Creation & Fall of Man

All right, 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 that my heart still wants to go in ten different directions.

So, it's one of those things, it's like, meh.

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, and the day that the Lord God made the earth and 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 going to pause there for a second.

Liberal scholars like to attack the book of Genesis, okay?

Kind of much the 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.

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've 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 a question.

And questions are not always safe.

It begins with the question, did God really say, right?

And so, you've 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?

He kind of slowed it down, right?

And he did this for our sake.

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 going to 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 of 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 bare seed and then kind of spread out.

So 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 like to impress people at Christmas parties and stuff like that?

No.

It's really funny.

When I'm lecturing around the country, every now and then you get seminary students that will come out to

hear me lecture, and so I'll say, you seminary students, if you really want to impress a girl and get a date, here's some words for you to throw

around.

And they'll come just like that.

Did you hear that?

He used the word.

Anti -disestablishmentarianism.

Sorry, humorous side note.

But the term here is antediluvian.

Antediluvian is the theological term, and it basically is referring to the period of the earth prior to the flood.

In earth's history, 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.

Does that make sense?

So prior to the flood in the antediluvian 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 kind of an

evening mist and fog that would spritz the plants, and everything was doing fine.

So basically kind of like a perfect climate earth with water was

in abundance, but it wasn't all locked up in seas and stuff like that.

The flood being this cataclysmic event...

Is that the Noah's Ark?

Yeah, Noah's Ark, yeah.

The flood being this cataclysmic event, things on earth are strikingly different than what's described in this

chapter of Genesis.

Does that make sense?

So before the grass of the fields sprang up, 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 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.

Barah, 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 in 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, you believe in this.

You also believe that there was a woman named Snow White and her wicked

stepmother gave her a poisoned apple.

Well, see, 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, no.

He didn't wreck a fairy tale, but think about it.

It's the same thing with Sleeping Beauty, is it not?

No. Yeah.

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 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 movement because they

made women appear, from their perspective, very helpless and needing

a man and that sort of thing.

Right.

See, the thing is, if you're looking at those fairy tales as somehow a commentary of 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 that constantly point us to?

And 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 always comes down to a messianic figure who, in a sense, figuratively dies and

rises again, right?

Always.

Why?

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 became four headwaters.

The name of the first is Pishon.

It flowed around all the land of Havilah, 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.

Now, in the Hebrew, this is weird.

The name of this river is Hedichal, 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 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 in the Minor Prophets makes it clear that this is a covenant between Adam and God.

This is a covenant.

It's real simple.

The covenant has a single command.

Don't eat from 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, 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.

Okay, now 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.

It 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.

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.

Sin 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 verifiable.

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

I mean, it's real simple.

When your daughters or your daughters -in -law have children

and there the baby is born, the doctor says, it's a boy or it's a girl.

Well, how do they know these things?

Right.

Yeah, they didn't have to, you know.

Yeah.

Right.

Exactly, and it's recorded on your birth certificate.

But see, 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.

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, I have a feeling,

and it just comes out of nowhere.

Now, if I were to identify myself based upon my feelings,

well, then move over, Hugh Hefner.

Absolutely.

Yeah, right, exactly.

And you know what?

Listen, women do the same thing, okay?

If I were to show a photograph of Brad Pitt on the television screen here, some of you would go, whoo -hoo.

Yeah. I don't know.

You don't like Brad Pitt?

But you understand what I'm saying here, okay?

Right, yeah.

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

I just know this, okay?

No.

It is a result of the fall, though.

You have to understand this, and 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 are 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.

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?

Wooden stick.

Well, yeah, it means a wooden stick, yes.

Aside from the obvious, aside from the wooden stick, what that means 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, 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.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Mm -hmm.

Well, yeah,

and see, that's what society says,.

And society is godless in this sense.

If you think the U .S. government, it's the U .S. 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.

Governments are established by God basically to curb sin.

Now, when it comes to us Christians, we are raised from the dead.

Christ has bought us, purchased us, redeemed us, 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 simul justus et peccator, 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 that you have to do your good works through the agency of your sinful flesh, which doesn't

want to do it.

In fact, it has its own appetite and its own desires, and it says, feed me, feed me, right?

That's where the discipline comes from.

Yeah. Yeah. And so it's...

Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yes.

Exactly, which is why you fail daily, I fail daily.

Anyone here not fail daily?

I'd like to talk to you.

Find out what your secret is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're all in this together.

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 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 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?

Yes.

Okay.

And we can't discipline sin away.

Yeah.

And monks will, you know...

Yeah, I think the monks have kind of proven that that doesn't work either.

I'll tell you what I've found is the best solution when it comes to these things, and 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 and 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 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 really plumb the depths of what it is that Jesus is doing there on the cross, I mean, you think

about that.

