The Lord God Formed Man

Okay, today we're going to look at Genesis chapter 2. I want to focus on verse 5, 6, and 7. Genesis chapter 2, I'm taking the title for the message from what is found in verse 7. And this is the title and the subject matter. The Lord God formed man out of the dust.

The man did not make himself. He was not a self-made man, was he? The Lord God made man out of the dirt. Plano dirt. Dirt. The word man in the original is where we get the word Adam. As I pointed out in the reading, in verse 15, the Lord God took the man, and notice the marginal reference on the man is Adam, and put him in the garden to work it, to dress it, to till the ground. So, that's where we get the word Adam and man. And it has the meaning of that dirt is red clay. Red clay.

Remember what happened after sin entered in? Turn over here to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3 verse 19. And sin is the result, death is the result of sin. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and dust, this body's going back to the dust.

That's what God says. Remember in Genesis chapter 1, the Lord said, let us make man. Look right across the page, Genesis 1 verse 26, and God said, Let us make man in our image, us, the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, in our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish, over the sea, over the fowl, the air, 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, in the image of God, created he him, male and female, created he them.

God made them upright. Innocent nature, had no sin. Sin had not entered into the picture yet. And this is where we see where you talk about your roots. People want to run their genealogy. A lot of people are looking about their ancestors, where they came from and so forth. And that's okay. I've done that. But when you get right down to it, it all goes back to dirt. That's where we came from, the dirt.

Because God just created one man. Everybody else came from that one man. One man. So Adam, and here's what I want to try to focus on, the gospel picture. Adam, as he's created here in the garden, is the type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. called the second Adam. As we read in 1 Corinthians 15, the first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven, the Lord from heaven. Now we're going to read in a little while, Lord willing, Roman chapter five, where Adam is called a figure, a figure and a type. of him that was to come.

So Adam was, according to what Paul writes in Romans 5, Adam was definitely a type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how was he a type and picture? He was a representative man. A federal head, the old timers called him. Now, get a hold of this. And this is so. This is so, and I'm going to repeat this statement later on.

But get a hold of this, the Lord our God is going to deal with all men, all humanity, in those two representative men. In Adam, what happened? Death. In Christ, what happened? Life and salvation. God is going to deal with all men everywhere, including you. In Adam or in Christ. In Adam or in Christ?

We read in Romans 5, and Lord willing, we'll go back and read this in a minute. Romans chapter 5, it talks about that representation so clearly. But in Romans 5 verse 19, by one man's disobedience, that was Adam, the first Adam, many became sinners. Even so, by the obedience of another, who is that? The other. That's the second man from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. Even so, by the Lord Jesus Christ, by His obedience shall many be made righteous. Now how is a sinner made righteous? I hope you understand it's not by what you do. Everything that you do is tainted with what you are. What are you? I'm a sinner.

Guilty, vile, and wretched, and that's true of every human being. No matter when he was born, what century he lived in, the first century or the last century. And Adam all died, and Adam all sinned, and Adam all died. We read earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, 21, and Adam all died, right?

You got that? In Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, all that are in Him are made to live forever. We have eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is our life, is our salvation. Now let me go back to Genesis 2 verse 4 for just a minute. These are the generations. You see that word generations? And I looked that word up. It has to do with births. These are the births of the heavens. And it's always plural.

God created the heavens. however many billions and billions of stars there are, and how many galaxies there are, the Lord made all of them by the breath of His mouth. He created all things, the birth of all things, the heavens and the earth. He made this earth. He spoke this earth into existence out of nothing. You remember Genesis chapter one, verse one, in the beginning, God created the heaven, God created the earth. God created these things, the heaven and the earth. God created all the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

God, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, through Moses, he adds another word that we haven't seen before. When he described himself before as God, and that word is Elohim, Almighty, Power, but here he adds a word, notice, capital L-O-R-D, Lord God. And that's mentioned 10 times, 10 times in this chapter It's mentioned 28 times in the book of Genesis where it says, Lord God, capital L, capital O, capital R, D, God. And it's mentioned together 519 times in the Old Testament. Now Elohim means God of all power.

Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God, but He's manifested in three distinct persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. These three are one. Each person in the Godhead has all power, all authority. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all have all authority over all things.

