{"id":18554,"date":"2020-09-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/genesis-008-the-great-choice-part-1\/"},"modified":"2020-09-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-27T05:00:00","slug":"genesis-008-the-great-choice-part-1","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/genesis-008-the-great-choice-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Genesis 008 – The Great Choice (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[12],"series_event":[511],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18554","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-genesis","series_event-genesis","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Genesis 008 - The Great Choice (Part 1)","sermon_date":"20200927","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":8468,"sermon_slides":8467,"sermon_mp3":8470,"sermon_id":"92720127466712","series_or_event":511,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":12,"chapter_and_verse":"2:4-7","sermon_transcript":"Genesis #8\nThe Great Choice\nGenesis 2:4-7\nSeptember 27, 2020\nDr. Andy Woods\n\nGood morning, everybody. Let's take our Bibles, if we could, and open them to Genesis 2:4. The title of our message this morning is, \u201cThe Great Choice.\u201d As you\u2019re turning there, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine and Anne\u2019s. Norm Davidson is here. He actually is a very good friend. He was my best man at my wedding\u2014and we\u2019re still married 21 years later. Not to each other, of course!\n\nNorm does some photography and things for our ministry. I thought I'd introduce you to him, because if you saw a strange guy with a camera and a leather bag you might think, \u201cUh-Oh! We\u2019ve got a domestic terrorist on our hands!\u201d So, he's a good guy.\n\nGenesis 2:4. The title of our message this morning is \u201cThe Great Choice.\u201d As you know, the first 11 chapters in the Book of Genesis is about the beginning of the human race. And that section begins with Creation, Genesis 1-2.\n\nWe\u2019ve actually finished, believe it or not, Genesis 1. And Gabe gave us a little break last week in the Book of Titus. So, thank you, Gabe, for filling in last week.\n\nGenesis 1, as you\u2019ll remember, is an overview of the whole Creation week. There we learn about the heavens and the earth that the Lord brought about in six days of Creation, and then the Lord rested on the seventh day. Light; water, sky; land, vegetation; luminaries; sea animals, birds; land animals, and man himself, the pinnacle of God's Creation.\n\nMan comes into existence on Day Six. Man and woman, as image bearers of God, represent the pinnacle of God's Creation. As we move into Genesis 2, beginning in verse 4 through the end of the chapter, we have the focus of Moses as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The focus is now on Day Six.\n\nWe are no longer learning about the six days, but we\u2019re learning about the sixth day, which would be appropriate since humanity\u2014man\u2014was created on Day Six. Man and woman are such a big deal in the outworking of God's program that we might ask ourselves, \u201cTell us a little bit more about Day Six! You went through it, Moses, sort of fast.\u201d And Moses says, \u201cI'm glad you asked that question. Here's what's happening on Day Six.\u201d\n\nGenesis 1 is an overview of the whole Creation week\u2014but not Genesis 2! Genesis 2 gives you the details surrounding the creation of the Garden of Eden, the first man and woman and their activities on the sixth day.\n\nOne of the most important things to keep in mind as we study the Book of Genesis is the difference\u2014the radical difference\u2014between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. The themes are related to each other, but they could not be more different from each other at the same time.\n\nGenesis 1\u2014the focus is on the Creator God.\n\nGenesis 2\u2014the focus is more on God as a Covenant Keeper.\n\nThe Hebrew name for God is different.\n\nGenesis 1\u2014It's Elohim, speaking of His power.\n\nGenesis 2\u2014the name for God is Yahweh, speaking of His Personhood, relationship with us.\n\nGenesis 1\u2014His power.\n\nGenesis 2\u2014the fact that He is a personal God. Isn't it wonderful that the very God Who brought the heavens and the earth into existence wants a relationship with you and me? It's amazing!\n\nGenesis 1\u2014God is the God of the universe.\n\nGenesis 2\u2014God is the God of man.\n\nGenesis 1\u2014climaxes with man.\n\nBut not Genesis 2. Genesis 2\u2014climaxes with marriage.\n\nGenesis 1\u2014the six days of Creation.\n\nGenesis 2\u2014an amplification of the sixth day of Creation.\n\nYou say, \u201cWhy is this important?\u201d It\u2019s important to understand these differences. I've been to Europe a few times myself. All around Europe you will see the wreckage of what used to be vibrant Christianity. You can go all around Europe and you can see beautiful cathedrals that once housed literally thousands of worshipers, and now they are empty. Only a handful of people show up. And half of those people are the family of the pastor\u2014and maybe the guy that sweeps up afterwards.\n\nEurope is where the Protestant Reformation\u2014one of the highest points of Christian history\u2014took place, and today in Europe Christianity is all but over. Less than 1% of the population would consider themselves Christian, and even a smaller percentage of that would ever consider attending regularly a church service.\n\nThe fastest growing religion today in Europe is not Christianity; it is Islam. How is it that the very place where so much of the Protestant Reformation transpired is now so ambivalent? Even in some cases, antithetical to biblical Christianity.\n\nThe answer relates to what I'm describing right here: the differences between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Because, you see, there arose in Europe\u2014much of it coming from Germany\u2014a movement in the late 1800s and 1900s called higher criticism.