Turn back to Genesis chapter
2. I titled this message, The First
Marriage. The First Marriage. God instituted
the first marriage. God Almighty conducted the first
marriage. He conducted the first marriage.
And I want us to see this as we go through this tonight. Now, chapter one is a summary
of creation. God created the heaven and the
earth. And he created it in six days,
and I believe he's created it in six 24 hour days. And chapter two is the order
in which God created Adam and Eve in the first marriage that
we have in the Scriptures is Adam and Eve. Now, after God created all things,
after He created everything, you see there in verse 31 of
chapter 1, and God saw everything that He had made, and behold,
it was very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. And then after that, on the seventh
day, he rested. It says he rested. Not because he was tired, but
because it is finished. That's what it means. He says
in verse 1, the heavens and the earth were finished, and the
host of them He's not been creating since then. He finished them
all at that time. In those six days, God created
the heavens and the earth and the host of them, and He said,
It's finished. There was one other time, and
you know well, when God cried, It's finished. And that's when
He finished our redemption. And then there's going to be
another time whenever the last soul is saved, born of God, regenerated,
and then it will be finished. It will be folded up, and this
world and earth will be done away with. And we'll be forever
with the Lord. Our husband. We'll be forever
with our husband. But he said here, it's finished.
And God rested. He rested. Boy, if we could learn
to do that. If we could just learn to rest. I think we probably live in one
of the most restless countries on this earth. I believe it was
Evelyn I heard say when she was in here, Evelyn Clark, she said,
this is the busiest people I've ever seen. She's talking about
just people in general. This is the busiest country I've
ever seen. Just going, going, going. Always having to have
something to do. But to rest, you know, it tells us in Hebrews
to labor to rest. We have to labor to rest in Christ. Just rest in Him and trust in
Him. But God, it says, rested because
He finished what He came to do. And He rested on the seventh
day from all His works which He had made, although He still
works all things now in providence, taking care of His creation.
My Father, Christ said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. But He rested from creating.
He made everything just as He purposed to make it. And then
He rested. And He rested, it says, on the
seventh day. And God ended His work which He had made, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
And God blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it. He set
it apart. And he blessed it, gave a special
blessing to it, because in it he had rested from all his work
which God created and made. He sanctified the seventh day.
He set it apart. And he set it apart as a day
of rest, as an emblem, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
know that Christ, we know that He is our Sabbath, and we know
that He is blessed. of God. He is blessed of God,
and we are blessed of God in Him, and He is our rest. Christ is our rest, and in Christ
we cease from all our works of righteousness, self-righteousness. We cease from all our works of
self-righteousness and rest in Him as God rested from all His
works of creation. That's mentioned over there in
Hebrews chapter Our Lord cried on the cross,
it is finished. His work of redemption is finished.
Now, let's rest in Him who is our Sabbath, who is blessed of
God, who is set apart, who is holy. Now, let's look at the
order in which God created Adam and Eve. There is an order in
which God works. He works in order. It says in
verse 7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Adam was created,
not from gold, not from all these, I just read
you where it says, in the land of Havilah where there's gold,
and he said, that gold is good? Well, he wasn't created from
that. Dust. Dust. The Lord said, from dust
thou art and dust thou shalt reach. Dust. Dirt. Red earth. Clay. Clay pots. That's what
we are. Easy crack, too. Easy to crack. Made from the dust of the ground.
I tell you what, this ought to humble us. They sought the humblest. That's probably why most men,
especially the more educated they've become, they don't want
to look at that and believe that. We're made of dust. We're better
than that. No. Made of dust. Made of dust. That's what he made Adam from,
the dust of the ground. And the rest of the human race, the rest
of this human race came from Adam. God created that one man,
and the rest of us came from that one man. Adam was the federal
head of the human race, and I'm glad God made it that way. I'm
glad God put all of us in Adam and let all of us fall in Adam,
because that way we can be raised in Christ by one man. By one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners. By the obedience
of one, many are made righteous. I'm glad, I see the wisdom of
God in it. I see the wisdom of God in this. Making Adam the federal head
of the human race. And what he was, and what he
became, we are. We are. Adam became what God
did not make him to be, he became sin. And then we were born from
him, and that's our problem. And that's where we got it, from
our father Adam. Our nature came from Him. But
God made Him from the dust of the ground, and He breathed into
His nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Man received his life from his Creator, making him responsible
to Him. God created all this. All this is His. We're all responsible
to God as our Creator. God gave him life and he gave
us life through him. And man was not made to be like
the beast of the field. He wasn't made to be like that.
