harsh judge, sitting on His cloud and just waiting for us to make a mistake so He can drop the gavel on us. Not so at all! He is always, always trying to help us, even when we, like the first pair, have transgressed, and even then they shifted the blame as best they could. Even then, He used that awful situation to try and help them.

Now we come to our key verse. What did God say to Adam, who was held most responsible for this rebellion? Did He strike him dead? Did He give him leprosy, or boils like Job, or crooked limbs, or pain for the rest of his life? "And unto Adam He said, 'Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen 3:17-19)

Well, he did have to bear some consequences himself. He would need to work harder now for food than just living off of the divinely appointed garden; and of course, the fact that he would return "to dust" eventually. As far as the immediate and obvious effects, however, those seem to have been less severe.

He is always trying to save to the utmost. He is always looking for a substitute for His most perfect creation's misdeeds. Mankind was created completely free, and it misused that power - but instead of wiping us out and starting over, our loving Father chose a substitute. Eventually, He would provide Christ as our sin-bearer, but at the time, He found a more ready recipient.

"Cursed is the ground," He said. God poured out His wrath upon nature, instead of on the man himself. The plants changed and became rougher, coarser. Some animals became carnivorous, death and disease entered the system. For Adam's sin, others too would suffer.

In all of our studies, one of the main questions we should always ask is, "What does this tell us about God?" We can look through all the Scriptures this way - because that was their purpose, after all, for our education. Adam would learn by his hard labor in the fields what the consequences of his disobedience were. Eve's pain in childbirth would be a most memorable lesson indeed.

For their sin, they rightly deserved death, but God always uses the least possible force - and by these consequences, and the rites of sacrifice which they were instructed in, they discovered just what the price of the fall was: "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them." (Gen 3:21) "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering." (Gen 4:4)

First the earth, and then the animals. The Father always looks for a sacrifice to forgive mankind's wrongdoing. "And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed." (Gen 5:29)

Here we see the curse getting worse. Rather than taking the lesson God was trying to get across to heart, the descendants of Adam merely continued to perfect the art of rebellion, and soon only one man was left faithful. Enoch was taken out of the picture, grandpa Methuselah had died and Lamech his father also. From this one faithful family came the man God chose to preserve all life on the planet, for everyone else had gone the way of Cain.

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." (Gen 6:5,11) Even the "earth" (again) was corrupted by man's continuing evil. So there was a flood: "And God said unto Noah, 'The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.'" (Gen 6:13,17)

But just as it will be in these last days, so it was then - a faithful remnant was and will be spared the worldwide destruction. The sin itself got so bad on the earth that cursed nature rebelled against the wickedness. "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." (Gen 7:11)

Not only did it rain, we see, but fountains exploded out of the heart, "the deep," of the earth. All these were just natural consequences of Adam's sin, and the continued degeneration of mankind that resulted from it. We can't easily see how eating a piece of fruit would lead to such vast destruction, but we know this... it would not have happened at all, there would have been NO death, except for that first small act of doubt and failure.

There is, however, a way we can trace it, at least to some degree, with our limited human understanding. Consider the fact that Adam was not the first being to sin, nor was Eve. The first rebellion took place blatantly, right before the Throne itself, and for THAT cause there was a tempter in Eden in the first place!

Lucifer himself was responsible for that destruction, and if we look at it without "spiritual eyes," we begin to see that it was no small deed that really led to that worldwide disaster. Yes, Adam suffered for his part in it, as did all other human beings, but as we see in the case of Noah, all who desired to be spared from the ultimate consequences were. So it is with us - all who desire to be saved from the destruction by fire will be.

Perhaps my statement before about tracing the course of the destruction from Lucifer's rebellion to the flood raised some questions in your minds. We can perhaps see a clearer example in how Christ (the Word Himself made flesh) dealt with open sin. This is the New Testament connection I referred to before.

We all know the story of the woman caught in adultery, right? Let's look at this, and examine an aspect of it that is very often overlooked. This is our second main passage, and you will soon see that it is very like the first.

The passage is: "And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, 'Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?' This they said, tempting Him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not. So when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground." (John 8:3-8)

Look at the passage... twice John saw fit to record Christ's actions, as He "wrote on the ground." Seems like it was significant, doesn't it? Has anyone read in commentaries and other places what it was that the Messiah wrote in the dirt there? I've heard it said that He wrote the sins of the accusers, those very men that brought the woman, unto the surface of the earth.

But whatever it was He wrote, and whatever it was He said, it worked: "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." (John 8:9)

Christ did two things: He wrote something on the earth, and He spoke. This caused the accusers such shame that they left the woman alone. Who was the accuser in Genesis? And who is still the accuser of mankind?

"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." (Rev 12:9-10)

Continuing the analogy... who is the "woman caught in adultery" in the Genesis story? Adam and Eve, truly all of mankind. Humans caught in "infidelity" to the commands of the Father.

So how did Christ cause the accusers to leave the woman alone? Two things: He wrote the sin unto the earth, and then He spoke the accusation right back at the tempters. We see in nature that God had indeed written the sin into the earth. And what was it that caused the flood?

When the prophet Jeremiah was recounting the destruction of Noah's day in warning, he said: "For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it." (Jer 4:28)

In order to silence the accusers of mankind, the Father had to bring vast destruction upon the earth He had cursed for man's sake. Satan saw in the massive, seemingly senseless destruction the full results of his sin, and the effects of his tempting mankind also into disobedience. Well, the almost-full results. The true and final toll will be paid when the earth is again destroyed, but this time by fire.

This brings us to today, doesn't it?

For aren't we on the eve again of this great time of cleansing? There are Noahs everywhere, warning us to get into the safety of the ark that is Christ. But some, of course, are too busy revelling and enjoying this world to care, even, tragically, some of the would-be shepherds.

"Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety;' then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." (Eze 7:25, 1 Th 5:3)

The application here is that we have to look at the bigger picture. Satan's rebellion, and Adam's fall led to the entire world being all but wiped out. They couldn't see at the time just how bad the necessary consequences would be. Would it have made them think twice before plunging in? I'd like to think that at least in Adam's case, that would have been a factor. But now we have the opportunity to learn from past mistakes.

Remember the first part of the study? Every curse, every disaster that God allows - there is always, always a blessing attached, even if it's just that we know better the next time around. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1)

Remember that God is always looking for a substitute for our shortcomings? He cursed the earth and nature for our fall, and then He eventually took the consequences Himself, in the Person of His Son. By this action, He bought us back a "second chance," and just as all became guilty through the sin of one man, Adam... So can all become innocent through the righteousness of one man, the "last Adam," as Paul calls Him.

"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." (1 Cor 15:45)

But shall we continue in sin because Christ makes us free? Not at all. Just the opposite, in fact: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Rom 6:1-2)

Remember, sin DOES always have a price. Even if we can't see the full effects, they are there, and they are disastrous. A soul that persists in rebellion to the laws of Christ and nature WILL die. "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Eze 18:4)

But as we examined, even the little "slip ups" by carelessness or ignorance have their associated stings too, as in the case of Adam. We just need to remember that these are for our education: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." (Rev 3:19)

Paul said these words once: "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Phil 4:11)

And so are we to be. Whether we are doing well, or learning from the consequences of our mistakes or the mistakes of others... let us always rejoice in the fact that God is teaching us to be like Him, to grow up into the full stature of the person He has called us to be. Yes, those in Christ will be spared the wrath to come - a set of substitutions has been made for us. But if our spirits are of the kind to be saved, we will naturally not do things that will result in painful consequences for ourselves and others.

Does that make sense to everyone?

David.