\n\nHigher criticism is where people think that we are here to judge the Bible\u2014rather than the Bible sitting in judgment on us. There are, as Dave Breese describes in this book, 7 Men Who Rule the World from the Grave,<\/em> including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Julius Wellhausen, John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, John Maynard Keynes, and Soren Kierkegaard. These are godless, God-hating philosophies that we are still living with\u2014even though the progenitors of those philosophies are all dead and gone.\n\nNotice the man named Julius Wellhausen. I don't think he came up with it, but he's the first one to fully flesh it out and articulate what is called the JEDP theory. Higher criticism\u2014and ultimately liberalism\u2014sprang from this theory. It's the idea that Moses did not write these words in Genesis 1 or Genesis 2.\n\nJewish history\u2014Christian history\u2014going back thousands of years, has always accepted Moses as the author. That's not what Wellhausen said. He said, \u201cLook, Genesis is the product of different documents that came on the scene long after the real Moses was dead and gone. And we know that these are different documents because in Genesis 1 the Hebrew word for God is \u2018Elohim\u2019 and in Genesis 2 the word for God is \u2018Yahweh.\u2019 Obviously two different sources.\u201d\n\nNot understanding that you use different names depending on what your theme is; a single writer could do that. That's not what Wellhausen said. He said, \u201cThere are two different documents here that were stitched together long after the real Moses left the scene.\u201d And that movement called \u201chigher criticism\u201d began to affect the Pentateuch.\n\nMosaic authorship of the Pentateuch\u2014the first five books of the Bible\u2014was denied. And then it began to affect their treatment of the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah? We all know\u2014they say, anyway\u2014that it was not written by the true Isaiah. But there are different Isaiah\u2019s there: Proto-Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah, and Trito-Isaiah.\n\nAnd that began to affect their interpretation of the Book of Daniel. \u201cWe know that the book of Daniel was not written by Daniel in the sixth century,\u201d the higher critic will say. \u201cThat was written by someone long after the time of Daniel, forging Daniel's name.\u201d All over Europe in the seminaries this began to be taught, and it destroyed the denominational churches in the United States of America around the year 1920 in what is called the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy.\n\nLook it up in it and read about it. It's interesting that so many of those churches sent their best and brightest to Europe to be trained for the ministry. They got exposed to higher criticism, and they began to bring it back, gradually, into the American pulpits. And that's why today we have the independent Bible Church movement.\n\nWhy is it that you can drive through the city of Houston and see beautiful churches well-endowed with stained-glass windows? And those of us that call ourselves fundamentalist are meeting in independent buildings. Why is that? There's a historical reason for it: it\u2019s called the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy.\n\nHad God not raised up the fundamentalist to oppose the modernists in the mainline churches, Christianity in the United States of America would probably be as dead as it is in Europe today! And it relates to unbelief coming into the pulpits.\n\nReally, this whole higher critical movement started with the JEDP theory. \u201cMoses obviously could not have written this because we know that there was no writing in the time of Moses,\u201d the higher critic would say. Now, let me just add that that has been completely and totally disproven. There is a legal code that has preceded the Law of Moses, by about 400 years, called the code of Hammurabi, but that archaeological discovery hadn't been made yet at the time the higher critical movement started.\n\nSo they began to question, they began to second guess, they began to challenge the Word of God. And when you begin to challenge God's Word, liberalism quickly follows and God's Spirit is quenched in His own church.\n\nAnd this JEDP theory all started with higher critics arguing that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 contradict each other! \u201cHow could the same writer have written both chapters when they obviously contradict each other?\u201d Well, here's the glad reality of the situation: they do not contradict each other if you understand that Genesis 1 is an overview of the six days and Genesis 2 is an amplification of Day Six. If that little piece of information is introduced, then any alleged contradiction between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 disappears.\n\nBut, you see, your average pastor today in the United States is not talking about an issue like this. And what is going to happen is you or your children or your grandchildren are going to be watching Mysteries of the Bible<\/em>, A&E, the History Channel, where they will bring on some scholar from Harvard. And that scholar will basically tell you that any fool knows that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 contradict each other, \u201cThey\u2019re obviously written by different authors.\u201d They\u2019ll be feeding you higher criticism. And if you're not up on your game, then you'll be caught flat-footed; you won't know what to do with that information.\n\nNot only that\u2014your children are watching it\u2014and your grandchildren are watching it. Or they're in some kind of school somewhere where they\u2019re teaching higher criticism. They\u2019re coming back to you as their parents or their grandparents wanting an answer, and because the pastor in your church is too busy talking about five ways to be happy\u2014or whatever it is they're talking about today\u2014and you're not being equipped; you have no answer!