Creation & Fall of Man

Alright, let's pray Lord Jesus as we plunge into your word this morning we pray that you would open our eyes and show us what it is that you've done and that we with the psalmist may declare the praises of you who made the heavens and the earth who commanded the

Worlds to come into existence and spoke them into existence through your mighty power Through your word we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen Okay As I was preparing for Sunday this morning

This is one of those times where I feel like I could have gone ten different Directions and the problem is is that my heart still wants to go in ten different directions so it's

Okay, we are in the book of Genesis chapter 2 and Today, I'm going to be reading from my

Translation of chapter 2 just because there's certain things I want to point out along the way and then when we get into chapter 3

I'll switch back to what we're using in our pew Bibles so Genesis chapter 2 verse 4

These are the accounts of the heavens and the earth in their creation in the day that the Lord God made the earth in the heavens next page

Before there was a bush of the field on the earth and before grass of the field sprang up for the

Lord God No rain had caused on the earth and no man to work the ground now,

I'm gonna pause there for a second liberal scholars like to attack the book of Genesis Okay, kind of much the way same way the

Pharisees, you know like to attack and try to trap Jesus And here's how they attack it. They go. Well, look here

Remember chapter 1 says God created the world in six days, right? And then we get into chapter 2 and look what it says

There was no bush of the field on the earth and before the grass of the field sprang up for the Lord God had caused No rain, so we're not dealing with the same creation account.

This is a trick. Okay, this is a trick you got to understand How the devil operates and yes,

I use the devil in conjunction with liberal theologians and that was on purpose The way the devil operates is that he wants to create doubt in your mind regarding the veracity and truthfulness of the

Word of God Satan's attack in the Garden of Eden, which we'll get to shortly Begins with the with a question and questions are not always safe.

It begins with the question Did God really say right? And so you you got to understand that To a liberal theologian who lives in the 21st century.

I mean, it's just ridiculous For Christians to believe that God really created the heavens and the earth in six days.

Come on, really? Really It's like yeah, that's kind of you know, if God is all -powerful by definition

He could have done it in one day, but you know, he took his time, you know Yeah, yeah, he kind of slowed it down right and and he did this for our sake so when we get so here's the idea is that when we're studying the book of Genesis Genesis chapter 1 is

Like the 30 ,000 foot overview of creation Okay, we're flying over creation and we're just getting it in broad brush

Genesis 2 we're gonna drill down a little bit here And when it says before there was no bush of the field on the earth and before the grass the field sprang up This is not saying anywhere on the planet

God did not basically Populate the entire earth What this is basically saying is there were certain?

Portions of the planet where God planted trees and put fishes and stuff like that and you know what they did They grew and multiplied bear seed and then kind of spread out.

So the idea that's kind of the picture that's going on here So before there was a bush of the field on the earth before the grass of the field sprang up for the

Lord God caused No rain on the earth and no man to work the ground and a mist was going up from the earth and was watering the face

Of the ground now this kind of lends itself towards this idea that the pre flood Earth if you want to use a really fancy term you guys like fancy theological terms

You want you like to impress people at Christmas parties and stuff like that But it's really funny when when when

I'm when I'm lecturing around the country every now and then you get seminary students that'll come out to You know to hear me lecture and so I'll say you seminary students if you if you really want to impress a girl and get

A date, you know, here's some words for you to throw around and you know, they'll come just like that. Oh Did you hear that?

He is the word, you know Anti -disestablishment arianism Sorry humorous side note, but the the the the term here is anti -diluvian

Anti -diluvian is the theological term and it basically is referring to the period of the earth prior to the flood in in Earth's history

There's it's really marked by two different epochs prior to the flood Which we know very little about and then the history of man after the flood.

Okay, does that make sense? So prior to the flood in the anti -diluvian earth

The way God set it up. It looks like rain wasn't really a necessary commodity

It looks like there was these natural springs of water that were coming up to take care of the plants and there was a kind of a evening mist and fog that would

Spritz the plants and everything was doing fine. So basically kind of like a perfect climate You know earth with you know water was an abundance

But it wasn't but it wasn't all locked up in seas and stuff like that the flood being this

Cataclysmic event Yeah, Noah's Ark, yeah the flood being this cataclysmic event things on earth are strikingly different than what's described in this chapter

Genesis, does that make sense? So before the grass the field sprang up Okay when the mist was going up from the earth and was watering all the face of the ground and the

Lord God formed the man of The dust of the earth from the ground and breathed in his nose But the breath of life and the man became a living soul now, so the creation of man is different It's different Notice in the beginning in chapter 1 it says in the beginning

God created bar. Ah, he created but here man isn't created man is formed and the

Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and Put there the man that he had formed and the

Lord God caused to grow from the ground Every tree desirous and appearance and good for food and the tree of life was in the midst or in the middle of the garden

And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Now this sounds like a mythological story.

