Our Old Testament lesson comes from Genesis chapter 2 Genesis chapter 2 starting in verse 4 Hear now the word of our God These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. And a mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bedellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. This is the word of our God. 1 Corinthians 11 verses 2 through 16. Hear now the word of our God. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 2 through 16. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or to shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman. For as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman, and all things are from God. Judge for yourselves, is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God. We won't get into all the question of head covering today, but this passage does help us understand something about what is going on in Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis 2, God says that Eve was created as a helper fit for Adam. What does Eve do to help? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. So the relationship between the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, and the Father, is parallel in some way to the relationship between a man and the Messiah, and between a wife and her husband. And that parallel is found in the concept Paul uses of headship. That's why I use the word Messiah, because when you hear that the head of Christ is God, you may at first be thinking in terms of, this is the relationship between the Son and the Father. But that's not what Paul is saying. Paul uses Christ as the title. Oftentimes we've sort of turned it into a name. Oh, his name is Jesus Christ. Well, Christ is not his name. Christ is his title. Christ means Messiah, the Anointed One. He is Jesus, the Messiah. And the head of the Messiah is God. The Anointed King submits to God. And as Messiah, the Anointed King, submits to God, so also every man submits to the Anointed King. It's a political relationship that we have with Jesus, our Messiah. There's more than that, but that's the point Paul's making here. Here he's saying there is a governmental, there's an authority that Christ, the anointed King, is the head of every man, just as God is the head of the anointed King, and just as the husband is the head, the governmental authority in the home. And Paul grounds this relationship in creation. A man ought not to cover his head when he prays, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. Notice he doesn't say the image and glory of man, because of course woman shares with man being in the image of God, because in the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them in our maleness and femaleness. We both together image God, so that's why he says woman is the glory of man, not the image of man. For, Paul says, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. Now, our egalitarian ears don't like to hear this. We would have liked it far better if Paul had said, the head of every man and woman is Christ, and just left it there. But that is not what Paul says, and that's not what the creation narrative teaches us. Genesis 2 shows us, very plainly, that the woman was created for the man, and that's what Paul is saying. Now, one thing I should point out is that this may take a variety of forms. Throughout the scriptures, gender relations change over time, gender roles can change dramatically. For instance, in the days of Ruth, in Ruth 4.3, a widow cannot control the property of her deceased husband. Ruth and Naomi come back from Moab and she owns the land. Ruth 4.3 makes it clear. She owns the land but she can get no benefit from it unless she has a male, a son that will be the actual heir. So Ruth and Naomi as widows have no right to land, no right to property. Fast forward a few hundred years and in Acts chapter 16 we hear of Lydia, a seller of purple goods. She has considerable authority over property. She seems to be running a business of some sort. So, economic roles change, gender roles change, there's all sorts of things that change. What doesn't change, however, is this basic point that Paul makes, that in terms of headship and submission, that the husband is the head of the wife, that just as the anointed king, the Messiah, is the head of every man, just as God is the head of the anointed king, the Christ. But Paul also makes it clear that neither is independent of the other, because as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. The woman was created for the man, but, this is also important, the man is incomplete without the woman. Well, what does this mean? To look at that, we need to look at Genesis 2 more closely. And before we can understand what Eve does to help, we need first to understand who Adam is. Last time, we saw how Adam was created from the ground. And we usually say that the man was formed from the dust of the ground. That's not what it says. He is the man of dust from the ground. The Man of Dust is actually a title there. But what does it mean that Adam is the Man of Dust? Well, have you ever been to the Middle East? Do you know what's about the Middle East? If you know anything about the Middle East, you know there's a lot of dust. Dust is everywhere. And for that reason, dust is insignificant. Nobody cares about dust. And so