Genesis chapter 2. Read verses 4 through 7 with
me. These are the generations of
the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the
day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens and every
plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb
of the field before it grew. For the Lord God had not caused
it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the
ground. But there went up a mist from
the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. For 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. I know I told you we would look
at the two trees, but there's too much to be seen here before
we get to that. I didn't want to just pass over
this lightly, and it was somewhat opened up to me, this mist from
the earth and then the breath of life there. It says these
are the generations or Genesis, that's where we get the name,
the title for this book, Genesis, the generation or beginning,
how God created life on this earth and how God made the heavens,
sun, moon and stars. There's no account given of the
creation of the angels and cherubs and seraphs, but what we need
to know He gives us. It says in verse 5, every plant
of the field, every herb, it speaks of God making the earth
and the heavens, all things were created by Him and for Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Who is that talking about? I
just quoted what Scripture says of the Lord Jesus Christ. God,
our God, is three persons in one. God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, co-equal. And God that made the
heaven, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, together
made all things. Our Creator is what He is. And
it says in verse 5, there was no rain and no man to till the
ground. This is significant. This whole
account of creation is the beginning of everything and it's the foundation
of all things. That God is creator and man is
a creature. There was no man. There's no
man around. No man to till the ground. In
the beginning, God. The word theology means study
of God. All theology starts here, with
God. God is the Creator. That's where
you must begin, to understand the living and true God, that
He is the Creator. God is the Creator. Man is a creature. That's where it all starts, doesn't
it? God created all things. Man is
a creature. made by God. He said, I am the potter. The
man we're going to see is made out of wet dirt. You're the clay. That's what God said. Understand
that on the very outset. God is the potter. We are the clay. Clay has no
say. Clay has no part in anything. Clay is an inanimate object in
the hands of God, the living and true God. It is God who hath
made us and not we ourselves. God in whose hands our breath
is. We're going to see that. And
all our ways. He made us. He controls us. This
is where it all begins. This is where the truth begins.
We don't understand this from the beginning. We don't know
God. And we don't know anything else.
God made us. He owns us. If you create something,
it's yours. And you can do with it as you
will. That's what God said. Cannot
I do with my own what I will? Yes, and He does. And He giveth
not an account of His matters to anyone. He's the Creator. He made us. He owns us. He controls
us. If you make something, you control
it, don't you? Well, you say, that makes man
a puppet. No, it just makes man clay. And what God said, it makes man
in the hands of God. And I'm not even going to try
to explain that. It's just so. God provides all
things. He is our Creator, our Sovereign
Lord, Master, all things. Peter summed it up when he talked
about man's rebellion. He said he's willingly ignorant. Things are so clear, so clear,
that God made all things. And Peter said you have to just
reject it. Willingly ignorant of two things,
creation and the flood. Both are clear pictures of the
Creator and the Judge. who will punish sin. Well, and
Paul said that in Romans 1, you know, everything, things that keep opening, things
that keep happening in our day, Romans 1 just keeps clearly speaking
to my mind. Paul said in Romans 1, he said,
Men worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who is
blessed forever. Amen. Worship and serve the creature,
man, or the earth, things of the earth, rather than the Creator. They weren't thankful. God's
not in all their thoughts. Worship and serve the creature.
rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. And the next
verse, listen carefully, the next verse says, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. You know, what we're witnessing
now about all this open endorsement of so-called gay marriage, which
is sodomy. Sodomites is what Scriptures
call them. What we're seeing now is clear
proof that we're in the very last of the last days. I've just read it to you from
Romans 1. Reject the Creator, come up with
all sorts of imaginations about God, and He'll give you up until
you are defiling yourself. That's what's happened. We live
in a reprobate society. You might as well just, well,
not accept it, but you might as well just bow to the will
of God. There's no turning back now.
There's no turning back. And God's given up, given this
country up to itself. Why? Religions are to blame. Preachers are to blame. False
prophets are to blame. That's why. That's why. Idolatrous, false religion. That's
why. Well, anyway, in verse 5 it says,
there was no man till the ground. Well, how did God plant the garden
when there was no man around to help him out? God can't do anything without
you, you know. God has no hand but your hand.