Does it not you know, this is you you believe in this you also believe that there was a woman named

Snow White and her and her Wicked stepmother gave her a poisoned apple.

We'll see it work with me here for a second Why do you think the story of Snow White is the way it is?

No, it's not Walt Disney it predates Disney by a long time. How about Sleeping Beauty? Why is that story the way it is?

Have you ever noticed that all the really really good stories are pretty much the same story with different characters

Think about it Snow White innocent evil wicked stepmother has poisonous evil murderous desires and is all caught up in herself and What happens when

Snow White eats the apple she dies? And then true love's first kiss

No, this is the story of Jesus Oh, no, no, no, no, no, he's it didn't wreck a fairy tale but think about it

It's the same thing with Sleeping Beauty. Is it not? No All right

So think of it this way, okay a lot of these fairy tales in a very true sense of the word

They're Christian allegory. And so what you see in them are the story that we find ourselves in Where you have this princess who's died and what is the what is the church called the

Bride of Christ? She's died and she's completely helpless and needs to be rescued from this force of evil and so her

Prince Charming comes and defeats evil and Awakens his dead bride and they live happily ever after See and those took a bad turn during the women's

Because yeah women appear from their perspective very helpless and Needing a man and that sort of thing, right?

it's the thing is it's not this see the thing is if you were looking at those fairy tales of somehow a

Commentary how a woman should be you're missing the point. It's not a commentary on how a woman should be It's a commentary that points us in some way to sit there and go

How is it that humanity has these stories kind of rattling back in our psyche?

They constantly point us to and you know Think of all of the good stories the good stories the hero in order to defeat evil must die

And in a sense rise again the one who acts totally for the sake of another not for himself

To rescue and save, you know It always comes down to a messianic figure who in a sense figuratively dies and rises again, right?

always Why because here's the thing. We've got this story locked in We know we're trapped in a cursed creation and somehow in the psyche of man

We have eternity in our heart and this is the thing that resonates with us So over and again the best stories say the same story, but here's the difference

Where the fairy tale is myth, this is the real thing Right.

Okay, so there really was a garden there really was a tree There was a tree of life and there was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil

This really happened so we continue reading and the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and a river flowed

Out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and become four headwaters The name of the first is

Pishon. It flowed around all the land of Havala in which there is gold and the gold in that land is good and there are

Bedellium and onyx stone and The name of the second river is Gihon.

It flowed all around the land of Cush and the name of the third river It now in the

Hebrew this is weird the name of this river is Hedekal and it flows out of Assyria and the fourth river is

Ferat and the Lord God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it now

God hasn't made Eve. He's made he's made Adam and the Lord God commanded the man saying now this is important watch what takes place here

Eve is not present Right, she's not even created yet So the

Lord God gives a command to the man It then becomes the man's job to teach the woman.

I Don't know Yeah, there's something going on here in this text

So the Lord God commanded the man saying from all the trees of the garden you may surely eat

But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat from it Because on the day you eat from it you will surely die

The Old Testament and the minor prophets makes it clear that this is a covenant between Adam and God This is a covenant.

It's real simple. The coven has a single command Don't eat from the knowledge the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and there's a curse associated with the breaking of the covenant

You will surely die Now what's the time frame for the death? on The day you eat of it you will surely die

Death comes on that day same day and The Lord God said now this is an important passage actually one a very important passage for today's context verse 18 the

Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone and I will make for him a helper as his

This is where the Hebrew is very helpful this word that's used here

Could be translated as mirror opposite or his

Corresponding counterpart Can I understand this Hebrew isn't like Greek the

Hebrews were very concrete in their thinking Greeks were known for abstract philosophy

Hebrews were not Let me give you an idea of what's going on in this. I will make for him a helper who is his

Corresponding counterpart or opposite is a good way to translate this We're talking in the physical realm

Think puzzle pieces, you know how they interlock. That's kind of the picture that's going on here now if the woman is a corresponding counterpart or Correct opposite not really helper helper is kind of the wrong word

What impact does this have today regarding the debate regarding same -sex marriage? Right the puzzle pieces don't fit together

Right Yeah, it's like putting a square peg in a round hole doesn't work Let's talk about same -sex marriage for a minute here

God created humanity male and female One of the problems that we face today is that we live in a society where people are irrational

They think that because they have a feeling that that feeling somehow defines who they are

Okay, it's a form of Gnosticism So if somebody is tempted to sin with somebody who is a member of the same sex as them?