And this word, Lord, means Jehovah. And it means God of perfection. God of everlasting, eternal perfection. Nothing need be added. He is the perfect, eternal God. Let's turn and read that here in the book of Psalms. Find Psalm 90. You bookmark Genesis 2 and turn to Psalm 90. verse 1, Psalm 90 verse 1, and the Lord, Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. He's Jehovah, the almighty, the everlasting, perfect God, and he's Elohim, the God of all power.

So you put together the two names, he has all power and all perfection over all things. This is the one who is our God. This is the one who is our God, who has done all things for us, who has given us all things in salvation, This is in the bulletin today.

I try to put a scripture in the bulletin every week. Don't turn and look at it, but let me just read it to you. has made me glad through thy work, I will triumph in the works of thy hand. O Lord, how great are thy works, and thy thoughts toward me are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not, neither does a fool understand.

Lord God, thou hast made me glad through what he has done for us. We have triumphed in the work of his hand. And that's the only place where we have any kind of victory, is through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the God that we have to do with. We read last week, Hebrews chapter four, neither is there any creature that's not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. This is the God to whom you are answerable and accountable and responsible unto this God who is God. This God that reveals himself as absolute Lord and God over all things and above all things, not only in creation, He created all things by the word of His power. Not only over providence, of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory both now and forever, but especially in salvation. He is the God of salvation. As we often say, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is His doing, His doing.

This is familiar, but don't turn, I'll just read it to you. In Psalm 115, we read verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathens say, where is now their God? David answers that when he is asked, Where is your God? Our God is in the heavens, and He has done whatsoever He hath pleased. Psalm 135 says, Whatsoever the Lord is pleased to do, that's exactly what He does.

No one can hinder Him. No one can handcuff him. No one can restrain the almighty power of God. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth, and no one can stay his hand or say to him, Lord God almighty, what are you up to?

He works all things after the counsel of his own will, and saving faith bows to that. Thou art my God. I rest in everything that He does is right. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? You remember what Job said when the Lord took all of his cattle, all of his fields, killed ten of his children all at once? He didn't say, God, that's not fair, that's not right. You know what he said?

He worshipped God. He said, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Well, I want that kind of attitude, don't you? I want that kind of... It's... When Samuel told the old priest Eli, who had two rebel boys, and he went and told Eli, he said, God's going to kill both your sons. You remember what Eli said?

It's the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight. So it's the Lord that rules and reigns over all things. Now look at verse 5 and 6. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew, the Lord God had not caused it to reign upon the earth, and there was not a man, to work the ground, or to till the ground, or to serve the ground. Now, the Lord our God created all things by His wise and eternal decrees. We read about that in Genesis chapter 1. It talks about when the third day was completed, the trees and the plants and so forth. The Lord, in the beginning, before sin entered in God's creation, the plants and the vegetation were watered from the earth upward. It had not rained, as it says there, in verse 6, but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. Had not rained, they didn't know what rain was. Remember when Noah told them it's going to rain and started building that ark? They said, what's rain? We don't know what rain is. Well, they found out later, didn't they?

The earth in and of itself did not generate the plants, they were created and planted by God, right? That's what it says. God created them, God planted them, God watered them, God took care of them. Now here's the gospel point. The plant of the gospel of God's grace, the plant of grace and salvation in our heart is not germinated by our wicked fallen nature in the soul of our wicked nature, but rather planted by the sovereign hand of Almighty God, giving us a new heart. planting within us a new nature and a new heart by the hands of His sovereign grace and purpose. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Of His fullness have we all received grace for grace. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now, I want to show you that scripture over here in Isaiah 61. Turn there. Grace has been planted in our heart. That is, Christ has been planted in our heart. Christ in you is a hope of glory. But it's described here, the branch in my planting, the work of my hand, Isaiah 61, look at verse 3.

And this is a prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. I'm reading verse 1 to proclaim liberty to the captive, opening the prison to them that are bound. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance over God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that morning Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord." It's God has planted salvation. Faith and grace and mercy doesn't bloom in His heart by nature, in the soil of our guilty nature. It has to be planted there by the hand, by the hand of Almighty God. The hand of Almighty God.