I mean, we've all seen the Passion of the Christ movie.

I mean, a horrifying thing to watch.

I mean, the first time I watched it, I thought I was going to go into post -traumatic stress disorder, right?

But 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,

right, and that's what we pray, lead us not into temptation.

And this is why as Christians we must be merciful towards those who have fallen into sin.

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

Jesus by basically saying, you are a sinner, you need to da -da -da, and come down,

crash hard on people with only God's law.

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 now's 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 drives people away.

And that's not good news anyway.

That's just the law.

Just try harder.

Well, you try harder.

Now, by the way, you guys familiar with the Westboro Baptist people?

Yeah, 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 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, Shirley, 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, well, what's the good news you have to proclaim to the world and things like this,

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.

And 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 that James says if you've broken one of the commandments, you've broken

them all.

Every single one of them.

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, 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, coveteurs.

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, whew, you know, I got one of

them right.

Okay, the purpose of the law is to show you, oh, man, I test positive for the

disease.

If you were to think of sin like Ebola, okay, this is all, 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 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, ah, I've tested

positive for sin, right?

That's the purpose.

Not for you to sit there and go, whew, out of the 640, 20 of them I'm safe on.

No, no, no.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah, the cure is the forgiveness of sins and trust in what Christ has done.

So think of it this way.

A few weeks back, actually a few months back, and it's on our website.

I preached a sermon, a homily at the Higher Things Conference, and it's called Snakebit.

If you haven't heard it, it's on the Kongsvinger website.

It's good, worth listening to, where I take the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness

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 Snakebit, what's the solution?

Anti -venom.

So what's the vaccine?

What's the anti -venom for sin?

It's the blood of Christ.

That's the solution.

Yeah, exactly.

So when you come to church every Sunday and you hear the absolution, believe that you're forgiven.

When you are reminded again of your baptism, that 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 rail and you receive the body and blood of Christ 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 that in the back of

the Lutheran service book, they have holy baptism in case of emergencies.

Okay?

That's how I was told.

Yeah. Yeah.

Did 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 you know they're about to go into eternity, you can grab a bottle of water quick

and basically ask this person, are you baptized?

Do you know Jesus?

And if the person says no, say, listen, I'm going to baptize you.

And baptize him.

And you just basically pour the water and say, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I baptize you.

You can do this.

Or if you find yourself in those situations where, you know, an emergency situation like you as an infant, yes,

you can baptize.

I have a pastor friend of mine who a 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 an emergency, just come to me afterwards and

tell me.

And what we'll do is we'll 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.

Our granddaughter just got baptized.

And I was told, well, she wasn't on Sunday.

What?

It should be Sunday morning.

Sorry, come back.

You can't be baptized today.

I don't care if you're going to 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, all right.

What if it was a Monday?

Like a megachurch pastor.

I'm saying that they're not a believer.

But God knows.

Say this person isn't a believer.

Uh -huh.

The person's still baptized.

Yes.

Yes, absolutely.

Now, let's talk about this.

When is a baptism not a valid baptism?

Hold on.

Let me answer the question.

I'll come to you.

Okay. Okay.

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 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's name 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 somebody like T .D. Jakes is because T .D. Jakes does not believe the doctrine of the Trinity.

So even though he uses the words Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 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

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 worshipping 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.

But the idea is that, so let's say if somebody comes to Kongsvinger, they were baptized by Rick Warren at

Saddleback Church.

That's a valid baptism, absolutely.

What about Muslims?

Muslims aren't baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those, they need baptism.

Yeah. Yes.

The Mormons.

Now, do they baptize them?

I think you, baptism takes place in the temple.

It's not done in the individual stakes.

So I don't think they baptize infants.

So

yeah, they're probably not going to,.

They're probably not going to baptize that baby.

Well, they're not considered Christians, are they?

No, Mormons, we actually consider them to be cultists.

That's the way we consider them.

You know, they're heretical outside of the Christian faith.

Don't tell her.

They think otherwise.

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 that we're not saved by, and this is where you have to make a very careful distinction.

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 do is you turn orthodoxy, sound doctrine, into an idol of sorts,

or a new law.

And so what 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 discussed, 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 church itself is technically

invisible and is a doctrine held to by faith.

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

I say the church meets here, but I can't see into everybody's hearts to see whether or not you have faith, so I don't know.

You can't see into my heart to see if I have faith.

I mean, I could be an unbeliever, and you wouldn't know it, right?

Now, technically, there's signs of somebody who's an unbeliever.

You just listen to their words and what they attack.

That helps.

But always and again, when we confess that there is one holy and apostolic church, we

confess that by faith, knowing that it's there, and every congregation, there's always a

mixture.