\n\nSo liberalism came into Europe, destroyed Christianity in Europe, and almost destroyed Christianity in the United States in the 1920s. It\u2019s about one generation away from extinction. That\u2019s what my dad used to say to me, and it always stuck. He would say, \u201cChristianity is one generation away from elimination.\u201d\n\nOne generation stops contending for the faith and Christianity in the next generation will not be the same. That's why I put up charts like this. Not to bore you with a bunch of information, but to equip us for the battle that we find ourselves in.\n\nLet me just walk you through a few points, if I could. The higher critic will say, \u201cLook the beasts (Genesis 1:24-25) were created before Adam and Eve. But then you go to Genesis 2, and it looks like (verse 19) that the beasts were created in between the creation of Adam and Eve.\u201d So, Dad (or Granddad or Grandma or Mom), that's what my professor says. What say you?\u201d\n\nThe fact of the matter is that there's a simple answer to that. There is no contradiction, because Genesis 2:19 in the Hebrew reads, \u201cThe animals that God had already formed.\u201d You start to understand it that way, and the supposed contradiction disappears.\n\nOr they'll say this, \u201cThe plants and the herbs are created on Day Three (Genesis 1:12), yet Genesis 2:5 seems to indicate that the plants and the herbs were not yet in existence on Day Six.\u201d So, Mom (Dad, Grandma, Grandpa), that\u2019s what my professor says. How do you<\/em> resolve this?\u201d And the answer, again, is there's a special word used in Genesis 2:5 for \u201ccultivated\u201d plants\u2014special plants\u2014garden plants\u2014plants that would only be proper in a garden. That's what God brought into existence on Day Six. Whereas the ordinary plants and herbs already existed on Day Three.\n\nSee, this this stuff isn't rocket science if you just know a few tricks. What about this? Trees are created on Day Three (Genesis chapter 1:12), but Genesis 2:9\u2014on Day Six\u2014seems to indicate that the trees don't exist yet. Well, again, it's a special Hebrew word for trees on Day Six in Genesis 2: the garden trees\u2014trees appropriate for a garden. It's not making a statement that no other trees ever existed.\n\nThe reality of the situation\u2014and this is just a sampling\u2014is all of these so-called contradictions between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2? Frankly, they don't exist at all! I've use this example before: \u00a0It's a lot like three blindfolded people feeling an elephant. One person is grabbing the elephant's trunk, and they say, \u201cI'm feeling a giant tube.\u201d Another person is touching the elephant's foot, and he says, \u201cI'm feeling five lumps for the five toes.\u201d And another person is touching the elephant\u2019s side with his blindfold on, and he says, \u201cIt feels like a giant wall.\u201d And at first glance, all of those testimonies seem to contradict each other\u2014until you take the blindfolds off and the contradiction disappears. All they are doing is touching different sides of the same animal. I mean, there is no contradiction at all.\n\nThere's no contradiction between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 if you start from the right premise that Genesis 1 is an overview of the entire week of Creation; but Genesis 2 is an amplification on the formation of man and woman on Day Six.\n\nBy the way, when Jesus was asked about divorce and remarriage, we read the following in Matthew 19:3-6. \u201cSome Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, \u2018Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?<\/em>\u2019 \u201d Divorce and the circumstances for divorce was a hot issue in Christ's day\u2014just like it's a vigorously debated issue in our day.\n\nWhen is it proper, under God, for marriage to dissolve? There was a long-standing debate with Rabbi Shammai. They quote here Deuteronomy 24; the \u201cindecent thing\u201d allows you to put your wife away in terms of dissolving a marriage. Rabbi Shammai interpreted that very strictly.\n\nThen along came Rabbi Hillel, and he interpreted it very liberally, \u201cYou can divorce your wife for any circumstance at all\u2014including if she puts too much salt on your food!\u201d So they come to Christ in the midst of this debate and they basically are asking Him, \u201cWho are you with, Hillel or Shammai?\u201d\n\nAnd I love how Christ answers. Verse 4, \u201cand He answered and said, \u2018Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female<\/em> [that is Genesis 1:27],<\/em> and said, \u201cFor this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh\u201d?<\/em>\u2019 \u201d That is Genesis 2:24. See what the Lord just did? Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.\n\n6 <\/em>\u201c \u2018So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate<\/em>.\u2019 \u201d Christ doesn't get into a bogged down debate between Hillel and Shammai. He doesn't even seem to care what the rabbis of the day were saying. He goes right back to God's pattern in Creation and talks about the original design of God in marriage, and in the process, He quotes Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24\u2014back to back.\n\nApparently, Jesus Christ Himself\u2014can you think of a higher authority than Jesus? I can't\u2014felt there was no contradiction at all between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2! He never said, \u201cWell, the E source says this<\/em> in Genesis 1, and the J source says this<\/em> in Genesis 2. Jesus knew nothing about higher criticism; He never considered those chapters contradictory. And if it's good enough for Jesus Christ, it\u2019s good enough for you. And it's good enough for me. And it doesn't matter what the erudite scholars that are featured on these different TV programs are saying. There is no contradiction.