Adam & Eve (Genesis Chapter Two - Part 3)

Moore's Corner Church

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He Will Convict The World of Sin, And of Righteousness, And of Judgment (The Holy Spirit - Part 4)

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Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

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D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

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If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

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A question people ask is, where was the Garden of Eden? Where was it? I mean, it's here on earth, right?

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It's not in heaven. It's here on earth, so where was it? Well, if you ask a

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Mormon, they might tell you that it's in Missouri. I know it sounds like I'm kidding and I'm making that up, but I promise

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I'm not. According to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, he taught that the

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Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri. That's kind of a hard sell.

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You're not even on the right continent, my friend. So the

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Garden of Eden, we kind of know this much. It was in the Middle East, all right? We don't have time to go over it, but the next few verses, just make a note of this, verses 10 through 14, give us a description of the land, and it tells us the names of the rivers that flowed in and through the garden.

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Obviously, the landscape and the topography changed drastically after the flood.

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There's no question about that. But the Garden of Eden, almost certainly, was in the land of Mesopotamia.

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It's also called the Levant or the Fertile Crescent. Basically, today, that's modern day

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Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, maybe parts of Israel, that general area.

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And this is actually one thing we agree with, with the atheistic scientists, because they acknowledge that the earliest human civilizations came from the

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Levant, from the Fertile Crescent. They call it the Cradle of Life, and yeah, that's actually true.

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The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, if you think about it, that was the pinnacle of human society up until that point, right?

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Babel became Babylon. Babylon is modern day Iraq. It doesn't look like the

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Garden of Eden now, because of the curse and a lot of other things, but that's likely where it was located.

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All right, verse 15, look at Genesis 2, verse 15, And the

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Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to keep it.

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And here's the test, verse 16, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

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Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, 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, what?

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Surely die. So man is presented with this test.

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He is given the ability to make a choice. He can obey

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God, remain in the garden in perfect bliss and delight and live forever with God.

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Or man can disobey God, get kicked out of the garden, get kicked out of paradise and die.

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These are the two options. What did man choose? Yeah, the wrong one.

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You say, well, if I were there, I would have done it differently. No, you wouldn't have. No, you wouldn't.

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Here's the theological point to be aware of this whole chapter. Adam, and don't hear the word theology and your eyes glaze over and you tune out for a minute.

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This is the most important part, okay? Adam is your representative.

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Adam, as theologians say, he is our federal head. Adam is given a test.

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Adam now represents all of humanity. Because all of humanity, you could say, are in Adam, in his loins.

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So the Bible teaches that sin is what? A violation of God's law.

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Romans 4 .15 says, where there is no law there is no sin. There is no transgression.

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Here's a question to you. How many laws does Adam have right now? How many commandments are there?

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There's really one law. Don't eat that fruit. Don't eat it. That's all he had to do.

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This is also called, so when Adam sins, obviously, that's a violation of God's word, a violation of God's law.

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Adam eats, he becomes a sinner. And everyone in Adam, all of us, we inherit that sin nature from our first father,

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Adam. This is also called original sin. And by the way, original sin does not refer to the first sin of eating the fruit.

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Never says it was an apple, okay? It refers to the first effects.

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Or it refers to the effects of the first sin, which is the curse, alienation from God, spiritual death, and then eventually physical death.

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So that's the bad news, that in Adam, all die. But for those who are in Christ, all shall be made alive.

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In the genealogy of Jesus, in Luke chapter three, Adam is called the son of God.

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Did you know that? Adam is called the son of God. Why? Because he is the only man directly created by God.

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Adam is the only man in history who didn't have a human father. That is, until the second

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Adam, Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin in order to avoid original sin or the sin nature.

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So don't miss this. Don't miss this. Jesus, the son of God, is the new representative for humanity.

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Jesus came to represent a new humanity. So if you have believed the gospel and you have been baptized into Jesus Christ, receiving his spirit, trusting fully in him,

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Jesus is now your representative, not Adam. Because Adam, death.

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Jesus, forgiveness, and eternal life. Every human being on earth is either in Adam or in Christ.

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So where are you this morning? Are you in Adam? Because in Adam, all die. Or are you in Christ?

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Because all in Christ shall be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15, 21 and 22.