It begins in the heart This is what Jesus tells us in begins in the heart Which is a feeling which then turns into a passion or a lust and then results in a physical activity, right?

We live in a society now where the society basically says that male and female are not the only genders

You have to discover or choose what your gender is That's ridiculous

It's absolutely ridiculous. Your feelings do not change what God made you period and the scripture makes it very clear here that God created men and women to be counterparts and correspond to each other and This truth is physical it's

It's verifiable. It's not something that you look inside of yourself to figure out.

I mean, it's real simple when your daughters and your daughters -in -law have children and There the baby's born.

The doctor says it's a boy or it's a girl. How do they know these things?

Right Yeah, they didn't have to Yeah, right

Exactly and it's recorded on your birth certificate, but see that we live in a society that Because of feelings and that's really what these are because of feelings people want to have their identity their sexual identity

Based upon what they feel Well, all right, let's be blunt. Okay.

I'm a red -blooded American male and I'm as heterosexual as they get If I'm at the mall, and there's some woman who looks pretty hot.

Okay, I have a feeling Okay, and it just it just comes out of nowhere

Okay. Now if I were to have if I were to have identify myself based upon my feelings

Well, then move over Hugh Hefner Absolutely, it's yeah, right exactly and you know what listen it women do the same thing

Okay, if I were to show a photograph of Brad Pitt on the television screen here, you know, some of you would go

Yeah Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know You don't like Brad Pitt But but you understand what

I'm saying here, okay Yeah, right, yeah, yeah,

I I know for a fact what I'm describing here is not unique to myself I just know this

Correct No It is a result of the fall though, okay

You have to understand this and what we'll talk about this because man in Adam has fallen Every descendant of Adam and Eve is born under a curse we are born dead in trespasses and sins and we were born at war with God and This is kind of another important thing that I'll say many times here and that's this we are not sinners because we sin

We sin because we are sinners and So sin manifests itself in all kinds of symptoms

For instance, I hate to rat on my grandson, but it's real simple You know

I look at my grandson and he's prone from time to time to having temper tantrums and being angry and throwing himself on the ground

And wanting his own way, you know what that means Well, yeah, it means it wouldn't stick yes aside from the obvious Aside from the wooden stick what that means is is that he's manifesting

The fact that he is symptomatic of the disease known as sin. Those are symptoms of the disease

I can say of my grandson absolute rotten sinner Right, but see the thing is is that the and the purpose of God's law by the way the purpose of God's law is to Help you diagnose the fact that you have this disease what

I like to tell people is this Christ died for sinners you qualify Christ died for sinners and you qualify straight up Now I'm getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here

So we're in the beginning prior to the fall and God creates male and female and their counterparts.

Yes Yeah, exactly

Mm -hmm Yeah, and see that's what society says and society is godless, you know in this sense

Okay If you think the US government's it's the US government's job to basically tell people that You need to discipline yourself so that you can live a godly life.

That's not what the government's for Okay, governments are established by God Basically to curb sin now when it comes to us

Christians We are we are raised from the dead Christ has bought us purchased us redeemed us and and literally

Resurrected us from the dead and we have a new nature, but we still have a sinful nature here in this life

We are both saint and sinner. We're simil used as epic otter Simultaneously justified and sinner at the same time

And so what we do as Christians is we put to death

Mortify our sinful flesh so that the new man can come forth and do good works The thing that's difficult for being a

Christian is is that you have to do your good works through the agency of your sinful flesh Which doesn't want to do it?

You know, in fact, it has its own appetite and its own desires and says feed me feed me, right? Yeah, and so it's

Yeah Mm -hmm

Yeah Yes Exactly, which is why you you fail daily.

