Okay, let's go ahead and plow into this. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this time to be able to read your holy word together, and I pray that you would bless us as we begin reading at the very first verse of your holy, God-breathed, inspired, infallible, inerrant word. And we pray you'd help us to grow in our understanding of your character, your glory, to see and understand why you created and what our place is in your glorious plan to glorify yourself and to glorify your attributes. And we are so thankful that you turned us away from the path of destruction to Jesus Christ and have granted us repentance in our hearts and true and saving faith in Christ alone. And we pray you'd help us to rejoice in the wonderful things that you've shown to us here in your word. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen. Okay, so last time was just kind of an intro, but let's go ahead and dig into the scriptures here. Genesis 1, verse 1. You have the glorious doctrine of creation. God created all things out of what? Nothing. Okay, it's a pretty mind-blowing concept. Creatio ex nihilo, in Latin, creation out of nothing. And I just remember this is in stark contrast to most of man's religions for example Mormonism teaches that God is not the creator, but he's the organizer of pre-existing stuff Okay, and a lot of man's religions teach that the universe is eternal or matters eternal But the only thing that's eternal from everlasting to everlasting is what is God? Okay, so God is not compelled to create. Why does God create? Why does he do that? It's actually a really easy answer. Huh? For his good pleasure, because he wanted to create, to glorify himself. All right, so look at verse one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Okay, so a lot communicated there in the first couple of verses. But there you have the Holy Spirit is also there present at the creation event. And I remember preaching on this a while back. And that term hovering really refers almost to fluttering. And a lot of scientists think that that's like God energizing creation. Put putting things in motion because you think about everything in the whole universe is doing what? I'm sorry Vibrating and moving right like we're on a ball. That's going how fast are we going? Like several tens of thousands of miles an hour and this is something crazy and we're going around a star that's also moving everything is in is in motion because when God created everything was put in in movement and motion like the earth is spinning I forget how many thousands of Miles an hour the earth is spinning. So the spirit of God kind of energizes all of creation and gives this energy to it there in verse two. Okay, verse three. And God said, let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Okay, yes ma'am. We're one day, yeah. It's not an ordinal, right, it's one day, one day, okay? So every day is about how long? About 24 hours long. And y'all know, when I was in seminary, we were taught what's called the framework hypothesis. I'm not even gonna get into all those other interpretations of this, but what's interesting is the really expensive Hebrew dictionaries we had to buy, They all identify yom, the Hebrew word yom, which means what in Hebrew? Day. They all identify a day of 24 hours with its use in Genesis 1. They all do. You look it up, Brown, Driver, and Briggs, the Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament, and yet the professors didn't want us to really believe that. They wanted to push other interpretations, but you think the lexicographers, the guys that put together the dictionaries know That's the use that's being used here. Because don't our 24 hour days have evenings and mornings too, right? It's not real hard to understand. All right, number, or verse six. Then God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And what's amazing about this is some of the oldest religious traditions in the world, like Egypt, the Egyptian creation story, actually has this as part of it, that there was primeval water and darkness and then land comes up out of the water. Like that was still part of their thinking, but then they say, then the sun god Ra appears and it just all kind of goes haywire from there. But even in their temples and on their monuments, the oldest Egyptian stuff out there, it kind of reenacts that creation event where there was darkness and water and land emerged out of it and then all their gods appeared on it. But it's this very, it's almost eerie to think, you know, Egyptian civilization is so old that even the Egyptians didn't really know where they came from, they didn't know how old they, I mean, think about this. Cleopatra, did anyone know, when did Cleopatra live? Right around the first century, right? Because remember, she was like one of the last of the pharaohs, so she's right around the time of Christ. She is closer in history to us than she was to the people that built the Pyramids of Giza. Like the Pyramids of Giza, when she was alive, were so ancient, they didn't even know how old they were when she was alive, okay? So that's how old we're talking, but those ancient Egyptian temples like at Karnak and some of the cities where you can still see the temples, on the inscriptions on the walls, you see that the darkness and land comes up out of the water. So I think it was in their ancient memory. They still knew about at least that part of it before they made it go haywire with their sin. Okay, look at verse 10. And God called the dry land, earth and the gathering together of the waters. He called seas and God saw that it was good. Verse 11, then