It says man became a living soul. A living soul, a responsible
soul. He had the ability to reason.
The animals, the beast of the field, they didn't have that
kind of ability. God gave that to Adam. He had
the ability to love. He had the ability to think and
to feel and to speak and to have fellowship with God in a way
that the rest of his creation could not do. Man became a living
soul. He was made, it says, in the
image of God. God made Adam in his own image. He said, let us make man in our
own image and after our own likeness. He didn't do that with any of
the rest of his creation. He was made to have fellowship with
God in a way that the rest of creation couldn't do. What a creation. You just have
to imagine the perfection of Adam. When God made Adam, he
was perfect. No blemish. Stately man. I bet he was just a stately man.
Perfection. And we know this, we know that
the first Adam was a type of that second Adam. That's why
he made the first Adam, because he's a type in a picture of that
second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a type in representation.
He's a type in his fellowship with God and in this marriage
that he has with Eve. You see, the first Adam, as I'd
mentioned, represented the whole human race. And he brought sin
in by his disobedience. Because of his disobedience,
many were made sinners. But the second Adam, which is
the Lord from heaven, he represented all that was given
to him by the Father before the world was. And he brought in
an everlasting righteousness. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness, and they are made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, the first Adam, after
he fell, he brought in death. The second Adam brought in life. More than just this breathing
the breath of life, he brought in spiritual life. You see, we
have in the second Adam what we could never have in the first
Adam. We have spiritual life, the life of God's Spirit in us,
partakers of the divine nature. The first Adam couldn't give
that to us. The first Adam, it says, was
of the earthly. We'll see this as we go along
here. The first Adam lost fellowship with God. He had fellowship with
God, then he lost it. But the second Adam, the Lord
from heaven has restored us to that fellowship never to be lost
again. Never to be lost again. God chose Adam's bride. He chose his bride. He not only
chose her, he made her. He made her. Even as God the Father chose
his son's bride. and is making her. He's still
putting her together. I don't think it will be too
much longer and it will be finished. And God joined them together,
Adam and Eve, as He has joined us to His Son in regeneration. And then it says here, God planted
a garden, a place for Adam to live. and enjoy the fruit of God's
labor. And I thought of that scripture in John 14. Our Lord
said, I go and prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself,
that where I am, there you may be also. God prepared a place,
a garden, a beautiful garden. It's unimaginable. I'd say that
garden was just unimaginable. God made it. It's perfect. And
then he prepared it for Adam and then put Adam in it. Our
Lord said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And I'm going
to come and get you. And I'm going to take you to
that place. And it's going to be unimaginable. Just unimaginable. And the Lord, it says in verse
8, And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He
put the man whom He formed, whom He made. And out of the ground
made the Lord God to grow Every tree that is pleasant to the
sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst
of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
Then God took Adam, He took him and He says He put him, He led
him. I think He took him by the hand
and led him into that garden, into that beautiful garden that
He had made and said, Except for this one tree right
over here. This tree of knowledge of good and evil. God gave Adam
one law. He gave him one law. People want
to put the Ten Commandments up. Adam, in a perfect state, couldn't
keep one. In a perfect, innocent state,
he couldn't keep the one commandment God gave him. Don't eat of that
tree. And men think they can keep the
law. He couldn't even keep one when it's perfect. But God gave
him the law. The law of works. And he said,
don't do it. Don't eat of it. Adam, you can
eat of all the other trees, but just one. You see, the law was
given here to this one man. It wasn't given to men. It was
given to one man. One perfect man. And he couldn't
keep it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat and enjoy. But of the tree of knowledge,
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely, surely die. He's telling this to Adam, the
federal head, our representative. This is who he's telling this
to. He said, in the day you eat of it, you're going to die. And
the whole human race, when he did that, died in him. That's
what put it in the mess it's in. His disobedience. But the
Lord God here in verse 18. Here's the first marriage. Here's
the first marriage. God creates Eve as a helpmate,
and listen, as a gift to Adam. as a gift to Adam. And the Lord
God said, it's not good. It's not good that the man should
be alone. Even though God made Adam, created
him, and he's perfect, he still made him from the earth, earthy.
He wasn't God. The man Christ Jesus is God.
But this man here was made of the earth. And God said, it's
not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and
help me for him. It's not good for him to be alone.
