Reading from Genesis chapter 2, we're going to read the story of the creation of Eve. Genesis chapter 2, verses 18 through 25. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now 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 mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Amen. Father, we thank you for this, your word, and I pray that you would enable me as your spokesperson to faithfully deliver this word. And may you be honored and glorified with the responses that each of our hearts has to it. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, we looked at Rahab, a woman whom Satan had gotten into the depths of bondage, but whom God snatched out of the fire of Jericho. And today we're going to look at the exact opposite. We're going to look at a woman whom Satan snatched out of paradise and thankfully whom God snatched right back. And I believe Eve is an excellent example for us in both of those situations, both in the garden as well as out of the Garden of Eden. Now, of course, she didn't follow her own model as God had set her up to be. But God's intentions still give us a rather full picture for women, and as God's first convert out of a sinful state, I think she is a model of how a woman can bounce back from a disastrous decision. Now let's start our examination of Eve by looking at her unique creation. Genesis 2 verse 22 doesn't give a lot of details about what her first conscious realizations would have been. It's a fairly simple statement. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. Rather simple, but there are actually some rather profound conclusions that we can draw from that verse. And the first indisputable fact is that God was the first person that she saw. God in a theophany made her, God in a theophany led her by hand to Adam, and one more time he appears to her in a theophany after the fall. But a theophany is simply a visible appearance of the invisible God, okay? So almost everybody agrees this was a theophany. And when she awoke, he was the first thing she would see and be able to interact with. So the Theophany really is a wonderful condescension of God to this newly created woman, Eve. And I want us to think first of all about what her first conscious moments would be when she woke up. Like Adam, her first consciousness would have been the joy of knowing her creator. Now we aren't told whether she said anything to him or whether God said anything to her, But it is inconceivable to me that Eve did not excitedly talk and wonder and be filled with questions about this world. But I would think at a minimum, because marriage is called a covenant by God and because It is, every covenant has to be knowledgeably and willingly entered into, or they wouldn't be covenants at all, that God would have given her a little bit of instruction about this imminent marriage and the gift of Adam that he was about to give to her. Now, you might question my theory of whether there was any communication between God and her prior to her coming to Adam. To me, it's inconceivable that the opposite would be true. It really doesn't matter whether you buy that or not. The text does imply their first consciousness was of the God who made her, and we'll just stick with that fact. Why is that significant? Well, to me, this signals a very important fact for every girl, woman, and wife. God must be your first priority in life. Now, obviously, Paul's going to draw this conclusion in a much stronger, more explicit way, but I think it can be deduced from the text itself. Before Eve had any opportunity to busy herself in the Martha-like service to her husband, a very busy, busy woman, I'm sure, She had the opportunity to enjoy some time in Mary-type devotion to her creator. This is not by accident. This is God's intention for all, for Adam, for Eve, for you, and for me. When I engage in premarital counseling, one of the diagrams that I draw for a couple is the diagram I've put near the top of your outlines of a triangle with God at the top and the couple at the bottom. And I point out that the two of them are on opposite sides of the base of that triangle. They are not yet united. They're trying to understand each other, trying to get closer to each other, trying to grow in unity. And so the question comes, how do you successfully become tighter and tighter and get more true unity during your betrothal and throughout your marriage? And the key is at the top of the triangle, it's God. He should be their focus, and they need to look to His directions and instructions for their relationship. The key to growing closer to each other is to grow closer to God. The higher, you can see it visually on the triangle, the higher up the triangle they get, the closer they will be to each other. Whereas the further away from God they get, the more they're going to drift away from each other. And counselors could give you hundreds and hundreds of examples of exactly this being true. And that's actually what immediately happened when they fell into sin. They're alienated from God. What immediately happens with each other? They're alienated from each other, right? but blaming each other. They're not close like they should be. So the top of the triangle speaks of Mary-like devotion. You know the story of Martha and Mary. We're gonna be looking at that, Lord willing, next week. Mary sat at Jesus' feet, soaking up his teaching, while Martha was distracted with many