Well, I want to speak to you
this evening on the first man. That's my subject, the first
man. And I feel like I need to go
back to the very first verse of Genesis chapter one and just
say a few words about it. And in the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. And with those words, our faithful
creator, speaks to us through the inspired pen of Moses. God breaks the silence of eternity
past and he makes known to us the very first work in what we
call time, that is the work of creation. I was thinking today
as I was working on this message this morning of what the Lord
said to Abraham when God was ready to destroy Sodom. He was ready to destroy the Sodomites,
the perverts of those of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of
the plain. But before he did that, he said, and we're privy
to God speaking within himself. And he says, shall I hide from
Abraham the thing which I do? And so he told Abraham what he
was going to do. And I say that our covenant God
loves us to such an extent that he is not going to hide from
us the great things that he's going to do. And so he begins
the book of God. It's the very first statement
of a holy scripture. He begins by saying, he commences
by saying, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth. He purposed this great salvation
for us back in eternity past, and now he goes about bringing
it all to pass. And the very first thing that
he must do is, of course, create all things, because it is upon
this earth that God will bring to pass his eternal purpose of
redemption. Our Lord Jesus, we know He's
the Lamb of God who died for the sins of His people, but the
scripture says He's the Lamb who was slain from before the
foundation of the world. So before Genesis 1-1 ever happened,
our Lord Jesus, in the mind and purpose of God, was that Lamb
that God appointed, that God chose to be the Savior of His
people, but He's got to really die. And in order to really die,
he's got to have a body. And in order to have a body,
he's got to have a location where that body will dwell. And so
God commences, in the very beginning of this book, He commences by
saying, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And so he begins his purpose of redemption. And of course,
as we go through the Old Testament, we see God working in all things
that which we call his providence. And I like to tell people what
providence means because I fear that sometimes we can use some
words that folks don't understand what they mean. Providence is
just God directing all things to the end that He Himself has
determined. Now, God has determined that
the Savior die upon the cross of Calvary as the substitute
of his people to be the sacrifice of all of the elect of God. Well,
in order to bring that to pass, there's got to be another thing
that has to happen, and it's got to happen first. And so,
this is how God begins the book with creation. And this is God's
inspired word. This isn't what Moses thinks
about it. This is not according to the
history of Israel. This is not reading from the
writings of, say, one of the Jewish historians like Josephus,
who can give us some very good information, but this doesn't
come from any of those. This is the word of the living
God. God has left on record the beginning
of this earth. And even as he has recorded the
beginning of the earth and the beginning of the heaven, so he
has recorded in the end of the book that this heaven and this
earth are going to be renovated by fire. And so from the beginning,
God tells us, this is how it all got started. And then when
we go to the book of Revelation, God says, this is how it's all
going to end. And we know that everything is
moving according to the eternal purpose of our God. Now, I think it is fair to say
that anybody who rejects the creation record that is given
throughout the Bible, but especially right here in Genesis chapter
one, anybody who denies that God created the heaven and God
created the earth and all that in them is, anybody who denies
this makes a blatant attack upon the word of God. And we've got
to understand that. This is not a light thing. This is not an insignificant
thing. Well, I just don't believe that,
but I believe about Jesus. Well now, wait a minute. You
can't pick and choose which portions of the Word of God that you're
going to receive and believe and which portions you're going
to reject. And really, as I read this, I
think it all stands or falls according to your reception of
Genesis chapter one, God's record of creation. And then in chapter
three, God's record of the fall. And then at the end of chapter
three of Genesis, God's record of the restoration. because this
lays the groundwork for all of the Word of God, and you either
receive the beginning of it, or in essence, you've tossed
it all aside as being needless. It's no small thing to deny the
straightforward account of creation in Genesis chapter one. If we
can't trust the creation account, can you trust anything else in
the scriptures? And of course the answer is no.
So it all stands or falls together. If you do away with in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth, you've done away with
the workmanship of God of all things. If you do away within
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, then you've
done away with the ownership of God and the absolute sovereignty
of God, His right to do what He's pleased to do with all of
creation. If you do away within the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth, you've done away with
divine providence that God is carrying out His purpose in heaven. and upon earth. And if you do
away with in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,
you've done away with God's creative act and therefore you're ultimately
going to have to deny his act of redemption because it's like
a domino effect. And in essence, those who deny
the creative record of God. They've done away with God. That's
what they've done. They've just done away with God. So understand the Word of God
stands in its entirety or it falls apart if this isn't accurate. If chapter one cannot be taken
as factual, then we need not go any further. If the enemy,
if the enemy can erode our belief in the beginning of the book
of God, if they can, if the enemy and the enemy of our souls is
Satan, And He has many false prophets in this world. He has
demons who labor at His command. If He can get people to just
do away with Genesis chapter 1, then the Word of God just
begins to fall apart. And that's what He wants to happen.
