Ask you to take your Bible and turn with me tonight to Matthew chapter 19. We're going to look at just a few verses that relate back to Genesis. But I thought it would be good for us just to look at these verses as we begin tonight. We're going to go back back to Genesis. Ken Ham used to say, but we will look at Genesis in a little bit. But I want us to look at Matthew 19 verses one through five. Now, here's Jesus talking about and answering the question about divorce because some folks in the crowds and Pharisees are testing him. Let's look at this together. Matthew 19, beginning at verse one. When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking Him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And He answered and said, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." This morning when we talked about Genesis chapter 3, I told you that you can't consider Genesis as a myth, a legend, or a fable. Because Genesis doesn't present itself in that way. Genesis doesn't present itself, a myth that usually contains mythical creatures. Now people call this a myth in Genesis 3 because the serpent speaks, but we saw this morning that it's not really the serpent that's doing the talking, but it's Satan behind the serpent that's speaking and testing and tempting Eve. And really, if you think about it, there are only two times in the Bible where an animal speaks. The other one would be what? You remember? Balaam's donkey. Right. OK. So we've got those two occasions in which an animal speaks. But this is not like, you know, this is not like a typical myth, not like Aesop's fables. It's not, you know, it's not one of these, these type, it's not that type of literature. We saw that Genesis is not a fable because fables always had morals. They had this, you know, like the various Esau's fables, they all had a lesson, they all had a moral and they were delivered in that way. But Genesis is not pictured that way, is it? Genesis is pictured as Adam and Eve, and then Adam and Eve's children, and then genealogies. We see all kinds of things in here that remind us of real history. Genesis is portrayed as real history. Now, I had you read that part from, with me, that part from Matthew chapter 19 tonight, because here is the Lord Jesus Christ and He's talking about marriage. And when He talks about marriage, what does He do? Well, he goes back to Genesis. When he talks about a man and a woman joining together and they become one flesh and what God has joined together, let no man separate. That's what Jesus is relating his teaching to the teaching from Genesis. He's basing everything on that which came in Genesis. He's not saying this is myth, legend, and fable, and there's some nice stories in there, and we ought to remember those nice stories as a way to explain how life is today. That's not it at all. What he says is, because it says in Genesis that God made them this way in the beginning, therefore, what God has joined together in marriage, where the two become one, we are not to separate. So here is this picture. of Jesus emphasizing what marriage is like and why you can't divorce people just for any reason. That's what the Jews did. You remember that a Jew could divorce his wife if he didn't like the way she cooked a meal. He could just say, I divorce you. He could divorce her for any reason, and that's why the Pharisees come up and say, can we divorce our wives for any reason? That's what their practice was. And he says, absolutely not, because this is what God says in Genesis. Because the two become one flesh, and what God has joined together, let no man separate. So God has established this. He goes back, it's interesting, in Matthew chapter 19 that we just read, he quotes Genesis 1.27 and Genesis 5.2. He quotes two passages in Genesis to establish his teaching on marriage. Marriage began there that it was right that they were to become one flesh. And that once they become the one flesh, they were not to be joined together. Now, in other texts, Jesus says there can be a divorce only if there is marital unfaithfulness. And so he brings that as the one exclusion. And then Paul also reminds us in 1 Corinthians that if the unbelieving wife deserts her husband, or the unbelieving husband deserts his believing wife, that the other person is not bound in those situations. So we have the basis laid for us in Genesis. The Lord Jesus Christ explains it and expounds on it, and even the Apostle Paul brings in another aspect of that, but it's all based on Genesis. that this is God's standard and that what God has set up is not to be broken. He repeats that. Mark also quotes the same occasion in Mark chapter 10. He tells the same thing, it's the same event evidently, and he quotes it in the same way as Matthew. So the Bible establishes that marriage is is defined there in Genesis, that it's defined as male and female. And that's the Matthew passages as well as the Genesis passages say male and female. And of course, that's why when all the move today is to redefine marriage, and they say marriage can be between two lesbians or two homosexual men. And they say we ought to be able to pass laws that define that. And everybody that has a Bible and can read says no, because marriage is only between men and women. Between male and female. That's what Matthew chapter 19 said. That's what Genesis says. And it says, you know, Adam and Eve. And it says that they were male and female. Genesis chapter five, verse two, and he created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them man the day that they were created. And when Jesus quotes it, he says marriage is for male and females in Matthew 19. So you see, when our culture comes up and says, let's redefine marriage, we have to say as believers, well, you can do what you like, but the Bible says this marriage should not be redefined in this way. They're going to do what they like anyway. And every state may eventually, in our lifetime perhaps, redefine marriage. So it can be two men, two women, whatever. But once you do, you've completely denied what the biblical standard is. God also says homosexuality is against nature. One day they won't like for me to say this. The government won't. But I'm going to say it anyway. And what about our chaplains? Our believing chaplains? You know, look at the pressure that they're under right now because the government has said, okay, you can't speak against homosexuality anymore. That's what they've been told. How are they