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Bro. Otis Fisher
All right, Genesis chapter 2, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all of the host of them. The word finished means that they were brought to perfection. Go to the book of Isaiah to the 46th chapter, please, to verse 10.
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all of my pleasure. Who's speaking? God the Father. Now, some things to keep in mind that this time in the history of the world, we're at the close of the six days going into the seventh.
All things were pure. The air, the water, there's no poison, no death, no decaying, no rotting, spoiling or corroding. The blood was pure, the thoughts were pure, no sin and no fear. We're going to find that there was no fear between man and animal.
We're going to find that everything was vegetarian. The creation at this time was that we have never seen. We will experience a time in the future of it again being pure. In the second verse, and on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Now, my question is, what does it mean that he rested from his work? Maybe, but you mean he's not working today. How does that phrase or that verse differ from you and I? Look at the verse. Read the second verse to yourself and tell me how that differs from us.
It doesn't say it's complete. Just look at the verse. I'm going to teach you all to look at little words yet. See what? Oh, there's another word in there. What? Well, I didn't say this was a little word.
He rested from his work. What's the difference in that and you and I? He rested from his work. We can't do that. We can't do that. We rest in our work. No, I mean he had done everything that he was going to do, was never going to do anything else in the creation.
We have never had a job like that. Now, we call some of them finished. We think we're through. But are we really? We rest in our work. We still have work to do tomorrow just like today and the next day just like that day.
So we rest in our work. He rested from his work. Yes. We? We rest in our work. That's right. He did not. That little word from means that there's no more creation. He's done it all. And he's through with it.
Now, he keeps changing. I mean, the terrain does, but there's nothing new that's coming into existence. Well, his rest, does that mean he's not doing anything today? God still sustains the world by his power, and he governs it by his providence, cherishes, cherishes, propagates all creatures.
He's still constantly at work, is he not? But he rested from the creation work. In John 5 .17, but Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. So he's still working. He'd done all that he had proposed to do by him in the making of things.
Things that are visible to us now is the result of God's wrath. Think about it. Things would not look like they do now if it had not been for sin. We go to the mountains, go to Colorado, and think it's the most beautiful thing we'd ever seen.
Think what it'd be if sin wasn't behind the disturbance of his creation. In Romans 8 .20, for the creature, meaning creation, was made subject to vanity. Turn over to that. Romans 8 .20. Debbie, read it.
All right, my question to you is, by reason of him, is talking about who? Who said God? All right. Who was it that made the creation subject to vanity? No. Are you sure? Are you sure? You're sure? I'm sure you're right.
It was not Adam, as a lot of people answer. He could not do that. God is the one that made this world unwillingly subject to sin. That's right. We're living in a cursed world. Now, verse 3, and God blessed the seventh day.
Notice which day. And sanctified it, because that in it, he had rested from all of his work which God created and made. What was that day called? What does the word Sabbath mean? Rest. Rest. Does it mean a certain day?
Does the word Sabbath mean a certain day? It means rest, and rest only. Then why was it on the seventh day at this time? Because he said so. So the day, the seventh day, was labeled as being the Sabbath, the day of rest.
In the Old Testament, it's that. God said that their day of rest would be the last day of the week. Now, in the New Testament, you'll find phrases like the Lord's day. What are some of the others, Russ?
Of course, we call it Sunday. But in the scripture, where it says Lord's day, it's always Sabbath. If you go to the Greek, it's Sabbath. Well, how can Sunday be Sabbath when it's not the seventh day? It's lost me.
The whole world's lost, not you. All right, remember, there's a difference between the term Sabbath and the seventh day. I think most of my life, I thought Sabbath always meant Saturday. Well, that's not what it means.
Sabbath means day of rest. And God said it would be on the seventh day. But when we come to the New Testament, we do not have an X number of words telling us that it is now moved to Sunday. But by example, we find this.
The apostles observed it. I just cannot believe that they would without the blessing of the Lord. He himself observed the day, the seventh day. What I want you to remember is that it's still the Sabbath, even though we meet on Sunday.
We could meet on Tuesday and call it Sabbath if we meant it. In other words, it's not a day. It's a day of rest, Sabbath. Well, it probably does. So is his resurrection. All right, that leads me to say this.
Originally, the day was set apart as honoring a great work, which was the creation, and rightly so. But there has been a greater work done by our Lord. So the Sabbath now honors that occasion as the greater of the work.
He arose on the first day. And I don't think I made very many notes with that. But there's good reason, in my mind at least, for us to observe the first day of the week. But I do like to hear it called the Sabbath.