I fail daily anyone here not fail daily. I'd like to talk to you You know, I'll find out what your secret is, you know

Yeah Yeah, we're all in this together this is we're all in this together

We all have a sinful flesh that we have to struggle with which by the way is the reason why we begin our church service with confession and absolution why because I guarantee you you've just been spent the week out in the world and you've been tempted by the devil your own sinful flesh and all kinds of crazy things and I know for a fact that there have

Been times throughout each of the days where the the devil in your own flesh has gotten the better of you And you need to hear that Christ has bled and died for you.

You need to know that you're forgiven You're standing before God does not hinge upon how well you mortify the flesh.

Does that make sense? Okay Yeah, I think the monks have kind of proven that that that doesn't work either

I'll tell you what I found is the best solution when it comes to these things and it's not it's not an intuitive one

The more you grow in the understanding of God's grace and his mercy and forgiveness the less appealing sin becomes

The solution to sin given in Scripture is Christ in him crucified for our sins.

It's the forgiveness of sins I think a lot of people think that the way you mortify the flesh is

Well by focusing on the law more. I found that by focusing more on the gospel and And really seeing

God's love and mercy and grace that begins to take away The taste for sin and it's the only thing that has made any progress in my life

Because when I when I really plumbed the depths of what it is that Jesus is doing there on the cross I mean you think about that.

I mean you've all seen the passion of the Christ movie I mean a horrible horrifying thing to watch.

I mean the first time I watched it I thought I was gonna go into post -traumatic stress disorder, right? You know and but the thing

I was the thing I was just wrecked by is Knowing that what

Jim Caviezel was depicting was what really took place in real life and you can feel every lash that he suffered and I Just was wrecked because I knew that every one of those lashes was because of my sin

Right And when you think about that Sin doesn't quite seem so fun anymore

When you see what Christ went through to redeem us and purchase us from it Yeah, right and that's what we pray lead us not into temptation and this is why as Christians We we must be merciful towards those who have fallen into sin

So many times there are people in the name of Christ have have really pushed people away from Jesus by basically saying

You are a sinner. You need to doubt it and just in come down crash hard on people with only

God's law You know it we have two words to tell people Yes, you're a sinner.

And so am I in fact, whenever you share the gospel always Talk about the fact you are a sinner use the word

I When you share the gospel you say listen, I want to tell you something.

I'm a sinner and You are too this is what scripture says

We're all leveled by the law and then tell them but listen God loves us God loves you so much that he became a man

Right. He was born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate all of the wrath of God that you've earned by your rebellion against God Christ has taken that upon himself.

This is good news. So repent and believe this and you will live Now when you put it in those terms, we have good news to share

But when all you're doing is pointing your fingers and saying you're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong That doesn't that drives people away and that's not good news.

Anyway, that's just the law just try harder. Well you try harder You know now by the way, you guys familiar with the

Westboro Baptist people Yeah, the the ones who have the signs and they pick at the funerals and they say

God hates fags And this is what those signs say Shirley Phelps Roper a few years back

I actually interviewed her on my radio program and Let's just say it she hung up on me

But let me explain to you the reason why she hung up on me is that in the conversation very early on?

I asked her a question straight up I said, you know surely do you when you pray the Lord's Prayer forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us

Do you need to pray that prayer? Do you sin every day? She said oh, you know I do So she said that early in the conversation but then as the conversation turned to her agenda she had forgotten what she said and So when

I started asking her about what's the good news you have to proclaim to the world and things like this Yeah, she was basically saying people need to repent they need to stop sinning and they need to understand that God hates these things and Stuff like that.

I said well, but you just told me earlier that you sin every day Stuck her and then she hung up on me

Yeah, but the reality is is that James says if you've broken one of the commandments you've broken them all

Every single one of them a good a good metaphor here is this is that if you were to think of God's law like a

China vase and On the China vase in you know in you know

The way it's been put together. The whole law is written on this China vase You break one of the commandments on the vase you end up breaking the whole thing

So in other words that being the case, even if you've never physically committed adultery, you're an adulterer.

We are all Idolatrous murdering lying

Sexually immoral, you know coveters, you know just come down the list. That's all of us You can't sit there and say well,

I haven't done that one Okay, the purpose of the law is not for you to sit there and say

You know gotten I got one of them, right? Okay, the purpose of the law is to show you.

Oh, man, I'm I test positive for the disease If you were to think of sin like Ebola, okay

This is all of we're watching this on the news unfold. Okay, the people who test positive for Ebola I mean, this is like a death sentence, right?