God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb, that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth, and it was so." Okay, so that's a phrase that comes up again and again there in Genesis, according to its kind, according to their kinds. Okay, and what is that referring to, basically, that phrase that's used over and over again, according to their kind, according to its kind? If you breed pigs, you get pigs. If you collect the seed from the grass, you get grass. Right. Very good. And isn't it amazing to think that's still true now? The different kinds cannot crossbreed with each other. Dogs and cats cannot crossbreed. The different kinds of animals, the different kinds of plants cannot be made genetically compatible to reproduce. what we have spelled out for us here, this really is the death knell, this idea of everything reproducing according to its kind is the death knell of evolution, isn't it? Because evolution really is telling us that everything came from one kind of thing, right? That simple, well, as if there's anything simple about it, but a simple single-celled organism gives rise to all the different kinds of things that are out there. And that's why when you look at the evolutionary tree of life, what does it look like, the way they look at life? There's one little stalk, and then everything branches off the stalk, right? There's one kind, and it branches off into plants, and animals, and all the different kinds of animals. Whereas in scripture, it's often called what? The orchard of life. We've got a bunch of different stalks. Each stalk is one of the kinds. And they all go up, and they branch off a little bit here and there. But God made a whole bunch of kinds of things. Those kinds still exist today, and they can't crossbreed with each other. Okay, and that's what you see, that's what you see in the world. I remember listening to a long series of sermons when I was in my early 20s, and you'll love the way I listened to it. I used to find preachers on the internet on a dial-up connection, and I would put a tape player in front of the speakers and make audio cassettes of sermons. But I listened to this series on evolution, and this guy had done tons of research on like reading paleontology, like evolutionary paleontologists, and did all this research, and he says, And they all point out the same things. The first time you see a squirrel, it's a fully formed squirrel. First time you see a horse, it's already a horse. First time you see a snake, it's already a snake. You don't see anything on its way to becoming anything. It's already the fully formed mature version of that animal. He says that is perfectly consistent with what you would expect in biblical creation because God made the kinds and everything reproduces according to its kind, okay? All right, look at verse 13. So the evening and the morning were the third day. Verse 14, then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and it was so. Now how many of you here have heard of the so-called distant starlight problem? Okay, as far as how old is the entire universe according to scripture? About 6,000 years old. We can see things that we know are a lot farther away from us than 6,000 light years. Now, what is a light year? It's a distance. It's not a measure of time. It's a light year. My father explained this to me when I was about your age with a TI-81 calculator that was as big as my forearm. Remember, anyone have a Texas Instruments calculator? Had a red display on it and everything? He actually got out a piece of paper. He said, son, I want to explain to you how big the universe is and how far away everything is. He said, do you know what a light year is? No, I had no idea. He said, OK, light travels 186,000 miles per second. I was like, wow. So he does the calculation on the calculator. 186,000 miles per second. He multiplied it by 60. So that's how far you would get in one hour going at the speed of light. He multiplied that by 24. That's how far you'd get in a day going the speed of light. And then he multiplied that by 365. And I think, as I recall, it's like 41 trillion. 41 trillion miles approximately is what a light year is. So that's how far light can travel. in one year of going that speed. But we can see things that we know are hundreds of thousands of light years away, right? And even greater than that. So if light can travel that far only in that amount of time, how can we see things that are that far away if the universe is only 6,000 years old? I'm sorry? No. I think, seriously, when I preached on this like 10 years ago, I think the answer from the stuff, like all the reading that I did on it, I think the answer is actually a little more obvious. Look at verse 14 again. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years. For signs and seasons, days and years for who? Us. For man. They can't function like that if we can't see them, right? So when God makes them, the light's already shining here, right? That's one of the weirdest things in studying the other interpretations that allow for the old time. A lot of theologians and commentators, they almost sound like they really believe once God creates something physical, he becomes subject to the physical laws that govern it. So he's gotta wait. He made a galaxy that's 200 million light years old. Man, that's gonna take forever to get here. Everything about Creation Week is supernatural, isn't it? So God can make something real far away and the light's already shining here. He doesn't have to wait for it to get here, right? So if it's gonna be for times and seasons, days and years, when is man created? On