You know, when I was growing up, and most of you were growing up, all except Debbie. She never did fully grow up. We heard Sunday spoken of with reverence. Then it got to be the weekend. And now they don't even think about it as a weekend.
So gradually, little by little, as David pointed out this morning, we are deteriorating. And I believe, and Bill pointed this out to me some time ago, that I don't understand this. I believe it. Everything after sin goes toward deterioration.
Understand what I'm saying? You lay a piece of wood out at a rock. That's going toward deterioration. Everything before sin went the other way. So I believe that we are now living in time that's going backwards.
When we get to the new world, we'll be once again in time going forward. I cannot prove to you, maybe Bill can, that we're in time going backwards. But everything does point toward deterioration, even our bodies.
In verse 4, any questions or statements or thoughts? These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. The word Lord God here is what they were speaking of this morning, what Russ explained to us, which I could not hear much of it, but Jehovah.
And I probably pronounced it wrong. But this is the first place we see it in scripture, the Lord God. Now we come to something very interesting. Not that the other wasn't, but this is a little bit different.
Every plant of the field before it was in the earth, every herb of the field before it grew, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. And there was not a man to fill the ground, till the ground.
God made everything not only perfect, but in respects to its nature and to the state of maturity. Everything appeared at once in full growth. You remember when we started, I asked if you cut down the first tree on the first day that it was there, how many rings would it have?
He made a mature tree. He didn't put a little seedling in the ground. So he made mature rocks. He made a very mature earth. And this is why the scientists claim that it's billions of years old. He made it that way.
Everything appeared as it would have been here. However, this was necessary that man, when he came along, came into being, might find that everything was already prepared for its use. See, God made everything perfect, and then made man and put him in it.
But it was prepared all before he got here. Something else this proves, that the chicken really did come first, and not the egg. So you learn all kinds of things in the scripture. All right, yes, yes, yes.
Even man. I think Adam appeared as a 30-year-old man. Can't prove it. I also think he grew much taller and larger than we, because of the purity of the situation. Pure oxygen, pure air, and no direct sunlight.
So growth would be almost inhibited. It could just continue. Now, he had not caused it to rain, and can't live without water. There went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
Now, Fred, this brings up an interesting situation. Of course, we're in a greenhouse, because of the canopy. And a dew, or condensation, is what watered everything. What about the North and South Pole?
Looks like it freeze. What do you mean, what about it? Well, we're not talking about the garden. He said watered the whole face of the ground. There was no ice caps. Everything was the same temperature all over the world.
Now, the world's going to change when we get to a certain place a little later on, but we'll save that. So this dew-like water watered the entire face of the ground. Perfect environment, Greg. Seventh verse, and I'd like for you to draw a circle around this, or something.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. It actually says lives, plural. And man became a living soul. Did God create Adam? He made Adam.
He formed Adam. How many have had any exposure to science of the body? Greg, in the next 10 minutes, could you explain to us all of the blood vessels, and nerves, and bones, and muscles, brain cells? Russ, if every individual part of us, down to the smallest part, was all spread out in one continuous line, how far would it reach?
Oh, there's a doctor there. He knows this. Just what kind of doctor are you? Well, it would be almost endless, wouldn't it? And God made it. Could that ever just happen? Could evolution have brought that about?
For next week, come back and tell me what are the three things that the evolutionists cannot account for in our life. Don't answer me now. There are three things, specifically, there's probably more, of which they cannot account.
All right, it says he formed Adam. The word form is rather interesting. It literally means, Marian, that he squeezed us into shape. Through the squeezing into shape, to fashion, to frame of human activity and of divine activity, he squeezed us into shape.
Now, he formed us of the dust of the ground. Maybe that doesn't sound too appetizing to me. Why did he use dirt? She's found the key to every answer. Was it not also so that the body could return to dirt?
Now, don't anybody try to tell me that sin surprised God, because he made man so he would rot. Debbie just saw a picture. Breathe. The breath of God himself came into man. Think about it. God himself breathed into the human race one time, and that's the breath you have.
It comes straight from God. Does this mean, then, that God is a being that breathes, David? Say no. I'd rather you didn't. He's a spirit, must be worshiped in spirit. But he breathed us into existence.
That just gives me goosebumps. He breathed into the nostrils of this form that was laying there made out of clay. Yes. So what does breath mean? But that does not mean that God breathes. How many Jews are here?
All right. He formed man. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives. David, why was it plural? That wasn't the only reason. He's talking about you and I. See, Adam carried within him every human being that would ever be born.
