Man His Fall

So we're actually, the two chapters, 25 and 26, are really related. As you'll see when you look at the handout I have for here, I'm really going to, at the end, I'm going to kind of cover some of the parts that Harry covered just briefly. But they're really interrelated, so it's not unusual that we're going to talk about some of the same topics in these chapters. So let's just kind of show you what... So what I kind of did was, because they're related, I kind of put down a summary of the three sections, basically Adam before the fall, basically Adam and Eve and Satan after the fall, and the effect upon the race of Adam's fall.

And actually Harry, in what he did last week, he covered really God's original plan and purpose, that we're to be image bearers of the Lord Jesus Christ, man is to, those who believe in him are to bear his image. And that was his plan and purpose from you know, from there, actually from time past, from eternity past. And then actually, Harry also covered kind of some of the detailed design of how man was designed, a material part, a physical body, an immaterial part, soul and spirit. And that's one of the questions that came up on that line.

And I'd like to kind of focus on today, the last two bullets under the fall of Adam, plus these other two down here. I called it God's original home, the garden. And his instruction, he gave man instructions on what he was to do. And then the fourth bullet is the testing of man. When the serpent came to man and basically questioned what God had said. And then we're going to see the result of what happened to Adam and Eve and Satan. And then the effect upon all of mankind.

So that's sort of the plan. So we're going to kind of, in the handout, we're going to jump over this. It'll be page three. For right now, I'll come back to it at the end. I wanted to make sure we didn't get, you know, we'll cover that at the end, basically. It's a plan.

And before we do this, you know, it's the Internet's amazing. It's amazing what you can find out there, you know, and, you know, Vern's always finding some great pictures. So I thought it's kind of apropos since we're talking about, you know, Adam before the fall. You know, we've actually got pictures of that.

So, you know, here we have Adam and Eve before the fall. So I can't vouch for the validity of the pictures, whether they're accurate. Adam only had a beard or Eve had really long hair. Maybe she had blonde hair. I don't, I don't have a clue, but anyway, I thought, you know, a picture is always nice. And what's that? Anyway, so I thought a picture is always nice.

So anyway, So we're going to skip over page 3 and we're going to go to page 4 on the handout and look at basically God's original home and instructions for man in Genesis 2. So let's look at Genesis chapter 2. And as you gather, we're going to spend most of our time in Genesis basically 2 and 3. this morning. So let me go ahead here and I'll just read Genesis 2. I just want to read basically verses 8 and 9, and then I want to read 16 and 17. Okay, verse 8, Genesis 2, 8.

It says, And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there he placed man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then, you know, there's like 10 through 14 or so or 15 kind of talk about the rivers and the kind of stuff. And then if we go down to verse 15, Then the Lord God took man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden, you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. Okay. So if we look at, um, at verse nine and actually verse 16, you'll notice that What kind of impressed me was that this word every or any, they're actually the same Hebrew word and the word is K-O-L. It means the whole or all of.

So God gave all the trees they needed and the trees were ones that were pleasing to the sight and good for food. So God gave them all they needed in these trees. They were beautiful to look at and they provided food. And it's interesting if you go back to Genesis chapter one and look at first. Find it here. Some reason I can't find it right at the moment, but.

It's a verse that talks about that the trees were basically the fruit, were God's provision for food, his sustenance. I'll try to find it later on, but basically he provided them with all they needed in these trees and the fruit of the trees. And then he points out there are two specific trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And it's interesting between those two trees, The tree of life is a tree that we see kind of traced through scripture. And we're going to look at some of those passages. That tree is talked about as being significant through the rest of scripture into the end times and into the eternal kingdom.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as far as I could tell, is only mentioned in the Genesis account. It's not mentioned elsewhere. So it's interesting that Satan's going to come to them and he's going to offer the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and disregards the tree of life. I just found it interesting reading through that. I don't know if it struck you before, but his focus is on this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whereas God's focus is on the tree of life. And Satan never talks about that, never mentions that. His focus is on this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And another thing that kind of pops out of that is that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whose good is that? Is that God's good for man? In my mind, that's man's good. There's some things here we need to sort through, but the treat of knowledge in good and evil wasn't that great a deal. They didn't really wind up with too much. It wasn't the best. Let's go back here for a second.