Always.

So does that make sense?

Right, right.

So orthodoxy.

Right.

Overall, Christian.

Right.

We are commanded by Christ to only teach that which is 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 given this precious message, and every messenger is weak.

Every messenger is weak.

So the idea, then, 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 there's all

kinds of crazy ideas.

All kinds.

Some ideas put you outside of the Christian faith.

Exactly.

Keep in these things, you know, the ideas.

Listen for the gospel.

Listen if somebody trusts Christ.

And now, okay, so now let's get back to our text.

Because I think we've got a lot of ground to go.

So, Genesis 2 .18, the text basically makes it clear.

Man and woman, they are complements.

They are counterparts.

And they correspond to each other.

This is how we were created.

Male and female is objective.

These are the only two genders.

So the 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 in said day.

He called to the darkness in said night.

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 that God has given freedom, in some sense, for us to make decisions on these things.

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.

So God wants the planet to be governed through the means and agency of humanity.

Okay, and the 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 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, right?

Thank God for clothes.

It's not that it's confusing them.

You've got to understand that 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 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 them.

Maybe God will put some fear into them.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Yeah, and 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 are hardening your heart against what God is saying.

Don't do this.

Repent and trust in Christ.

You've got to be firm with them.

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

Then warn them.

Warn them.

Yeah.

You can even say this to them.

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 not believe what it says.

But you know.

I like 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 consider that the end of the conversation.

Just consider that to be a break in it.

Because here's the deal.

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 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 when God decides, he can warm things up, and that can become water that feeds the seeds

that you've already planted.

Good analogy.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

I've got a question.

Yes, ma 'am.

Verse 17.

But you must not eat from the tree of knowledge.

Uh -huh.

Okay.

Now, remember back in week 1, week 2, week 3.

I've said it all three weeks.

Where God speaks, we speak.

Where God is silent, we're silent.

Now, I'm going to 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?

From God.

Okay.

If it's not in the written Word of God, right, then I've 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, Scripture 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?

Got one of those why things, you know?

Yes.

The tree of knowledge is

like, don't

question my

authority.

Yeah.

It's like people say, well, we're not going to act on it today.

We're going to have a study, and it will harden your heart rather than

soften your heart.

It will harden your heart to a situation so you don't think it's okay.

So don't eat from the fruit.

Trust me that I am my authority.

You're not going to prove it.

Parents do it all the time.

Exactly.

They tell the child, don't eat the candy that's on the coffee table.

And in our fallen state, here's how that child hears that statement.

Don't eat the candy that's on the coffee table.

Here's what they hear.

Eat the candy that's on the coffee table.

That's what they heard.

Because it must be really good if she's saying don't do it.

Just like you said, the Lord said don't do it.

Uh -huh.

Yeah, but see, this is before sin's 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.

Okay.

Well, 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 innately sinful about eating from the fruit of the tree.

But the problem is that God's word made a command that said no.

So it's not the fruit of the tree.

Yeah, so it's the disobedience to the word of God that's the sin.

Yes.

Yeah, no.

Yeah, I still ask God, why did you send me to Kongsvinger?

It's not the woman's fault.

Ah, Scripture always blames Adam.

Yeah.

Okay.

Scripture always blames Adam.

Okay.

In fact, I'm trying to think what I want to do here.

Yeah.

So let's take a look at 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 vah, but.

Okay?

But.

Now 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 I 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?

Cause you to doubt.

Cause you to doubt.

This is all about creating doubt.

Faith is certainty of things hoped for.

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 has good reasons, whatever they were, cause they're not revealed, as to why they should not eat from this tree.

But the devil comes along and he says, did God really say?

And you can just kind of hear the going on.

Right?

Right?

Okay.

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 to 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 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.

See, already she's reeling.

Okay.

Cause God didn't say anything about not touching it. He said don't eat it.

All right.

So already you could tell the devil 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 opened 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 and 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 is good on his word.

So he's thinking, I get these two to eat this fruit, oh, they're dead.

And God's going to be the one to kill them.

That'll show them.

Right?

Sick puppy.

Sick.

God knows that on the day y 'all eat from it, y 'all's eyes will be opened 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 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 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 was with her and he ate.

And both their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked and they sowed fig leaves and made for themselves loincloths.

Already 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?

And 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?

Do 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.

Is he taking responsibility for her?

No, he's just passing the book.

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 in the dust.

You shall eat all the days of your life and enmity.

Here it is an enmity.

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 call the Proto -Ewangelion.

The first gospel.

The 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 pieces 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 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 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' 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's sins upon himself and doesn't blame her but

instead dies for her.

So, 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 want 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 connected.

We'll look at more of those connections next week.

Alright, we'll see you then.