This is what false religion said, doesn't it? This is where our
main religion started, and it's gone to seed now. God can't do
anything without man. How do you plant this first garden?
You know, when God told Job to gird up your lawns, I want you
to answer me. Job and all his friends, you
know, they're trying to figure everything out. And the first
thing God spoke out loud, He says, who is this doing all this
talking? Boy, that's what this world needs
to hear. And who is this doing all this talking? Darkening counsel by words without
knowledge. You don't start with God, you
don't know anything. Don't start with the Creator.
You're in the dark about everything. And then God went on to say to
Job, the next thing he said to Job, and his friends heard it
too, he said, Where were you? Where was thou when I created
the heavens and formed the earth? Where were you? You know, Paul said to Titus,
their mouths, talking about these false preachers and false religions,
he said, their mouths must be stopped. We need to come out
boldly, turn the table on false religion and say to them, man
has no hands but God's hands. Man has no feet but God's feet. Man can do nothing without God.
It's not the other way around. They've got the cart before the
horse, don't they? Man has no hands. God's the potter. What can clay do without the
potter? What can man do without God? He said, by the grace of God,
by the power of God, you are what you are. Have what you have.
Know what you know. Can do what you can do. Without
me, he said, you can do nothing. That's what Scripture says. That's
the God of the Bible. There was no man. God said that
on purpose, that there was no man to till the ground. I know who did. There was a man,
yeah, but it was a God man. He's the gardener. We're going
to look at that later. He's the gardener. That Mary said, she
thought it was the gardener. It was. And the gardener, without
me. And here it says there was no
rain upon the earth. This is significant. There was
no rain, no man to till the ground. No rain. Rain, we need rain. We depend upon rain. Life on
the earth cannot exist without rain. And this rain freely and
sovereignly and amazingly comes, where does it come from? Where
does rain come from? Down from heaven. No rain. But it was not so, I mean, that
we need rain now, but before sin, even before man was created,
before sin, there was no rain. Didn't need it. Why? Look at
verse 5, it says there was a, or verse 6, there was a mist
from the earth, went up from the earth and watered the whole
face of the ground. A mist, not rain, when it came
down, but the earth had this moisture in itself that would
rise up and water the earth like a greenhouse. If you've ever
been in a greenhouse, it's so lush, so full of life and moisture,
isn't it? Moisture. And that was the earth
before sin. Not now. Now we need rain. If the rain doesn't come down,
This place will dry up. It's a dry and a thirsty land. Now what is rain? Anybody? Get your guess? Yeah, okay. It's Christ. Scripture says that of Him. It
speaks of Him as the rain that cometh down. like on the mown
grass. He shall come down like rain
on the mown grass. And then, I don't want to misquote
it, in Isaiah 45, it says this, Drop down, ye heavens, from above. Let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up. Bring
forth salvation. Let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.
Christ is the rain that came down. Well, man was created in
the image of God. Man was a righteous, upright
creature. He was created in the image of
God. Like the earth, he had this moisture. I started to call one
of you, Robin, I started to call you and ask you how much water
is in our bodies. I forget, one time I read that,
what percentage of our bodies. is made up of water. It's a great
portion. Take all the water out of it
and you wouldn't weigh ten pounds. Water. We're made up of a creature
full of water. Moisture. I don't have any pints,
but quite a few. And moisture within. God miraculously made us. We're fearfully and wonderfully
made. And this moisture begins to We begin to lose it in sickness. You notice how your mouth gets
dry and everything. Things like fear dries up. Age. With the onset of age, you're
starting to dry up. You literally start to dry up,
shrivel up. You're losing your moisture.
Until death. And then when death comes, you
will literally shrivel like the grass, withereth and fadeth away,
until you just disintegrate and come into dust without moisture,
without moisture. Man was created in the image
of God. He had this life of God within
himself. Okay? When sin came, he lost
it. He lost the earth, didn't need
the rain to come down. It had this moisture within,
perfect environment. Man, in the image of God, didn't
need rain. He had this life of God in him.
