Our Federal Head (Genesis Chapter Two - Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Jesus of Nazareth believed in a literal Adam, right? So Adam was a real person. These are real trees, real garden.

Christ, Adam, and a Literal Reading of Genesis 2

And also Jesus is Apostle Saul of Tarsus, also known as the Apostle Paul. In Romans chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, it's very clear he believed in a literal Adam. So while many of the modern mainline churches view this as an allegory, there's nothing to suggest that whatsoever.

This is what they do. They say, well, the tree is symbolic. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this whole thing is symbolic. And what do they do after that? Then they move to Noah's Ark. Well, this seems impossible.

This is symbolic too. And then the Tower of Babel. Well, that's how did this work? That's what this must be symbolic too. And they keep on with that all the way. Eventually they get to the cross in the resurrection where many of them will teach that that is symbolic.

The virgin birth is symbolic or they'll just flat out deny it. That amounts to a denial of the faith. So don't even start down that road because that's where it leads. So a literal tree of life. Amen.

Literal tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Okay.

And along those lines, let's not forget the devil's temptation to Eve. What's the first thing that he said to her? Has God indeed said tree of life? Did God really say, is this really true? Is this really literal?

Did this really happen? That's the devil's lie. He hooks you with that.

He's got you.

So they're literal.

Okay.

You know, the Bible is not a hard book to understand. Parts of it are. I acknowledge that. The prophetic books, some of it can be difficult. But here in Genesis, the Bible is actually very easy to understand.

You read it. Take it at face value. It means what it says. It's that simple, right?

Okay.

The Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Devil's Lie

At the end of chapter three. So what then is the tree of life? What is this all about? It is a tree that kept Adam alive. Do you realize Adam, if he continued to eat of this tree, he could live forever.

Even after he sinned, he could live forever by eating from this tree. And the next chapter, when Adam and Eve sin, they are banished from the garden. You know why? So that they wouldn't eat of the tree of life.

Because then they would live forever in their sin. And that is not God's will for us to live forever in our sin. Do you realize? Because nobody really wants to die. But if you live forever in the current state you are in, you don't want that.

What do we want? We want to go be with the Lord where we have that glorified body. Where there is no presence of sin at all. So in some ways, kicking them out of the garden was what they needed. But then there's this other tree.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam not to eat of that tree. Look at verse 17. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now again, this is all straightforward information.

Where it gets a little more challenging. Or where interpretation comes in. Is when you start asking questions like how? Or why? You know, this is what kids ask all the time. Well, you need to do this.

Or here's what we're going to do. And they say, what do they say?

Why?

And then you explain it to them. And they come back with another question.

Why?

And that's really frustrating. Hey, listen. Sometimes we don't always have the answer why. Sometimes we're not given the answer. But we need to trust. And it's the same thing. A little child, all they really need to know is trust mom and dad.

And that's what we need to do. Trust. Trust dad.

Okay?

I don't want to be irreverent. But trust your heavenly father.

This is what we need to do.

So this is where it gets complicated by asking these questions. This is a legitimate question, though. Why did God put this tree of the knowledge of good and evil there? We know this is how the whole human race was cast into darkness.

God knew that Adam was going to eat of it. God knew that Adam was going to sin. Why did God put the tree there knowing this ahead of time? You ever ask that question? I think the answer has to be this is obviously a test.

This is obviously a test. I said in the sermon from chapter one, God is a God who cares about relationships. So just bear with me for a moment. There is a relationship within the trinity. The father loves the son.

The son loves the father, et cetera. Man is the crown jewel of God's creation because we are made in his image. God wants a personal relationship with each of us. And part of any relationship, the key part is what?

Love.

Love is the key to any relationship. So God loved mankind. God gave all of this to mankind. And to test man's love for God, he gave him a test. How do I know that? Because Jesus said in the gospels, if you love me, keep my commandments.

That's how you know if someone loves God. Do they seek to obey God? That's how you know if someone listens to Christ and loves Christ, are they obeying? Do they seek to obey Christ? So this is something that runs straight through the Bible.