Adam was full of love. God made him. God made him. And this man was full of love. But he didn't have anybody to
share it with. God brought all the animals before Him and He
named all the animals. He was a genius. The man was
a genius. He named all these animals and
everything. And it says, there was not found
a helpmate. There was none like Adam. There
was none like him. Out of all God's creation, out
of all the hosts of heaven, there was none like Adam. He was full of love, but no one
to share it with after His kind. None. He had no one to share
the beautiful garden with that God put Him in. No one to share it with. He had
no one to touch or to embrace or to touch Him or embrace Him
after His kind. One writer said, companionship
And togetherness is necessary for love, to share it. He had no one in which he could
produce others like himself. All the other animals and stuff,
they could all reproduce. Adam had none like him. None like him at all. In this
sense, he was alone. God said it's not good that he
should be alone. So what does God do? What's he
going to do? He's going to make, and that
word make means build, build. God's going to build Adam a helpmate. Well, I can see this in the church
and the relationship between Christ and his church. He's building
the church for his son. Look over in Ephesians chapter
two. In Ephesians chapter 2, look at verse 19. Now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit." That's what he's doing right now. It says, Out
of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and
every fowl of the air, and he brought them to Adam to see what
he had called them, and whatever Adam called every living creature,
that was the name of it. It hasn't changed. It hasn't
changed. And Adam gave names to all the
cattle and the fowl of the air and the beasts of the field,
but for Adam there was not a helpmate found. There was none like him. None like him. None like him
in all of creation. Well, I thought today, when I was in the study,
I thought there was none like the Son of God. When He looked
at His Son, there was none like Him. Absolutely none like Him. Out of all of creation, there
was none like the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord of hosts,
but none of the hosts were like Him. So what's he going to do? He's going to make him a wife.
He's going to have to redeem her because of sin. But he's going to form him a
wife. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. He put Adam in a coma. A deep
sleep. And he slept. And he, God, took one of his
ribs and he closed up the flesh. Instead thereof, instead of leaving
a scar, instead of leaving a scar here on his side where he took
the rib out, it says God closed it up and you couldn't tell anything
happened. You couldn't tell anything happened.
God put Adam into a coma. He opened up his side. He took
a rib. and made a woman out of him.
Made a woman. One like him. Exact DNA. She would have the exact DNA
of her husband, Adam. Now, they could love the
same things. Adam and a cow couldn't love
the same things. They couldn't enjoy the garden
in the same way. They couldn't enjoy the life
that God gave them in the same way. All that God made could
not enjoy all that God made in the same way Adam could do it.
Couldn't do it. But when God made Eve, she and Adam could walk through
the garden and enjoy the flowers. They could walk through the garden
and enjoy the trees and the breeze and enjoy the day together. They could do it together. They
could enjoy the whole thing together. Because God made them just alike.
Just alike. And He took her from Adam's rib. He created her from His side
to be equal with Him. You know, men and women are equal.
There are physical differences and things that God has made,
were equal. But here's the difference. God
said the man's the head of the house. That's the difference.
The whole difference is in what God said. He's the one who held
Adam responsible. He's the one who made Adam the
federal head. He's the one who did that. He did that. But he made him from Adam's side
to be equal with him, to be loved by him and protected by him.
And this, I think, is a beautiful picture of Christ and the church. God put his son to death, and
you know it's because of our sins they had to be dealt with. A law had been broken, a law
that God had given had been broken by us, and in order for him to
have us, he had to put away our sins. So God put him to death
that he might take his wife out of him, that he might take Ish out of
Isha. Or Isha out of Isha. Isha is
the man. Isha is the woman. When God took
Eve from Adam's side, it says He closed up the flesh instead
thereof. There's no scar left. But I'll
tell you this, when He hung on that cross, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He redeemed His bride. They plunged that spear into
His side. That scar is still there. That scar is still there. Wounded for our transgressions. Bruised for our iniquities. It cost him a great price to
have. It didn't cost Adam anything to have Eve. But it cost him
a great price to have us. He had to give his life. He had
to suffer the hell and wrath that I deserve in order to have
me. But he did it. And he did it
out of love. He did it out of love. And note
the oneness here. Note their oneness. It says, And the rib which the
Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her. Brought
her. Just picture this wedding. You ladies. And you were married
and your father's led you down the aisle to meet your bride. Well, guess
who led her down the aisle? God Almighty brought her. He took this gift, this beautiful
gift, and I bet she was a beautiful woman, without blemish, just
a beautiful woman. And he took her and brought her
to Adam and said, Adam, here's your wife. Can you imagine that? God did
this. God did this. God performed this
ceremony. He brought her as a helpmate
and a gift to Adam. And what a beautiful gift she
was. Just as a father gave his son
a people to redeem. He's brought us to Him. And you
know one day we're going to be presented spotless and without
blemish in His presence. That's how we're going to be
presented. Spotless. And Adam, he looked at her. And you know he was just smitten. You can just imagine
this perfect love. It wasn't, this was perfect love.