Well sin is worse than Ebola if you've tested positive for this thing

The wages of sin is death and it's not I'm not talking just physical death It's the second death you have to worry about which is in the lake of fire okay, so the purpose of the law is for you to look into the law and go

I Have tested positive for sin Right. That's the purpose

Yeah, that's where you sit there and go a lot of the 640 20 of them.

I'm safe on Yes, exactly

Yeah, the cure is the forgiveness of sins and trust in what Christ has done so think of it this way if you

Have a few weeks back of actually a few months back and it's on our website I preached a sermon homily at the higher things conference and it's called snake bit if you haven't heard it

It's on the Kongsvinger website it's probably it's good worth listening to where I take the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness and And point out how typologically that points us to Christ because Christ was

You know lifted up and you know, he's died for our sins And so if you were to think of it this way when you're snake bit, what's the solution antivenom?

So what's the vaccine? What's the antivenom for sin? It's the blood of Christ That's the solution

Yeah exactly Mm -hmm. So when you come to church every

Sunday You hear the absolution Believe that you're forgiven when you are reminded again of your baptism that you in your baptism your sins were washed away that you were buried with Christ that You were raised with Christ believe that these are things outside of you when you come to the the rail and you receive the body

And blood of Christ shed broken and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins

You hang on to those words because faith clings to those promises Faith clings to those promises.

So when the devil comes along and says You can't really be a Christian really? I mean

I saw what you did there You just sit there and go were you not at the rail? Did you not hear pastor

Roseville say take eat body of Christ broken shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, right? Tell the devil to take a hike

Yes Technically yes Technically yes now

So the question is can anybody baptize which is a great question? The answer is anybody who's a believer now what

I love about the Lutheran service book Is it in the back of the

Lutheran service book? They have holy baptism in case of emergencies Okay Yeah Yeah They I don't do they still do it.

Yes. Okay. So here's the idea Okay, as Christians we the baptizing normatively is done by your pastor

But this is something that belongs to the church so if you find yourself in one of those awkward situations where let's say you're driving down the road and you come across a gruesome car accident and the person driving is still alive and They they you know, they're about to go into eternity you can actually grab a bottle of water quick and Basically ask this person.

Are you baptized? You know Jesus and if the person says no, let's say listen I'm gonna baptize you and baptize him and you just basically pour the water and say in the name of the

Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit I baptize you You can do this or if you find yourself in those situations where you you know an emergency situation

Like you as an infant. Yes, you can baptize. I have a pastor friend of mine who? the member of his congregation gave birth to a tiny tiny tiny little baby and he baptized the baby even though he couldn't touch the baby with a water dropper

And see here's the thing the promises of God are true God works in these things and we trust and we believe that and if you find yourself in a situation where you have to Baptize somebody in emergency

Just come to me afterwards and tell me and what we'll do is we'll wreck it will do something to recognize the baptism here

The person doesn't need to be re -baptized. We just need to recognize that a baptism took place What It should be

Sorry, come back you can't be baptized today. I don't care if you're gonna die. It's not Sunday Yeah Yeah Yeah, yeah, that's one of those things where you just basically say listen scripture doesn't actually put a limit on which days you can be baptized

Okay Okay Yeah, what if it wasn't what if it was a

Monday Yes, yes, absolutely now let's talk about this when is a baptism not a valid baptism this this hold on let me answer the question

I'll come to you. Okay Okay, when it when is a baptism not a valid baptism now the

Lutheran Church recognizes every baptism done by a Denomination that affirms the doctrine of the

Trinity Okay so the idea is is that any baptism done in the name of the Father Son and the

Holy Spirit by a church that presents Itself as Christian and they preach Christ named crucified for our sins. We recognize that Okay, so you can be baptized in a

Baptist Church. You can be baptized in the Presbyterian Church Roman Catholic Church We recognize all those baptisms Okay now this is where it gets different Okay the reason why it gets different with it somebody like TD Jake's is because TD Jake's does not believe the doctrine of the

Trinity so even Though he uses the words Father Son and Holy Spirit and which by the way He does not baptize in the name of the

Father Son and Holy Spirit. He only baptizes in the name of Jesus only okay, which is fascinating, but for instance if you were to be baptized by the

Let's okay the Mormons they actually do a Trinitarian baptism They say Father Son and Holy Spirit in their baptism

But here's the problem the word father doesn't mean father the word son doesn't mean son the word Holy Spirit doesn't mean Holy Spirit So that is a non -trinitarian group.

