In his sermon, David Green discusses Genesis chapter 2, emphasizing the creation of man and the Garden of Eden. He clarifies that Genesis chapter 2 provides a more detailed account of the sixth day of creation, focusing on the formation of man from dust and the planting of the Garden of Eden by Yahweh God. The sermon highlights the importance of freedom to worship and acknowledges those who risk persecution for their faith. Green argues against the allegorical reading of Genesis, emphasizing its historical truth and the theological significance of Adam as a real person. He discusses the term 'generations' as a structural element in Genesis and addresses the creation versus evolution debate, asserting the biblical account's opposition to evolutionary theories. The sermon concludes by drawing a parallel between the 'first man Adam' and the 'last Adam,' Jesus Christ, underscoring the need for redemption through Jesus.

This is chapter 2 verses 4 through 9. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that Yahweh God made heaven made earth in heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no plant of the field had yet grown for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain upon the earth there was no man to cultivate the ground but a stream would rise from the earth water the whole surface of the ground. Then Yahweh God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And so the man became a living being.

Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden toward the east. There he placed the man whom he had formed, and out of the ground Yahweh God caused to grow every tree that is desirable in appearance and good for food, the tree of life also, in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let's again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the ability to meet, whether we meet in a park, in a home, in a church building, whether I stand in a pulpit, or at a table, or an ironing board or whatever it may be.

What a privilege we have to open up your word and how thankful we are that we have freedom to do so in this country that we live in. We know that even through much of church history that there's not been this kind of freedom and even now at this very hour there are men and women who are meeting all over this earth at the risk of punishment or even death. Lord, I pray for them. Even though we may not know their names, Lord, We're thankful to know that you know them, and even if the time ever comes when we have to meet in secret, that in places unknown that you know who we are, you know our hearts, and Lord, we thank you. As we meet here tonight, we pray that you'll open up our hearts and our minds to receive your word that will be presented in truth, received as such.

Lord, I pray for those that were mentioned for prayer. I pray for those who are here. I pray for those who cannot be here. I ask a blessing upon each one. Forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings.

We're in Jesus and then we pray. Amen. Taking this book, Genesis, in a verse by verse fashion, we know that Genesis chapter one, Genesis chapter two, all the way through the entire book, it is a battleground. It is a battleground through the centuries. As Satan has tried to discredit God and deceive man on the subject of creation, the history of the world and the universe.

What we have in chapter two is not another account of chapter one, but rather it is more detail. It's not a conflicting account, but it's more detail, in other words, of what was given in chapter 1. And so Chapter 1 kind of gave us an overview of day 6, but now chapter 2 is going to give us kind of a zoomed in look at what happened on day six, particularly dealing with man. Verse four begins this section as the generations of the heavens and the earth. That word generations appears multiple times in the book of Genesis.

And they serve as divisions within the book. In fact, if you were to make an outline of the book of Genesis, you could go through and outline the book just based on these sections where generations is listed. If you're using your MacArthur study Bible, John MacArthur actually outlines the book of Genesis based off of these sections. But not only MacArthur does this, many other commentators do the same. Ken Ham, who is very famous for the book of Genesis, with his ministry being answers in Genesis.

He in his commentary points out that these phrases involving the word generations ties the book together as a unity. He says that some scholars believe they indicate who wrote the previous section. And so if that's true, chapter 2 and verse 4, where we're at right now, then as Ken Ham put it in his commentary, then this would be referring to the section before that God presumably revealed to Adam. Then if we go to the next one, just to kind of show you what I'm talking about, in chapter 5 and verse 1, chapter 5 and verse 1 says, this is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

So Genesis 5.1 would refer to the previous section perhaps being recorded by Adam, and so on and so forth. You get on down to chapter, for instance, chapter 6 and verse 9, these are the generations of Noah. This would be a reference to the previous section being recorded by Noah. And then then on down, chapter 10 verse 1, now these are the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. That previous section having been recorded by Noah's three sons.

You said, wait a minute, I thought you said that Moses wrote the book of Genesis. Yes, he did, but he may have compiled this together, And as he compiled it, it may have been a compilation of information that was recorded by these men. But if this is the case, If this is the case, that would kind of make sense with all of this, but regardless of whether or not this is how to read it, you and I, we can rest assured that this is the Word of God, and thus it is an infallible account of the history of the universe. God has preserved it one way or another, whether multiple men were involved in the record or not, what we have here is the eyewitness account as given by God and recorded for us. And so as we go through the book, we'll notice these sections and these headings.