things. And so that devotion to God actually strengthens the unity in the marriage. God designed it to be that way. So God was the first person she woke up to after her creation. He was to be her priority in life. He was to be her joy. He was to be the one who captivated her heart. That is the key to a good marriage. But before we get to the gift of joyous marriage with Adam, I want you to look in the margins of your Bible at the alternative translation in verse 22 of that phrase, made a woman. The literal rendering for he made a woman is that God built a woman. And the idea is that God took great care in her construction. Now, he did with Adam as well. He made Adam from the dust of the ground. He constructed her from a rib from Adam. And every bit of her, soul and body, was derived from Adam. And when Adam awoke, he said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. So he felt connected to her on a deep level. The Puritan writer, Matthew Henry, summarizes three lessons that we can learn just from that rib. He says, the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam, not made out of his head to rule over him, nor 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. protected and near his heart. Where on earth does Matthew Henry get those ideas? You might think that's just some sentimental nonsense, but actually the context demands exactly the interpretation that he gave of the symbolism there. And we'll look at some examples. First of all, having Eve's body and soul made from Adam's body and soul shows that she shares Adam's nature. There is some sameness, what later scripture will speak of, as equality before God as to her essence. But chapter one had already spoken of that when it says that both of them were made in God's image. Let me read Genesis 1, verses 26 through 27. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them." So it does indicate Adam was the first one to be created in God's image. But Eve, derivatively, was also created in God's image. And that's why in Genesis 9, it says that if you kill anybody, male or female, you need to be put to death. It's capital punishment was established there. Why? Because they are made in God's image. Male and female are made in His image. And so Matthew Henry is not making this idea of equality up. Both are equally the image of God. Now, Matthew Henry also says that this creation out of the rib implies some pretty radical differences as well. She was not a clone. That should be obvious. Eve was different in many ways so as to complement Adam. There was something that was lacking in Adam lacking in Adam, for God to be able to say earlier, it is not good that Adam should be alone. Adam, man, same word. It is not good that he should be alone. She was intended to compliment Adam, not to duplicate Adam. And so this speaks to division of labor and specialization, two concepts that are absolutely essential in economics. But there's a whole lot more than economics that's going on here. She complimented him emotionally, physically, socially, sexually, relationally. and economically. And there are important differences between Adam and Eve on all of those levels. This complementarianism makes her absolutely essential to the dominion mandate. She has things that Adam does not have, and those things are essential for Adam to be able to carry out the dominion mandate. She is different emotionally, physically, socially, sexually, relationally, and economically. Now, of course, those first two ideas of equality and difference were already spelled out rather clearly in verses 18 and 20, both of which mentioned that Eve was a helper comparable to him. So she was designed to be a helper to Adam in his dominion. This phrase shows both the equality of the woman and the fact that she compliments and fills out the woman in a subordinate fashion. King James translates it as helpmeet, and so the Hebrew term for meet, or suitable is the way New American Standard translates it, comparable, much more literal translation in the New King James. As to essence, the woman is the husband's equal. She is comparable to Adam spiritually and intellectually, But where meat deals with equality of essence, help deals with inequality of function. There is a functional subordination and a functional difference. Her function and her calling is to help or assist the husband in his function and calling. And the man's success is dependent in large measure, really, on her love and support and loyalty. In discussing role relationships, the Apostle Paul said, Nor was man created for the woman, but the woman for the man." 1 Corinthians 11 verse 9. So when women embrace their unique roles and they do it with energy and joy, Proverbs 31, 11 through 12 says that it produces great blessing, not only for the man, but also for the woman. It says the heart of her husband safely trusts her so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. And what's the result? She herself is blessed and praised. All of those differences are implied in Genesis chapter two, according to Paul. Now, here's another reason why it is such a blessing to emphasize both the equality and the difference. A clone would not be essential. Not at all. And in her book, Let Me Be a Woman, Elizabeth Elliot points out that feminists actually demean the status of a woman when they make her compete in a man's world and with his roles. Likewise, when husbands micromanage their wives, trying