Let's look at some verses that talk about, in chapter 3 of Genesis, At the end of chapter 3, in verses 22, 23, and 24, would someone volunteer to read 22, 23, 24? And this talks about the Tree of Life. Harry? knowing good and evil, and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord shall send him out from the garden of Eden, and cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out, and at the least of the guardian of the youth, he sanctioned a sheriff and a flaming sword, which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. So the tree of life was what it says. It was the tree of life and God was concerned that in that man's fallen state they might take from that tree. And it seemed that they would eternally be left in their sins. which is something he did not want to happen.

And if you trace that tree of life, you can trace it into Revelation. We've been through it. Let's look at Revelation chapter 2. It traces into Revelation. Yeah, I know. We're going pillar to poster. So, this tree of life shows up in Revelation chapter 2, in verse 7.

And it says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. So basically what he's saying, an overcomer is one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, who put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we as believers are going to have the privilege, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. So the tree of life is something that God has provided for his children. And it's interesting that that was never mentioned, never part of the issue of Satan at all. It's only this tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

OK, good. Good point. Good point. Let's look at the other path. It's a good question. If someone has a thought, I'm I'm. Well, Marilyn was kind of a good question. She was saying, well, let's let's think about this. You know, the tree of the tree of life. was in the garden, right, which is on the earth. And the eternal kingdom is this whole Jerusalem coming down, sort of suspended over the earth. So she's saying, well, where is this tree of life? Is that what you're saying? Isn't that on the earth?

And, I don't know, I hadn't really... It seems like it probably is, but I hadn't... Paradise of God. Isn't paradise an Old Testament name for... That's not... This is a rabbit. I'll shut up. That's an interesting question. I'm not sure I'm prepared to answer that right at the moment.

Let's look at the third passage, which is in Revelation 22. I'll just read verses 1 and 2. It says, And he showed me a river, of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming down from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the middle of his streets, and on either side of the river, was a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." And also in verse 14, it's mentioned, it says, "'Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, If they may enter by the gates into the city.

So that's interesting. The good question. Sure, go ahead. I'm open. Well, in many cases, there are things in scripture there that you don't know. There's a tree of life in the garden. There's a tree of life in the heavenly truths in the center. Number one. Are they going to be a tree of life? Is God going to put a tree of life in the garden and bring it into heavenly Jerusalem?

We don't know. Scripture doesn't tell us. So where we don't know, we just can't answer the question. It doesn't say anything about how long the Jeroboam was there guarding, right? Well, it was so that they. Yeah, right. But man was driven out of the out of the garden, right? But what you're saying is that he is not back or whatever. No guard there. You're saying that. Well, first of all, I guess we don't know where he is.

Right. And then we discover the whole earth in terms regarding the truth. I think we can probably get off on all kinds of trails here, I don't know. You'll find the Ark of the Covenant too, we'll look for that at the same time. It's going to be tough.

So in the garden there was every tree that was pleasing. God has provided all that was needed for man. There was a tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So then in verse 16, the first part is sort of described as man's home in verse 9. Now 16 and 17 are God's instructions.

So here's what he tells man. He says, from any tree of the garden you may freely eat. So he just kind of reiterates that he's provided all these wonderful things for man. But then he has the exception. He says, but 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. So that's God's instruction to man.

And it's interesting in this verse 17 here that the phrase surely die or you will surely die actually literally could be rendered dying you will surely die or dying you shall die. So it seems to indicate from that that it's speaking of two kinds of two kinds of deaths that are involved. Dying you will surely die or dying you shall die. So can you tell me what, first of all, what's the definition of death?

Okay, that's good. So what do you see in this passage here? What kind of death, des, plural, was God warning them about? Okay. Alright. So, spiritual death. How do we see that in the Genesis account? That spiritual death. How do we see that carried out? Right.

If death is separation, right? or being kept away from the tree of life? They were separated from fellowship with God, right? They could no longer fellowship with God. So that's one part of it. How about the other part, the other death? Dying, you will surely die. What's the other one? Okay. Okay. And actually, you know, that's mentioned, if you look in Genesis 3, it's just above where we read.