\n\nAnd I'm just wondering\u2026 What if someone had stood up in a unified sense when the JEDP theory was starting to come into existence and vigorously challenged it. What if they did what the Book of Jude says, \u201ccontend earnestly for the faith<\/em>\u201d (Jude 3), \u201calways being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence\u2026\u201d<\/em> (1 Peter 3:15). If that was happening in Christianity in Europe as higher criticism was rearing its ugly head, I'm wondering, what would be the state of all of those buildings that are empty today in Europe?\n\nCould Christianity have been preserved? Could it have been saved? And are we going to take up the challenge and answer these objections? Because if we don't, and we\u2019re just satisfied with churches that entertain us, the churches that we have today are not guaranteed to be there for your children or your grandchildren. And that's why I put up charts and make you aware of these things.\n\nWith that being said, as Genesis 2 is not contradicting Genesis 1 but is simply amplifying Day Six, here is our outline for Genesis 2. This is all on Day Six. Verses 4-7\u2014we have the creation of man. Verses 8-14\u2014man is placed in a garden, the garden of Eden. These are all things that God did on Day Six that Genesis 1 doesn't tell you about.\n\nNumber three: God gives man responsibilities in Eden verses 15-17\u2014including the great choice. A choice, by the way, that you still have to make\u2014and I still have to make\u2014today. Then, after all of that is complete, God puts man (or Adam) into a deep sleep, and from his side He forms woman. And there we have the first marriage.\n\nNow, notice this very carefully after man is created. Number one: he has the Word. The Word of God is given to him, and that happens in verses 15-17. But before that, verses 8-14, he has the work. First you have the work, then you have the Word, and last comes the wedding. That's a fascinating order, isn\u2019t it? Work, Word, wedding!\n\nBecause I, through the sound of my voice, am speaking to a lot of single people. Particularly single women are extremely stressed out due to the fact that they haven't found Mr. Wonderful yet. Well, as someone once told me, \u201cIf you want to find Mrs. Wonderful, you\u2019d better be Mr. Wonderful yourself.\u201d And vice versa.\n\nAnd people, because of loneliness, are willing to rush into a marriage relationship. And God is saying, \u201cHold the phone here a minute. Number one: Does the man that you're interested in work?\u201d Does he have a job? Does he have an ability to provide? If he is 27 years of age and sitting in his parents basement playing video games all day, chances are you, as a young woman, should look elsewhere. \u201cYeah, but he's so cute!\u201d Let me tell you something about cute: Cute is going to fade! We\u2019re going to see that in Genesis 3. Cute is going to fade faster than you thought possible!\n\nSo, number one: Does he have work? Number two: Does he have the Word? Is he a man of God? Does he respect the God of the Bible? Is he a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Only when those two are in place does God provide the wedding, or the marriage, and bring to the man the right wife. There's work; there's Word; there's wedding.\n\n\u201cWell, I'm thinking about dating so-and-so.\u201d Okay, let's look at the first two W\u2019s\u2014work and Word. That will cross a lot of people right off your list right off the bat, won\u2019t it? Because when God brings you the right person, that in essence is what his characteristics and his qualities will be.\n\nWe move on here into verses 4-7, where we have the creation of the first man. Notice, if you will, verse 4, \u201cThis is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven<\/em>.\u201d\n\nNow, notice what it says there in verse 4, \u201cThis is the account<\/em>...\u201d That's a Hebrew word translated, \u201cthis is the account,\u201d or \u201cthese are the generations of.\u201d This is the Hebrew word TOLEDOTH. It\u2019s plural; it simply means, \u201cthese are the generations of.\u201d And that formula shows up over and over and over again in the Book of Genesis.\n\nWe\u2019re just looking here at this one, \u201cThis is the account the TOLEDOTH of the heaven and earth.\u201d Why does it keep saying, \u201cThis is the account\u2026\u201d? Later it will say, \u201cThis is the account of Adam. This is the account of Noah. This is the account of the sons of Noah. This is the account of Shem. This is the account of Terah. This is the account of Ishmael. This is the account of Isaac\u2026Esau\u2026Jacob.\u201d What is being spoken of here?\n\nWhat does this mean? This is a pre-Mosaic Bible. It's a Bible before there was a Bible. Because Moses, when he wrote these first five books, was not receiving direct revelation from God. Certainly, he could have received that\u2014and probably did at points\u2014and the Spirit of God was guiding him. But he was stitching all of these things together from other records.\n\nSo, when he says, \u201cThis is the account of this,\u201d and \u201cThis is the account of that,\u201d he is accessing Jewish records of history which talk about these different time periods. There happened to be a toledoth\u2014or an account of the heaven and the earth. This is what Moses is building the history on in Genesis 2.\n\nMoses did not write the first five books of the Bible, called Torah or Pentateuch, until about 1400, 1500 (roughly) BC. There was a lot of history that transpired beforehand.\n\nAnd when Jacob came from the land of Canaan to Egypt (Genesis 46) to receive grain in the midst of famine, most likely Jacob, coming to Egypt, brought all of that material with him. And it was passed down through the generations. Finally, it fell into the hands of Moses.