Sections in these headings. In this verse 2, of course, it says, These are the generations of the heavens and the earth, when they were created in the day that Yahweh God made earth and heaven. Can we come back to that word day? I made a lot about the word day in Genesis chapter 1 and how the today means a 24-hour period. And that is true in the context.

And so in the chapter 1, there were days mentioned. There were days mentioned. For instance, in verse 5 of chapter 1, the end of verse 5, and there was evening and there was morning one day. The end of verse 8, there was evening and there was morning a second day. Verse 13, there was evening, there was morning, a third day.

So you see the pattern there. Context matters. And even though it's the same word day, and in the Hebrew it's the same word, it's the word yom, Again, context matters. In the first chapter, the word day was used with evening and morning followed by a number designation. One day, second day, et cetera.

But this time, the word day means a period of time, but not an infinite period of time. It doesn't mean a billion years. It doesn't mean something like that. It means a specific period of time. And in this case, it means the six days, the six days of creation.

The seventh, if you count the day of rest, that's what he's talking about in the context of the Scriptures there. Of course, in this verse 4, as I mentioned last week, we're introduced to the name of God, Yahweh, which is God's covenant on name, as he's revealed in the Old Testament. We spent a lot of time there and I'm not going to re-preach last week's sermon, but there it is. And so we see all of that packed into this one verse. It's intriguing.

This one verse. It's intriguing. I came across an article not long ago, and it's evolutionist. It was written from an evolutionary perspective, but they were talking about how they can pinpoint where the names of the planets came from, you know, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, so on and so forth, but they said they couldn't figure out where the name Earth came from. What was the origin of the name Earth?

And they just couldn't figure that out. And well, we know the answer to that. The answer to that is Genesis. God and his word gives us the origin to Earth. And so that was a pretty interesting article.

Most of those, if not all of the planetary names, besides ours, have pagan origins, but not earth. In verses 5 and 6, now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no plant of the field had yet grown for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Surface of the ground. So we see how that the connection is made. Yahweh God is the the same God that's mentioned in chapter one.

And in this passage here in verses five and six, Oftentimes this one is used as a text to kind of prove or to make the claim that there was no rain at all before the flood of Noah. As a matter of fact, as I looked through my old notes, that's what I said. I said there was no rain before the the flood, but that's kind of hard to be dogmatic about it because as I reread this, in the context of chapter 2 of Genesis in verses 5 and 6, He's not saying that there was no rain at all before the flood. He's saying that There was no rain prior to the creation of man. In other words, it hadn't rained all week.

Now You and I, we read about the flood, and of course if you're a seasoned Christian, you know all about what the scripture says there in Genesis about the flood of Noah. There's some things that are kind of hard to be dogmatic about. Obviously there were some climate differences that were maybe different, but it's hard for us to be dogmatic about the pre-flood world. Dr. Tommy Mitchell in an article on the subject, he cautions us about being dogmatic about this and he even brings up the rainbow.

And I know I'm getting ahead of myself talking about the flood of Noah right now but I bring it up because verses 5 & 6 are often used to say there was no rain before Noah got on the ark, and sometimes I've said that before in the past. Dr. Tommy Mitchell says, well, how about the rainbow? Didn't God specifically create the never-before-seen rainbow as a sign of His promise? Not necessarily.

In Genesis 9 and verse 13, He says, I put my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. It will be when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud. I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, every living creature of all flesh. Never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. So the bow shall be in the cloud, and we'll look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

And God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. So obviously I'm getting way ahead of myself in talking about this now, but as Dr. Tommy Mitchell mentions in this article, he says God does not imply that he had never set a rainbow in the clouds before, but only that from now on the rainbow, appearing as it often does as rain is ending, would henceforth have a special significance as a token of God's promise to never again send a worldwide flood. Now, this wouldn't be the only time that God assigned special significance to familiar things. For instance, the Israelites had eaten lamb before the first Passover.

Jesus had no doubt eaten bread and had wine before the first Lord's Supper. He had had bread and wine with the apostles before, but those activities acquired special significance as symbols of of God's intervention. And so I think sometimes we read more into it than what than what there is. Obviously there'd never been a worldwide flood before Noah's time. So when Noah started building that big ark and warning people that there was a big old flood coming, that would have been something that people would have laughed at and mocked him for all those things but but Genesis chapter 2 verses 5 and 6 doesn't doesn't necessarily say it wasn't it it never rained on the earth before the flood.