for God to form the man of dust from the ground is an interesting choice. Other ancient Near Eastern texts spoke of the gods forming man from clay. Now, you know, clay, now that's actually something important. You make pottery from clay. But the man of dust? Nobody says anything like that. But Genesis 2 says that Adam is a man of dust. To say that man is dust is to highlight the fact that we were nothing. All throughout the Psalms, all throughout Job, returning to dust is the way you talk about death, as God will say in Genesis 3. You are dust, and to dust you shall return. In Genesis 18, later on in Genesis, Abraham will say to God, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. I am a nobody, and yet I am speaking to God. So the point of the man of dust both highlights the fact that I was insignificant, but also that God has taken this insignificant man of dust and bestowed upon him honor and glory. In 1 Samuel 2, Hannah sings that God raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. And Psalm 113, which we use as our call to worship, uses the song of Hannah in sort of recasting it in a similar way. In 1st Kings 16, God says of King Baasha of Israel, Since I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and you walked in the way of Jeroboam and made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins, behold, I will utterly sweep away the man of dust. I raised you from the dust. To be raised up from the dust is, throughout the scriptures, the exaltation of the king. God takes dust and gives it royal authority. God takes dust and gives it significance and power. Paul also understands that man of dust is the right translation. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, the first man was from the earth, a man of dust. In one sense we should have learned how to translate it from Paul. Paul understood it. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, Paul says, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. So the creation of Adam is the exaltation of dust. Adam is the man of dust, but he also bears the image of God. But what is the Adam called to do? And you'll notice I often refer to him as the Adam because actually throughout most of the text that's what he's called. He's called the Adam or the man. But if I simply said the man, it wouldn't quite communicate the same thing. He is the Adam. He is the representative man. He is the Adam. And the Lord God took the Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. The Adam is supposed to work the garden. He's supposed to keep it. The word here is actually the word to guard. This is what the Levites were supposed to do in the tabernacle. They would keep or guard the tabernacle. And as we've seen, the garden in Eden is the sanctuary. It is the place where God meets with his people. The Holy of Holies, where man worships and dwells with God. But why does someone need to guard this garden? We've heard that God made everything good, and he said at the end, it's very good. But now we have the first clue that there may be trouble in paradise, because Adam is called to guard it. And very quickly we hear the second clue that something may be coming down the pike. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. We're not yet fully told what all this is about. We won't talk about the trees yet today, but it's enough to say there is some foreshadowing here. Adam is supposed to guard the garden, and Adam may eat of every tree except one. And if he eats of that tree, he will die. The warning, the curse of death, looms on the horizon. And then we hear a third thing that shows us that there's something not quite right here. The Lord God says, it is not good. Seven times he has said, it is good. Now God says there's something that's not good. It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Why is it not good? People have proposed all sorts of answers. Some say that Adam was lonely and needed companionship. But what does the text say? Adam has fellowship with God. There's nothing in the text of Genesis that suggests that Adam was lonely. Others say that Adam could not fulfill his task to have dominion over the earth. And that's near to the mark, but there's one problem. Adam is exercising dominion in verses 19 and 20. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Remember that God formed the Adam of dust from the ground, the Adam from the Adamah. Now we hear that the Lord God also formed all beasts and birds from the ground as well. They also come from the Adamah, from the ground, and they are brought to the Adam, the man, for him to name. Now throughout scripture, and indeed throughout ancient Near Eastern cultures, naming somebody or something is an act of authority. It is the exercise of a governing power. And particularly, naming things is a kingly act. God himself named certain things in Genesis 1. God demonstrates his authority by naming the realms. He names day and night. He names the heavens, the seas, and the earth. But you may have noticed, as we went through Genesis 1, after God names the realms, He stops naming things. Why? Because He has given dominion, He has given authority over the creatures, over the inhabitants of the realms, to His image, to Adam. And so the Adam names all the animals, all the creatures. Psalm 8 reflects on this as it portrays the King, the Son of Man, as one who, like Adam, is crowned with glory and splendor and rules over the works of God's hand. And there's a sense in which every King of Israel, and especially the house of David, is a new Adam. Think of Solomon. How does Solomon demonstrate his greatness? Well, there's a variety of ways, but one of them is how Solomon spoke of trees, also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And all the people of the nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The son of David is the new Adam who exercises authority in how he speaks of creation. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field. The Adamic king was to rule over creation. The Davidic king was to name and to speak of the creatures. And in this light, what does it mean when the son of David says to the waves, peace, be still? What does it mean when the son of Adam says to the fig tree, may you never bear fruit again? One of the most powerful demonstrations that Jesus is the Son of Adam, that He is the Son of David, is that when Jesus speaks, creation obeys. He exercises dominion and authority as God's vicegerent. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're still back in Genesis 2. As the first Adam names all the creatures, He is exercising dominion. And it doesn't appear that He needs a helper to do that. Why is God bringing all these creatures to him? Well, first, yes, to name them, but also as verse 20 says, but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. As Adam is naming all these creatures, it's clear that God's purpose in bringing them is, in a sense, to see, will any of the creatures be suitable to help Adam? Will God take from the Adamah, from the ground, a suitable helper for the Adam? I said earlier that it's not a matter of Adam being lonely. It's not the feeling of being alone. There's no psychological problem, as it were. Rather, it is a physical fact of being alone that is the problem. As long as Adam is alone, yes, he can demonstrate and exercise dominion, but he cannot fulfill God's purpose for him as long as he is alone. What is missing? He cannot be fruitful. He cannot multiply. He cannot fill the earth. What does Eve do to help? She has babies. In its most fundamental sense, in the book of Genesis, what Eve does to help is have babies. In Genesis, being tied to the land, belonging to the land, belonging to a people are crucial to what it means to be human. I realize we've gone a long ways away from that in our culture. It's a very different perspective on personhood than you or I am used to. We're used to a concept of personhood where I am identified simply and solely in myself and perhaps by what I do, not who I am connected to. When you talk to people about who are you and what do you ask? You ask, what do you do? In previous generations, in past cultures, usually the first question is something much more on the lines of, who is your father? Who are you related to? How are you connected? Some of you may have seen the movie Braveheart, Mel Gibson's Hollywood version of one of my ancestors, William Wallace. Now there's one thing that Gibson got very right in this movie, and that is the ancient definition of freedom. If you've seen the movie, then what does William Wallace say is the meaning of freedom? Over and over again, for William Wallace, freedom is being in the land with my family. That's what freedom is. It's a very Abrahamic concept of freedom. Freedom is being in the land with my family. And what disrupts it for William? It's when the English come in and steal his wife and kill his wife. This is the very heart and soul of freedom, of what it means to be a human being for most of human history. The atom is not complete. He is not whole. He cannot fulfill his purpose until he can be fruitful and multiply. Now I realize that some of you may be getting a little uncomfortable. Is a woman nothing more than a baby factory? Now, if that's what you're hearing, then you're not fully hearing what Genesis is saying. Genesis certainly highlights a woman's childbearing function. Indeed, as when we come to Genesis 3, salvation depends on woman's childbearing function. Apart from the seed of the woman, we have no hope. And quite frankly, man depends upon woman's childbearing function. If it were not for that function, I wouldn't be here. That's why Paul says, neither is man independent of woman. Without woman, you're not going to get any more men. But the concept of personhood in scripture, especially in Genesis, is bound up with land and seed and blessing. By pointing out that Adam is already engaged in everything else that God has called him to do, Genesis highlights this one thing. What Eve does to help is to be fruitful and multiply by bearing children. And as we'll see later in Genesis, in Genesis 3, the curse upon the woman is in multiplying pain in childbirth, while the curse upon the man is sweat and toil for bread. And the blessing upon the woman is that her seed will crush the head of the serpent. That through the childbearing of Eve, God's blessing will come to the human race. And what's the first thing that happens when they are cast out of the garden? In Genesis 4, the first thing they do is start having babies. And in Genesis 4, after the death of Abel, Adam knew his wife again in