The studies of Genesis that we've
been starting to go through, I think this is our third lesson,
we notice that Christ himself said that Moses wrote of me. Moses wrote of me. And so, as are the whole scriptures,
they all speak of Christ. And that is the responsibility
and the duty of the believer, the preacher, is to find Christ
in the text. Now, I'm not saying there's not
a lot of other things on here, a lot of other things in this
book. But this book is not mainly about morality. This book is
not mainly about duty and responsibility. This book is about the Lord Christ. And in chapter one, we noticed
that We see the creation God, you know, in day one, he created
day two, he created over and over. We see. He did separated
the land from the sea and all that he did, he said it was good.
And he said it was very good. And chapter two. He said, Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them. And on the seventh day 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 sanctified it, because in it he had rested from all his
work which God created and made. Now we know that Christ is our
rest. So I'm not going to say a whole
lot more about that, but Christ is the believer's Sabbath. God blessed the seventh day.
He sanctified it. We're sanctified in Christ. One of the main problems of religion
today is that everybody wants to work, work, work, do, do,
do or don't do. But the believer rests in Christ,
comes to Christ and rests in Christ because Christ did the
work. And then he goes on in verse 4, he 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, 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." That's why
when Moses was telling everybody that there was a flood coming,
it was going to rain They looked at him like he was crazy because
it had never done that before. He'd watered, as it said, from
the mist, went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole
face of the ground. Now here's our text, short text. I'm not going to keep you very
long tonight. Verse 7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. and man became a living soul. The breath of life. From one
end of this book to the other, we always see in the salvation
of sinners, God initiating the work and continuing it or there
will be no life. From one end of this book to
the end in this matter This thing called salvation, what it takes
to save a sinner. From beginning to end, alpha
and omega, top to bottom, all the way around, what we see in
this book is God always initiates the work and he continues it.
Without so, there'd be no life. In this text right here, in verse
7, He formed man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into
him the nostrils of the breath of life, and he became a living
soul. There was no life before. And then God did something, and then
there was life. What we have here in Genesis
2 is the account of God dealing or creating a soul from the dust
of the earth. We see several things. We see
God in the Lord God formed man. We see a form with no life or
death. No life. So that means that form
is there's no movement is death. Then we also see life brought
forth from death. So I would believe it would be
safe to say that we are observing God giving life and real existence
to something or someone that had no hope of life, health,
or well-being by its own strength or power. When God came upon
and formed man from the dust, he just laid there. Nothing. God had to be gracious. and give breath. And that's exactly
the way it is when God in Christ saves a sinner. It's not our
will to choose or not to choose. I did this or I did not do that.
It's God that shows mercy. God decides when there will be
life. He formed man from the dust. Let's turn to Ezekiel 37. Here's
another good illustration. In a picture, the Lord lays out
a beautiful picture, Ezekiel 37. This picture, again, as I've
stated, it all points to honor and glorify God and how he can
be just and justify the ungodly. This whole book is a book of
redemption. This whole book is a scarlet thread of the blood
of Christ, whether in type in the old as lamb, All the way
through to when he actually laid down his life, a ransom for many.
And he took it back up. And raised us to newness of life. From one end to the other. It's
how God can be God that is just. Not compromises justice. And
yet still saves sinners. And the only way that can be
done is through Christ. Ezekiel 37. The hand of the Lord
was upon me, says Ezekiel, and carried me out into the spirit
of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which
was full of bones. And God caused me to pass by
them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open
valley, and lo, they were very dry. And God said to me, Son
of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. We don't know who or who will
not. Again, verse 47 to me prophesy
that is preach upon these bones and saying to them Oh, he dry
bones here the word of the Lord. Can you imagine? This Somebody
at a distance watching this say this guy's he's lost it. There's
something this guy's but and people mock and make fun of the preaching
of the gospel. Now there's a lot of preaching
that goes on and it should be mocked. It should be made fun
of because it has nothing to do other than tradition and all
sorts of pageantry and all sorts of things that has nothing to
do with God or his gospel or glorifies him. But no matter
how foolish it seems, Paul says he uses the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. God's going to use, he's got
means, he's going to use the preaching of the truth. So he
says, prophesy unto these bones, say unto them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and
you shall live. Not the preacher. The preacher
just proclaims what this book says. Prophesy, or as I said,
that word is preach. It's only God that can cause
breath to enter into them and live. And God says, I will lay
sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you
with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall
know that I am the Lord. So Ezekiel, the preacher, the
man of God says, so I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I
prophesied, there was a noise. Behold a shaking and the bones
came together bone to his bone And when I beheld lo the sinews
and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them above
But there was no breath in them then said he God unto me prophesy
unto the wind prophesy son of man and say to the wind thus
saith the Lord God come from the four winds o breath and breathe
upon these slain that they may live and So I prophesied as he
commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and
they stood upon their feet an exceeding great army. And then he goes on to illustrate.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel. He's using these as a picture. But we see the
beauty of salvation back to our text. This is just another another
way of illustrating what we have here in Genesis chapter two.