No lust involved in this. This is perfect love. He looked
at her and just smitten. This, this he says is bone of
my bone, flesh of my flesh. Somebody like me. Somebody could
feel like I feel. Know what I know. Someone I can
communicate with. Someone I can talk to. Bone of my bone, flesh of my
flesh, and she's going to be called woman because she was
taken out of man. Here's their oneness. Bone of
my bone, flesh of my flesh. They are now one. The church,
see that's a type. The anti-type is Christ and the
church. The church is one in Christ. She's born of the Spirit. And He became bone of her bone
and flesh of her flesh that He might make her one with Him in
spirit. That she might be one with Him.
Someday when this is over, we'll see that. We'll see the reality
of it. We'll enjoy that oneness with Christ. We'll be able to
enjoy what He enjoys. Love like He loves. Worship like
He worships. Perfectly. Love the same things, enjoy the
same things, and have fellowship over the same things. How can
two walk together except they agree? One day we'll drop this
flesh of sin and we'll totally agree. Heaven's going to be populated
with a people just like His Son. Listen to this. In John 17, I'll
read it to you. John 17, 20 and 24. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them." He's our beauty. "...that they may be
one even as We are one. I in them, this is just oneness. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now
listen. You ever enjoy something so much
you wish somebody could be there with you to enjoy it? You ever
had that to happen? You ever just enjoy something
or see something so beautiful you think, boy, I wish my wife
was with me or my husband was with me to see this and enjoy
this? We can't make that happen, but
He's going to make it happen. Father, I will that they also
whom Thou has given me be with me where I am. that they may
behold My glory." Now listen, "...which Thou hast given Me,
for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world. I will
that they may behold My glory." The glory I had with you before
the world was. He said, I want them to see this.
I want them to enjoy this. I want them to know what this
is all about. And you know what? In Christ,
born of His Spirit, We're going to enjoy that. We are going to
enjoy that glory and see that glory that we can't see here. He's going to have a bride that
can enjoy the same things he enjoys. Don't you like it when
you and your wife just enjoy the same thing? Your husband, you and your wife,
you and your husband. You enjoy the same thing. It just makes it so much more
pleasant, doesn't it? Well, he's got a bride that he and her is
going to enjoy the same things. Rejoicing over the same things.
Worshipping the same Father. That's going to happen. That's
going to happen. Okay, let me see here where I'm
at. Let me make this point here and
I'll close. The woman, as he said here, was taken from the
man. And this is important because
this represents Christ in the church. And we are subject to
him. He's the head. We're the body.
He's the husband. We're the bride. We're the wife. He says here in 1 Corinthians
11, 7 and 9 through 9, For a man indeed ought not to cover his
head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God. That's Christ. He's the expressed
image of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. Christ,
His bride, He's just going to show her off. Trophies of His
grace. Display her. This is my bride.
This is my bride. For the man is not of the woman,
but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for
the woman, but the woman for the man. And this is a picture
of Christ and the church. The church was created for Him.
All of this, all of creation, all things made by Him and for
Him. And He's going to take a bride,
He's going to take His wife out of this, out of all this creation. He's going to take a wife out
of it. Sinners like you and me. We're going to make up that bride.
Sinners like us. And we're going to get to enjoy
our Lord, His presence throughout eternity. And there's not going to be any
sin in it. Sin will not be an issue no more. It will all be
perfect. Absolutely. In verse 25, and
I'll close. And they were both naked. the man and his wife, and were
not ashamed." You see, Adam and Eve knew no
sin at this time. That's why they were not ashamed.
Their inward holiness required no outward covering. You see,
because of sin, we have to cover up. Because of sin. Sin has brought in shame, lust,
and all manner of wickedness. But someday, someday when this life is over,
we will stand in the perfect righteousness of our husband.
We'll stand in his perfect righteousness without sin and without shame. Clothed in his righteousness. Clothed in it. Even though we
stand in it now, We stand in it now. I know that. But we still
have sin in us now, too. And it still brings shame. But
someday, sin will molest us no more. And we'll stand in His presence,
perfectly righteous, and not be ashamed. Absolutely not be
ashamed. If our lives, if our earthly
lives were exposed, if our thoughts were exposed, we would be ashamed. But there'll come a day when
all that's gone and we'll not be ashamed. And we will enjoy
eternity. Worshipping, loving, talking
of all the same things. Having fellowship in the same
things. So that was the first marriage.
God performed it. God instituted it. And it is
a picture, it's a picture of the marriage of Christ and His
children.