order to provide a holy seed. And chapter 5 provides the history of that seed. Indeed, Throughout Genesis, one thing we're going to see is over and over again, whenever Genesis talks about women, it is focused around issues of sex and childbearing. That is the overwhelming focus. Eve was created for baby-making. And because of her role in the fall into sin, the way of redemption will be through those same baby-making abilities as well. And we shouldn't really be embarrassed by that. We shouldn't make excuses for that. Because women, God has uniquely gifted and crafted you with the capacity to bear children. Nothing else in all of creation can bring forth human beings. Sure, with our technological skill we can create artificial wounds and all that, but that's just art imitating life. Technique imitating the master craftsman. In your wounds, the seed is planted, nourished and grows. And your bodies are uniquely able to provide nourishment for the young. Now, right now we're not dealing with the problem of barrenness. Because that's a problem that emerges after the fall. And we'll deal with that throughout Genesis because it comes up a lot. One thing I'll say now, barrenness is not a curse on you individually. It is a part of the curse on all of humanity that our bodies malfunction. It's just that different people, they malfunction in different ways. Things are not the way they were designed to be. But in Christ, the procreative focus of sex is brought to fulfillment as Christ and His bride bear children to the glory of God the Father. You see, this is why Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 can praise singleness. Because singleness and marriage are now both ways to bear children for the Kingdom of God. And Paul says, you don't stay single for yourself. You see, in neither case is this about selfishness, is this about getting what I want. You don't stay single for yourself so that you can get what you want. You stay single so that you might be more fruitful in Christ's service. But neither do you marry for yourself, but rather because you are convinced that you can be more fruitful together than alone. But in Genesis 2, we're still a ways away from that day. Genesis 2 says that it is woman's unique gift of childbearing that is what she does to help. But now men, there's something you need to understand from this. This means that what Eve does to help is not clean the house, do dishes, and take care of all the household chores. No. What Eve does to help is have babies. How you set up all of the sort of household details, actually quite frankly, in most of human history, it was servants who did that. So, the idea that that's somehow God's unique calling for women, no. God's unique call for women is not doing housework. God's unique call, and quite frankly, men, we can do that too. But, the one thing you guys can't do, there's one thing that you can never do. You can never have babies. That is the unique gift and call that God has given to women. And, I should add, that woman is not excluded from participation in having dominion over the creatures. Because, after all, now if you think about it, if God had created Eve from the ground, then perhaps we would say, Now, Adam's call is to have dominion, Eve's call is to have babies. But she is not taken from the ground, she is not taken from the Adamah, she is taken from the Adam, the one who has been given dominion and therefore because she shares in his flesh, in his blood, in his bone, because she is one with him, therefore she also shares in the exercise and participation of having dominion over the creatures. as you see this in verse 21. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And that language of deep sleep is throughout scriptures, this is usually connected to some sort of vision. When people have visions and dreams, that's when this word deep sleep is used. So this is sort of a visionary experience for Adam as much as a actual sleep. And while he slept, God took one of his ribs and clothed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Now the word translated rib doesn't really mean rib, it's actually the word for side. Though the reason why I think most translations use rib is because it's also a building term and buildings can have ribs, as we'll see in the temple. The ESV does a great service in pointing to, at least in a footnote, that it's not that the Lord God merely made the rib into a woman, it's actually the word to build. We saw with Adam that God formed him, and that word is the language of a potter taking and crafting something. Now the language is that of an architect, of a carpenter building something. The word to build is used 400 times in the scripture, and just in Genesis alone, it's used of building cities, building altars, building the Tower of Babel for instance, but it's used hundreds of times throughout the scripture, and it's always used about building. There's another form of the word that can mean something else, but this form of the word means to build something. So what's going on? God is building Eve? Yes. God builds Eve from the side of Adam. What's interesting about this is that in 1 Kings, this will be the word used to speak of building the temple. And in 1 Kings, the word used for rib, back in Genesis 2, is used when Solomon builds the temple, he