what day? On the sixth day. So that light's gotta be shining here if the light is gonna function this way for man. Okay, does that make sense? So I don't think it's a problem. God doesn't have to sit and wait for light to get here. It's already shining here. I wonder how old the scientists would have thought Adam was the day after he was created. Exactly. He would not have been a one day old infant according to our understanding of that he would have been a man. And you know what, and that's one thing that Hugh Ross and other old earth Christian people have said that if the universe is young then God lied to us because it looks old. And I've thought the very same thing. So Hugh, when you saw Adam ten minutes after he was born, after he was born, excuse me, 10 minutes after he was created, how old would he have looked? Probably about 20 or 30, right? Oh, God lied to us then. I mean, that's such a lame argument. I'm sorry? Yeah. Of course. And also, when God made the world, when he made the plants and the animals, were they single cells or seeds? They were mature, weren't they? So trees would have looked like they were 100 years old, 200 years old already, the day they were created. God doesn't have to wait for things to grow up. He can create a chicken, it's already a chicken. He doesn't have to lay an egg and let it hatch and let it grow up. So God creates creation mature. That's an important word. He creates a mature creation. So it doesn't look old, it's actually brand new, but everything was created mature already. So that's important to remember that so the lights are functioning in this way for man and verse 14 there and They can't be that if we can't see them. So the lights already got to be here Pardon me and verse 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and it was so Then God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night Okay, what is that referring to? Of course? The Sun the moon, okay And the greatest understatement of all time, he made the stars also. Yeah. I think, as I recall, I can't remember where I read this, but it was thought in John Calvin's day that there were like 7,000 something stars. They were off a little on that one. How many are there on the Milky Way alone in our galaxy by itself? Like what? 400 billion or something like that? And how many galaxies are there in the universe? Yeah. It is absolutely, it is terrifying to think about how big everything is and how far away everything is. I remember my dad showing me on a piece of paper, he said, if there are alien civilizations out there, we will never know about them. I'm like, well, why is that? He said, everything's too far away. He said, the fastest moving object ever created by human hands is Voyager 2. What's it going like 50,000 miles an hour? because it got slung shot around four planets, 50,000 miles an hour. It would still take 80,000 years to get to the closest star. So he said, if there are civilizations, we'll never know about them because everything's too far away. Now, are there aliens out there? I don't think there are. God told us about life he created on one planet. But you need to know, we watched this documentary series about Mars, where they're actually thinking about trying to colonize Mars. Did you know that even in the 1940s and the 50s, They really thought that if we could land on Mars, we'd see deer and all kinds of creatures running around and everything. What's on Mars? Nothing. Yeah, there's nothing. Nothing there. Nothing can live there. Okay. So let's look at verse, so he made the stars also, verse 16, verse 17. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. So now the sun and the moon are there and all the stars have been created. So the galaxies are there and everything's there. Verse 20, then God said, let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Okay, so there you have it again. With the life that was in the sea, they also reproduced according to their kind, just like the plants did, okay? Verse 22, and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth, So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Okay, so here you have a clear reference to male and female counterparts among the birds and the sea creatures, okay? So you already see there's male and female versions of these creatures, so that's how they reproduce and are fruitful and multiply. Verse 24, then God said, let the earth bring forth a living creature. according to its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, each according to its kind. And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. So how many different kinds of creatures do you think there are here being listed? A lot, right? I mean, there's a lot of different little critters that live on the earth, you know, all kinds of bugs and worms and animals of every imaginable kind. Okay, and they also reproduce according to their kind. All right, verse 26, now we get to the final thing that God makes, and it's very different from everything else. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Why do you think God, singular, let us, make man according to our image. Why is it in the plural there, you think? Because the doctrine of Trinity, yeah. Because God is tri-personal, okay? And there's this eternal fellowship that exists within God, within the persons of the Godhead. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So this is why man is so curious about everything. Even little children, when you put something in front of a child, once they figure out that these little appendages are actually their hands, what do they do with everything you put in front of them? Try to get it. They want to get it and eat it or do whatever they do with it. That's part of God making us in his image. We're inherently curious. We want to figure things out and study things. We want to invent things and have technology and things like that. So that's why man is curious like that, because he's made in God's image and he's supposed to have dominion over the earth and subdue the earth. That's why we want to do science. That's what's so ironic is man wanting to do science as an atheist when the only reason he's even curious about it and wants to subdue and take dominion over the created order and do those things is because he's made in God's image. Okay, so that's an important point to remember. And they were told to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it. Okay, verse 29, so here we have the mandate that everything is vegetarian. Everything is vegetarian. God said, see, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food, also to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, Into everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life I have given every green herb for food And it was so then God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good So the evening in the morning were the sixth day Okay, so God finishes creating is anything any are any of the soulless creatures that the animals were man dying Anything getting sick Okay, and the only thing that people ate is that Adam and Eve ate, and the only thing that animals ate were the herbs and the plants, they were all vegetarian, okay? So the animals are, we would call them soulish creatures, the Hebrew phrase, nefesh kaya, they are soulish creatures, but animals are not made in God's image. We're also soulish creatures, but we're made in God's image, okay? So that's what makes us different from the animals. We actually have the potential for communion with God, we were made for that, And we also can sin, whereas animals are not covenantal creatures, they can't sin against God. Okay, any questions about chapter one? It's quite a week, isn't it? At that point he hadn't fallen yet, yeah. I guess if you include his creation somewhere in there, which I guess it would have to be somewhere in there. So yeah, there is no, his fall, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly when the devil falls, but it must have been sometime after that, so. All right, so chapter two. So now we move into a more focused account of God's interaction with man. And so this is where, this is extremely important chapter. Chapter two is a very important chapter of God's word. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, And he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work, which God had created and made. Okay, so there you have the institution of the Sabbath. And of course, what does anyone know, what does Shabbat mean in Hebrew? I'm sorry? No, the Sabbath just means to stop or cease the verb. I remember making a flash card for that. Shabbat just means stop or cease. Because it's kind of confusing if you think of it as rest, because when we need to rest, it's because we're what? We're tired. When really it just means God stopped working. He stopped creating. Okay, so we don't believe God is still in a continuous act of creating anything once the six days over he is finished creating Okay. All right. Look at verse 4 This is the history of the heavens on the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens Before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth and there was no man to till the ground But I missed one up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground And so it's kind of we're getting a snapshot of the actual moment that God created man, made man out of the dust, verse seven. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. So it's an amazing thing. God made us out of the elements of the ground, the dirt, the dust of the ground, and then he breathes into Adam's nostrils and Adam, I mean, imagine that moment when he opens his eyes and is awake and is alive and there's no sin yet or anything. I mean, what a moment that must have been for Adam to suddenly be alive and to be in fellowship and communion with his creator. But it's incredible to think we're all descended from that guy that was made out of the dust of the ground there. Every single one of us in this room is a descendant of that man, of that first man. Okay, verse eight, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Okay, now why are these two trees significant? Why do you think the tree of life is mentioned here in verse nine? of Genesis 2. Question 20 of the larger catechism describes it a certain way. It's a pledge of the covenant of works, meaning he's showing him, here's the tree of life. Adam, you're gonna be on probation for a short time here. If you pass this test, you can eat from that tree and you'll be confirmed in eternal life and you can never fall. So that's really what he's showing him here, as we'll see later in Genesis here. That's really why it's bringing this out. There's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is gonna be the place of testing. And the tree of life is a pledge of the covenant of works. This is the reward for your merit, your righteousness, if you obey me, if you keep the covenant of works. Okay, verse 10, now a river went out of Eden to water the garden. And from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bedellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hittikal. It is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 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 surely die Okay, so God emphasizes there in verse 16 his bounty He says of every tree of the garden you may freely eat And then he adds the next phrase but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat So he emphasizes the greatness of how much he's given to him. You can eat from every tree of the garden except this one, and if you eat from it, you will die. Now remember, does Eve, is Eve here yet? Okay, she's not even alive yet. Okay, so this is just Adam and God, and God is entering into this covenant of works with Adam. Okay, verse 18. The Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. Okay, so that's the very first time God ever says that something is not good. Okay, it's not good that the man should be by himself. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Okay, I remember I've heard Vody Balcom preach on this and it's kind of funny. He says, God looks at everything. He looks at the sun and the moon and the stars and he looks at the plants and that's very good, that's very good, that's very good. He looks at all the fish and the birds and the sea creatures, that's very good. All the cattle is very good. And he looks at Adam and says, he's not gonna make it. So he needs help, he needs a helper. So I'm gonna make a helper comparable to him. And remember that Hebrew word for helper, ezer. Remember last, this past Sunday morning we looked at ebenezer, eben-ezer. Eben in Hebrew is the word for rock or stone. So eben-ezer means a rock of help. But the word ezer, that's the word for helper, okay? And it's also important to know that, You see the last phrase of verse 18, a helper comparable to him. Comparable is the Hebrew word negev. Negev, you know what that means? It means opposite of correspondence. Okay, so he needs someone who's opposite to him. Someone who corresponds to him. Okay, in what ways in general are men and women different from each other? Because you live in a culture that says that there's no difference at all. None at all. How are we different? Anybody? Any ideas? We don't think the same way. I'm sorry? We don't even think the same way. OK. How's that? I know that's very true, but how? It actually has to do with something that happens during gestation at some point. There's a division between the hemispheres of the brain and the male. And so a male will work out a problem very logically, step by step by step. A woman will sometimes go from the problem to the answer. And we're not going to be able to tell you how she got there. That's good. What were you going to say, Ireland? Well, women have a caring nature. They tend to see you have children and care for them. That's right. Why is it that when most kids get hurt, who do they want? Mama. That really hurt my feelings when I first started having kids. I'm like, what's wrong with me? How come they don't want me to help them? But yeah, women are real different from men in that way. Anyone here ever seen the little skit on YouTube, it's not about the nail? The woman with a nail on her forehead? You haven't seen that? OK. Yeah. The point of the illustration is what she really wants is your sympathy, not for you to fix the problem. It's this woman sitting there, she's got a giant nail sticking out of her forehead. And she's like, and every single one of my sweaters is snagged. And there's just like this pain in my forehead. And he keeps going, that's because there's a nail there. And she just gets all mad at him and everything about, you're always trying to fix, you never listen. So he finally just says, I'm so sorry that your head's bothering you and that all your sweaters are snagged. And she's like, oh, you're the best. It's not about the nail. So there's a lot of truth in that. Even the secular world knows that men are real different from women. I have a book in my library. I used to listen to the Marceau Audio Journal. I actually stopped subscribing to that, because every time I listened to another episode, I would buy five more books I'll probably never read. But one of those books is really interesting. It's called Taking Sex Differences Seriously, written by a guy who's not even a believer, and they interviewed him. And he wrote this book saying kind of what Ireland just said. Women in general are more caring. They're more nurturing. They're just better at taking care of little kids. And men tend to be the ones that want to do more hands-on stuff, and they want to work, and they want to be stronger, the protector. And this guy's acting like this is a discovery that he's made. But he said he's gotten email from people all over the world, like non-Christians saying, Thank you for writing this book. It's really been useful to kind of confirm that the desires I have are not weird. The things that we're naturally good at are a good thing. God made us that way. So how else are men and women different from each other? Physically. Physically, yeah. Call it to be brighter than typically stronger. Right, yeah. Men tend to be bigger. They tend to be stronger. not as emotional as women, okay? That's why we have to learn to be sensitive. That's why, you know, I've been working on that for close to 30 years now and have gotten better and better and better at it. But, you know, I had to learn how to communicate and to be more soft-spoken. I'm married to like the most soft-spoken woman that God ever created. And if you can believe it, I used to be even more of a sledgehammer than I am now, so. She's really helped me. Like when you think of, I think of that word helper, it really is true. They really help. Your wife should help you be better than, than you would be without her. So God makes a helper for her. They're comparable. She corresponds to him. She's opposite of him. And that's why marriage is, you know, a man and a woman that can't be anything other than that. It's literally impossible for it to be anything other than that. Verse 19, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field. every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So it's pretty amazing. He names all of the land animals that day. So it must have been a remarkable thing. And a lot of people, a lot of commentators I read on this think that God must have been bringing the animals to him in pairs to kind of heighten his anticipation. You know, everyone's got a pair. But me, you know, he would have seen the pair of bears and the pair of horses and the pair of wolves or dogs or cats or whatever. So look at verse 20. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. So no ezer, no helper that was corresponding to him was found. So verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. I remember when I was in seminary, when I took Genesis to Joshua, the guy made the point, this did not require any recovery time. There was no pain when he woke up from surgery. There wasn't an IV drip or anything. This was symbolic to show I'm taking a piece of you. She's going to be part of you. And the rib protects man's heart. And it's not from his foot, lest she be trampled by him. It's not a bone from his head, lest she try to usurp his authority and headship. It's from the closest place to his bosom, his heart. A rib from right there is gonna be made into your helper, your opposite corresponding helper, okay? So verse 22, then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman, or actually the verb there means, it literally means built. He built into a woman. And he brought her to the man. So he presents her to Adam. And Adam, the very first words spoken by a man in the entire history of the world are what? Yeah! It's like a poetic praising of his wife. Yeah, I think there's something we should learn from that, right? We got to be, you know, poetic. creative and praising the wife God gave us. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Do you recognize that expression, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh? It's used in other places in the Old Testament to refer to what? What was that phrase used to refer to? Anyone know? Family, exactly. Family. Like in the book of Judges, I forget, I think it might've been Abimelech's family. And they said, yeah, we want this guy because he's bone of our bone. At one point, King David, someone says of him, he's bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. So it was a way of saying, Adam is saying, this is my family. She is my family now. Okay, the relationship they have is that special. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Okay, and in Hebrew, the word for man is ish, and the word for woman is isha. And when you have an ah on the end of a verb, it's called what's called a directional hey. So it's like out of. So Ish, the man, and Ishah, the woman, came out of man. Okay, that's why he called her that. Okay, verse 24. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Notice these are all singular. They shall become one flesh, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Okay. So we don't know how long this lasted, but they had a perfect marriage relationship for a little while. Absolutely perfect relationship. There was total transparency. They were uncovered emotionally, physically. There was no shame in any of it. So it must have just been a pretty amazing situation for them before sin comes into the picture. But let's go ahead and plow into chapter three here. Any questions about chapter two? Okay. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now, why do you think theologians and Christians and churchmen from the beginning have keyed in on those first four words that come out of Satan's mouth there? What are the first four words he ever said? Has God really said? So where does he begin his attack on humanity? Questioning the authority of God. And that's always the issue. That's always the problem. Your generation, our kids' generation, after we're all dead and buried and nobody cares we were ever here, the generation alive then, that's gonna be their challenge. Are you gonna be faithful to what God has said or not? Will you listen to what God has said or not? Because everything in our culture and everything around us is challenging the authority of God, right and left, and that's the devil's work. Has God really said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now, the way he phrased the question, what's he trying to emphasize? Did God really say that you can't eat from every tree of the garden? How did God begin his command to Adam? Oh, I'm sorry? Every tree of the garden, you can eat from it. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, because the day you eat of it, you will die. And Satan just emphasizes, he put one restriction on you. Yes, ma'am? What about the tree of life? Where was that? Did it not have strength on it? Because they don't talk about trying to eat it. Yeah. As I understand it, the way I would put it together, I know there are some people who think that he could have eaten from it during the normal course of his life. I think the Westminster divines were right, in question 20 of the larger catechism, they said the tree of life was a pledge of the covenant of works. Namely, it was held in reserve off to the side. If they kept the covenant of works, they could, by their own righteousness, by their own works, they would have earned the right to go eat from it, and they would have eaten from it and lived forever. So I think if you did eat from it, you would live forever, is actually what, at the end of chapter three, It says lest he put out his hand and take from the tree of life eat and live forever He was banished from the garden and a guard was put up there so I Don't think they were allowed to unless they kept the covenant of works Yeah, it doesn't explicitly say that but look at here let's let's jump ahead a little bit look at verse 22 23 and 24 there And we'll go back here in just a second Then the Lord God had said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. So that's why the position that I would take on that, like I would defend, They could not eat from that tree unless they kept the covenant of works. They had to earn the right to do that. Yes, sir? How would you measure that? How would you measure keeping the covenant of works? Measure what? How would they measure keeping the covenant of works? If they withstood the temptation. If they withstood it, he would have earned the right by his own righteousness to do it. Yes, sir? Oh, she asked about why couldn't they just eat from the tree of life from day one. And I think because if they ate from it, they would live forever. And it was given as a pledge of the covenant of works, which is why they're barred from eating from it once they sin. But if they withstood the temptation and didn't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil during that probation, then they would have been confirmed and glorified life, and they would have been able to eat from the tree and live forever. They also had never seen death. Yeah, they weren't subject to death yeah, yeah, they couldn't die yet, so That's another reason why I don't think there are some I would consider somewhat odd People a lot of false teachers think now they eat from the tree of life every day. I'm thinking I don't think they did do that Because if you ate from that tree you would live forever, right? But does that mean I mean As far as them earning the right to eat from it, all they had to do was withstand that temptation. It wasn't like that probation would have just gone on forever until they eventually fell. They were going to be tested that one time. If Adam in particular, not her, but him, if he withstood it, then he would have earned the right to eat from the tree of life and live forever. Does that make sense? Yes, ma'am? We wouldn't have any idea how long he would have to be obedient Right, I think if he had withstood that moment, that test, that were the serpents there, that he would have earned the right by his own righteousness, by his own works, he would have merited the right to eat from the tree of life and live forever. Which is why, I mean, this is a law that God gave him, and when Jesus comes into the world, what does Scripture say? In the fullness of time, he was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, he also has to do what? He has to die, because what did God tell Adam? In the day you eat from it, you will surely die. That penalty's gotta be satisfied too. So once he does that, once Jesus withstands all the temptations, once Jesus produces that righteousness, he earns the right for us to eat from the tree of life and live forever, which is what we end up doing at the end of the book of Revelation. We're back to the garden again, to the tree of life there. Always remember this to like remember in the Covenant of Works in Genesis 2 16 17 in the day you eat thereof you will surely die There is an implied promise of life in that too. If you don't eat from it, you will live forever Okay, so every commandment of God. This is one of the things that question 99 of the larger catechism is an excellent question What are the principles to help us understand God's law? Anywhere that there is a promise of something for obedience the implied opposite of that is there for disobedience For example, honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. What is implied in that? If you don't honor your father and mother, your days are gonna be short on the land, right? So when God says, in the day you eat of it, you will surely die, it is implied in that. If you don't eat from it, you'll live forever, okay? Does that make sense? This covenant theology stuff's really important. We've got to get this stuff right to understand why Jesus did everything he did. Covenant of works is not a covenant of grace. It's a covenant that required obedience. It's a covenant of works. It is a covenant of justice. And that's why for us to go to heaven, someone's got to come and do it for us. Jesus has got to come into the world without a human father. He's got to start out sinlessly perfect, just like Adam did. And he's got to be obedient in all the ways that we're disobedient. And he's got to satisfy that penalty too. And not just die for us, he also has to what? I'm sorry? He has to live for us. Perfectly righteous life and die for us. And there's one other thing he's got to do if we're going to come back to life ourselves. He's got to rise from the dead. He's got to conquer the penalty for sin. Okay? And he does that. He takes that away and rises again. So, yes sir. That is a, to quote Meredith Klein, The introduction of grace into creation and the covenant of works, to quote him, that is an error of massive proportions, end quote. Because if you say that all of God's interactions with man, even before the fall, are on the basis of grace, then there is no distinction between works and grace. Then ultimately, us being saved by our own obedience, that's salvation by grace. God's