to be involved in absolutely everything that the wife does, they're not taking advantage of this principle of division of labor and specialization. There should be a synergy of efforts that makes the two of them far more productive together than each one of them separate. And so value the equality caught in the word image and value the differences and the subordinate status caught in the word helper. Value the differences between the sexes. Now I also want to point to a second area of joy and fulfillment that Eve had even before she was married. We'll get to the marriage in a little bit, but even before that, let me move back to the moment that she woke up. If her first memory was God, her second experience would be taking in the wonderful world all around her. She was, after all, created within paradise, a paradise designed by God to fill all of her five senses with joy. God intends for us to enjoy his world. Singles can find great delight in God. They can find delight and fulfillment in this world. What a beautiful gift God had made for Eve in this paradise garden with its paradise smells and sounds and tastes and textures and sights. So here's the point. She could find fulfillment even before she was married. Next week, I want to look at Mary and Martha, two single ladies, and their brother, Lazarus, also a single for some reason, who knows why. We're going to look at this balance seen in their lives. If a woman can be fulfilled as a single, she can also be fulfilled in marriage. If she cannot find fulfillment being single, she may struggle with finding fulfillment with an imperfect husband. And let me tell you, every husband since the fall is imperfect. You're going to find that very, very quickly after you get married, young people. Very, very quickly. But having made that little side note, God did indeed make marriage to be the norm, with singleness being the rare exception that God specifically calls people to. So if God was her first joy and the garden was her second joy, her third joy was Adam. By the end of verse 22, Adam is no doubt looking at her with absolute delight and anticipation, and she's looking at him just with no intimidation whatsoever, because God is only going to do something that is good for her. And after the marriage, at the end of day six, God declared everything that he had made to now be very good. So gift after gift from the generous hand of the Creator. I do want to pick up on good leadership and good followership because that too is implied in these last verses of chapter 2. First words out of Adam's mouth when God brings her to him are not, wow, that would have been the first words out of my mouth. His were, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Adam is taking the leadership that God created him to take and instructed him to take earlier. Just as Adam had named the animals and the birds in order to show his dominion authority over creation. the very act of naming Eve in these last verses, which is really his last act of naming anything on that sixth day. This act of naming was a recognition by both Adam and Eve that she was going to be under his authority, he would be her head from here on. And so Adam was Ish, she was named Isha. In Hebrew thought to name something is to show authority over it. Now of course what is implied in the act of naming was already explicitly stated earlier in the chapter and I want to tease that apart a little bit. God had already given Adam a bunch of instruction as the head of the household even before Eve was made. Those instructions are given in the first half of chapter two, and those earlier verses indicate that God made Adam very early on the first day, several hours before Eve was made. We'll get into some of the proofs of that a little bit later on. We also know from the relationship between verses 7 through 8 that Adam was created before the garden was created. So Adam's standing outside. Well, there is no garden there. He's in the wilderness watching God transform the wilderness as a model for what Adam's going to do and his descendants will do for the rest of history, transforming it into a gorgeous paradise. So in verses 8 and 15, it says, God put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. So he was on the outside. He is now put in. And this is all hours before Eve was even created. And all of this indicates Adam was the primary dominion creature. Eve was made to be his assistant. And all through that time, the text implies that Adam was looking for the bride that God had already told him about. He was very active in all of these ventures. And I think even in that, Adam and Eve stand as a model for us in courtship. There needs to be initiative and leadership that is shown by the male, and the parents shouldn't be so overshadowing everything that they don't know what leadership is there. Adam was very, very active, and actually both of them are active. It's just like the English country dancing. One person leads, the other person has to be involved, right? but both are needed for the dance to work out. So even in Genesis 1 through 2, it is clear that Adam was the leader and the initiator, Eve was the responder and the complement. And so there is absolutely no basis for the feminists to claim that Paul is reading into the text things that are not there when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, For man is not from woman, but woman from man, nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Why is she under authority? Paul gives as his first two reasons that Adam was made first, and secondly, Eve was made for man. Paul, his inspired interpretation is indicating God did that deliberately in order to establish role relationships for all time. They were a pattern. Male headship was intended by God before there was any fall into sin to mar that. Now the fall did mar that leadership and that relationship, but that headship is the ideal to which grace is gradually restoring us. All of that is implied in the text of Genesis 2. I do want you to notice in verse 22 that the woman is brought to the man and given to the man. So even though Adam is seeking, Eve is brought and God is the father who gives away the bride. And the next verse indicates, okay, this too is supposed to be a pattern for what parents do in the future. Parents, well, romance should ordinarily involve the parents very much. with the man being the leader, the woman voluntarily joining the dance of relationship, and the parents guiding, approving, and eventually relinquishing the son and the daughter into a new nuclear family. None of that seemed odd to Eve at all. She was made for it. She had no sin to cloud her judgment or to make her rebel. against God's design. Instead, this would be her third delight, the gift of marriage and the delight of being placed under the man's headship. And it should be a delight. It's God's dance of paradise. It was part of the all very good statement of God. Now, what about Matthew Henry's last comment that she was taken from his side to symbolize that he should protect her? Doesn't the word protect imply that there's problems and evil? How could there be any evil? Anything needs to be protected from in a perfect creation. But let me show you how God was already anticipating the need for the woman to be protected and for the garden to be protected. He knows the future. And if you take a look at verses 15 through 17, you'll see this. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, 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. So God mentions evil and death as a possible future that needed to be guarded against. In fact, if you look at verse 15 again, I'm going to point out that the literal translation of the Hebrew of that phrase, to tend and keep it, is literally to tend and guard it. It's a clear proof for Matthew Henry's comments of Adam's need to protect and guard Eve and the garden. Same word for guard is actually used in chapter three, verse 24, which speaks of the angel who guards, that's the same Hebrew word, who guards the garden from anyone entering into it. Let me go ahead and read that. Genesis 3, 24, so he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Adam was supposed to guard the garden against any potential evil and death. Now, of course, there was no evil or death in the universe at that time, because Satan did not have his fall till after the sixth day. And how do we know that? Well, there's other scriptures that talk about that, but what are his last words on the end of day six? He looked at everything he had made, and behold, it was very good. There couldn't be any sin. There could not have been any fall of Satan prior to the seventh day. And so that's how we know that. But the fact that Adam was supposed to guard against anyone eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shows that guarding was a function against even potential evil. Now, this is going to factor hugely into Adam's failure to kick Satan out of the garden in chapter three. So I think really on every level, Matthew Henry's symbolism of that rib nails it. He says, the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam, not made out of his head to rule over him. nor 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. Now at this point, Eve probably knows nothing of evil, danger, and future invasion when God brings her to Adam in chapter two, verse 22. That was a burden God put upon the head of the household, not upon her. He put that on Adam's shoulders. And then Adam would be responsible to instruct and wash her with the water of the word. There are hints that he did so in chapter three, verse two, maybe not perfectly, but he did so. And this means that so far there has been no disappointment, no missed expectations on the part of Eve, like there had been for Adam. Now, where do I get the idea that there was disappointment or at least unfulfilled expectation for Adam? Well, in verse 18, God had said, and he appears to be saying those words right in front of Adam, just after he has finished speaking to Adam. And then God the Son is talking to God the Father. He says, it's not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him. Well, Adam's hearing this, you can bet Adam is going to be keeping his eyes out for this spouse that God has promised to him. But a whole day's gone by and God has not brought a spouse yet. Instead, God has brought a whole series of beasts and birds and cattle for Adam to name them, and this means that Adam sees numerous pairs of animals, but he didn't see any pair of humans, not yet. So after several hours of waiting for God to drop the surprise, verse 20 says, but, and that but shows a contrast with the pairs of animals. He's looking and it says, but, for Adam, There was not found a helper comparable to him. The word found, again, indicates active seeking on the