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For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

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For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

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So it was at a tree that the first man became a sinner.

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And it is on a tree that the God man overcame sin.

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And there's so many things in the scripture that fit together like that, and it's so neat and interesting and exciting to read that and kind of figure it out on your own.

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But I think I had said this in the last message from Genesis, that when God created everything, he would look at it, and he would do what?

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He would bless it. He would say, it is good. Pronounce his blessing. It is good. But what's that one thing that he said the first time he said, it is not good.

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Right. Look at verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone.

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I will make him a helper comparable to him. Of course, this is when

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God creates Eve, the first woman. He provides a wife for Adam.

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And I think we're really starting to see the connections with the gospel, the connections with Jesus and how

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Adam kind of points ahead to Christ. And you say, yeah, but Jesus. Okay. Adam is given a wife. Jesus never had a wife.

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Jesus was never married. Hold on a minute. Jesus does have a bride.

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Who is the bride of Christ? It's the church. It is you. It is the body of Christ.

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So the whole story of scripture is God working in and through Christ, reconciling all things to himself.

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And just as God presents a wife to Adam, God the father will present a bride to Christ.

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So if you're saved this morning, you are part of that. You are part of the bride of Christ.

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And you say, well, yeah, but Eve was comparable to Adam. I mean, they were just like each other.

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There's a difference, but they were kind of on the same level. Adam had headship, but they were the same.

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Right. Well, you say, well, but we're not the same. Christ is so far and above us. We've sinned and fallen short of the glory.

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We are way down here. And in some ways that's true. But, you know, in glory, when God reconciles all things to himself, you know what?

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First John chapter three says, we shall be like him.

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You shall be like the son of God. It's amazing.

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So those who are in Christ, once that happens, we what? Rule and reign with him over this new humanity, over this new earth.

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It starts in the millennium and then goes straight on through eternity. This is called dominion.

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Mankind has lost dominion. Dominion. That's why the world is such a hostile place. Right. Because we've lost dominion.

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But Christ is going to get it back. Look at verse 19. Out of the ground, the

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Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

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So Adam was in charge of the whole earth. He gave all the animals their names. This is the dominion that God gave

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Adam. Verse 20, but there was not found a helper comparable to him.

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So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

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Then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman.

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And he brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

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She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

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Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

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And they shall become one flesh. And you could say that the man and woman became one in several different ways.

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But most people agree. Most commentators agree. This is a reference to the one child that they produce.

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Man, woman come together to produce one flesh. So we're going to look at in coming weeks the story of their children.

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Three we know by name. Who are they? Cain, Abel, and Seth.

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But as we bring this message to a close, The Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter two.

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This is as good as it gets. Or it's as good as it got. Earth has never been the same since this.

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This was the best that it could be. A perfect environment. No thoughts of evil.

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No feelings of shame. Look at verse 25. Speaking of Adam and his wife. And they were both naked.

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And the man and his wife. And they were not ashamed. This is the description of perfect childlike innocence.

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You ever notice how little kids can run around naked and it doesn't bother them.

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They have no shame. Why? Because they don't know good or evil. Thinking about, you've heard of the age of accountability.

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What would be the age of accountability? It's probably starting around that age where they recognize, hey,

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I'm naked. I need to start covering myself. That's probably where that begins.

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So this childlike innocence naturally belongs to beings who know neither good nor evil.

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So in conclusion, what's the takeaway? Now that we have this information, what should we do with it?

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Is there a lesson to be learned? I think there is. Just on that last point, the perfect childlike innocence.

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The apostle Paul said in Romans 16 verse 19, he said, I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.

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Or innocent concerning evil. Other translations will say innocent.

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So our first parents, Adam and Eve, they had it so good. They had peace with God.

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They had peace in their heart because they were innocent when it came to evil.

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They were simple when it came to evil. But when they started listening to other voices, the devil ensnared them and it all went downhill.

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So I want to encourage you this morning, don't listen to those other voices. We listen to the voice of God, the voice of the

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Holy Spirit in the scripture. So I would have you to be wise unto that which is good.

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Do good. Think of good things. Meditate on good things. Do good unto others and be innocent regarding evil.

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Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

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MorrisCornickChurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.