In Genesis 3.19, He talks about, and we'll see this in a little bit, the curse upon Adam is that in verse 19, the last half, it basically says, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So physical death is mentioned as well as spiritual death. So that's a dying you will surely die. So we see in that passage, the aspect of spiritual death, separation from God, and then separation of the body and the spirit. Okay. Okay. Okay, let's look at the next, look at page five. Now we come into the part of the scripture here in Genesis 3 where we talk about the testing of man. Could someone volunteer to read Genesis chapter 3, 1 through 7? It's a little longer passage, but a pretty familiar passage.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, you may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die. You will not surely die with serpent, said the woman. For God knows that when you eat it, eat it that your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, known good and evil.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, and juicy to the eyes, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some of it and ate it. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. and the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed big leaves together and made covers for themselves. Thank you. Okay.

So, what I've done here in Genesis chapter 3, I've kind of highlighted verses 1, 4, and 5, and basically the words that Satan came to Eve with. And the first thing to be observed here, and I think we've talked about this before when we looked at Satan's character, It says the serpent was more crafty. And that word more crafty, remember we looked at, can someone tell me, kind of give me some synonyms for Satan's character or personality. Remember we had a list of things from a couple of weeks ago. We had here some of the characteristics of Satan. What were some of his characteristics that you kind of remember?

Okay. All right. All right, good, good. So actually that word more crafty, is the idea that the root word is smooth. It's cunning, sly, subtle. He's slick. He knows what he's doing. He understands the issues. He's not going to be brash. He's going to be polite. He's crafty. He has an intent and he's going to carry that out. He comes to Eve. Yeah. OK.

Well, I've heard I've heard some people kind of question, well, you know, this this is, you know, If you think of it before, Satan was given in the passage that we had in Ezekiel. He was called the King of Tyre. There was kind of illusions. There was not a physical man as the King of Tyre, it seemed like. This was an illusion of Satan. And other places, the sun in the morning. So he seems to have names that are... I don't know, I'm just thinking about Satan. If you look at Satan's names in scripture, he has names that are hiding behind something, right?

That's my thought. I don't know about the indwelling of the serpent. I'm not sure. I see your point. Since we talked about the fact that Satan is created and he has a personality, and man is created and has a personality, animals do not have a personality. I see kind of where you're headed, but I'm not sure. I still don't understand why he cares. He was in the form. It looks like one.

You know, we tend to think it's strictly one that's false. But not necessarily. Good point. That's a good point. Part of his, and we're going to go through that. Part of his judgment is he's going to crawl on his belly. Right. That's a good point. Right. Right. Right. Right. Well, it's funny.

I went out on the Internet and I found some of these pictures. I have a few more to show you later on. They had all these pictures of Satan as a snake and I said, I know, I know, you know, the hell is you could find a bunch of those. Well, why don't we save some of those questions for when we get to that? That's a good answer, even better. Go ahead, Crystal. Go ahead, Crystal. I'm sorry. Right. Well.

Well, the thing about this, you know, Satan, you know, Satan and the demons, as well as the angels, do they have physical bodies, that they do seem for time periods they do, but many times where they do not seem to have physical bodies. One of the things that we, if you look at the chapters on angels, it talks about the fact that they're spiritual, so they're spirits, and so they take on bodily form for a reason, but, so, it seems like that the demons take on, want a body to possess, and Satan, you know, I don't know, Well, New Testament talks a lot about being an angel of light. I mean, there's all kinds of principalities and powers and things that are unseen to us, the spiritual world, which we can't see physically. So it talks about Satan in that realm, doesn't talk about, you know, Well, okay, let's go on to Satan's words here.

Okay, so he starts off, so right off the bat he says, Indeed has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. So I looked up that in some other translations, Indeed has God said, and I found, it's kind of interesting, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the New Testament, Old Testament, has, why has God said? Young's literal translation has, is it true that God said? Is it true that God said that? You shall not eat from, and so on. And another one said, did God really say that?

So basically, I think the message here is that Satan is calling into question what God has said. But what's amazing is, what he's calling into question in direct opposition to what God told Eve. He says, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. Well, if we look back at what he told Eve, he says, you shall eat from any tree of the garden.

So just the absolute opposite of what... So he calls into question what God has said, and he says the exact opposite of what God has said. And I think Dr. Schaeffer points out, he maximizes. God said, God was very narrow. He said there's only one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, Satan says, you can't eat from any tree.