builds it with ribs. There's a lot of Genesis 2 language in 1 Kings, in the construction of the temple. There's a sense in which Solomon is, in a sense, building a new Eve. Even as in Genesis 2, God is building Eve in a way that certainly sounds like the way you would build a city, or the way you would build a temple. Also, there's a good point that Matthew Henry makes when he says that it's also important where God takes this, it's from his side, not, as Matthew Henry says, not made out of his head to top him, not made out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Okay, so let's put all this together. God takes Eve from Adam's side. She is not something foreign to him. Woman is not something fundamentally different from man. Rather, male and female are the two complementary parts of the Adam. Eve was taken from his side. And so, how is humanity properly conceived of? It's when the two become one flesh, we see the Adam in his full integrity. Listen to the way Adam describes this. Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, Eshah, because she was taken out of man, Esh. Now here's where Hebrew has two different words for man, Adam and Esh. And so all throughout it's been using Adam. This is actually the first usage of the word Esh. As Adam names his wife Eshah, he names himself Esh at the same time. The naming of woman demonstrates that Adam has a governmental priority in the relationship. Paul will say in 1 Timothy 2 that part of the reason why only men should rule in the church is because man was created first. And it's not simply a matter of he was there first, but rather that God gave Adam the authority to rule and name all other creatures, including the woman. But woman is his helper. Now that I've focused on what Eve does to help, we need to come back to this word helper. Because too often when we hear this word helper, we think of a servant or a subordinate who is helping. The problem is that in English we don't have a better word for this. So we've got to use the word helper. But what would the Israelites hear when they heard that Eve was a helper fit for him? This word is used 19 times in the scriptures. 16 of those 19 times, it is used to say, the Lord is my helper. 16 out of 19 times. Who is my helper? The Lord is my helper. What does a helper do? A helper is not an assistant who may come and go and, you know, okay, that's a good help. You're a good help. No. A helper is somebody who enables you to do what you are called to do. And without this person, you could not do what you were called to do. After all, when David cries out in the Psalms, you know, the Lord is my helper. Is he saying, well, I can take him or leave him. Maybe if he helps out, that's great. No. He's saying, there's no way I can be king of this people unless God helps me. in the same way. There is no way that the Adam, there is no way that he can fulfill his calling to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it unless she helps. So, the woman is not the servant of the man. She is the helper who enables him to accomplish what God has called him to do. Now, How do we conceive of this? There have been those who have said, especially in our day, we have more of this egalitarian model of he has his life and she has her life and never the twain shall meet except occasionally in the bedroom. Or some of the more googly-eyed romantic types say, ah, he's focused on her and she's focused on him and they have this great relationship. Milton had another way of putting it. He for God, She for God through Him. That sounds a little better, right? In fact, a lot of people seem to like that model. There's one fundamental problem with all three of these models. What is it? What's wrong with saying, Both have their own calling. What's wrong with saying both are focused on each other? What's wrong with saying he for God, she for God through him? Notice what's happening with my hands. Two flesh, remaining two flesh in all of these models. The Adam says, for this reason the man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. You see, it's only if the two become one flesh that you have the fullness, the restoration, the fulfillment of God's purpose for humanity. They are no longer two. You do not have two separate calls as husband and wife. You, as one flesh before God, have one call. And men, there is no way that you can possibly fulfill your call before God. If you're married, obviously. If you're single, then you have a different call. But, if you are married, there is no way that you can possibly fulfill your call without her. And you can't even truly understand your call without her. Think about Adam's call. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Makes no sense without her. They are to fulfill this call together. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. In other words, they are fully prepared to be fruitful and multiply. When husband and wife come together in union, this is to be a glorious picture of humanity in its integrity. When the two become one flesh, this is an expression of what we were created to be. When Paul says that the husband's body belongs to his wife and the wife's body belongs to her husband, that reminds us that the act of marriage is to be a mutual self-surrender to the other. You are not to be selfish in the marriage bed. Wives, your body belongs to your husband. But husbands, your body belongs to your wife. Why does Paul say this? Well, it's because Eve was taken from the flesh of Adam. God did not take two flesh and stick them together. Rather, He took Adam, and he built Eve from his side, and then gave her back to him, so that they might not be two, but one. And of course, in Christ and his bride, the church, we see what this is really all about. It's why Ezekiel 16 portrays Jerusalem, the city of God, as God's bride, as the mother of God's people. The idea of building and mothering are connected. In order for humanity to be restored to fellowship with God, we must become one flesh with him. Hilary of Poitiers in the 4th century said that as God put Adam to sleep and brought forth Eve from his side, so also God put the second Adam to sleep in death and brought forth the new Eve, the church, from his side, so that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. Paul basically says this in Ephesians 5 when he says that the profound mystery of marriage as articulated in Adam's statement, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh, is about Christ and his church. Marriage, and especially the act of marriage, is a picture of Christ and His Bride. It is a picture of your union with Christ. And we, as the Bride of Christ, are to be fruitful and multiply. As the Church, we are to fill the earth. The new Adam and his new Eve, Christ and His Bride, are to make babies together. We are to be spiritually reproducing. And you can see why this is how, especially in the church, that's why the problem of barrenness is no longer a problem. Because, yes, some of the spiritual reproduction that goes on in the church, and a significant part of it, is in the bearing and training of covenant youth. But as Christ has been given dominion over all the earth as the last Adam, so now we, his bride, who are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, share in that dominion. You see, it's not that we have dominion apart from Christ, it's that Christ has dominion over all the earth. And we, as His bride, as His city, as His temple, are to bear fruit. We are to be spiritually reproducing. And as a single person, you can participate in this through evangelism and discipleship, just as well as the married person. Now, I cannot close without making a comment about the challenges we face in our culture. You see, the problem is not just that the far left has challenged the traditional view of marriage. It's that the whole culture, I mean, quite frankly, the fact that probably 90% of you were at least at some point this morning just a bit uncomfortable with what I've said. The fact that, and maybe some of you are a whole lot more uncomfortable, some of you may have been really bothered by what I said, but you see, until the last couple hundred years, the whole planet would have been like, yeah, yeah, we know that, that's obvious. It's not just that the far left has wandered off and has some really wacky views. It's that our whole culture and even Christians have bought into a fundamentally different idea of personhood. A fundamentally different idea of what sex is all about. In our day, sex has become a right. Fulfillment, happiness, something I deserve. And now, not surprisingly, people talk about the right to have a baby. If a single woman can't find the right man, she just goes to a sperm bank. There you go. A gay couple obviously can't reproduce, so they find a woman willing to have their child. What? Genesis tells us that God formed the woman out of the man and for the man for the specific purpose of completing him and enabling him to fulfill God's call to be fruitful and multiply so that that call is now their call. Of course, as we'll see in the next couple of weeks, things very quickly go the wrong direction, but nonetheless, God's call, as He has given us this, we should not be bashful, we should not be hesitant to affirm what the scriptures say about what God has called women in general to do, again, Because of the fall, because of the sin, this means that not all women are able to reproduce, and there's a lot more. But the point is that God has given women this remarkable ability, this unique ability, to bear children. And it's that which God blesses and says is a good thing, and indeed salvation comes through this. And Paul will say in 1st Timothy 2, that that blessing continues. As Paul says of women in 1st Timothy 2, that she will be saved through childbearing. Childbearing is no longer, we're no longer waiting for the seed to come who was promised. The seed has now come who was promised. But still, childbearing remains a blessed calling. It still remains a central calling to women. not necessarily every individual but to women and we should not denigrate that and we should not hide from that we should rejoice in that and we should seek for how can we who are called by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be a place where that call, where that blessing is rejoiced in and with the people around us who are being destroyed by our culture's Total disregard, total misunderstanding of what sex and personhood is all about. How can we be a place where they can see what humanity is really all about? The new humanity in Jesus Christ our Lord.