Now, turn back to Genesis. I had another reference here, if I can find it here. In Psalm 92, it said, The Lord the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. This is Psalm 92 verse 13. Those planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He's my rock. There's no unrighteousness in Him. So we have This planting of the Lord, and the Lord planting those plants and trees in the garden, is a picture of what God does in our heart.

Now, the second thing I want us to look at, in the last part of verse 5, And the Lord God had not called it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. Now, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. The rain did not come down from heaven, until sin entered in. Even in the days of Noah, there was no rain until the Lord was pleased to send that judgment in a way of rain for 40 days, 40 nights.

It covered the highest mountain by, I think, what, 20 feet? The highest mountain. So this whole earth that God created was covered with water. It flooded. Flooded. Isn't it quite amazing that you can go to the high mountains out west and you can find sea creatures, fossils of sea creatures, way up on the mountain? How'd they get there? Well, God sent a flood. God sent a flood.

Now, two things about water in Scripture. Water in Scripture sometimes can represent judgment. Judgment. Judgment. The water in Noah's day and the flood in Noah's day was God's wrath and judgment against sin. Remember he said he looked upon the thoughts and imagination of every heart and there's only evil continually. You remember that? Genesis 6, 5. So water can represent judgment. But water in the scripture can also represent life-giving water. Life-giving water. It also can be a symbol of blessings. Blessings of grace. Now I want you to turn to Psalm 72. Psalm 72. Psalm 72, verse 6. Psalm 72, let's read verse 5.

They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endureth throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass as showers that water the earth. In His days shall righteousness flourish and the abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

So there we see the rain come down from heaven. We also read in Ephesians 5, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by his word. So the doctrine and the word of God comes down like rain. Now, where would we be without the rain from heaven?

We're going through a dry spell right now and it makes it tough on the vegetation, doesn't it? God sends the rain where he will. It'll rain over there on that county, over on this county it'll be bone dry. If it rained that way somewhere in some state over here, it'd be bone dry. God sends the rain where he pleases. Same thing is true with the blessings of the gospel. He'll have mercy on whom he will. He'll have compassion on whom he will.

But water here is also a symbol of life-giving water. How dependent we are upon water. You can't live naturally very long without water. You have to get a drink of water somehow, some way. Remember the woman at the well in John chapter 4. Whosoever our Lord said to her, Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." Remember what she said? Lord, give me that water. I want that water.

Just as this life naturally is so dependent upon water, how much more upon that spiritual life-giving water in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this scripture, Revelation 22. And the Spirit and the bride say, come. Let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life Freely. I like that word freely. This is free water. Free water. We pay that water bill every month, don't we? It's not free. Not free. This water of life is free.

It flows from the Savior himself. Listen to this scripture. I wrote this down. This is from John 7, 37. The last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And then Isaiah 32. We've looked at this several times.

A man shall be a hiding place from the wind. A covert from the tempest, rivers of water in a dry place. The Lord Jesus Christ is the river of life. A shadow of a great rock out of a weary, weary land. You remember Isaiah 55? Oh, everyone that's thirsty, come eat to the water. Come and drink, yea, come buy wine, milk, without price, without money, and without pride. Free. Salvation's a free gift of God. Now, that gets us down to verse 7. And the Lord God formed man. And I looked that word up, formed. It kind of has a sense of squeezing. Squeezing like a lump of clay. Squeezing it together.

And He formed the man out of the dust. And he breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The Lord God formed and fashioned a man, Adam, out of the dust of the ground. It was common dust, not gold dust, not diamond dust, not pearl dust, plain old red clay.

You remember Isaiah 64, verse 8? Thou art our Father, we are the clay, thou art the potter, we're all the work of thy hand. The work of thy hand. And God knows our frame. Remember, turn to Psalm 103. God knows our frame. He does. Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verse 10. Psalm 103, verse 10.

He hath not dealt with us after our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He dealt with our sin in Christ. For as the heaven is high above the earth, verse 11, Psalm 103, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression from us.

Well, that's good news. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. For as man his days are as grass, as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth. The wind passes over and it's gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his children unto the children's children. The Lord knows our frame. The Lord knows that we are but dust.

Let me read this one to you. Reference here, Psalm 139. David said this, I will praise thee, Psalm 139, 14, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well. Marvelously and wonderfully made. Job said this, I'm formed out of the clay.

