I need a catalog or something
to stand on. I'm not quite as tall as David.
You can take that little top off. No, it's okay. I'm going to start with Genesis
chapter 1 and verse 1. Genesis is the book of beginnings. It's the first of five books
of Moses. We've got Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And it's made up of 50 chapters.
It starts with the creation and ends with the death of Joseph,
the son of Jacob. The first two chapters of Genesis,
it records the beginning of the heaven and the earth, plant,
animal, and human life. It records the institution of
marriage. It records the creation of relationships,
man, woman. And then in chapter three, we'll
see the disobedience of man, the fall of man. We're seeing
entered into the world by man, his disobedience. And these three
chapters, as well as the whole Bible, as we know, points us
to the Lord Jesus. It's about Him. And that's why
we're here. Brother Montgomery used to say,
I heard him say it several times, don't trust what anybody says
if it's not in the Bible. Verify what's in the Bible. Look
it up in this book and trust what the Lord tells us through
this book. Verse one, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without
form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 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. And God called the light day
and the darkness he called night. and the evening and the morning
were the first day. So here we see the creation of
all things by the power and authority of God. We see the condition
of the earth, darkness without form and void before God spoke
light with his words. Now in verse two, we see the
words without form, void and darkness. And without form comes
from the Hebrew word tohu, meaning formlessness, confusion, chaos,
desolation. And void comes from the Hebrew
word bohu, meaning an undistinguishable ruin or emptiness. And darkness
simply means the absence of light. Now confusion, chaos, emptiness,
ruin, and darkness are words that describe the condition of
the earth in the beginning before God said, let there be light.
And these words can also describe the condition of man's heart
before God said, let there be light, before he shines his light
in our hearts while we were walking in darkness, confusion and ruin,
walking in the ways of this world. Now looking down on the sixth
day, God created man in his own image. both male and female. God blessed them. He told them,
be fruitful and multiply. Replenish the earth. He gave
man dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. God
gave them everything, provided them with everything. Over in
chapter two, we'll see in verse seven, God made man a living
soul. 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 soul. So
God made man a living soul. God placed man in the garden
of Eden. And in verses 16 and 17, God gave man one commandment. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying of every tree, of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die." Moving forward, God made the
woman from one of Adam's ribs and brought her to him. And Adam
said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman. because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh. And this is where we see the
beginning of marriage. This is where we see mention
of father and mother, husband and wife. Now over in Genesis
chapter three, verse six verses, we see the fall of man. We see the serpent in the garden,
whom we know to be Satan, and he deceived the woman. He lied
to her and he appealed to the lust of the flesh, to her pride,
to her nature, which is our nature. We have that same nature. In
verse six, We read, and the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise. She took of the fruit and did
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. So
they both ate of the tree, they both disobeyed God, they were
both guilty, and they both made excuse for their disobedience.
Adam blamed God, essentially, He said, the woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat,
as if this was God's fault. Just wicked, blaming God for
your sin. And the woman blamed the serpent,
saying, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And we see
Adam was not deceived. He was not convinced. He was
willing. He took of the fruit. And he
did eat. And this is disobedience to God.
This is our nature. Disobedience. God created the
garden. He gave man life. He provided
man everything that he needed, including a wife. He created
the woman and gave him a wife. And yet they disobeyed God. That
is their nature. That's their sin. Both are without
excuse for their sin, just as we're without excuse for our
sin. Now looking down at verse 14
of the same chapter, chapter three. This is what God tells
the serpent. This is what he tells the woman,
and this is what he tells Adam. Verse 14, and the Lord God said
unto the serpent, because thou has done this, thou are cursed
above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of
thy life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. The word bruise
means crush. And this is referring to the
Lord Jesus. The heel of Christ will crush
the head of the serpent. That's Satan. And verse 16, unto
the woman, God said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow, thou shalt bring forth
children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee. And unto Adam, God said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not
eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, And thou
shalt eat of the herb of the field, and the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out
of it was thou taken, for dost thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also
and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe
them. And we know Adam and Eve did
not die physically. This was spiritually dying. They were cast out of the garden.