That's worshiping an idol all with the same language Think of our sermon this morning the Pharisees worshipped

Jesus, but they didn't right so we don't recognize baptisms from non -trinitarian or sectarian groups that deny the doctrine of the

Trinity and they're in there and so but the idea is is that So let's let's say if somebody comes to Kong's vinger.

They were baptized by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church. That's a valid baptism. Absolutely You know

Muslims aren't baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Yeah Yeah, yeah those they need the way they need baptism, yeah, yes

I Know I think you the baptism takes place in the temple.

It's not done in the individual stakes So I I don't I don't think they baptize infants.

So Yeah, they're probably not going to they're probably not going to baptize that baby so No Mormons we actually consider them to be cultists.

That's the way we consider them. You know, they're there. They're there her They're heretical outside of the Christian faith

Yeah, I know they think otherwise but you know, that's the issue yes Steven Absolutely Right, that's correct and see here's the thing is is that we're not saved by and you get this is if we have to make

A very careful distinction. This is what this is kind of an important way of thinking about it We're not saved if you're thinking of orthodoxy as some kind of a legalistic requirement

Okay, then what you that what you do is you turn orthodoxy? Sound doctrine into an idol of sorts or our new law

And so what we're doing is we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we as Lutherans what we talk about is that we'll basically say there isn't a congregation alive that calls itself

Christian where there isn't some kind of heterodoxy going on and so Augustine made what he what he

Discussed that the distinction between the visible church and the invisible church And here's the idea is that in our congregation or any congregation you go to According to Scripture there's going to be believers and unbelievers that are there and the reality is you can't see into people's hearts you can hear what they confess and that kind of gives you an idea of what they believe but you can't see into people's hearts, so the

The church itself is technically invisible and is a doctrine held to by faith

We know that the church exists, but you I can't point you to it and say that's the church

I say the church meets here But I can't seem to everybody's heart to see whether or not you have faith

So I don't know you can't seem to my heart see if I have faith I mean I could be a I could be on an unbeliever and you wouldn't know it, right?

Now technically there's signs of somebody who's an unbeliever generally You just listen to their words and you know what they attack that helps

But always and again the when we confess that there is, you know, one holy and apostolic church.

We confess that by faith Knowing that it's there in and every congregation.

There's always a mixture always So does that make sense? Uh -huh

Right Right, we are commanded by Christ to only teach that what's in accord with sound doctrine and understand this that every preacher is a sinner and His sinful nature not only has sinful passions

But also exhibits signs of unbelief and doesn't want to believe what scripture says and so, you know

We're talking about we're giving this precious precious message and every messenger is weak

Every messenger is weak So the idea then is is that where somebody is erring and departing from what scripture says you?

want to lovingly bring them back and challenge them and bring them back to the faith and get them back into the word and You know, this is what it means to snatch some from the fire, right?

Okay So it's not that we turn a blind eye to it But we also recognize in reality that in the church is all kinds of crazy ideas all kinds

Some ideas put you outside of the Christian faith Exactly keep in these things, you know, the idea is listen for the gospel listen if somebody trusts

Christ and now okay So let's get back to our text because I think we got a lot of ground to go

So Genesis 2 18 the text basically makes it clear man and female man and woman.

They are compliments They are counterparts and they correspond to each other. This is how we were created male and female is objective

This is these are the only two genders so Lord God formed from the ground every beast of the field every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see

What he would call them and all that the man called the living creatures. It was its name So notice that God in the beginning he called to the light and said day

He called to the darkness and said night the kind of the big structures But now man who's created in the image of God God gives the authority to name the animals

So the idea is is that God has given freedom in some sense for us to make decisions on these things

Do you think God said hey name that one a giraffe? No Adam named it a giraffe and giraffe was what it was called

God governs through means he so God wants the planet to be governed through the means and agency of humanity

Okay, and then man called names to all the livestock and to all the birds of the heavens and all the beasts of the field

But for Adam there was not found a helper or his opposite or counterpart that was suitable

And the Lord God caused to fall a deep sleep upon the man and as he slept

He took from his ribs and closed with flesh in its stead and the Lord God built from the rib

That was taken from the man a woman and brought her to the man And the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh and this shall be called woman because from man

That this was taken Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his woman and they will become one flesh

This is what the scripture says and they were both naked a man and his woman and they were not ashamed

Yeah, not anymore All right Thank God for clothes

It's not that it's confusing them you gotta understand that is is that men because of our sinful natures