What He wants is to put a doubt in your mind And in the minds
of everyone who would pick up the Bible and read it, he wants
to put a doubt in your mind as to the accuracy of the Word of
God. In fact, in Genesis chapter 3,
he begins by, he tempts Eve, hath God said? Is this what God
said? And then he just blatantly says,
ye shall not surely die. And if he could get her to just
disbelieve the word of God, he's gonna be triumphant over her.
And he was, he was. So this is very important. And
I know that There are lots of people who
put a question mark upon the Word of God. And there are even
people who profess to be evangelicals, who have serious doubts about
the reality of creation, the reality of the fall of Adam.
There are people who say, hey, I'm a Christian, but you know,
I just can't believe that all it says about the flood. And
on and on they go. Well listen, if you can't believe
the record of creation, you're not going to believe the record
of Jesus Christ because He mentioned creation. He mentioned the Creator. And if you have difficulty with
the fall of Adam, into sin, him being the representative of all
people, then you're going to have difficulty with Jesus of
Nazareth because he taught the sinfulness of man. He even said,
I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. But
then again, you may be, I'm sure none of you are, and I hope no
one who's watching by way of the internet is like this, but
you may be like that preacher who's got a huge audience who
says, I don't like to even mention the word sin. It's so negative. It's so negative. Well, God Almighty
mentions, He mentions the origin of sin. He mentions the reality
of sin. He tells us how we came to be
sinners. And He sets forth the remedy
for our sin. Listen, if you don't know what
the disease is, or if you deny what the disease is, well, you
won't be interested in the remedy. The disease, the leprosy is that
of sin. And the remedy is to be found
in the stripes of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his stripes you were
healed, is what the scripture says. So, God made all things. That passage in Proverbs chapter
16 and verse 4, the Lord hath made all things for himself.
Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. And Romans 11 36, for of him
and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. And let me talk to you
about this first man. And I'll show you seven things
pertaining to this first man Adam. You might want to jot them
down. You can use this for a devotional
sometime or other if you want to. If you do some preaching,
you might want to use it as an outline in preaching. Number
one, his creation. And this is found, of course,
and I'll have to go back to chapter one, verse 26. And God said,
and the word God is plural. Elohim is plural. Let us make
man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in
his own image, and the image of God created he him. male and
female created he them. And God blessed them and God
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth. Here is the creation of man on
day number six. Now, all of chapter one deals
with the subject of creation. And of course, here's the glory
of God's creation, the crowning glory of his creation is that
of man. That's his most important work.
But as we get into the second chapter, the Lord amplifies the
creation of man. And he doesn't enlarge upon his
creation of the other things that he has made. But you see,
man is, this is the one who's made in the image of God. This
man, Adam, he's a representative man. He represents all the human
race. We're all in his loins, as it
were. And so His creation is that which
is vital here. Now in chapter 1 we have kind
of a general view. Here's all of creation, all of
it being the work of the hands of God. The heavens declare His
glory. It's all a revelation of His
handiwork. But there's a special creative
glory about man. And so as we get to the second
chapter, the Lord enlarges upon man. Because all of the rest
of creation, everything else that's set forth in Genesis chapter
1, all of it just sort of sets the stage for man. Now God brings in man. Got everything
ready. You see, God, this is the way
God always works. He makes things ready for His
people, and then He puts His people in. This is the way God
works. You remember our Lord Jesus in
John chapter 14. He says, I go to prepare a place
for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come
again and I'll receive you unto myself. At where I am, there
you may be also. So what is He gonna do? Is He
gonna wait till He prepares us? for where are we gonna go? No,
he prepares where we're gonna go for us. And then he prepares
us for that. And of course, in order to prepare
us, we've gotta have redemption. There's gotta be reconciliation.