\n\nBy the way, Moses was providentially ordained by God to write these first five books. Why was Moses ordained by God to write these first five books? Because he was a slave in Egypt. And had he stayed a slave, he would not have had the education necessary to put all of this material together that we call the Book of Genesis.\n\nYou know the story in early Exodus. Moses was set adrift on the Nile when the Egyptians were killing all of the Hebrew infant males, you\u2019ll recall. And the Book of Exodus says as he was put in that basket and set adrift on the Nile, it just happened to find its way to Pharaoh's daughter, a princess. She took Moses into Egypt which was the world power at that time.\n\nAnd Moses was reared with the best education you could possibly have in that time period\u2014an education he never would've had had he lived his entire life as a slave. You think that was an accident? Do you think it was just coincidental that he was set adrift and the basket just happened to come before the princess? Acts 7:22 says this, \u201cMoses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds<\/em>.\u201d\n\nWhy did God give Moses that education? Because one of the great callings on the life of Moses\u2014in addition to leading Israel out of Egyptian slavery after 400 years\u2014was to take these written truths and written records, stitch them together, and compile them into what we call the first five books of Moses. One of which we\u2019re reading here: the Book of Genesis.\n\nA lot of Christians struggle with this. \u201cYou say you're against the documentary hypothesis, but now you're telling us that Moses used records.\u201d Well, don't let that bother you, because Dr. Luke used records.\n\nYou know, Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke ,was not one of the original 12 disciples. So where did Dr. Luke get his information about Jesus Christ? He interviewed people. And, actually, there were prewritten records about Jesus floating around even before Luke penned Luke's gospel.\n\nIn fact, Luke 1:1-2 says this, \u201cInasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us<\/em>\u2026\u201d (NKJV) Luke said (paraphrasing), \u201cA lot of other people have tried to write gospels of Jesus Christ.\u201d Some call those the gospelette's\u2014shorter versions.\n\nLuke, not an eyewitness, had to talk to eyewitnesses of the things of Christ. I believe that one of the people that Luke talked to was Christ's mother, Mary, among many others. And through that process of investigation, the Holy Spirit was at work and guided Dr. Luke so that he could paint for us a portrait of Jesus Christ that we call the Gospel of Luke.\n\nThe same kind of thing here is happening with Moses. He has access to these records, and yet, at the same time, the Holy Spirit is at work. The Holy Spirit is guiding Moses as the compiler, and what came out of it was the great Book of Genesis that we\u2019re studying here.\n\nWe move into verses 5-6, and we read something very interesting. It says, \u201c5 Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.<\/em>\u201d\n\nOne of the things that I had a chance to talk about, as we were studying Genesis 1:6-7, is this very curious phrase, \u201cthe waters above.\u201d There were \u201cthe waters below,\u201d the ocean. Then there was an expanse called \u201cthe sky.\u201d And then it makes, in Genesis 1:6-7, a very interesting statement about \u201cthe waters above.\u201d\n\nWhat were \u201cthe waters above\u201d? The sky, I recognize. The waters below the sky, I recognize\u2014that's the ocean. But what are these \u201cwaters above\u201d? This is not necessarily something to start a new church over, but I do believe what's implied in Genesis 1:6-7 and Psalm 148:4 is that at one time in history the earth was surrounded by a canopy of water. It formed sort of a greenhouse type of effect, filtering the sun\u2019s damaging ultraviolet rays, allowing people\u2014even in the post fall world\u2014to live into their 900s.\n\nAnd I think that's why we find so many animals in the fossil record that have really no parallel with the animals today. Things seem to grow bigger and grow larger under this greenhouse effect.\n\nIt explains an awful lot to me. It explains the long life spans of early man post fall. The strange beasts that we find in the Bible; some today refer to them as dinosaurs.\n\nIt helps me understand where the floodwaters came from. Because one of the critics of the global flood is there's not enough moisture in the clouds to flood the earth. Well, who says God used the clouds? Couldn't God have instantly\u2014or gradually\u2014released this canopy that surrounded the earth.\n\nAnd its explains why, in the post fall world, man is no longer living into his 900s, 800s. His lifespan gets cut short\u2014rolled back to what it is today. In Psalm 90:10 Moses says, \u201c70 or 80 years old.\u201d If you reach 70, you're doing really well. If you reach 80, you are doing great!\u201d I mean, why aren\u2019t \u00a0we living into our 800s anymore\u2014or 900s?\n\nWhy did Adam live 930 years? Why did Methuselah live 969 years? Well, they lived pre-canopy. We live post-canopy, post-flood.\n\nIf all of this is true, then where did rain come from? Where did moisture come from? I think we have an answer there in verses 5-6. There was no such thing as rain. What it says is that water came up from the ground and provided the moisture.\n\nWhen we understand this, now you understand what Noah was up against, because 1 Peter 3 calls him a \u201cpreacher of righteousness\u201d He warned of a coming judgment. He warned of a coming flood. And he did that (Genesis 6:3) for 120 years. And after 120 years of preaching, what did he have? Did he have a mega church?\n\nHe had eight people in the ark. One of them was his wife. And the others were his three sons and their respective wives. The Bible is very clear: eight people only<\/em> in the ark after 120 years of preaching! You mean, you don't have a convert\u2014a single convert\u2014after 120 years of proclamation? You want to talk about frustration in the ministry?