But when sin came, he started to die, shrivel up. Now, he's
got to have the water of life come down to him. Same way with
the earth. Everything in it will die unless
God sovereignly graciously causes it to rain. That's the grace
of God in it. That's Christ come down. And
He's likened to the rain. Turn to Psalm 22 with me. Psalm
22. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. He was made sin And with sin
comes thirst. Man was not a hungry creature. Man didn't live on water. He
didn't have to have water to live. He didn't have to drink
water to live. He didn't have to eat food to
live. He didn't live by that. He lived by the life of God in
him. He didn't need to drink water. He had it within him.
Okay? That's the life of God. But now,
if we don't drink, if we don't eat, if we don't hunger, if we
don't thirst, we're dead. We'll die. Well, Christ being
made sin, He hungered, He thirsted, didn't He? When He hung on the
cross, one of the things He said was, I thirst. Look at Psalm
22. Christ, when He poured out His
soul unto death, verse 14, He said, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax melted in
the midst of my bowel. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the
dust of death." He was made sin and he thirsted. He thirsted. And for us, we turn over a few
more pages to Psalm 32. There are times when we feel
our awful sinfulness. And like David, we say this in
Psalm 32. Look at verse 4. Psalm 32. Day and night thy hand was heavy
upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Think
about it. Selah. Stop and think about it.
We go through dry times, don't we? It's a blessing if you thirst. It means you're alive. And it's new, mostly. We feel like God's hand is heavy
upon us, either in conviction of sin or through some trial
or whatever. And we dry up. We go through
dry times, don't we? Spiritually dry times. And that's
good. It makes Christ the water of
life precious to you. If you never hunger or thirst,
the Lord said, I would that you were hot or cold, but not lukewarm. Hot is good, better. Cold is not good. At least it
makes you desire to be warm. Thirst, dry times spiritually,
it's a hard time. But it's good in that it makes
you thirst for Christ. It makes that gospel, when you
hear it, vital, needful, sweet when you
hear it. So David said, my moisture is
turned into the drought of summer. Well, that's why there's a smitten
rock in the wilderness. That's why water flows from the
rock in a dry and a thirsty land. The gospel is still water of
life to the thirsty soul. Our Lord said, if any man thirsts,
any time, let it come under him. Let it come under me. And out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And that's just
moisture when God recreates a new creature in Christ. He puts Christ
in you, the water of life, the Word. Ephesians 5, 24, I believe
it is, he said, he washed the church with the water, by the
washing of the water of his Word. And when the Spirit of God, Christ,
he puts it within you, he said, out of your belly shall flow
rivers of living water. Just when you need it. Word and
season. Man recreates, regenerates life
in a dead center and gives them this moisture. And then they
have the dew of youth on their brow. And I'll tell you another
thing why there was no rain. What do you have to have in order
to have rain? Clouds. Clouds. What do clouds do? obscuring
the sun. They can't see the sun when there
are clouds. Well, before sin, things were
clear. No need for the rain. Well, look
at verse 7. Now here in our text, verse 7,
it says, God, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. The Lord God. Now notice, I want
you to notice something significant. After the Sabbath, after it says
God, in verse 2, God, the seventh day God ended his work. God blessed
the seventh, which God created. The whole first chapter says
God said. God said. God spoke. God said. Now in chapter 2, it
begins to refer to him as the Lord God. The Lord God. The Lord God. It keeps on referring
to Him as the Lord God. And it talks about Him as actually
doing something before God spoke. And God spoke. And now it says
God formed. It says God breathed. It says God planted. Who? God's the Spirit. God who is Spirit hath no hands
but Christ's hands. Yes, God does have hands, and
those hands have scars in them. He is the Son of His right hand. He said, My right hand, my right
arm hath gotten me the victory. God made bare His arm, His hands. The Lord has put, God has put
all things in Christ's hands. At the name of Jesus, every knee
will bow and every tongue confesses. What? He's Lord. He's the Lord God. Now we're
talking, Brother Stephen, now we're talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ here. There's no doubt in my mind that
that's who this is speaking of. That he's the one that actually
came down in this garden and scooped up some dust and began
to form this marvelous creature in his image called man. He's the one. It's him. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. Proverbs 8 says that. It
says, I was daily his delight before the worlds were made.