So it had to be lives. You'll see that again when we get to Cain and Abel. All right. Living became a living soul. Living means live, life, creature, a living thing. Soul, this is a living soul until God removes that breath that he alone gave.
Our soul is self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion, our life. Without it, we wouldn't be here. We will be here until he stops us. Will there be any potential Christians in hell?
Will there be any that die before they're supposed to? Were there any born before they were supposed to? Are any of you here against the will of God? Did sin come into the world against the will of God?
That blows lots of people away. And the Lord planted a garden. He actually planted a paradise in Eden. The Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Now it says eastward in Eden.
The word paradise with Eden means in front of. Lots of references in the Bible of the east, going east or coming from the east. Now, nine. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The tree of life, and again it's lives, the tree of lives, also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of lives, all of the human race was in Adam. This tree was that by which man could live forever.
The tree of lives. Remember it, we come to it again. Symbolically, yes. Go over to chapter 3, verse 22, please. Do you read that? Run him out, or he will live forever in the state of sin. See how gracious God is.
All right, let's talk a little bit about the tree of knowledge of good and evil. First of all, I want you to realize that if there is freedom that exists, then it also demands a choice. You cannot have freedom without a choice.
So the tree was put here, and Adam was going to have a choice. Without a choice, there is no freedom. Second, by the presence of the tree, we know that Adam and Eve knew about good and evil. They knew it was evil to eat of that tree, and good not to eat of that tree.
But that's all they understood about good and evil. Another reason for the tree, and a most important one, that the theme is carried out through all of the Bible, would be what? He was told to not eat of that tree.
What would that demand on the part of Adam? Obedience. So we see that in the presence of the tree. A choice and obedience. He would rather have obedience as sacrifice. Now there went a river out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads.
The first one is Tishon. That is it which compassed the whole land of Habila. And there's gold there. They think that that part of Eden, through which flowed this river, was probably the Grecian Chiocas.
I'm not familiar with that. It's in the northeast corner of Asia Minor. And it's near the Caspian Sea. Has anybody ever been able to say this is where the Garden of Eden was? That's all, isn't it? And the gold of that land is good.
There is Bdellium, means gum resin. And the onyx stone, and the name of the second was Gihon. The same as that that compasses the whole land of Ethiopia. That's a name we recognize. The name of the third river is Gidinko.
That is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria and the fourth river, Euphrates. Now, the Lord God took man, put him in the garden, and told him to dress it and to keep it. We'll stop with this verse, but I want to talk just a little bit about what Adam did.
Something else I'd like for you to do next week is to come back with a typical day in the life of Adam before sin. Adam and Eve, if you choose. You can collaborate on it. But I just want you to think a little bit.
Let your imagination work in keeping with the truth of the Bible. And let's see what we get back as a day in the life of Adam. Typical day. The two words to dress and to keep. Very interesting words. First of all, everything's perfect.
There's no sin, no sambers, no thorns, nothing like that. What would there be for Adam to do? Well, he does that all right. He's told to dress it and to keep it. Now, what does the word dress mean in that connotation?
Sweeping up? Pleasing up? Sweeping up? All right, that's part of what I need you to think about this week. To dress it and to keep it. Now, what's the word keep mean? That's another military term. Protect it?
From what would he have to protect it? Think about it this week. It might surprise you a little bit what we find out with those two words. So we'll start with 15 next week. And Debbie's giggling already.
What are you saying? Southeast. All right, any other questions? I don't know. That's right. They were there. They weren't. Well, you have asked the one question that the whole world can't answer. No, they were there.
But they were not in a harmful way. It could have been several things. It could have been the term caterpillar, butterfly. It could have been in that form. They could have been there but not in, I can't imagine a samber not being hurtful.
But we know they were not. Yes, they might well have been. Because the tiger was made with incisor teeth to tear meat. But he's a vegetarian. You think they had St. Augustine grass? Yes. That's a good point because there was in existence everything for everything.
In the very first verse, we see that he brought into existence the substance. And it's from that substance that everything else comes, including you and I. Well, God had in existence everything. And Satan can use only what God sends.
Satan cannot generate anything but sin. Sin has to copy the real thing. Sin has to come from the real. So, God had it here. Satan just perverts it. And that hasn't answered your question, I know. You'll have to come back next week.
Anything else? You had something? David? You had something? I thought somebody said something. See, I hear you when you don't speak. Bless Stan. Bill, would you dismiss us today, please?