We are dust. We are from the dust. He said,
he said the Lord God foreman of the dust. We are the dust. That means, you know, what is
there to dust? There's not a lot to us. Pretty
common. Not much to brag about. We start from the dust and one
day his body, that's where it's going to go. But the beautiful thing about
this text, as in all of salvation, it's of grace, grace alone. God acts and therefore we become. He acts and gives life and we
breathe. He calls and we follow. God convinces
and then we're convinced of our sin and his righteousness. If
Christ covers our iniquities, we're covered. If Christ put
away our sins by the sacrifice of himself, then our sins are
put away. The Holy Spirit quickens whom
he will, then they are enlightened and quickened to newness of life.
See, these are absolutes. From A to Z, God does all the
work. And simply put, in this one verse,
this is what we see. And the Lord God formed man of
the dust. That's, there we go, that's the
best we are, that's the best we can attain. and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul. He didn't ask
for it, he didn't cry for it, he didn't pray for it, he didn't... God did a work and breathed on
this dead, on this dead form, this dead body Man became a living
soul and that is the only hope that we have is that God in his
grace through his son By faith in his son through the preaching
of his gospel would give us life Because if he breathes on us
and gives us life We will be a living soul a living soul And this is only done through
his beloved son Christ and with the assistance of the sovereign
Spirit of God. He uses the preached word as
he deems necessary. Then these poor dead, lifeless
souls are awakened out of the depths of darkness and walk in
light like we saw last week as Christ is light. I was going to look up another
passage, but I didn't do it. But you remember in the Gospels
when Christ's friend Lazarus died. And they came and they
told him, they said, Master, you know, your friend Lazarus
has died. But he said he tarried. He tarried three days. They laid
him in the tomb. And then he went to go visit
the tomb. And they said, surely, Lord,
don't, you know, don't move that stone away because he'll stink.
After three days, he's rotting. He's starting to rot. Decomposition
is coming, is starting to take place. Of course, as they did in ancient
Egypt, they did back in those days, they wrapped them in linen
and put them in that tomb. And you remember what scripture
said, Christ, he said, he commanded them to roll the stone away.
And he said, Lazarus, come forth. Now, Lazarus is dead. And what a beautiful picture
of us dead in trespasses and sins. No life came here. Can't make one step for Jesus.
Can't even reiterate what would Jesus do. All these cute little
things. He can't do anything. He's just
there, dead. In the tomb. Christ, as he always does, because
he is the truth, spoke the truth, but he didn't say, come forth. You know why he didn't? If he
just said come forth, everybody would have come out of those
tombs. But his call is a specific call. Lazarus. Chosen from before the foundation
of the world, loved by my father from before the foundation of
the world, now is your time. Through the speaking of the truth
to believe and to come forth, he said, Lazarus, specific, particular,
come forth and said Lazarus came forth, still bound up. And he
said, unbind him. But that is exactly what we have
here. Same thing. The Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils.
All you see, everything's taking place outside of us. And I'm
not saying, I'm not going to say it's not important and you
know me better than that to not be where the gospel is being
preached, to not to read this book and to not, I'm not saying
it's not, you know, we shouldn't do those things, but Because
we do those things, God is not obligated to redeem us. He has no obligation other than
his own covenant agreement between him and the father or the father,
the son, the Holy Spirit. But we should promote reading
this book, we should promote coming when the doors are open
to hear the gospel, because God uses the preaching of the gospel.