We suppress the truth and unrighteousness It's not that it's confusing. It's clear as a bell, but because we're sinners

We say no, I don't I don't accept that and You suppress the truth and unrighteousness my experience says otherwise

That's great Yeah, exactly they reject it because I Don't know

I don't know That's a good question. Well preach the law to him. Maybe God will put some fear into him

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom Yeah, and which is which when you do that don't argue with them on their level when somebody starts doing that you basically say

Listen, I'm not interpreting. I'm just telling you what the text says. You need to repent You're so you are hardening your heart against what

God is saying. Don't do this repent and trust in Christ So you got to be firm with them.

Don't try to mix it up with them when they start playing those games Yeah Then warn them warn them

Yeah And you can even you can even say this to this like listen to yourself. Listen to what you're saying.

I'm telling you the truth I'm telling you what scripture says and you're coming up with lame Excuses to try to make did not to not believe what it says, but you know, and this is

I like always Are you doing this with atheists? I always say to them, but you already know what I'm telling you is true Yeah, of course

But don't don't consider that the end of the conversation Okay Just consider that to be a break in it because here's the deal is the

God's Word is the thing that converts people not you So if you give them

God's Word and if they've hung up on you, it's because they can't handle it They're angry about it. But see here's the thing.

You've already given the word and God's Word in the book of Isaiah It's kind of fascinating. It describes God's Word at times as falling like a snow.

Well when the snow falls, right? It's frozen. So here you've snowed on them. Their hearts are frozen and they're hardened or whatever well the water of the word is there and God decides he can warm things up and that can become water that then that feeds the seeds of that.

You've already planted Yeah so Okay Yes, ma 'am

Uh -huh Okay, now you remember back in week one week two week three

I've said it all three weeks Where God speaks we speak Where God is silent we're silent

Now I'm gonna I'm gonna put the question back on you for a second because I want you to think through this You asked me why

God? Did this or why this regarding that? How am

I supposed to get the information to answer this question? Where can

I find it? Okay, if it's not in the written

Word of God, right Then I got like nowhere to go Okay, I Don't know

I Don't know Okay, I Don't know if this was a temporary situation where eventually

God was going to allow him to eat from the fruit. I don't know Yes I But see the scriptures doesn't say that half the fruit if you eat it was good and the other was evil right it doesn't say

There's only one person that can answer the why question and he presently is not in this church physically

Okay, he is here. Okay, but I can't like hey God got a question for you

I've got it. One of those why things, you know Yes Yeah Yeah Yeah, exactly

And in our fallen state that's here's how that child hears that statement don't eat the coffee

I can't eat this on the coffee table. Here's what they hear eat the coffee. That's on the candidates on the coffee table That's what they heard

You said Yeah, but see this is before sins in the world though this is before sin is in the world

So Adam and Eve have not sinned at this point So that's not really what's on their mind and it takes the devil to kind of twist them up faith

It wouldn't necessarily There's nothing wrong with the tree per se because everything

God created according to God was what good So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good

So there's nothing in you know, innately sinful about eating from the fruit of the tree

The problem is is that God's Word made a command that said no

Yeah, so the dis so it's the disobedience to the Word of God that's the sin Yes Yeah, no, yeah,

I mean I still ask God why did you send me to Kongsvinger? I Scripture always blames

Adam Okay scripture always blames

Adam, okay in fact Trying to think what

I want to do here Yeah, so let's let's take a look at this the devil's attack and we might spend a couple of weeks in chapter 3

But let's start to get into it this week chapter 3 Love how in the

Hebrew it begins with but Okay, but now you literally with this first first Vocable in Hebrew you can hear the dun dun dun

But the serpent More crafty than all the living beasts of the field which the

Lord God made he said to the woman now watch the attack Did God really say?

Y 'all shall not eat from all the trees of the garden now put y 'all in there because it is plural.

Okay Did God really say y 'all shall not eat from all the trees of the garden notice the question even the question is twisted and What's the question designed to do?

Get caused you to doubt Cause you to doubt this is all about creating doubt faith is certainty of things

Hope for right of things not seen. This is what faith is. It's trust. It's certainty

Adam and Eve were called to trust God that he's good that he knows what he's doing and that he had good reasons

Whatever they were because they're not revealed as to why they should not eat from the street But the devil comes along and he said did

God really say? And you can just kind of hear this Going on right?