I mean, it's just, it's sort of like when some, you know, sometimes you have people and they'll complain about something they say. They'll exaggerate. If there's a small issue, they'll make it much bigger than it is. So, Satan has taken that issue and made it all-encompassing and direct opposition.

And Eve comes back and she, you know, she states, she reiterates what God has said. You know, if you look down in, In verse 2, it says, the woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees, plural, of the garden we may eat. So she, there are many trees, and so we may eat from the fruit of the trees in the garden. But from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.

So she fairly accurately, the part about touching it, I don't know, Vine and I have had questions about that, and we said, well, maybe, God, that was something that's not God told her don't touch it too, we don't know. Scripture doesn't talk about that. It seems like she has added that, but I don't know. We don't have enough information.

And actually that was funny. That was an interesting question, interesting observation. But she fairly accurately came back with God's word. This is what God has said. And whether the touch it part was an intentional making it more than it is, I don't know. So that's the first question that Satan brings to Eve. And the second statement is that you surely shall not die. And I found this really interesting. At first I didn't quite... Or actually, some have you surely will not die.

And that's even, if you look at the construction of this verse 4 and you compare that with God's statement, if you compare, if you have Genesis 2.16 closed and 3.4, if you look at that, it's basically the same statement only with a not kind of in the middle.

Remember I pointed out that in Genesis 2.16 it says, you shall surely die or dying you will surely die. talking about the spiritual and the physical.

Well, Satan comes back and he says, you surely shall not die. And actually, literally, it's dying. You do not die. So that was, to me, that was, Satan came back and repeated exactly what God had said. But he said, it's not true. And he even indicates the two aspects of death there. Dying, you do not die. That's the literal translation of Genesis 3, 4.

It's not very interesting that that same idea was repeated by Satan just verbatim, but once again, he's a liar and he's basically calling into question what God has said. And then E's response to that... Actually, he doesn't give her a chance right then. He goes on in verse 5. Okay, so the third statement is, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Okay, so two aspects. Your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God.

Does that kind of remind you of something that we talked about back when we looked at Satan? Very familiar phrase. What's Satan's highest desire? Exactly. It's the last one. I will be like the Most High. That's Satan's number one desire. It's not to be like how with a pitchfork running around and all the time. He wants to be like God. That's his number one desire.

So he offers that to Eve. He says, You know what? Your eyes can be opened and you will be like God. That's what he's offering to Eve. That's what he hangs out as a bait. That's what I'm offering you. And that's actually in, if you look at Isaiah, we can just look at that, Isaiah 14, 14. And as Dave points out, that's one of the five I wills.

I will start in verse 13. I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit in the mount of the assembly. 14, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. So that's his desire, to be like the Most High.

That's what he brings to Eve. So then, if you go down to verse 6, it says, When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from it its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband, and he ate.

So basically, there are three aspects. It was appealing to her eyes. with a delight to the eyes, desirable to make one... Basically, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. If you look in the New Testament in 1 John, you'll see that it talks about the three kinds of lusts, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And that seems to be exactly where Eve was at. It was desirable, it would make her wise, and she took the bait. Very attractive.

And actually, I have a picture of that. That's the best I can do. I wouldn't count his camera there. OK. Right. I know that. Is that a piece of that? I don't know. Whatever. All right. This is fruit. OK. All right. Okay, and let's look at verse 7. Okay, so this kind of struck me.

So Satan seemed like he offered her a lot. Look, you're going to be like God, your eyes are going to be open to all this. Well, verse 7, we see the bottom line. This is what she got for disobeying God. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." And it goes on, and there's more detail in that. Where they had this wonderful fellowship with God, now they feel ashamed and they want to be away from God. So it's amazing, Satan offered all these things, but the result is that she didn't get a very good deal. You've got the short end of the stick, so to speak.

Okay. All right. So let's look quickly at these judgments, and we'll get back to Marilyn, maybe. We'll see. Okay. Maybe not. Okay, let's go down to verse 14. In verse 14, basically, 14 and 15 talk about the judgment upon Satan. Verse 16 talks about the judgment on Eve. and 17 and 19 talk about the curse that fell on Adam. So we'll just go through these fairly quickly here, hopefully.

So basically, to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. Once again, in this form, he's compared to other animals, right? He's cursed more than all the cattle of the field, more than every beast of the field.

That's interesting. And they said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Verse 15 is a very rich verse. That would be enough to spend a whole class on right there.