part of Adam throughout that time. Comparing verse 20 and verse 18, it is legitimate to at least say it's still not good for Adam to be alone because Eve hasn't been made yet, right? It's still not good. And so I think it is legitimate, not reading too much into that, to say at a minimum there is an unfulfilled expectation, a bit of disappointment possibly at this point. Where is this promised woman? He had a yearning for something that was missing, and hour after hour that yearning had not been fulfilled. Eve did not have that experience. She immediately found joy and fulfillment and every expectation perfectly met in God's gift of Adam. God only made that burden of unmet expectations for the leader at this point. And then God brings Eve. All of the words, by the way, that are given to both of them in chapter one were given during the marriage ceremony. You need to keep in mind that Chapter two is going back in time and filling out what happened on the sixth day, okay? So every bit of those words that was given to the couple not just to Adam alone, but given to the couple, was given during the wedding ceremony in chapter two, verses 22 through 24. So it appears that there was a fair bit of instruction during the wedding, and that's the way it should be. It is, after all, a covenant, and covenants require some instruction. And this is a marriage made in heaven. They're a perfect match. There's not a flaw or a disappointment to mar this marriage yet. Okay. And when the six days ended with the words, then God saw everything that he had made. And indeed it was very good. We can, we can conclude another fact that this marriage was complete, perfect, and good, even before the children arrived. I think that's a legitimate conclusion. Children are an added blessing, but not needed for God to declare this marriage to be very good. The not good is not replaced by the declaration of very good when the children come along. These words were uttered the moment the marriage had happened. Now, obviously God commands Adam and Eve to have children, right? They'd be disobedient if they didn't. And the New Testament repeats that command to be fruitful and multiply. Okay. That's not the issue. Yes, there is the command to do that, but the very good came before there were any children. And this means that husbands and wives should not make their children their first priority. I think that's what it means. Children will come and go from the home, but the primary relationship of husband and wife will continue long after all the children are grown and married themselves. A child-centered home is not very good. It's not good for the parents. It's actually not good for the children, especially in this day and age when there's so much divorce going on. You see children who are so insecure when they see the parents are not committed to each other and they're fearful of a divorce happening. When you strengthen the relationship of the parents, the satisfaction and the security of the children is hugely heightened. And by the way, this is what happens to child-centered homes when all the kids grow up and they leave the home, then there's nothing to keep the parents together, is there? And so God was the first priority, then each other, then the children. And I think these are all things that are embedded right in the text of Genesis 1 through 2 and then amplified upon in later Scripture. Now let's do a little bit of thinking about the timing of all of this. It would have been tough, I think it would have been very, very tough for Adam to squeeze the naming of all of the birds, beasts, and cattle into one working day. Now, he had a mind unaffected by the fall, so he was able to think really quickly and sharply. But the events of that day included all of this. First of all, Adam was created. Then he watches as God creates the garden. Then he puts Adam into the garden. Then he instructs Adam inside of that garden. Then he has this long stream of animals and birds coming by him for him to name. And with all of that going on, many commentators conclude that it's impossible to make any other conclusion than that Eve was made at the very end of day six. And even the connection between chapters one and two seem to indicate that there is the marriage and it goes straight into the Sabbath. Chapter one into chapter two. So it seems as soon as God's declaration happened after the marriage, it's the seventh day, and God blesses that seventh day. Well, this means that mankind's first evening and morning sequence was God's seventh day, a Sabbath. God ended his week with a Sabbath. They began their week with a Sabbath, especially Eve. In Jewish time, the day starts at 6 p.m., at evening, so Eve started her week by resting in the Sabbath, and how appropriate that they consummated their marriage on God's day of blessing and joy and rest. Eve's first hours are hours of bliss. Bliss at the memory of such a great creator. Bliss at the gift of life. Bliss at the beauty of creation and a beautiful garden. Bliss at the beauty of a sunset. Bliss at the gift of marriage. And Adam and Eve enjoyed their first night of experience and existence, just glowing at it all, rejoicing in each other. So it's no wonder that God calls the Sabbath a day of blessing. He intended us to find blessing, and I believe that Married couples are happiest when they really set aside the Sabbath as a day of refreshment and growth. Singles do as