They had to work the land. They had children, beginning
with Cain, then Abel, and a son named Seth. And Adam lived 938
years. Romans 5.12 tells us, so by one
man's sin entered into the world, and death passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. And
Romans 3.23, all have come short of the glory of God. And these first three chapters,
there's so much information, so much to study, so much to
discuss. Tom would not allow that, but
there's four things that I'd like to point out. First of all,
we see the creation of all things by the word of God. Secondly,
we see that we are descendants of Adam and Eve, our parents. Thirdly, we can see Adam, the
first man, the head of the human race, causing all men to sin. Because of him, all men have
sinned. And fourthly, we can see the second Adam, the last
Adam, the one who did not fall, the one who did not sin, that
walked perfectly in this world, and that's the Lord Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15.45 tells us the
first man was made a living soul. And the last Adam, Christ, was
made a quickening spirit, a life-giving spirit. So I want to talk just
briefly about what the Bible says about man and what he is. The Bible tells us, by one man,
sin entered into the world. Man's heart is deceitful above
all things. His heart is desperately wicked.
He will not come to God on his own. He will not bow to God.
and the carnal mind is enmity against God. He's dead in his
trespasses and in his sin, he dwells in darkness. And he walks
according to the course of this world, fulfilling the lusts and
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and by nature, children
of wrath. Man loves darkness rather than
light because his deeds were evil. The Bible tells us there's
none righteous, there's none that understandeth. There's none
that seeketh after God. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. All have sinned and all have
come short of the glory of God. Now over in Genesis 1.1, we read
in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. John
1.1 tells us something about the beginning as well. He tells
us, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. and the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. Now this is talking about
the Lord Jesus. He was the word, he was with
God, and he was God. Christ told the Jews, I and my
father are one, and they picked up stones to stone him. Back
in Genesis 1-3, we read, God said, let there be light, and
there was light, and we receive light by the word of God. His
light shines in our hearts, in the darkness of our hearts. It
reveals to us our sin, who and what we are, what the penalty
of sin is, and that there is no hope in ourselves. We can
do nothing for ourselves. It shows us that we need Christ.
We need mercy. We need forgiveness. And by His
grace, that's shown to us. By His grace, we believe. The Bible tells us in Romans
10 faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And
we know Christ is the word and he is the light. He told the
Pharisees I am the light of the world. He that follow with me.
Shall not walk in darkness. But shall have the light of life. Before our Lord was even born.
An angel came to Joseph. And told him. for thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He's our savior. He saves his
people from their sins. Romans 6.23 tells us the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord, our savior. God sent his son into the world
to save, not to condemn. If you'll turn over to John 3.18, This is our Lord speaking. He tells us he that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. And it goes on and
it tells us everyone that does evil hates the light. They will
not come to the light. And Christ said, I am come a
light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide
in darkness. Whosoever believeth on me. should not abide in darkness.
Believe on him. Trust him. Look to Christ. He came into this world. He bore
our griefs, our sorrows in his own body. He was bruised for
our transgressions. Our sin is transferred to him. He paid the penalty of sin, our
penalty, which is death. We just read the wages of sin
is death. He died in our place and he put
away our sins by his stripes. By the sacrifice of himself,
God made Christ to be sin for us. Him who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness in him. Christ is our mediator
between us and God. In Christ, God's justice is satisfied. In Christ, we are justified.
He's our substitution and in Him, we have eternal life. So, read the scriptures. Read the Bible. Read what the
Bible says about God and who He is. Read the Bible about what
man is. what he is and what he's done.
Disobedience to God is sin and read what the scriptures tells
us about the Lord Jesus and what he's done for his people. He's
the light of the world, the only begotten son. He suffered and
he died on that cross alone. So that we might have everlasting
life. He took our place on on the cross
and he covered us in his righteousness. In Him, we are saved. And it's not because of anything
that we did, not because of our works, but because He saved His
people from their sins. Let me read you from Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 4. Paul writes, according as He,
God, hath chosen us in Him, Christ, before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. Having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted and the beloved. This tells us God has chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Nothing to do with
our works, nothing good in us. It's of God. To the praise and
glory of His grace. And down in verse 7, we read,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. having made known
unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure
which he had purposed in himself. Redemption is in Christ. In Christ
we are redeemed through his blood. We have forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace in Christ. His blood, his grace,
his will, his good pleasure in Christ. Christ is all and in all he's
our all. He's our salvation. In Him, in
Christ, we are forgiven. And in Him, God's justice is
satisfied. I'll finish with 2 Timothy 1.
Verse 9. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9. This is Paul
writing to Timothy, and this is referring to God, who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel. And this tells us clearly God
saved us, God called us, not according to anything that we
did, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given in Christ Jesus before the world
began. I'll finish with this. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. Look to Christ and Him alone.
Believe on Christ and Him alone. Thank you all for your time.
I appreciate being given the opportunity to do this Bible
study. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that.