God gives tests to mankind. And you know what mankind always does? He always fails. Mankind fails the test. And then after that, there is a judgment. But through it all, God extends his mercy and his grace, offering salvation, so where man can now have a path to come back to God.

And you know ultimately that path runs straight through the cross of Jesus Christ. And we're going to see Jesus here in Genesis chapter 2. There's pictures, foreshadows of Jesus here in Genesis 2. You're going to see that even more in the next chapter.

So the tree of life is literal. Are there some symbolic things we could draw from it? I believe so. Because in a sense, Adam could eat of the tree and have life forever. Well, now there is another tree, so to speak, where we find life.

Acts chapter 5 verse 30, the Apostle Peter speaking to the Jewish leaders, he said, The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging him on what? On a tree. Adam had eternal life through the tree of life.

But that was cut off. Now Adam's descendants, you and I, we can have eternal life through another tree. Because it's on that tree that Jesus defeated sin and death once and for all. What's the title of the message?

Garden of Eden. Now this is a question that sometimes people will ask. And I like to think ahead and anticipate some of these thoughts and questions. A question people ask is where was the Garden of Eden?

Where was it?

I mean, it was here on earth, right? It's not in heaven. It's here on earth, so where was it? Well, if you ask a Mormon, they might tell you that it's in Missouri. I know it sounds like I'm kidding and I'm making that up.

But I promise I'm not. According to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, he taught that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri. That's kind of a hard sell. You're not even on the right continent, my friend.

It's the show me state. So the Garden of Eden, we kind of know this much. It was in the Middle East, all right? We don't have time to go over it. But the next few verses, just make a note of this, verses 10 through 14 give us a description of the land.

And it tells us the names of the rivers that flowed in and through the garden. Obviously, the landscape and the topography changed drastically after the flood. There's no question about that. But the Garden of Eden almost certainly was in the land of Mesopotamia.

It's also called the Levant or the Fertile Crescent. Basically, today, that's modern day Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, maybe parts of Israel, that general area. And this is actually one thing we agree with, with the atheistic scientists, because they acknowledge that the earliest human civilizations came from the Levant, from the Fertile Crescent.

They call it the cradle of life. And yeah, that's actually true. The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, if you think about it, that was the pinnacle of human society up until that point, right? Babel became Babylon.

Babylon is modern day Iraq. It doesn't look like the Garden of Eden now, because of the curse and a lot of other things, but that's likely where it was located. All right, verse 15, look at Genesis 2, verse 15.

And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to keep it. And here's the test, verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall, what?

Surely die.

Die.

So man is presented with this test. He is given the ability to make a choice. He can obey God, remain in the garden in perfect bliss and delight and live forever with God. Or man can disobey God, get kicked out of the garden, get kicked out of paradise and die.

These are the two options. What did man choose?

Yeah, the wrong one.

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

No, you wouldn't.

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

Adam, as theologians say, he is our federal head. Adam is given a test. Adam now represents all of humanity. Because all of humanity, you could say, are in Adam, in his loins. So the Bible teaches that sin is what?

A violation of God's law. Romans 4 .15 says, where there is no law, there is no sin. There is no transgression. Here's a question to you. How many laws does Adam have right now? How many commandments are there?

There's really one law. Don't eat that fruit. Don't eat it. That's all he had to do. This is also called, so when Adam sins, obviously, that's a violation of God's word, a violation of God's law. Adam eats, he becomes a sinner.

And everyone in Adam, all of us, we inherit that sin nature from our first father, Adam. This is also called original sin. And by the way, original sin does not refer to the first sin of eating the fruit.

Never says it was an apple, okay? It refers to the first effects. It refers to the effects of the first sin, which is the curse, alienation from God, spiritual death, and then eventually physical death.

So that's the bad news, that in Adam, all die. But for those who are in Christ, all shall be made alive. In the genealogy of Jesus, in Luke chapter three, Adam is called the son of God. Did you know that?

Adam is called the son of God.

Why?

Because he is the only man directly created by God. Adam is the only man in history who didn't have a human father. That is, until the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin in order to avoid original sin or the sin nature.

So don't miss this. Don't miss this. Jesus, the son of God, is the new representative for humanity. Jesus came to represent a new humanity. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.