well. Now, I've got a ton of stuff about Mary out of this sermon from chapter one, but I think I've given enough that we can dive straight into chapter three. Chapter three shows everything that God had established being turned upside down. And I'm actually not going to take a lot of time to go through this. That's why I gave a big chart on the back. This is a chapter that is absolutely jam-packed with information for our lives. Verse 1 speaks of the cunning of Satan, who possessed a serpent. And cunning he was. I have a handout at the office, if you're ever interested, that gives 27 sales techniques that Satan used to deceive Eve. Same techniques you'll find in sales books out there. And I've got some if you want to look at the sales books and you'll see these techniques that Satan was using. And there were 27 ways that Adam and Eve could have resisted those sales techniques, but they didn't. Adam was supposed to protect, but though he was right there when the devil was tempting her, He did nothing to protect her. He was passive. Eve was supposed to check with her husband, but she plowed ahead without any consultation. And in verses 9 through 16, we see the blame game going on. In verse 8, when they heard the sound of the theophany of God walking through the garden, they hid themselves, they covered themselves with fig leaves, but God pursues them, finds them, starts questioning them. In verse 11, God asks, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" And in verse 12, Adam blames the wife and ultimately is really blaming God. Then the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the tree and I ate. If you hadn't given her to me, I would have been okay. Blaming, okay, no repentance there. For the moment, God ignores his excuse-making and turns to the woman, asking her, what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. Another example of blame-shifting, not true repentance. Sin had entered the human race and instantly began skewing every aspect of Adam and Eve's being and behavior. There was alienation between Adam and Eve. Now, if you look on the backside of your bulletins, you will see a chart that shows 15 areas of life that were immediately and very negatively impacted by the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. We can't cover all of these this morning, but let me briefly outline the pervasive effects of the fall upon mankind. Spiritually, both Adam and Eve ran from God. were fearful of God, no longer had an open relationship with God. Instead, they engaged in self-justification. Adam and Eve died spiritually. They were alienated from God spiritually. Physically, their bodies were also separated from God. Now, I should explain here that biblically, death never means cessation. You die, you're still conscious, right? It never means cessation of being. It means separation from God. And this physical separation from God and alienation is shown in that they instantly lost the glory covering and suddenly recognized that they were naked. God was no longer covering them with his glory. He had abandoned them. Verses 16-19 speaks of the pain, discomfort, eventual death, returning to dust that would happen to them. Mentally, they began to reason independently of God, find themselves rationalizing, deceiving themselves and others, defending and glorifying self rather than God, and this means that their minds were tainted. Emotionally, they experience fear for the first time. And as you move through Genesis, you see anxiety, depression, bitterness, anger, covetousness. You see all kinds of emotional turmoil. Volitionally, their will is now held captive to sin, and they act independently of God. They become corrupted in their dominion. You can see an example in verse 7. They rebel against God's authority. They rebel against human authority, as is seen in God's prophecy of Eve rebelling against Adam in verse 16, et cetera, et cetera. So their wills are hostile to God's law. Religiously, they invent false coverings in verse 7. false religion in chapter four, verse three. Psychologically, they experience shame for the first time, loss of confidence, alienation, bad conscience. Their motives begin to be turned into idols instead of turned toward God. And so you can see all of those things that are listed on that chart, they will destroy your marriage and they will destroy dominion. And so as you go down through that chart, you realize there is no part of Adam and Eve's existence that was not negatively affected by sin. Their goals became self-serving. Their sense of justice was perverted. Their social relationships were alienated. Their egos became idolatrous. Their environment was cursed. The effects of sin were felt, not just with them, but generationally and cosmically. No aspect of human existence is unaffected by the fall and rebellion of Adam and Eve. And I would really encourage you guys to go through that chart and discuss it as a family sometime. Just see what are some areas in which we still have some of these effects of the fall in our relationships and how can we turn that around and reverse it by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul makes the point that Eve was deceived and Adam willfully sinned. Didn't want a loser. But this hurled the world ruled by Adam into a world ruled by Satan. But the story doesn't end on that sad note. God curses the serpent, provides redemption for Adam and Eve, and begins the