Verse 7 of Genesis chapter 2, Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so the man became a living being." We read about the creation of man back in Genesis chapter 1 verse 27. Remember it says, and God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Again, this is not two different creations of two different men. This is the same man.

As God created man in his image, So we read of Yahweh God, forming man of dust from the ground, breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, man becoming a living being or a living soul. God made man from the dust of the ground. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if we go to the New Testament for just a moment, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 47, it says, the first man is from the earth, earthy, the second man is from heaven. Now we'll get back to this text here in just a little bit, but Yahweh God made man from the dust of the ground.

You can put a rib in there in 1st Corinthians. We're gonna come back to this text here in a little while. But this is much different than anything else that God had made. Because if you remember, as God created the different things, and as He did the different things on the creation week, He spoke. And then it happened.

It was so. And then he saw it and it was very good. It was good, it was good, it was good, and then at the end of it, it was very good. But God breathed into man the breath of life. We see something different happening with man.

Indeed, man's body being completely formed, but it had to be energized. It was not until Yahweh God breathed into man the breath of life that the heart began to work. The breathing mechanism started the brain function. In short, life had to come from life and God provided man with that life. Now it's interesting when you dig deep into this text.

It says man became It says, man became a living being or a living soul. This breath of life, if you will, as the Bible describes it there in verse seven. This is something that is shared with the animals. In fact, in Genesis chapter 7, in verse 21 and 22, the water came up over the whole earth. The Bible describes what happened.

It says, "...and all flesh that moved on the earth breathed its last." That is birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, as well as all mankind, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life. All that was on the dry land died. Even though we share that with the animals, there is a difference. In so far as that man is given this breath of life directly from Yahweh God rather than the idea what we see in the scriptures is that the animals were given at a distance. And when when man became a living being or a living soul.

That same Hebrew word is used for the animals too. In Genesis chapter 1 in verse 21 for instance. Genesis chapter 1 in verse 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the water swarmed after their kind and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good." That living creature, it's the same word there. Verse 24. "'Then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind.

And it was so. Even over in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 10, God spoke to Noah and his sons. Genesis 9 verse 9, As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, with your seed after you, with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, every beast of the earth with you, of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. So this same word is used, it's the, it's again, It's the Hebrew word nephesh. It refers to this idea of being alive, it refers to the consciousness, the mind, the emotions.

And while it's the same word that's being used here, in regard to the animals and man, we must not make more of a connection than what the Bible does. I remember one time reading a commentator who tried to connect the first man with the apes and so on and so forth because he was reading too much into this. And of course really it wasn't the Hebrew that got him all tangled up, it was he was taking man's evolutionary ideas and trying to fit them into the Bible. Even though the same word is being used here to describe living creature, living soul, living being when it comes to man and animals. A plain reading, Whether you're reading it in the Hebrew or the English, Spanish, or the Portuguese, or whatever you're reading it in, if it's a good translation, you're not going to find any kind of evolutionary connection.

No hidden meaning, nothing like that. Man's soul, man's life, man's consciousness, consciousness, man is not just another animal. In fact, Man's soul is of a much higher order than any animal that was ever created. And man, and only man, and by man I mean mankind, male and female, made in the image of God. This is why God made man a living being, a living soul, by direct action.

God did not pick up a monkey, an ape or chimpanzee, and breathe into him a breath of life so that all of a sudden he could begin talking and walking and all of that sort of thing. When people write that way and talk that way, they're imagining things that are not in the Scripture. That's science fiction. That's not God's Word. And so beware of those sorts of commentaries and those sorts of science fiction that people make up.

There is a difference, obviously, between the plain reading of the Bible and trying to squeeze in things that just aren't there. And so I just take him for his word. Yahweh God, formed man of dust from the ground. What's dust? Look around here, you'll find some, I'm sure of it.

No, go outside. Go outside and you'll find some dust. God, God did a special work. Dust from the ground breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And so man became a living being.

This is not evolution being taught. In fact, this is a clear refutation of evolution. In this verse it tells us that Yahweh God made man a living being when he breathed into him the breath of life. Had Adam, that first man, had he somehow cloned his way up through survivor of the fittest, had he made his way to the top of the food chain through random processes, he would have already been a living being. But he wasn't.