However. Salvation is completely in God's
hands. Just like I do, just like you
do when you're talking to your friends or whatever, just like
Ezekiel. He says, go out and tell people
what great things God has done for you. When God does something
for you or something exciting happens in your life, you want
to tell people. We're going to have a wedding come up. It's
not a secret. It's not something that's been
done in a corner. And we're telling everybody. You know, if you go
with me out to My customers, if they ask me how you doing,
I'll work it in. Yeah, I got a daughter, met a
nice guy, getting married. When is it? The 19th. This 19th? Yeah. Oh, and my line has been
the same. I go, when you see me next time,
what I have, what hair I have left will be gray or I won't
have any hair. I said, we're, we're enjoying
it. But you tell people about it. And that's what the believer
does. And God uses the truth to call
his people out. Not error. Truth. Truth. But we sow the seed. We're not responsible. It's not.
We just sow it. He's the one that gives increase.
It's always been that way. It's always been that way. Otherwise,
it would not be grace. But there's something else that I noticed
that will close. When we read through Genesis
chapter 1 and we're going through Genesis chapter 2, is it just
me or do you not notice that pretty well everything has been
laid out and then man gets brought in. God has the stars, he's got
the earth being watered, he's got food, he's got the animals,
he's got all these things. All things are in place for this
newly formed, created soul. The earth was prepared for God's
glory, but also for his children's good and well-being. Do you see
that in here? You know, by the time we get
to man, there's a lot... Created, enjoy. Created, name
these animals. Created, name these plants. Created,
eat this. Take that. Everything's laid
out for his well-being. God's glory, because if God gets
the glory, he spoke and it was. He looked at it and he said it's
good. He looked at it and he said it's very good. But man,
he's got everything prepared for him. God, these things that
we see here in Genesis is the same thing that right now that
God is doing for us and in us, through us. For his glory and for our well-being. Isn't that right? Well, let's
see if it's not so. Turn to Romans chapter eight.
We know this one. We haven't memorized often, but
oh, how needful it is to go back and look at these things. Romans
chapter eight and verse twenty eight. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. To them, how do they
love God? Why do they love God? Because
they're called according to His purpose. But it's all working
together for good. You know, I mean, it's tough.
It's a struggle. It's the fight of faith. Turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Well, this we could never exhaust.
This is just beyond me. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Well, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter
3 and verse 21. Let no man glory in man and look
at this statement for all things are yours. All things are yours. Stay there, and I'll read to
you in John chapter 17. This is Christ's great high priestly
prayer for his people. He said, I have manifested thy
name under the man which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things, now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast
given me are of thee. And he says in the closing part
of that high priestly prayer, it says, In them, and 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. Father, I will that they, and
he's praying for his people. These same ones, that all things
are working together for good. All things, as in the garden,
were laid out for our well-being and best interest and his glory.
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me." And then the Apostle John Last
some of the last words that we have of him He says beloved He's
writing to the elect of God the church Beloved now are we the
sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be But we
know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall
see him as he is everything You know And this book bears witness
to this. You want to know why this world
is still spinning? Because not all of God's elect
have been saved yet. The last one gets brought on,
it's over. It's over. We, the believers,
go through trials and difficulties like everybody else in this world.
But we know that it's for our best interest, for our well-being.
Now, we try to tell it to our children when they were younger
and spanking each other like, it's in for my good. You know,
and we just like, just like our children, we don't see it often.
We can't figure out how the death of a loved one or how sickness
in somebody that we love or care for or a spouse or a mate or
somebody that we care so much, they go through some difficult
times. We don't see, we see, we're so short-sighted. But faith. Step back and say, God's on the
throne. It's for his glory and our well-being. And if you
want to sometime, look through 1 John. Read through 1 John,
particularly in chapter 3. The word we know is in there
an awful lot. We know that we have passed from
death to life. He says, we know, and this is the commandment that
we should believe on the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as he gave commandment. But you look through there and
says, we know this, we know that, we know this. Why do we know
these things? Because he gives us, he leaves us his testimony
right here. So my point here, if I have not
been clear, is I'll close this last point that
everything was in place for this newly formed and created soul.
My point is, if I haven't been clear, is stated, Paul states
it this way. He that is God that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for Saul, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? All things. Now, again, the religious coops
in the world, they say, well, that means I can go buy, you
know, he means for me to have 10 Lincoln Continentals and 16
airplanes. Freely give us all things spiritual
blessings. There are some monetary, there
are some blessings that we have, but when he's talking about blessings,
most of the time, it's not things, it's a person. Because as we
came into this world from dust, we're going to leave it dust.
And anything, everything you see, we're not going to be able
to take with us. So what's important is life in Christ. May God give us life and may
God convince us of His eternal care for us in His darling Son. Matt, would you close us a kiss? order.