All right It's all about creating doubt and he even messes it up on purpose

Did God really say you should not eat from all of the trees of the garden? That's not what God said It's like weren't you listening?

Duh? Okay, so the woman said to the serpent and This is kind of interesting

Yeah, so it says it's the woman the woman said to the serpent Well, we may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden

But from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. God said now notice

God didn't say it to her God said this to Abe that to Adam and Adam is the one who conveyed this

God said y 'all shall not eat from its fruit and not Touch it lest you surely die

She See already she's reeling. Okay, cuz God didn't say anything about not touching it said don't eat it

All right So already you could tell the devil's has already struck.

The venom is already starting to do its work So the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die

He knows better than God His words are truer than God's words You will not surely die

Because God knows that on the day y 'all eat from it y 'all's eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil

Yeah, yeah now remember I made this point that Jesus says of the devil that he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning liar murderer from the beginning

Some of the scholars I've read on this in the beginning from the beginning is talking about here from the beginning liar and murderer

Satan's Objective is to kill murder Humanity and he wants

God to be the instrument of humanity's murder It's the perfect crime against the one he hates who's

God. Oh If I get these Humans To eat from this tree.

That's the day. They surely will die Satan knows for a fact God's Word is true.

He's banking on it He knows God's God is good on his word So he's thinking

I get these two to eat this fruit. Oh, they're dead and God's gonna be the one to kill him

That'll show him right sick puppy sick God knows that on the day y 'all eat from it y 'all's eyes will be open and you'll be like God knowing good and evil and The woman saw that the tree was good for food.

Notice how the sin starts in the heart Well, it's it is good for food and it was a delight to the eyes

Isn't that how sin always is sin starts in the heart, right? You can already see it starting to just purkle up and inside of her and the tree was

Desirous to make one wise. This is what I'm feeling. And so she took from its fruit and ate and She gave also to her husband who was with her

Where was Adam the whole time? Nope Who Who was with her and he ate and both their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves

And made for themselves loincloths Already the the effects are taking place and they heard the sound of the

Lord God walking in the garden in the wind of the day the cool of the day and Man hid himself and his wife from the face of the

Lord God among the trees of the garden And the Lord God called to the man and said to him. Where are you?

he said I Heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself

And he God said who told you you were naked Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat you think

God didn't know? He knew right and Then the man said watch this

The woman which you gave me to be with me she gave me to me from the tree and I ate now notice

He does blame Eve, but who's he really blaming God? You gave her to me

He's he taking responsibility for her No, he's just passing the buck

And the Lord God said to the woman what is this that you have done and the woman said the Serpent deceived me and I ate and the

Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the beasts of the field and upon your belly?

we walk and the dust you shall eat all the days of your life and Amnesty here it is an amnesty

I will put between you and between the woman between your seed singular and between her seed

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel That Genesis 3 15 is what theologians called the proto you on Galilean the first gospel

First promise of the Messiah the seed who would crush the head of the serpent Now real quick.

I'll make a note about this and then we'll wrap up for the day remember When God made

Eve God caused Adam to fall into a sleep and Took from the side of Adam.

The peace is necessary to form the woman, right? This is what the text says now.

I want you to think of this This is another kind of lesson quick lesson in biblical typology The church is called the

Bride of Christ right Now work with me for a second. Jesus is dead on the cross

He's sleeping. What does the Roman soldier do to him? Pierces his side and out comes water and blood

Christ creates the church through water and blood, right? So Christ creates the the

Bride of Christ is created through the water and the blood of Christ So when you look at the creation of the woman

Typologically that points us to the church Ultimately marriage has something really to do with God's relationship to the church marriage itself is a type and shadow of that relationship and So Jesus is in the

New Testament called the second Adam the two most important people who ever walked the earth are

Adam and the second Adam who is Jesus and Think about the parallels here for a second

Adam's bride is created from his side Jesus's bride is created from his side both while they're sleeping, but here's where it gets different where Adam blames his wife for sin and Passes the buck and puts it on her

Jesus Takes his bride sins upon himself and doesn't blame her but instead dies for her

So when you talk about when we talk about Adam, it's important to know that Adam and Jesus are inextricably linked in Scripture We'll get into some of those passages next week

But I just wanted to kind of tease this out a little bit for you to think about So when we look at what's going on in Genesis, you can't help but think about what was fulfilled in Reality with Jesus the two are the two are connected.