He wasn't. And so, this does not prove evolution. This is totally the opposite of it. In fact, As I posted on Facebook earlier today, Jesus Himself, when He came on this earth, in the context of it, isn't about evolution. But notice what he said in Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew chapter 19. The context of it was the Pharisees wanted to know what Jesus thought about divorce. But in verse 4, He answered and said, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning, he who created them from the beginning, made them male and female, and said for this reason, the man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Notice he says, from the beginning he created them, male and female. By the way, he didn't say, He didn't say That they were created after billions of years they would know weren't he didn't say they were created after millions of years He said from the beginning By the way, this is also an answer to the whole accusation that Jesus didn't have an opinion about gay marriage or transgenderism because actually he did he did have something to say about it and that is from the beginning he created them what male and female there was no gender confusion in the Garden of Eden he made them male and female straight from the start no pun intended There is an order to God's very good universe, and he did this from the beginning.

Why should, Why did he take the Bible literally? Why did he take Genesis literally? Well, because he was there. Jesus is the Creator. In the beginning was the Word.

The Word was with God. The Word was God. John chapter 1. Verse 3. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

He is the Creator. He was there. He is Elohim. He is Yahweh God. Elohim, He is Yahweh God.

And He cannot lie. So when He speaks, it is the truth. It is the truth. So he says, yeah, from the beginning he made them male and female. Back into Genesis chapter 2 in verse 8, In verse 8, and Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden toward the east, there he placed the man whom he had formed.

Everything that God made was perfect. Very good. We saw that as he pronounced it at the end of the sixth day, chapter 1 and verse 31. There was a special place that he made for that first man. This garden was called Eden, which means delight.

We find that Yahweh God planted this garden himself, just as He had made Adam directly. I find that the way that the scripture words this, it seems that the first man was created somewhere outside of the garden and then He was placed there. Thus, man's first knowledge of the Creator and His works would have been this. He would have seen God, he would have seen the Creator, he would have seen Yahweh as the one who loves and provides special for man. Do not we see that as well, particularly after we're saved.

In verse 9, As he continues to take care of man, he, and how blessed we are as well, even in this world that we live in. In verse nine he says, "'And out of the ground, "'Yahweh God calls to grow every tree that is desirable in appearance, good for food. Tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This garden would have been the most beautiful place on earth and the whole of the earth would have been perfect. It would have been Better than we can imagine, I suppose.

There have been fruits and vegetables of abundance, sweet fragrance of flowers in the air. The animals, none of them would have been hurtful or poisonous or nothing to harm. This is before the fall, before the curse. There were two trees that we paused to take notice of. First, there was the Tree of Life.

And second is the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. The Tree of Life, I believe this tree was originally placed there to sustain the life of man. It was a testimony to Adam and Eve, their dependence upon God. A reminder that they could not live apart from Yahweh God. Some would argue that they would have been dependent upon that tree, but remember he's the one who put the tree there in the first place.

Then there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Oh, this one's perhaps the most famous of all the trees in the garden. Not because of its greatness, it's famous because of Adam and Eve's sin in partaking of its fruit and disobeying God, the effect that that had on the whole world. We'll be reading about that, of course, later. Some read all of this and they want to make all of this into an allegory, into a story.

It's not that. This is true history. In fact, as I said a while ago, before we close this out, I want us to go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. To turn Genesis into an allegory, particularly the first couple of chapters, is a very slippery slope. 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Let's start with verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a corruptible body. It is raised an incorruptible body. It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written the first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy.

The second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. As is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this brothers, the flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit the incorruptible." So we think about this and consider, If Genesis is just a story, a fable, an allegory, if Adam is not a real person, if he's just a myth, then the very Gospel is at risk.

If the first Adam was not real, then what of the last Adam? Who is the last Adam, you might say? Well, the last Adam is Jesus. That's what Paul is saying here as he writes under the inspiration of spirit. The first man is from the earth, earthy, the second man is from heaven.

If the one is not real, how should we believe in the second, you see? No, the Bible is true from the very beginning. And just like there was a real Adam, so is there a real Christ. And as a matter of fact, as we'll see as we go through this, because we're all descendants of that One man Adam, we all need, everybody needs, that one Christ. We all need that one Savior.

You see, there's a real need for everybody in Jesus. For everybody in Jesus. And when we think about this and consider it, it is a serious issue. It is very serious. And that's why Genesis is very much under attack in our world today and has been for a very long time.

I'm thankful that God has recorded this in his word. We have it so that we can study it, believe it, but more than that, I'm thankful, I'm thankful that there is redemption to be found in Jesus Christ. That even before there was ever a fall there was already a redemption plan and and we'll read about that too the seed of the woman is prophesied right there in the garden. So we'll go ahead and close the night. I trust that it's been a blessing.

I need some things to consider. Before we close out, does anybody have any questions?