God breathed into Adam, this lifeless lump of clay, God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul, a living being, a living creature, if you will. The Spirit of God entered into this. God breathed the breath of life and man became a living soul, a living soul. a mortal body and an immortal soul. One mortal body material, one immortal soul that's immaterial. The soul of man never dies. God breathed into man and he became a living soul.

Now listen to this scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. The dust shall return to the earth, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. So this body, this dust is going back to the dust, and the spirit that God gives, the soul that God gives, at death what happens?

For a believer, at death there's a separation. There's a separation of a soul. I have a body, I am a soul. There's a separation at death for a believer now, a separation from the soul. The soul from the body, to be added from this body is to be present with the Lord immediately. The Lord told that dying thief, today we're going to paradise. Wherever that is, that's the third heaven that Paul talked about. Paradise.

He's still there with the Lord. waiting for the resurrection of his body. They took his lifeless body down from the cross and put that dying thief, the leaving thief, in the ground and his body's still there. He's not there. Where's he at? He's still with the Lord.

One day when the Lord comes back, there's going to be a resurrection of believers and unbelievers, but there will be a resurrection of the life, and that soul redeemed by the blood of Christ will be united with that new body, glorious body like unto the Lord's glorious body.

That's what predestination is all about, isn't it? Being predestinated to conform to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord God... A very important lesson. The Lord our God formed one man. That's what the scriptures teach. We all issued from that one man, Adam. When Adam stood, we stood. When Adam sinned, we sinned. When he fell, we fell into sin as well. That's why all men born in this life come forth from the womb speaking lies.

Did you teach your children to lie, and to cheat, and to steal, and to not share their toys? You didn't teach them that. You taught them just the opposite. Why do they do those things? Because they're born in sin, shaping in iniquity. When Adam stood, we stood. When Adam sinned, we sinned in him. We fell in him. We are all born in sin. His sin was charged to us. Wherefore, by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men. The wages of sin is death.

When anybody ever dies, It's the result of S-I-N. It may be cancer. It may be something else. But it's the result of S-I-N. And Adam all dying. Now, get a hold of this. Get a hold of this. I heard this statement years ago, and it really shocked me. It really shocked me.

An old faithful preacher said this, We're raised up from the guilt of sin in the same manner in which we fell, only in a different man." Did you get that? We're raised up in the same manner, representation, imputation, in the same manner we fell, only in a different man. The second man is the Lord from heaven. You see what he's saying?

That old preacher was right, wasn't he? I've come to understand that better now, not fully, but better, We're going to, God, and here's that statement I said in the beginning, God's going to deal with all men everywhere, all people everywhere that ever lived, in those two representative men. And Adam all died, right?

And Christ, the second Adam, shall all be made alive. That makes me want to be found in Christ, be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness, but the one that is given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see a contrast between the first Adam and the second Adam. The first Adam was made a living soul. The second Adam was made a quickening spirit. The first Adam was of the earth, earthy. The second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the Lord from heaven. In the first Adam, we were made sinners. In the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, we're made righteous in Him. In first Adam, death. In the second Adam, what? We have life in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see how important this gospel lesson is about these two representative men. These two representative men. In Adam, all died. In Christ, shall all be made alive. I want everyone here that has a Bible to turn to Roman chapter 5. And we'll wind this up. Roman chapter 5. Roman chapter 5. This should be familiar to most of you because we've studied through the book of Romans several times. Look at verse 12.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned. Now we're gonna see exactly how that happened in Genesis chapter three. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude or likeness of Adam's willful transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For through the offense of one, many be dead. Much more, much more. I love those two words. Much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned. He's making a comparison here. This is so much better. So is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation. In Adam, we die.

But the free gift is of many offenses unto justification, justified freely by his grace. For if by one man's offense death reign by one, that's true, much more, they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. I love those words, don't you? Verse 18, therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. All men in Christ. Now verse 19, Romans 5, 19, for as by one man disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. There's those two men. You see that? It's such a vital lesson, such an important lesson. Two more verses. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.

But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace reigns through Righteousness. Now, whose righteousness is he talking about? You know it's Christ, right? Jehovah said, Canoe, the Lord, the Lord, our, the Lord, our righteousness. Our Lord asked this question, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What would a man give in exchange for his soul? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. He is the only Savior of sinners.

The Lord God Formed Man

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