There's gotta be the dealing of God with our sins. And then
he's gonna have to go back to glory. So he makes everything
ready and then he'll take us home to heaven. And so this is
the way it was with Adam. Everything is prepared. Everything
is ready. Nothing that needed to be done
is left undone. And having finished everything
else, God says, now it's time to bring man on the scene. And
so he does, he does. And really, when we get to the
second chapter, in verse 4, from verse number four of chapter
two where it says, 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 for there was not a man to till it. There went a mist
up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground
and the Lord transformed man and from that point on to the
end of the book, not just the book of Genesis, but the book
of God. To the end of Revelation chapter
22, everything has to do with the history of man in Christ
Jesus. And God's people, men and women,
ordained from old eternity unto everlasting life, redeemed by
the blood of the Son of God, regenerated by the Spirit, all
of the rest of the Word of God has to do with man being brought
to and made like unto our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the
rest of the Bible is about. So here we have the creation
of Adam. Back in the office, Bill read
to us concerning God, our great potter. Well, that's the meaning
there in verse seven, and the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground as a potter. That's the idea, he's the potter. Why was Adam shaped like he was
made? Well, he was shaped as he was
shaped, he was made as he was made, and you and I came into
the world, all of us men like we are, because God, before the
world began, ordained a body for the Lord Jesus Christ, and
Adam's body was patterned after the one that God ordained for
his son. You see, really, He's the very
first man our Savior is in the mind and purpose of God. So here
we have the creation of man. And we learn from Romans chapter
five and verse 11, that Adam was a figure of our Lord Jesus. And of course the word figure,
some of you may use a New King James Version. If you have that,
you'll read there in Romans chapter five, that it uses Adam as a
figure or Adam as the New King James Version says type. Adam
was a representation of Him who was to come. And so, beginning
here in the second chapter, we're launched into the great story
of man on this earth. And there's something very significant
about the second chapter. And it is this, we're introduced
to God by a new name. by a new name. As you go back
into the first chapter, you'll find 32 times that our Lord,
the Creator, is referred to as capital G, little o, little d,
which is, if you're interested in the Hebrew, you don't have
to remember this, There ain't no extra charge for this, in
other words. But it's Elohim, which is a plural
word, which refers to the mightiness of God, the greatness of God. And this is the word, this is
the only word for God used in Genesis chapter one, as well
as Genesis chapter two, verses one, two, and three. Actually,
it's only used in verses two and three. It's the only word
for God that's used. It's the one that sets forth
his might. His glorious ability. Because
the Lord is speaking about all of his creation. But, when we
get to Genesis chapter two and verse four, here's a different
word used. God is referred to as the Lord
God. And this is used 11 times in
chapter two. And of course, God is still there,
capital G, little o, little d, because he's almighty. He has
all strength. But the new word we're introduced
to is capital O, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. This
is Jehovah, I am. And the reason he sets himself
forth in this way is because now he's going to show us his
relationship not to creation in general, but to man. To man. To Adam and to Eve. whom we feel, and I'm quite certain
of it because God taught them the gospel, they were elected
in the covenant of grace. And the Lord is going to now
show His relationship to Adam and to Eve. He's God their Savior. That's who He is. But don't forget,
He's almighty. He has all power, He has all
strength. And so this is the way He sets
Himself forth in Genesis chapter 2, throughout the chapter, all
the way to the end of the chapter. This name is brought forth to
show His relationship with man. His relationship with all of
creation is one of power. Might, that's always his relationship
to creation. To the whole earth, to all of
the heavens, to the angels, to the demons, to the devil, to
all mankind in general, he's the mighty God. In fact, that's
one of the titles of our Savior, isn't it, in Isaiah chapter nine? But he has a special relationship
to his people. He's God, our Savior. So there's the creation of man.
Number two, his condition. Verse seven, 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. Man became, he
was upright. He was absolutely sinless, made
in the image of God, Ecclesiastes 9.29, "'Lo, this only have I
found,' that's what Solomon says, "'This only have I found, that
God hath made man upright.'" Upright. He's a righteous man. Adam's a righteous man. Eve was
a righteous woman. These were people who were right
with God. They communed with God. They
had no sin. But they sought out many inventions. There's the fall. They sought
to gratify their flesh and the desires of the flesh. So this
is Adam's condition. Here's the third thing, his location. His creation, his condition,
his location. Had to have somewhere to live.
And we've already studied this to a degree, so I won't spend
much time on this either, but verse eight, and the Lord God,
once again, here's his covenant name to his people. And the Lord God, he planted
a garden eastward into Eden, and there he put the man. He
just, that's where he put him. Well, how come Adam wasn't somewhere
else? Because that's where God put him. Just like God put you
where you are. He's put Adam in paradise. That's where he put the man whom
he had formed. This is location. All things are ready for him.
God put him in paradise. Fourthly, his vocation. Look at verse 15. And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. He's a keeper and he's a tiller.