\n\nWhy didn't Noah have more converts? Because he was talking about something they had no knowledge of. In fact, Noah himself had no knowledge of it. He only knew of a coming Deluge because of what God said. He had to completely trust what God said, and he had to not rely upon what he knew in terms of his five senses. And that's why Noah (Hebrews 11:7) is in the hall of faith.\n\nCould you imagine talking about a coming Deluge for 120 years when the inhabitants of the earth didn't even know what rain was? I\u2019ll be giving you the dimensions when we get into that section down the road in this study; the structure the ark was massive!\n\nCould you imagine having a structure like that in your driveway\u2014or wherever he put it\u2014and how foolish that looked in the eyes of the pre-flood world that had no conception of rain because moisture came up from the ground and watered everything?\n\nSee, your Bible says that the man who has the Spirit looks foolish to those without the Spirit. It talks about how the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Because the only way to understand the message of the Cross was the only way to understand the message of coming judgment in the days of Noah: you have to completely\u2014100%\u2014operate by faith. Because without faith, it is what? Impossible to please God.\n\nSo this provides us some insight on who Noah was and why he is so respected in spite of his failings. We\u2019re going to read in the Book of Genesis of some of his failings in the post-flood world and why he is enumerated in the hall of faith which is a chapter calling our attention to the greats who believed God had all costs. May we be like them.\n\nWe continue to verse 7 which says, \u201cThen the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground\u2026\u201d Now, you read Genesis 1:27 and you start to think, \u201cWe must be pretty special! We\u2019re made in God's image!\u201d Which we are.\n\nBut Genesis 2? I like how it provides balance to that: \u201cDon't think of yourself more highly than you ought, because really you came from the dirt.\u201d In fact, if moisture came up from the ground, you really came from the mud.\n\nGenesis 1, \u201cI\u2019m made in God's image! Look at how wonderful I am!\u201d God says, \u201cYou are.\u201d Genesis 2 says, \u201cWell, don't get too carried away because you\u2019re really from the mud.\u201d\n\nAnd, by the way, you\u2019re going back to the dirt\u2014or the mud\u2014from which you came, original sin, Genesis 3:19, which we haven't gotten to yet. But when we get to it, we will read, \u201c \u2018By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.<\/em>\u2019 \u201d\n\nBut then God, when He forms man from the dust, does something very interesting there in verse 7. \u201cThen the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being<\/em>.\u201d To my knowledge, humanity or man\u2014Adam\u2014is the only creature that God breathed into him life. Mouth-to-mouth, I guess. Mouth-to-mouth from God: from God's mouth to Adam's nostrils. The animals can't say that, I'm not even sure the angels can say that, but it's true about man.\n\nAnd, yes, even though man came from the dirt and is going back to the dirt, he still bears God's image. He still is the recipient of the direct breath of God. And when you understand that, you understand why people<\/em> are so valuable to God!\n\nThere's a famous saying in the ministry, \u201cMinistry would be great if it weren't for all the people.\u201d The fact of the matter is, we all have people in our lives who are irritating to us\u2014rub us the wrong way\u2014personality conflicts\u2014quirks\u2014whatever the issue is. And we have to understand that from a biblical perspective, that person is of infinite, inestimable worth or value to God for the simple reason\u2014whether they are Christian or not\u2014that they are made in God's image.\n\nAnd they descended from the one who God breathed into the very breath of life. How do we treat people? We ought to treat them with dignity and respect\u2014all people\u2014because of who they are in the outworking of God's Creation hierarchy.\n\nNow, it\u2019s very interesting in the Hebrew language. What does it say here? It doesn't show up well in English. It says, \u201cThen the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives<\/em> [plural]; and man became a living being<\/em>.\u201d I picked up this little insight from Stephen Waterhouse in his wonderful book. We have them here, and we have Spanish versions here also. It\u2019s a wonderful book that he wrote, covering every area of systematic theology in layman's terms.\n\nThe book is called, Not by Bread Alone<\/em>. He says, on page 77, \u201cThe literal translation of Genesis 2:7 teaches that, \u2018God breathed into Adam the breath of lives\u2019 (plural).\u201d Man did not just become alive at a singular level; he became alive at multiple levels.\n\nFirst Thessalonians 5:23 says, \u201cNow may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ<\/em>. (NKJV) Did you catch that? \u201cMay your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nIt's interesting that God is triune. One God, but He's expressed Himself in three separate personages: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Isn\u2019t it interesting that we\u2019re made in God's image? I'm a single person, and yet of me\u2014and of you\u2014there are three basic parts: body, soul, spirit. In this case, I'm speaking of the Holy Spirit.\n\nWhat it's saying there in Genesis 2:7 is that when God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of lives, Adam became alive at all three levels. Number one\u2014he was alive bodily. That would speak of his physical being: his cardiovascular system; his muscular system; the body that he was in that allowed him to relate to the entire world around him; the five senses\u2014sight, smell, touch, etc.