It talks about this, and there's some things in view here, like the woman's seed and the seed of Satan. If you think about it, every person that does not know Jesus Christ, he's a slave to Satan. He's under Satan's control. So that's his seed, and the seed of the woman is speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe.

So there's a lot of I think there are pictures here of this battle between Satan and the believer. It talks about, he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. Basically, the Lord Jesus would have to go to the cross and suffer pain and agony. And basically, at the cross, Satan would be judged as well. So, both are kind of in view there. So that's kind of the serpent.

Then to the woman, in verse 16, it says, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, and in pain you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. Well, as my wife says, it doesn't seem fair, Roger. How come I get the same as Adam, plus I get these on top of that? That doesn't sound like it's a fair deal. I didn't get a fair shake in this.

So anyway, and there's some question about your desire will be for your husband. I've heard various ideas about that. Some say the idea of maybe ruling over your husband, that's a possibility. Maybe it's just the fact that you want a husband. A desire to have a husband might be part of it.

And now we go down to Satan. Now we go down to Adam. Sure, go ahead. Okay. That's basically the unbeliever, the unbelieving world. Like remember when Christ said, get behind... Let's see. I'm trying to think. He said to Peter, get behind me, Peter, in one case. And in another case, he told the Pharisees that they are brewed vipers. I believe it talks about all those outside of Christ, basically. Yeah, you have your father the devil, right. That's true. And then verse 17 through 19.

And then to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you, and toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By 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.

Okay, so those are the judgments on Satan, Eve, and Adam. Okay, let's quickly here. I may have just kind of I'll think about the result on creation. In looking at scripture, you can see a wonderful picture here. It's called the doctrine of imputation or to attribute to another or put to another account.

If you look at the sin of Adam and you look at Romans 5.12, it points out that by one man's sin, sin entered the world and it passed to all men.

And then as a result of that we see all men do sin. So one man, because of one man, Adam, this sin was imputed or put to the account of all men and women. To all posterity, all of Adam's race, sinned because that sin came from Adam and we're all related to Adam. We have this sin nature that has come from Adam. But what's wonderful about that is this When we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, bullet number two, the sin of man is imputed to Christ.

And it talks about that in several verses. In 1 Peter 2, verse 24, it says, He bore our sins in His body on the tree. And there's really kind of two aspects to that. There's the sins, plural, like the picture I showed you. It's been several months ago now. The tree with the roots being the sin nature and the fruit being the sins. Well, both the sins and the sin nature were imputed to Christ's account. So Christ has borne the sins of the whole world.

And in 2 Corinthians 5.12, the first part it says that that He was made sin on our behalf, that sin there is sin nature, that He was identified with our sin nature, and that sin nature was put on Christ on the cross.

And then as a result of that, the third aspect of imputation is that the righteousness of God is now imputed to those who believe in the Lord Jesus. And that's talked about in in Romans chapter 4 and verse 3. Let me just quickly look at that for a second. Romans chapter 4 and verse 3. Verse 3 says, For what does the Scripture say And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

So basically our faith, our believing in God, putting our faith and trust in Him, the righteousness of God is reckoned to us. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, In verse 21, and we talked about this in the first part before, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And it's important that that righteousness is not in ourselves, it's in the Lord Jesus, in Him. We are righteous not because of ourselves, but because of Him, that we are placed in Him. So that's kind of three aspects of what's called the doctrine of imputation. And in the last two bullets, one talks about the holy judgment of God resting upon all men outside of Jesus Christ.

In Romans 3.23, for all is sinned and comes short of the glory of God. And then we also see in various passages where Basically, the old creation are those who are an atom, basically.

They're under the just condemnation of God. It's always struck me that, you know, in talking about believers, they're called dead in Scripture. They're called the dead. That's kind of a real... It seems kind of harsh, but that's what God calls them. He calls unbelievers the dead. And there's just a bunch of passages. I'll just read you a few.

In Matthew 8, it talks about The Lord Jesus says, allow the dead to bury their own dead. In Ephesians 2, 1 it says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. In Ephesians 5 it says, awake sleeper and arise from the dead. In Colossians 2, 13, 14 it says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. So the unbeliever is called in scripture, the dead, the dead, the dead, the dead. I know that they're dead because they're an atom. That's that's the penalty that that we see on all of those who are in Adam's race.