Now what all this entailed, what all this involved is unknown
because there was no need for sowing, no need for planting,
no need for tilling. There were no weeds, didn't have
to hoe your garden. And after water your garden,
there's no need for irrigation. The Lord watered everything from
the fountains beneath. And we just read that a mist
watered everything and there was no man to take care of everything
because there wasn't a need for a man to take care of everything
until things began to bear fruit. But God assigned to Adam the
duty of keeping the garden. And I don't know what all this
involved, but I thought about this. How many of you grow a
garden? Yeah, you can raise your hand
now. I'm not asking any kind of spiritual question now. You
raise a garden? You grow in a garden? Grow a
few plants? Well, sure, I know y'all are.
Well, gardening is enjoyable. However, We do have to fight the weeds,
the bugs, the pestilence. But can you imagine how wonderful
and enjoyable it would be if in your vegetable garden or
your flower garden, there was nothing to work against you. No bugs to spray for. no weeds, and all you had to do, of course,
there were no, the animals didn't eat meat then, so I would presume,
and I'll step out on a little limb here, so this is not a great,
I'm not making a great theological point here, but I think maybe
Adam would pick things and then give it to the animals, all of
the animals, and it was just an enjoyable experience all the
fragrant flowers, and he'd just go pick them, and Eve, here's
some flowers, and then tomorrow morning he'd just bring her some
more flowers, and just, everything's just beautiful, and God said,
this is your vocation. Keep and till the garden. And moreover, he just worshiped
God. His reason for existing was to
commune with the Lord, to learn, to study, to be educated by God. But then here's the fifth thing,
his probation. Verses 16 and 17, we've studied
this also. 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 thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. One rule, one law, which we know
he broke. The first man failed, but not
the second man, not the last Adam. He didn't fail. Christ Jesus didn't fail. The
Lord from heaven. The first man was of the earth,
earthy. The second man's the Lord from
heaven. Scripture says in Isaiah 42 and verse four, he shall not
fail nor be discouraged till he set judgment in the earth
and the isles shall wait for his law. And we know that this,
we've studied the tree of life as a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And in the, we studied in the
new paradise, there's the tree of life. And it dawned on me
today. I mean, I had noticed the fact
that there was, there's no mention of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil in the second paradise of God. But as I kept thinking
about this the last couple of days, actually, you see the tree
of knowledge of good and evil, that would have been a reminder
of man's failure. But you see in the heavenly paradise,
there is no remembrance of man's failure. There is no remembrance
of our sins. God says your sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. So in the new paradise, the paradise
of God, there is no tree of knowledge of good and evil. Nothing to
remind us of our failures. Here's the next thing about Adam,
and I kind of want to keep these words similar, so I'm gonna say
identification. He identified all the animals.
He identified them and he named them. Identification, verses
18 and 19. The Lord God said, it's not good that the man should
be alone. I will make him and help me for
him. And out of the ground, and it's
amazing, the Lord, the way He tied this together. And I'll
try to bring that out here in a minute to make this clear for
you. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of
the field, every fowl of the air, and He brought them, which
is a picture of the effectual calling, He brought them unto
Adam to see what He would call them, and whatsoever Adam called
every living creature, that was the name thereof." Now, God had
made all of these animals, not evolution. God made them all,
and they were all made of the same stuff Adam was made of out
of the ground that God had made. I can't imagine, I can't imagine
how anybody who wants to be faithful to the scripture could find evolution
in this statement. God made everything out of the
ground. He made them in all of these
animals, animals scattered about the earth. The fowl as well,
he brought them all to Adam, to the man to see what he would
name them or call them. And of course, God did this by
his power. He collects them all. And as
he collected all of these, he made Adam understand this. He brought these animals, male
and female. Male and female. Male and female. You see, God is making an object
lesson for Adam. And he's going to realize his
need. He needs a helpmate. Well, why didn't, if evolution
is true, how come when he named a gorilla, gorilla, Why didn't
he say, hey honey, you wanna come home with me? No, there's
no likeness there. There's no kinship there. There's
no relationship there. This is a man who is made to
realize in the purpose and providence of God that there is no one like
unto himself. No one for Him to love and no
one to love Him. No one for Him to touch and no
one to touch Him. No one with whom He could procreate,
as God had said back in chapter 1, the Lord said, He blessed
him and said, be fruitful, multiply, have kids. And Adam saw the animals, They're
having offspring. He had no offspring. He knew what Adam needed. God
knew what Adam needed better than Adam knew what he needed. And I'll tell you, this is the
way God works. He makes us know what we need
And then, He gives us what we need. And the greatest illustration
of that is, He makes us know we need a Savior. The Lord doesn't give us Christ
Jesus without creating within us a need for the Savior. We
need Him. And having made known to us our
need, He gives it to us. That's the same way it was with
Adam. God created a need. And then he met that need. Which brings me to the last thing,
the relation. God made for Adam a wife. You'll notice In verse 20, also
in verse 18 and 20, God says, I'll make him a helpmeet. I'll
make him a help, which really means one likened to him. And meet means one who is fit
for or worthy of him. An animal wasn't worthy of Adam. This man, Adam, he's the crowning
glory of God's creation. A monkey's not worthy of this
man. The only one who would be worthy
and fit to be a companion to this man must be made by God
himself. See, it makes him a wife. And of course here you have a
beautiful picture of Christ, the bridegroom, as seen in Adam,
and the church, the bride, who is brought to Christ Jesus. And so look at verse 21. The Lord's gonna do something
about this. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept. And I don't think
it's reaching too far here to say that this sleep is a picture
of the death of our Lord Jesus. Because in the New Testament,
isn't sleep likened unto death? Or death is likened unto sleep?