\n\nAdam was alive at that level, but he wasn't alive at that level alone. He became alive at this soulish level. What is the soul? Jesus said, \u201cOr what can a man give in exchange for his soul?<\/em>\u201d (Mark 8:37, BSB) The soul is that capacity that God has given us which allows us to live forever. The soul is the seat of one's personality, intellect, emotions, volition\u2014those parts of you that are you but which I can't see.\n\nWhy do you have certain preferences and tastes that I don't have? Those are soul issues. Intellect, emotions, personality, will, volition is essentially what we would call the immaterial part of a person. Physical body\u2014material. Soul\u2014immaterial. I believe that sometimes the soul is referred to as the spirit in the Bible. \u201cSoul\u201d and \u201cspirit\u201d can be interchangeable.\n\nBut then man is alive at another level. He's alive at the spiritual level, and I think the reference here is to the Holy Spirit. Man, at the beginning, had a capacity to relate to and understand the things of God. He could relate to the world around him through his physical body, but he could relate to God Himself through the presence of the Holy Spirit.\n\nJesus says, \u201c \u2018But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth<\/em>.\u2019 \u201d (John 4:23-24) If that spiritual capacity is not there via the Holy Spirit, a person is just the natural man. They are alive at a bodily level. They are alive at a soulless level. But all of this Christianity stuff? And reading the Bible? And going to church? It makes no sense to them, because they don't have the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd it's through the Spirit that we can even understand the things of God. Beloved, I'll tell you that I tried, as an unsaved person, to read the Bible. It made absolutely no sense to me! But then I got saved when I was 16, and I had an appetite to read the Bible. And, oh my goodness, what a different perspective! Did I suddenly get smarter? No. Something greater than myself entered me, and I had a capacity to relate to things on a spiritual plane that I didn't have before.\n\nFirst Corinthians 2:10-16 says, \u201cFor to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.<\/em>\u201d\n\nTake this from personal experience. Sitting on social media and arguing with people all day long concerning the veracity of Christianity is a waste of time. Because a lot of the people that you're arguing with? They don't have a capacity to understand the things of God, because they don't have the Holy Spirit inside of them.\n\nWhat you need to do for the person that you're arguing with is pray for them to come under conviction, that they might hear a clear presentation of the gospel, and trust in Christ, and the Holy Spirit will come into them at that point. Then they\u2019re alive at all three levels, just like you are! And you can have a conversation.\n\nIt reminds me of a missionary. The missionary came and he wanted to lead someone to Christ. And the fellow said, \u201cOkay. I'll become a Christian, but I want you to answer 10 questions. If you answer these 10 questions I\u2019ll become a Christian.\u201d The missionary looked at his watch and saw that he didn't have time to answer the 10 questions because he had another appointment.\n\nThe missionary said to the unsaved person, \u201cI'll tell you what. Why don't you receive Christ now<\/em> by faith alone, and I'll come back tomorrow at this same time and answer your 10 questions.\u201d and the gentleman said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got a deal.\u201d He heard the gospel. He trusted in Christ. The missionary left.\n\nAnd, as promised, he came back 24 hours later. He said, \u201cOkay. I want to make good on my deal. Let me answer your 10 questions.\u201d And the guy said, \u201cOh, I don't have those anymore. All the questions that have been nagging me? They\u2019re not nagging me anymore\u2014I have answers.\u201d\n\nNow, what happened there? The Holy Spirit came inside a man. He was alive now\u2014just like Adam. Not just at the bodily level, not just at the soul level, but he was alive at the spiritual level, and he could understand the things of God. They were no longer a mystery to him. They were no longer foolishness to him.\n\nYou see, this spiritual realm that I'm speaking of? This was the cord that was cut in Genesis 3. It says in Genesis 2:17, \u201c \u2018but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die<\/em>.\u2019 \u201d The cord was clipped at that point. Yes, the process of physical death started\u2014but there was a cord immediately cut!\n\nAs human beings, we are born under Adam's sin and judgment. That's why Ephesians 2:1 says, \u201cAnd you were dead in your trespasses and sins.<\/em>\u201d Why would the Bible say that about unsaved people? In fact, some translations render Ephesians 2:1, \u201cThe Walking Dead.\u201d\n\nWhy are people the walking dead? Why don't they understand what you understand? Why don\u2019t they have any appetite for the things of God? Because they\u2019re alive at a physical level, they\u2019re alive at a soulish level, but they're not alive at a spiritual level. That's why the Spirit convicts them day and night of their need to trust Christ for salvation.\n\nAnd should God give you the privilege of presenting the gospel to somebody\u2014and I'm going to pray that He does that for you this week. As that person trusts in Christ for salvation\u2014Wow\u2014what a difference! The Holy Spirit just entered them.\n\nRomans 8:9b says, \u201cBut if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him<\/em>.\u201d I mean, the greatest need that people have today is for that lightbulb to be turned on. The Bible calls this the new birth.\n\nJesus spoke to Nicodemus at night. I call this the \u201cNick at night\u201d conversation. \u201cJesus answered and said to him, \u2018Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God<\/em>.