But then he said he rejoiced in the habitable parts of the
earth. His delights were with the sons of men. Don't you think
he came down when the first man was made? Yes, he's the one that
made him. He formed it, the Lord God formed it, breathed into
it. This is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ with His own hands, with His own feet, walked this
planet, the image of God, breath, creator of everything, the potter.
He's the gardener, as we say. He's the gardener. He's the one
that planted this garden. He formed man out of the dust
of the earth. Dust. When it keeps telling us
this, that man was of the dust of the ground, and after he fell,
he said, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. God tells
us very plainly that man is an insignificant, frail, finite
dust. Come on, what is man? Why do people think so highly
of themselves when they're nothing but dust? And that's what we'll become.
Dust. What a finite, frail creature
we are. Dust. Wet dirt that is clay. That's what the name Adam means.
Red earth. Red earth. Wet clay. with moisture. Now, this was not the last time
the Lord Jesus Christ worked with clay. Not the last time
the Lord worked with clay. Do you remember another time,
4,000 years later, to prove to us who this is? 4,000 years later,
He came. He walked this earth again. In these last days, God came to
this earth. And there was a blind man that
came to him. And the Lord, it says, scooped
down and got some dust and from his mouth, the moisture in his
mouth, made some clay and put it on his eyes. And that blind
man saw. This is the great potter. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ that formed and sculpted man. Now,
think about this. Try to enter into this scene
here of the Lord sculpting this marvelous creature. The angels were watching this,
I think, watching Him sculpt this. You know, man is a marvelous
creature. What man can do is proof that
God is. You said before, computers are
an amazing and astounding invention, aren't they? The things that
computers can do, the amount of information that computers
can put out and absorb and so forth. That ought to clearly
tell us that the one, the thing that made computers, somebody
had to make that. The brain? There's a bowl of
grey jelly in your head. That is the most amazing thing. And somebody had the computers. It wasn't a big explosion. Now you have computers. That's utterly foolish, isn't
it? What kind of fool would believe
something like that? Well, who made computers? Who made this? Well, and this creature, David
said, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully made. He looked
at himself, David, man, at this marvelous creation, and he said,
I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Whoever made this must
be feared. He's so infinitely higher above
us. God is whose hands our breath
is. He formed man. Angels must have been watching
Him form and sculpt man. And I had some admiration, at
least for the skill of artists and sculptors God has given this
ability to men down through the years, like Leonardo da Vinci.
My, my! Have you seen some of the works
of his hands? You know, some of the paintings
that men and women do look like real life, don't they? Amazing,
amazing. And then the sculptures that
they make, amazing, just amazing. Well, where did they get that? the
great master sculptor and creator. He was making this creature out
of clay. The angels were watching him. What's he doing? He's not giving
an account of his manner. They don't know what he's going
to do. He didn't tell them what he was going to do. And he starts making this
creature. And they watch him form the legs.
Nothing like it. Except they, hey, and in his
body, in his hands. Nothing on earth has these. No
other creature has these. These are marvelous. Nothing
but the Creator had them. And he makes his head, and lo
and behold, Would you look at that? It looks
just like Him. In the image of Him. An image. An image. But it's lifeless. There's no sight in the eyes.
There's no hearing in the ear. There's no touch. There's no
heart. There's none of that. A lifeless
form. What a picture of the gospel
this is. Huh? What a picture. And then that
Lord, the Lord, they watch Him create this being, and then the
Lord puts His mouth over the mouth of this creature of clay
and the nostrils. I'm way over my head right now.
