Centennial Park Baptist Church – Sunday, September 30th – 10:30 a.m.

 

ORIGINS – GENESIS 2

 

I           ORIGIN OF OUR DAY OF REST

 

            Genesis 2: 1-3

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

           

·        Emphasis on COMPLETION  - word ALL 3x

 

·        Present processes of the universe are: CONSERVATION

 

                                                                               DISINTEGRATION

·        Emphasis also on REST

 

II          ORIGIN OF LABOUR

 

            Genesis 2:15

15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

III        ORIGIN OF MORAL CHOICE

            God clearly explained to Adam the CONSEQUENCES of      disobedience.

            Genesis 2: 16-17

            16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;  17 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."

IV        ORIGIN OF GOD’S PLAN FOR MANKIND

            Genesis 2: 21-25

                        21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.  22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23The man 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." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

           

* Eve’s unique mode of creation – I Timothy 2: 13

                                                                    I Corinthians 11:8

            * Eve’s unique creative position:

                                    - not from the head -  suggesting supremacy

                                    - not from the feet – suggesting inferiority

                                    - from the side- indicating EQUALITY and COMPANIONSHIP

            * Eve and Adam’s unique relationship

                        - PERMANENCE

                        - PRIVACY - one man and one woman

            There can be no doubt that God’s nature of love was central to His purpose in creating men and women.  In the mysterious depths of God’s own nature there was a desire for other spiritual personalities ( other that within the Godhead itself) on whom He could bestow His love.  Even after the fall into sin, the prophet Zephaniah could proclaim: “The Lord your God will take great delight in you.  He will quiet you with His love.  He will rejoice over you with singing.” ( Zephaniah 3:17 )

The ultimate expression of this?

            John 3:16

16"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.