He sleepeth. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
is what the Savior said. And so God put Adam in a deep
sleep, even as God put His Son in the sleep of death. It's the
only way He could save us. And He took one of His ribs and
closed up the flesh thereof. Eve was made as a result of the
wounding of Adam. And we came forth as a result
of the wounding of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the writers said, And
I read this many years ago and I thought it was a sweet thing.
He said that the Lord didn't make Eve from a part of Adam's
head to rule over him. And he didn't make Eve from the
bottom of his foot, from a bone in his foot to be trodden underfoot
by him. But he made Eve from a rib next
to his heart. under his arm to be caressed,
to be protected, to be loved. The Lord made a woman and watch
it, brought her under the man. Don't you see effectual calling
there? Brought her, the Lord, the rib
which the Lord God had taken from him, made he a woman and
brought her unto her." Now, let me ask you, in your Bible, do
you have a little letter or something beside made or in the center
column? In my Bible, it says verse 22,
made in the Hebrew is builded. Anybody see that? You see that
in your Bible? Builded. That's what the Lord
did. He built for Adam. A wife. And the Lord Jesus said, I will,
what did he say? Build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. And Adam in verse 23 says, we're
one. This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. We're one. We're one. And that says forth the eternal
union of Christ Jesus with his people. We're one. And notice verse 24. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh. It's a really interesting verse.
Because it doesn't say, therefore shall a woman leave her father
and mother. And we tend to think that we
kind of read over and say, well, I guess that's what it says.
No, that's not what it says. It says, therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother. and he shall cleave unto his
wife. They shall be one flesh." What
does this mean? Here's a picture. Our Lord Jesus
leaves the Father. He leaves the Father. He comes
to earth to save His people and to embrace us with an everlasting
love and we're one with Him. He left him. He left home. That's
what he did. He left home. Of course, now
he's gone back. And verse 25, and they were both
naked. The man and his wife, and they
weren't ashamed. They weren't ashamed. There was
no evil there. There was no wickedness there. There was no ungodly thoughts
there. There was no sin. They desired each other, as it
should be in a marriage. And in a spiritual way, our Lord
Jesus desires us. And we desire Him. He's called
the desire of all nations. And we come together in union
according to the purpose of God. We're one. in Jesus Christ. Beautiful picture in there. It's
the first man. But as we shall see next Wednesday
evening, man failed. He failed. But that's in the
purpose of God too. Because God had already made
provision of that for that as well. because nothing ever takes
him by surprise. He had a solution to the problem,
and we're so thankful. Well, hope that'll help you a
little, encouraging that God continue our education of the
scriptures and the greatness of our God in creation and in
providence and in salvation. Lord, take the things that we
have spoken tonight, take the word of God and put it in our
hearts. Let us see the words of scripture,
yes, but let us also see the message of scripture. For here's
the valuable spiritual lessons to be learned. as we behold this first man. We see how you made him, where
you put him, the circumstances in which he dwelt, the abilities
you gave him. And then we see how that you
brought him to have a wife. And we're thankful that our Lord
Jesus is our great husband, the husband of the church, who cares
for his bride, his wife. And in him and in his beauties,
we're not ashamed, for we have his righteousness. And so we thank you this evening,
Father, for the grace that you give us in Christ. Bless your
dear people. Send us home with joy and happiness
in Him, whom to know is life everlasting. In His name we pray.
Amen.