The fifteen in a series of 17 sermons
Series Theme
This series of sermon follow the articles of the Belgic Confession to present an bird’s eye view of the main doctrines of the Bible.
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
Genesis 3:1–15 (NIV84)
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Text
Galatians 4:1–7 (NIV84)
1What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.
2He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.
3So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Belgic Confession
Article 17: The Recovery of Fallen man
“We believe that our good God, by His marvellous wisdom and goodness, seeing that man had plunged himself in this manner into both physical and spiritual death and made himself completely miserable, set out to find him, though man, trembling all over, was fleeing from Him.
And He comforted him, promising to give him His Son, “born of a woman,”31 to crush the head of the serpent,32 and to make him blessed.
31. Galatians 4:4
32. Genesis 3:15
Strong and