pre-fall interaction with Adam is not on the basis of grace, because Adam hasn't sinned yet. Grace in scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, is God's response to the fall, to sin, okay? And that's why Klein and many others said, man, these guys, Daniel Fuller did this. Of course, Fuller wasn't even a Christian. Fuller didn't believe in justification. He didn't believe the gospel at all. That's John Piper's main mentor, okay? Daniel Fuller and many others saying the same thing. All of God's interactions with man are on the basis of grace. And there was actually a guy, I won't share his name with you, but he's a famous Baptist. And he said that. Someone sent me a link to a series he did on covenant theology, trying to make me no longer be a Presbyterian. And I listened to it, and 20 minutes in, he made the same error. He said, all of God's interactions with man are on the basis of a gracious principle. So I criticized him on YouTube. And eventually someone emailed him and said, this guy in Tennessee's attacking you. So he emailed me. and said, I want you to know I've changed my position on that issue. And I agree with what you said now. Not because of me. He had done it years before. The lecture I listened to was like 10 years old or something like that. But I see that that's wrong. I'm like, it is. It's seriously wrong. OK? God's interactions with man before the fall, there's not an ounce of grace in it at all. No grace in it at all. OK? God does not graciously create. In fact, 7.1 of the Westminster Confession It's voluntary condescension. God enters into covenant with man. It's voluntary condescension, not grace. Grace is God gives a people to Jesus Christ in the fullness of time. He comes into the world. He enters into that broken covenant of justice and works and keeps it all for us. And that's why our entrance into heaven is based solely, completely, and only on what he did, okay? You see the problem though? If you say that all of, one thing Robert Raymond and many other good theologians say, if you say that there's a grace principle operative everywhere, including before the fall, then in effect, you have a grace principle nowhere. And as a matter of fact, you have a works principle everywhere. And that's why all the guys that say that, they all talk about, yeah, we're justified before God by our faithfulness. We're justified by God by our works of faith, the work of faith, the obedience of faith. Totally redefining and destroying the concept of what faith is. What is faith in Jesus Christ? It's the opposite of works. If someone tells me they believe in Jesus and they're also trusting in their works, they don't believe in Jesus then. They don't believe in Jesus. To believe in Jesus as your savior means you no longer believe in your works to save you. And folks, this is heaven and hell we're talking about. This is as serious as it gets. This covenant theology stuff, you've got to get that. The covenant of works is a covenant of works. And Adam, had he kept that covenant, would have earned the right by pure personal merit to eat from the tree of life and live forever. And because he failed and we all plunged into sin with him, someone else has got to earn that right for us. And that's what Jesus comes and does. So don't let people say, Well, the covenant of works is really a covenant of grace. You're gonna destroy the gospel if you do that. And that's what the federal vision guys do. They all do it, unfortunately. Okay, good. I've had to untangle people from that mess, people who have no assurance. I mean, I kept hearing that, especially in Ohio. Well, I don't know if I've been faithful enough. I don't know if my covenant faithfulness is enough to get me into heaven. I remember back then going, What are you talking about? You don't know if you're covenant faithful. What does that even mean? You need to believe that Jesus is your savior. That's the gospel. But then I had to get all the books and read all that stuff. It's a mess. It's a disaster. Now it's really the way they teach it. You're justified by baptism. And then you do enough good works and your covenant faithfulness is good enough, you can go to heaven. What is that? The Galatian heresy? Just repackaged? OK. It's very serious. Very serious stuff. For a free copy of today's sermon, you can write me at geobox, whatever. OK. We're almost at an hour. Do you guys have any other questions or thoughts? Yes, sir. We have a DVD series upstairs, Spike Express. Oh, yes, yes. It's excellent. Yeah, yeah. It's available to check out. Okay. Are those on YouTube? They might be. Yeah. Spike Pissarus. Wasn't he like an atheist NASA guy or something? Yeah. His stuff on astronomy is really great. What he does in those videos is he shows you that there is literally no evolutionary explanation for the existence of planets, what are the hard planets called? Terrestrial planets, gas planets, or stars. Like none of the mathematical models work. They don't work. We shouldn't have planets at all in our solar system. But we do. Why do we have planets? God made them. All right, let's close in prayer. Father, thank you again for this time to be together and pray your blessing upon us. Help us to see clearly that the covenant of works is that. It is a covenant of works and that Adam prior to the fall could have earned eternal life by his righteousness and by his keeping that covenant. And after the fall, we can't do that anymore, but only Christ in his human nature has done it for us. So help us always to see that and to trust only in him for our salvation, for our eternal life. I pray in Jesus name, amen. Thank you all.