But this is what happened. What a picture of the gospel
this is, huh? Man became a living soul. He
was an inanimate object of clay. And then when the Lord Jesus
Christ breathed his life into him, he became an animate object,
a living soul, animated. What do you think the first thing
he heard was? It wasn't a bird sing. It was
His Creator. His eyes, light came into Him. What did He see? Like that blind
man who saw the Lord Jesus Christ. His Creator. What did He feel
was the first thing? Why, the Lord had Him in His
arms while He breathed. The first thing He felt was that
everlasting arm wrapped around Him. What did he taste? He tasted the kisses of his mouth. What did he smell? Those cheeks
that are like spices. The gospel of Christ is the breath
of life, people. Without it, we're dead. We're
wet dirt. A worthless, lifeless form. Only
when the Holy Spirit breathes, who is the breath of life, and
what does He breathe in us? Christ in us. The breath of life,
the words of life. Christ said, My words are spirit,
they're life. Only when He breathes into us
the gospel of Christ, Christ formed in us life. He hath the
Son, hath life. Only when He breathes into us
are we alive unto God. And what's the first thing that
a dead sinner sees? God. What's the first thing he
hears? The voice of God. Man becomes
a living soul. But back then it said this on
purpose. A living soul. It didn't say
spirit, did it? It didn't say spirit, did it? 1 Corinthians 15. I'll close
with this. And you know, we said I'm getting
way over my head. It was Job that said, I've spoken
things too wonderful for me. I'm going to put my hand over
my mouth, and I'm going to, too, in here in just a minute. Things
too wonderful for me. The soul is what animates this
body. Animals have a soul. Now, don't go running around
telling people I said animals go to heaven or something like
that. I didn't say that. Didn't say that. Job 12.10, Revelation
16.3 speaks of the soul of every living thing. It's what animates
this body. Various creatures have, according
to the wisdom of God, different life. There's a difference between
a fish and a dog, okay? Dogs seem to have Some human
traits, don't they? Sorrow. Joy. My dog used to grin
at me. No, he did. You saw it, didn't
you? Love. Love. A fish can't love. And on and
on it goes, you know. The difference between horses
and cattle that are service animals in the wisdom of God. You usually
don't eat things that love you, do you? You won't kill and eat
something that loves you. You love it. And God in His wisdom,
you see, made these dogs and cats a companion animal, not
food. God in his wisdom, that this
soul is what animates creatures, and man became a living soul.
Now look at 1 Corinthians 15, and this is what Scripture says.
Verse 39, there's a difference. All flesh is not the same flesh.
There's flesh of men, flesh of beasts, flesh of fish and birds,
celestial bodies, and on, go on. There is one glory of the sun,
another glory of the moon, another glory of the star. One star differeth
from another star in glory, so do the various life forms. So
also, verse 42, the resurrection of the dead is sown in corruption. It's raised in incorruption.
It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown
in weakness. It's raised in power. What kind
of body are we going to have? It's going to be a body, but
it's not going to depend on water, food, blood, spiritual body. Let's explain that. I can't.
Read on. It's sown a natural body, verse
44, it's raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, there
is a spiritual body. So it is written, the first man,
Adam, was made a living soul. Read on. What? A quickening spirit. When the Scripture says man is
dead and trespasses in sin, well, he's alive. Yeah, he's got a
soul. But he's no better than the animals. Is he? In fact, he's worse. The ox knows his owner. The ass
knows his master's crib. They sing to their Creator, not
man. He's dead. What does he need? He needs the Spirit of God to
be formed in him. People talk about, he's a spiritual
person. No, he's not. If Christ is not in him, he's
not. This is a new life. This is life that will never
end. Adam had a righteous man. I'm going to get way ahead of
myself here. Adam had a righteous life, but
he wasn't holy as God, or he couldn't have sinned. Right? He couldn't have sinned. Christ couldn't sin. It's impeccable.
He couldn't have been tempted with sin. In Him is no sin. And this new creature, creating
the image of Christ, No, I can't say it. It's the Spirit, the
new spiritual being created. Explain that. I can't. That's
the way it is. That's the way it is. Read on.
Spiritual. Verse 46, how be it that was
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and
afterward that which is spiritual. The first man's of the earth,
earthy. Second man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy." Adam, in Adam, all die. As in the heavenly, such are
they that are heavenly. We've borne the image of the
earthy, we'll bear the image of the heavenly. What's that?
The image of Christ. I've lost you. I've lost me too.
But isn't that amazing? belong unto the Lord, but to
reveal things. God's Word is so perfect. He became a living
soul, not spirit. And he fell. How could he fall? People ask questions like, how
could he fall? He had his own righteousness.
He was in the image of God. He wasn't God. He wasn't God. Christ is the express image of
God. He is God. He can't fall. And
so then this new creature is a spiritual person. He can't
fall. He can't sin. He can't die. He's like crying. You see? All
right. The moisture is bringing up the
breath of life. All right. Thank you.