So I briefly wanted to kind of this section, I want to kind of go back to the first to the third chart and just look at these. Some of the questions that came up last week. Oh, yeah. I have another picture here, too. When they had to leave the garden. Yeah, I heard the hair change color. I don't know. But I wonder what why is he carrying the fruit with him? I don't know. I think it's not too smart. But hey, anyway. This came from the internet, yeah, where else, right? The source of all knowledge, right? Okay, so last week Harry went over both these passages.

The passage in Genesis 1 that talks about this wonderful image, and this is really, I've kind of titled this section 26-30, God's original plan and purpose. His plan and purpose was that we bear the image of our Creator. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness and there to rule over all the animals. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. The bottom line was that this plan was very good. He says, after all the other day's creation, good, good, good, good. It gets down to man, and this part here, it says, very good. So this is God's plan.

And it's interesting that this, if you look at those words, image and likeness, they have the idea, it's not a, it's a resemblance. The words are more the idea of resemblance. And I thought it was really good. Actually, there's a couple of papers that are available over here that Hal has has done in the past. Some of these were emailed to people. One is about the image bearers.

And it's interesting, if you compare the image here in Genesis chapter 1 with the image of our Lord Jesus in Hebrews, that's called out the exact image or the express image. That is a perfect image. The Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect image of God. Man is not intended to be that. Man is intended to resemble Him. It's a likeness image, I think, is another way to look at it. It's a likeness image.

And what happened here, as I mentioned here, what happened to man's image and likeness when Adam fell? And that question was asked. And in Genesis 5, verse 3, it says that basically we no longer have the image of God. We now have the image of Adam, a fallen image. So right there in the first chapters of Genesis we see we have a fallen image. It's not God's image anymore. It's Adam's image.

But what's wonderful is, and Hal pointed out in this little paper here, that God's plan and purpose is for us, when we're in Christ, we go back to this state where we have the image, we have the potential to show this image of our Savior as we walk by faith. We have it positionally, but moment by moment we can walk by faith and show the image and likeness of our Creator in Christ. So that was one of the questions. The second one was about, I call it God's detailed design of man.

The material part of man and the immaterial part of man. He was formed from the dust of the ground. That's the material part. And the immaterial part is that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, plural. It's plural in the Hebrew. And man became a living soul, or actually NASB has living being.

Actually, if we didn't have the New Testament to look back on, if we didn't have the verses in Thessalonians and Hebrews that talk about the division of body, soul, and spirit, it would be tough to see that pluralize there. Just like you think about, it says, when God made us, we see that as being the picture of the Trinity. I see that the same way here. We have the New Testament revelation and we can look back in Genesis and say, well, lies, that talks about there's a soul and spirit involved. And we have another paper on that that Hal's done in years past on basically ghosts of the body, the soul, the spirit, and other things. And those are tough questions. And that takes, you know, scripture is really wonderful. I don't know what you thought about this.

You can look at a passage of scripture and write things down, you know, observations about that. But sometimes you kind of do the, In verse of that, you look at a body of scripture. Look at many passages. And I think that's more the case with body, soul, and spirit. You need to look at a large number of passages to get the big picture. Just looking at this verse 7 in Genesis is going to be very tough to see that. I think that was one of the questions. How do you see... How do I get body, soul, and spirit out of that passage? You have to look at the rest of scripture, and there's a lot of scripture. And it's sentences versus... What's the other one? I don't know. Grabbing a bunch and putting it into one thought. I can't, my mind's going here, but anyway. So hopefully that, you know, helps in that area. A couple of handouts for that. So any last thoughts or questions?

Marilyn, no. No, I'll give her a hard time. I really... Well, the thing is, she can call me at work and leave a voicemail. She can get me at work, too, so I have to watch out. I have to treat Marilyn nice. She did. She called me on Friday and left a voicemail. I didn't answer it. So I'm in trouble. Okay, well, let's close then.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We just thank you, Lord, for your wonderful plan and purpose, Lord. We thank you that we can bear the image of our Savior, Lord, not that we have any deserve that in any way, but because of our wonderful Savior for what he's done on our behalf, Lord, that we can walk by faith, trusting in him, and others can see the wonderful Savior that we have. We ask in his name. Amen.