\u2019 \u201d (John 3:3 NKJV) Do you notice that? He can't even see it! He can't even perceive it.\n\n\u201cNicodemus said to Him, \u2018How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother\u2019s womb and be born?\u2019 5 Jesus answered, \u2018Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water<\/em>\u2026\u2019 \u201d To make a long story short, I think water is probably physical birth, but there are different discussions on that. I don't want to get bogged down on that.\n\n\u201cJesus answered, \u2018Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit<\/em>\u2026\u2019 \u201d Being born physically is not enough to be right with God. Being alive at a soul level and a physical level is not enough to be made right with God. There has to be something else. The spiritual dimension\u2014lives\u2014has to come into a person's life for them to see the Kingdom of God, for them to even enter the Kingdom of God.\n\n\u201c \u2018\u2026unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, \u201cYou must be born again<\/em>.\u201d \u2019 \u201d\n\nThis is why the spiritual birth is so critical. Because when the spiritual birth happens, the rupture that took place in Genesis 3 is restored, and you are alive at all three levels now. So God breathed into Adam's nostrils lives. Soulishly alive, physically alive, spiritually alive, and that's the creation of man, verses 4-7.\n\nThen He is going to place him in a garden and give him a choice, verses 8-14. Which I can't talk about now, because the clock is almost up. And that really bums me out because that was my sermon title. I was so confident I was going to get to verses 8-14, that I named the sermon after that.\n\nSo next week will be \u201cThe Great Choice, Part Two.\u201d Amen? But, you know, what an easy transition into the gospel today in presenting it. God wants to do the work so profound in your life that He wants to turn the lightbulb on. Physical and soulish life isn't enough. To understand God and be made right with God, there has to be a spiritual birth. God has to reverse the cord that was cut in Genesis 3.\n\nWe\u2019re all born with that deficiency. Something is missing. There is a gap. That, by the way, explains why so many people are unhappy in life and why they're wandering off to this experience or that experience to fill that void. They are missing something. They\u2019ve got the physical life, they\u2019ve got the soulish life, but they don't have the spiritual life.\n\nAnd Jesus was very clear, \u201cIf you drink from that water, you're going to go thirsty again.\u201d The two best artificial substitutes are power and pleasure. That's what people are trying to fill in their lives for that missing part that only God can provide. That's what was happening with the woman at the well. She\u2019d had five husbands, and her current partner she wasn't married to. There was something missing in her life that only the Holy Spirit could satisfy. And she was trying to fill that missing void with promiscuity.\n\nThat's what we\u2019re all like, when you think about it. It's a giant search. And the answer is so simple. The answer is: you trust Christ, and you come alive at all three levels the way God designed you. And when you live within your intended design, life starts making sense. Things start fitting together.\n\nSo our invitation to anybody who has never experienced this new birth is that you can experience it right now. Not by trusting me or Sugar Land Bible Church, but trusting the promises of the gospel. The promise of the gospel is Jesus, 2000 years ago, through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension bridged the gap so that the spiritual light can come on in people. He commands them not to trust in their own religiosity or good works for the spiritual light to come on. He commands them to trust in what He has done.\n\nSo at some point in a person's life, they come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of their need to do this. I've been praying all week that this conviction would be present in this room and present for anybody listening online, even long after the fact. That conviction would be so plain and they would follow through, after coming under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, by trusting in Christ and Christ alone.\n\nIt's not something you raise a hand to get. It's not something you fill out a card to get. It's not something you join a church to get. It's not something you give money to get. It's a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you trust\u2014which is what faith is\u2014in Him and Him alone for salvation.\n\nAnd once that happens, not only is a person's eternal destiny altered, but they come alive the way God intended\u2014lives. The spiritual realm is added to physical life and soulish life. So, that's what we\u2019re presenting today. If anybody has any questions on that, I\u2019ll be available after the service to talk to you.\n\nBut I don't know how to present it any differently than what I just said. It's not me or any human being that can give this to you. The Lord\u2014and the Lord alone\u2014can give it to you when you fulfill His condition which is faith alone. Shall we pray?\n\nClosing Prayer<\/strong>\n\n\u201cFather, we\u2019re grateful for the Book of Genesis and the things that it teaches us. It gives us so much of a foundation\u2014even the foundation for the new birth. We just ask that Your Spirit will be at work convicting people\u2014men and women\u2014of the most important need that they have, that they may not even be able to see at the present time, so that they can come alive and be born again spiritually.\n\nWe\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask all these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d And God's people said, \u201cAmen.\u201d","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t