going to deal with that? The Bible says that homosexuality in Romans 1 is against nature. It's dishonoring their bodies together. It's a degrading passion. It's abandoning the natural and committing indecent acts. That's all in Romans 1. Anybody that has a Bible and can read and believes it is going to say marriage is between a man and a woman. And homosexuality is not right. Homosexuality is all the things that God said it is in Romans 1 and in other places in the scripture. Doesn't mean we hate homosexuals. We don't. We don't hate homosexuals. But we realize that it's a moral sin, just like adultery, just like fornication, just like all these other things. Marriage is defined for us in Genesis. If you give up Genesis and you say Genesis is not real, if you say Genesis is not important, if you say Genesis is myth, legend, or fable, then you've given away the basis for marriage between a man and a woman and to be a lasting union that shouldn't be severed. The Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ both referred back to Genesis when they wanted to establish what marriage was supposed to be. Let's look in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, where Paul is dealing with marriage in verses 9 through 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning at verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God." Now, let's stop right there. Here's the Apostle Paul talking about sin, and he's talking about the church. Now, the church is a place for sinners, right? Did you notice he outlined all these areas of sinfulness, and then he says, such were some of you. So, the church is a place where we accept sinful people. We don't say, oh, well, he's an adulterer. Even though he's confessed that as sin, I don't think we can let him into our church. Oh no, if he's confessed his sin, he's welcome. If he's a murderer, if he's homosexual, if he's a thief, if he's covetous, if he's a drunkard, if he's a reviler, a swindler, All of these people who confess their sins and turn to Christ are welcome in the body of Christ. That's what Paul said. He said, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God. Because you see, sinners are welcome here. Sinners who confess their sin and turn to Christ are welcome here. Because that's how the early church received people. But it goes on, you know, and he talks about, go down to verse 13. He's summarizing, he says, food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. He's saying, you know, we can't have, we can't justify sexual sin. You remember, that was the problem with Corinth. Corinth was justifying all kinds of sexual sin. And they weren't dealing with some of it. And Paul has to call them on the carpet and say, you have to deal with this. Immorality is wrong. You can't have this. And then in verse 15, he says, you can't have sexual liaisons with a prostitute because he says, he says, you've got to flee immorality. Because it's a sin of the body, he says, do not you do not you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make the members of a prostitute united to a prostitute? May it never be. Don't you know anybody that joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he says the two shall become one flesh. Where do you get that? The two shall become one flesh. That's Genesis again. So if these people who are sinning sexually at Corinth are doing that, they're violating the principle of marriage that's set down in Genesis chapter 5 and Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and 3. He says you're violating the marriage principle when you do that. And he says we must honor God with our bodies. We must flee immorality. And so Paul is going back to Genesis to base his teaching to the church at Corinth on how they must turn away from immorality and sexual sin. And he says, you've got to flee from this because here is our basis in Genesis. OK, so the Lord Jesus Christ is basing his teaching on marriage in Genesis, the apostle Paul, the great apostle and scripture writers doing the same thing. Next, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 28 to 31. Ephesians 5, the great marriage chapter, where he's talking about husband and wife relationships. In Ephesians 5, verse 28, notice what he says. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies, because he who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body." Here are Jesus and Paul both talking to husbands and wives and saying, husband's job is to love his wife and he is to nourish and cherish her, and then he quotes Genesis as his authority. The Apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Scripture over and over and over again goes back to Genesis and bases its teaching on marriage, on morality, on husband-wife relationships from Genesis. So we can't allow the world to say to us, throw your Bible away in Genesis. That's nice stories. Those are just myth, legends and fables. And you can't believe those. No, because Paul and Jesus and the other writers of Scripture depended upon Genesis. They could not divorce themselves from it. They wouldn't say it's not the word of God. They wouldn't say it's nice stories. They wouldn't say it's legend, myth or fable. Both of them are saying that these are real things upon which we're basing our theology of marriage upon that, and morality. And then Jesus and Paul both refer back to Genesis 1 and 2 as not just the basis of marriage, but as treating Adam and Eve as real people. Let's turn to Romans chapter 5, verse 12. What I read to you just as our opening Scripture tonight, Romans 5, 12. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned. The Apostle Paul says, through one man, sin came into this world. Who was that one man? It's Adam. Adam and Eve. They brought sin into the world. And death came on its coattails. And so, Jesus and Paul are both treating Adam and Eve as real people, not myth, not legends, not fables. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. Let's look at verse 21. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 21. 22. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be made alive." Apostle Paul believed in Adam. He didn't believe Adam was a myth, a legend, or a fable. He believed that he was the one that introduced sin into the world. That through one man, Adam, sin came into the world and death passed to all of us through Adam because he introduced it. So he's basing his whole theology of justification on the first Adam bringing sin into the world and the second Adam bringing righteousness into the world. Look at Romans 5.14. Let's go back to the fifth chapter of Romans. Romans 5.14 says, Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. See, if Adam is not real, then the second Adam, Christ, is not real. You can't mark one Adam out and say that's a myth, because he aligns the first Adam with the coming of the second Adam, with Christ. So if Adam in Genesis is no good, then how do we know that Christ is real in the Gospels and in here? But he links the two and says they are both real. They are both real. They are both tied together, because the second Adam, Christ, is to bring righteousness where the first Adam brought in sin to the world. So Genesis is real history about real people. Genesis is not myth, legend, or fable. It's the basis on which we base our marriages. It's also upon what we rely our doctrine of salvation and the redeemer. And it's clear to see that both the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul, the Apostle, believed in Adam as a real person, Adam and Eve as real persons, and treated them as such in their teaching ministries. Now, I want us to go back now to Genesis chapter 3 for a moment, and I want us to look at the assumptions that we have to make then if we believe that this is true history, and that these are real people, and that these are real events that are taking place, because they are. What are some of the assumptions we would make then if These are all real people, real events, real history. Well, one thing that we would have to assume is that Satan is real. You know, because Satan is the one behind the temptation of Eve and Adam. He is the one behind the manipulation of them. He is the one behind everything going on here. Now let's jump to John chapter 8, verses 39 to 44. John chapter 8. Let's see how the Lord Jesus Christ handled talking about Satan. John chapter 8, beginning at verse 39. They answered and said to him, Now, this is the, you remember, this is the great argument, the great debate between Jesus and the Pharisees. And boy, this is a long one. You ought to read it. It's fun to read because you see how the Lord Jesus Christ just takes these guys to the mat. I always love that. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. In other words, our authority is Abraham, who's also in the book of Genesis. And Jesus said, if you are Abraham's children, then do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to him, well, we weren't born of foreign occasion. In other words, we weren't illegitimate like you are. We know that the whole rumors around the village are that you didn't have an earthly father, that your father was Somebody else said, Mary was pregnant when your mother and father got married. We're not born of fornication. And Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I have not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. And you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. So when we go to the New Testament, we hear the Lord Jesus Christ talking about Satan or the devil. And he says he's a liar from the beginning. We saw that this morning when he lied to Eve about what God's motives were, about what God had said, about what God had said about death was true. He called God a liar. And the truth is that Satan is the liar and the author, the father of lies, Jesus calls him. Now let's go to Job 1, verses 6-12. Let's bounce back, go back to Psalms and go back one book, and you go to Job 1, and let's look at verses 6-12. Now you remember this one. Job is getting ready to be tested. And here's what happened before Job was tested. Now there was a day, verse 6 of Job 1, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, from roaming about on the earth and walking around it. The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge about him in his house and all that he has on every side? You bless the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.' Then the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power only. Do not put forth your hand on him.' So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord." Okay, for one thing we can see and assume from the book of Genesis is Satan is real. And the second thing that we assume from the book of Genesis and from the other parts of the Bible is that there is a battle between the forces of Satan and God. The battle for righteousness, we could say. We talk about spiritual warfare today, don't we? We talk about things that happen to us, things that happen to our families. We talk about things that happen to missionaries that we know. We talk about the spiritual battle that's going on. Yes, there is a spiritual battle. And it's the battle in the heavens. And Satan is the great accuser of the brethren, right? Isn't that what he's called in Revelation? He's the accuser of the brethren. But Satan is real. Now, you remember in the old days, 40 years ago, I remember when Dr. Shirley Guthrie wrote a paper on why there is no personal death. And he wrote it for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.' 's General Assembly. And it was such a bad paper and so poorly presented that the General Assembly rejected it, which was wonderful. But they were willing to receive it in the first place, so that's the bad news. They were willing to have such a paper written, but then it was a bad paper, poorly written, and they rejected it. Now, Satan is real, though. He's treated as real in Genesis. He's treated as real in Job. The Lord Jesus Christ said he's the liar and the father of lies. So we must take the reality of Satan as one of our assumptions and that there is a battle in the universe. Remember in Ephesians chapter 5 and 6, it talks about spiritual warfare, put on the armor. So, there is a real battle, Satan's real, and there's a battle between Satan and God's righteous ones. Also, Satan tempts us, just like Eve, to disbelieve God. He tempts us to live on worldly wisdom rather than God's word. He tempts us to rebellion against God. We see those temptations. Now, Genesis also teaches us to believe in the consequences of Genesis 2.17. Go back to Genesis 2.17 for a moment. And let's look at that verse again. Genesis 2.17. You remember this from this morning. 