process of restoration by grace of what was lost. And so God curses the serpent in verses 14 through 15, chapter three, I wanna pick up at verse 15, to describe God's process of rescuing Eve from her mess and by grace beginning to restore what was lost. God tells the serpent, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Note, first of all, that Eve was not running to God. She had been running from God. In Romans 3.11, Paul makes the point that there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God. If Adam and Eve are to be saved, God's going to have to chase them down. He's going to have to do the saving. And this is exactly what he was doing in these verses. God tells Satan, I will put enmity between you and the woman. God did that, right? Adam and Eve had made friends with Satan, and God now was sovereignly going to break up that friendship. He was going to make Adam and Eve enemies of Satan. And God has his election run through generational lines where there will be elects saved in every generation up to the cross. One of the descendants is going to be Jesus, whom Satan will bruise in the heel, painful but not annihilated. But in the process, whose head Jesus would crush under his feet. So this is a marvelous gospel promise that I've preached on in the past. I won't get into it this much. I won't park on it. But the point is, if God had not pursued her, Eve would have continued to flee, would continue to be an enemy of God. And you can conclude it's sovereign grace alone that brings salvation. But God does point out that the curse would still negatively impact them, and both of them, even in the midst of grace and blessing. They're still gonna have curse, and we've had some hints of curse, and the pain, and the sicknesses, and different things people are experiencing today, but take a look at what was cursed here. Fruitfulness had previously been blessed, but now look at verse 16. To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. So multiplying the conception was a curse just like multiplying the sorrow was. Both would get worse. And in my book on conception control, I get into many reasons why that's the case. Let me just give you a summary of one. Prior to the fall, it appears that God's DNA code for the human was to have no conception during breastfeeding. And if they were breastfeeding for three years, they would not have another child for three years. But the curse affected that so that there are far, far more children than God had originally planned. Now the cursing went further. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Pain was not originally intended to be a part of the birth giving process, and I speak about that in my book. Now pain would be. The curse would inject rebellion and chauvinism into the equation. And then in verses 17 through 19, God pronounces a curse upon Adam, which is going to affect Eve. God would make dominion of the earth still possible. It's not going to be impossible, but it's going to be difficult. And eventually they would die. But one of the encouraging things in this section is that Adam renames his wife from Isha to Eve, which means the living one, and sees her as the mother of all living. Now, I see that as an incredible statement of faith, because God had already pronounced a death curse on them, right? Death sentence. To me, this shows that Adam had faith in God's promise of grace that was given in verse 15, that the woman would indeed have children, and that God would provide a suffering Savior in the future to atone for their sins. So unlike A.W. Pink, I see Adam as having been saved and displaying faith in this statement. giving her a new name, also shows his continued authority over her. So grace restores what was lost, everything that was lost. And as a symbol of that grace that both had found, God closed them both in animal skins, which shows that God sacrificed animals on behalf of both of them. So these are indicators, again, that both of them were saved, not just Eve, as some people claim. This was the first act of atonement looking forward to the shed blood of Jesus. These skins would also provide utility in their dominion work, but I think they would be a constant reminder of what they had lost. As the Apostle Paul worded it, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6 23. Now there was discipline, As an act of discipline, they're kicked out of the garden in verses 22 through 24, and an angel stands guard there with his fiery sword. making sure nobody can get back into that garden again. It was lost, paradise lost. It would only be as a result of the cross of Christ that paradise would be restored. Now in the meantime, Adam was still responsible to fulfill the dominion mandate, but instead of starting his week by resting on the Sabbath, that's the way he was supposed to do, listen to God's instructions, follow them, he would now rest at the end of the week in anticipation of the coming Messiah, the future Messiah that he would provide redemption. And from the time of the Messiah on, God would restore the Sabbath to the beginning of the week so that once again we can start our weeks of dominion by first resting in what he has provided and submitting to his restorative word. So that in a nutshell is the story of Eve, but I want to end by giving three more applications from Genesis chapter four, verse one. This verse is a brief encapsulation of how grace restored a measure of the first three things that were lost to Adam and Eve. Genesis 4.1 says, now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Three things to know. First, he uses the covenant name Yehoah on her lips indicating she is in covenant with God. Anytime you see in the New King James Lord in all capital letters, it's the name Yehoah, okay? She has a restored relationship. Life does not have to be all about drudgery and Martha-like service. There is that. But grace restores us to the sweet fellowship that Mary experienced with Jesus. She praises God. She adores God for this child. The first point of devotion to God is being restored by grace. Second, Eve's relationship with God is very clear here. It's not pie-in-the-sky, by-and-by pietism, has no relationship to the world. No, she knows that God is the only one who can bless her sexual relations, her fertility, her conception, successful birth. Grace restored the sense of God to her day-to-day life. See, before, when she went into the fall, she excluded God from those kinds of decisions. But Eve now sees God as foundational to childbirth and life itself. And so the second great joy that Eve had when she was first created, the joy of seeing this world as God's gift and God's creation, and it all being a beautiful thing that God was giving to her, has now been restored by grace. Third, Eve's relationship to Adam was restored. Now, I should mention that the triangle of relationship with God at the top is never perfectly restored, but it is certainly something that grace can enable you to achieve to a great high degree in this life. Anyway, where do I get this idea? It's the word no. in the Hebrew is the word Yadah. Yadah, it's the same word that is used by David in Psalm 139, verse 23, when David said, search me, O God, and know my heart. Know my heart. It speaks of this deep longing for connection and to be intimate. God intended and designed sex to be a deep knowing, caring, and intimate relationship with your husband or your wife. It's not just about release. Okay, it obviously has that function too. But God intended it to be one tool of bringing husbands and wives into deeper and deeper union and communion. I think that's all implied in the word yada. God's grace restores to sex his intention of deep fellowship, caring, and knowing of each other's heart, soul, mind, and body. And I think we need to pray that God would sanctify our sexuality and our emotions and every other aspect of our being, that his grace would restore more and more of what was lost in the fall. But really, when you're seeing in those three points God, God, God all the way through, it takes us back to our first point, doesn't it? Knowing God as your primary love, then letting God transform this world into His world and His gift to you. I mean, that's what makes this world special and joyful, isn't it? It's God's gift. We relate to God through everything. And then letting God transform your marriage by making Him primary in your marriage. The point is, God can turn marriages from wilderness into paradise. Adam and Eve are exhibit A. Did they have squabbles? I'm sure they had plenty of squabbles in their hundreds of years of marriage. Did they have times of hurt feelings and alienation? I'm sure they did, but by constantly returning to the source of grace at the top of the triangle, they were able to restore their relationship with each other and to know each other, yada, to know each other for hundreds of years with numerous children in tow. Now, believe it or not, I have barely dipped into the life of Eve. And if you doubt that, read Cornelius Van Til's comments on Adam and Eve sometime. It just blows you away how much material is in Genesis 1 through 3. I think Cornelius Van Til does a fabulous job of applying it to apologetics and many other areas of life. But I think I've given you enough to assure you that Eve does stand as a model for women today in both her state of innocence as well as in her state of redemption. She is the world's first tribute to grace and the world's first model of faith that any of us can follow. May we do so, amen. Father, I thank you for the story of Adam and Eve. We know with all of our heart this is real history. And we want to learn from this history. We want to grow. And we thank you that you sent Jesus, who was a descendant of Eve. And just the opposite, as Eve was taken out of Adam, Christ was taken out of Eve. But we thank you that this reversal just symbolized all kinds of reversals that you brought into history. And I thank you that your promise is that Jesus must remain at the right hand of the Father until all things are put under his feet. We praise you. We praise you, Father, that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. We praise you that you have ordained grace to go far as the curse is found. And we look forward to being a part of seeing these reversals of the curse in our own lives individually, within our marriages, with our children. And I pray that you would instruct us and open the eyes of our understanding to see the incredible glories that you can enable marriages to achieve by your grace and the reversals that can take place even as we saw last week of Rahab's taken out of incredibly dark circumstances. Father, may we be exhibits, exhibits B, C, D, E, and F of what your grace can do within a marriage. Do bless us, your people, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.