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. That's what God said. In the day that you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die." Now the question comes that modern man is going to ask is, did they really die that day? Let's talk about how they died. Man died spiritually that day, didn't he? Man died spiritually that day, because when you sin against the Holy God, When you sin against God's standards, he became unrighteous. Remember how we talked about that this morning? He had the righteous covering while he had the right relationship with God. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, they saw they were naked because they knew God would know everything about them. He would know that they were sinners. And they lost that righteous standing. And so they were fearful of God. And they became unrighteous. So, there was one death. There was death on this level, number one, between man and God. Man died that day. They died spiritually. No longer righteous, at enmity with God, and Adam and Eve became sinners. Their relationship with God was broken, they were evicted from the garden, and God even posted a cherubim at the tree of life that was in that garden. And said, if they, you've got to guard that tree now because they may realize that's the tree of life and go over there and live forever in their evil condition. And God said, I won't have that. So he posted a cherubim there with a sword that was a flaming sword to guard the tree. So the truth is that nobody can come to the tree of life without a death taking place. And that's why Christ had to die. There had to be a death now. The wages of sin is death. There was one death on one level, and that was between man and God. The second area of death was between man and man. Adam and Eve now don't agree, do they? You remember what happens as soon as God shows up in Genesis chapter three? What does it say happened? The Lord God said to the serpent, why have you done this? And then he said, OK, to the woman, he says, Why did you do this? And she said, well, the woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. She's blaming the serpent. The man says, well, the woman that you gave me, she gave to me and I ate. She gave to me from the tree. So Adam's blaming Eve and Eve's blaming the serpent. Everybody's blaming somebody else. And there's this harmony now between man and man, between man and woman, between their relationship. So their relationship is messed up. Before this, there's no mess up in their relationship. Everything's perfect. They're in a righteous world. They have a righteous relationship with God. They have a wonderful relationship with each other. There's perfection on every level. But once they sin, the sin comes in and it ruins man's relationship with God and it ruins man's relationship with himself, man and woman. Now their relationship is broken. Now they're going to blame each other. Now they're going to fault each other. Now they're going to say, it's all your fault. This is why we're messed up now. And then there was death between man and nature. Because notice what God did, Genesis chapter 3 verse 17. 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 of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread. So now there's a third area of death. Man in God, man in himself, man in woman, and man in nature. On this level, there's death. Because now no longer is the ground going to produce abundantly and there would have been just normal toil and it would have just produced everything they ever needed. They would have been a beautiful environment, no problems, no difficulties. They would have had all that food that they needed forever. But now that's over and now nature is cursed and so it fights us so that blight and rains and floods and droughts and dust bowls and all these things and we don't have enough to eat. And then there's a fourth area of death. There's physical death. Genesis 3 19 says you'll return to the dust for you are dust and to dust you shall return. So there's physical death. It didn't take place that very instant, but the instant they sinned, the clock was ticking on physical death. It was coming. They were going to die physically. It was coming. And it would not be stopped. And then lastly, there was eternal death. There was eternal death in hell that the Lord Jesus talked about so often. the outer darkness, the place where there's gnashing of teeth. He says in the parable about the rich man and Lazarus, he says the rich man woke up in hell. He talks about eternal death and separation away from the presence of God forever. So think about it. There was death on at least five levels. Adam and Eve knew nothing about that, because they'd never sinned before. But when they sinned, they introduced death between man and God, man and man, man and nature. Physical death was brought into being, and so was eternal death. That they could die and be separated from God for all eternity if He didn't do something. You see, it's so important for us to believe in Genesis, isn't it? It's so important for us to not reject Genesis, not treat it as myth, legend or fable, because if you do, you lose everything. You lose the reason. that things are rotten in the world because of our sin. You lose the picture of early redemption where there's the, in Genesis 3, I didn't even get to that this morning when you talk about there is a redeemer coming. One who's going to crush Satan's head. One who's going to deliver the death blow to Satan's kingdom. There is a redeemer coming and he's going to do all that. You give up redemption. You give up the reason for sin and evil in the world. You give up the We can't understand man if we don't understand these five things about what happened in the real death that took place between man and God, man and man, and man and nature. We can't understand it unless you go back to Genesis and treat it as real history. Let's close in prayer. Father, how we thank you that you've given us a real book with real truth, and it's not myth, legend, or faith. but that we have it and we can know you because of what you revealed. We thank you for Jesus, the Savior who did come, who did deliver the death blow to Satan's kingdom, that Satan's kingdom doesn't reign, that he's not the God of this age. He doesn't have infinite control. He's not equal to you. He is a creation, Father, a fallen angel. And so we give thanks that the Lord Jesus Christ triumphs over all sin and evil. And we look forward to that eventual triumph in which even the earth will be redeemed, as will we in our bodies. We thank you for this future day coming. We pray for grace this week. We ask in the mighty name of Christ. Amen.