The First & Last Adam
Wed. Eve. – July 20, 2005
Photo Albums: Almost every family has one. It’s good to go back and look at the pictures of family of friends. Lots of memories are brought to mind looking through an album. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words and that’s true but if you don’t have a picture, 1000 words will have to do.
If you really want to know someone, let’s say someone you have just met, you can take a picture of them and study it for hours. The picture will tell you a lot about their appearance but you can’t get on the inside, to the heart of that person with just a picture. If the only way you can communicate with that person is by reading a letter from them you will learn much more from their words than from a picture.
The Bible is a picture album of words.
I. Book of Revelation is known as the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
A. But the whole Bible is a Revelation of Jesus because He is revealed, or pictured on every page.
1. Jesus is pictured at the very beginning of the Bible.
2. Genesis 1:1 begins with, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
B. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”1
C. Verse 1 tells us that the Word was in the beginning. The Word was with and was, God.
1. Verse 14 identifies the Word. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”
2. The Word was made flesh and became Jesus.
II. Jesus is the spoken Word of God, Who became the Living Word, Who is known through the Written Word, the Bible.
A. The Bible is the written Word of God describing the Living Word of God, Jesus.
1. We can admire the paintings of the old master painters but the Bible is the only true picture of Jesus that we have.
III. In Luke 24, it tells about Jesus meeting 2 people on their way to Emmaus.
1. The two didn’t recognize Jesus.
2. After a discussion concerning the crucifixion, Jesus opens up the scriptures for them.
3. In Luke 24:27, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
4. Notice it says “in all the scriptures”. The O.T. was all they had.
5. The O.T. is a photo album containing word pictures of Jesus.
IV. We’re going to look at a couple of those pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament.
A. Many of the men of the O.T. are types & shadows, or pictures of Jesus.
1. What do we mean when we say types? It means in that person’s life there are similarities to the life of Jesus.
B. Isaac is a type of Jesus. Joseph & David are types of Jesus.
C. There is one we seldom think about as a type, or picture of Jesus and that is Adam.
D. Let’s look at some scriptures to help us find Jesus in the life of Adam.
V. Genesis 2:21-23, “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 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.”
A. As Adam slept, God took a rib and created a wife for him.
1. When God took a rib from the side of Adam blood was shed.
2. Adam had a wife but he paid for her by the shedding of his own blood. Which by the way, established the first Blood Covenant. We still honor it today as the marriage between a man & a wife.
B. When Adam woke up, in verse 23 he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”. Here we see a picture of Jesus referring to His Bride.
1. Turn to: Ephesians 5:30-31, “For we (That’s us, the Bride of Christ) are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
2. Here is just one of the pictures we have of Jesus in the Book of Genesis.
3. In many ways, Adam is a picture of Jesus.
C. Jesus, is called the Last Adam. Let’s look at some similarities between Adam & Jesus:
1. Adam slept and God opened his side to make his bride. Adam’s blood was shed.
2. What happened on Calvary? The Side of Jesus was opened up by a soldiers lance.
a. Three things flowed out from the wound in His side. (Three things?)
b. 1. Blood 2. Water 3. Redemption
c. Blood because, according to Hebrews 9:22, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
d. Next water. Remember when the Children of Israel were wondering in the desert and they ran out of water?
e. God told Moses to strike a rock with his rod. What happened?
f. Water poured out.
g. In 1 Cor. 10:4, speaking about that time, Paul says, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
3. The rock was another picture of Jesus. So when water poured out of His side on Calvary it was to let people know, at least those who could spiritually discern, that He was that Rock.
4. Water is symbolic of the cleansing power of the Word. Jesus is the Living Word.
4. And then, water always accompanies the birth of a baby.
5. Who, or What, was going to be birthed? Like the first Adam, Jesus the Last Adam, gave birth to His Bride.
D. God opened Adam’s side as he slept.
1. The side of Jesus was opened up after He slept.
a. Jesus died. Why do we say He slept?
1. 1 Cor. 15:20 says, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”. Christians don’t die, they just sleep.
2. Jesus died, but in reality He slept. For three days and three nights His body was asleep in the grave.
3. Somebody who dies isn’t going to wake up. After the third day He woke up with a new glorified Body.
V. Now let’s look at the whole picture:
A. The First Adam was created by God.
1. The Last Adam, Jesus was manifested in the flesh and dwelt among us.
B. Adam was asleep when God opened his side to make his bride.
2. Jesus was asleep when God opened His Side to make His Bride.
C. Blood flowed from Adam.
1. Blood flowed from Jesus.
D. Adam shed blood as the price he paid for his bride.
1. Jesus shed Blood as the price He paid for His Bride.
E. A rib was taken from Adam to make his bride Eve. We’ll look at this in detail.
1. At the start we read Genesis 2:20-23. Verse 22 says, “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
2. If you look up that word “made” in the Hebrew it means “to build”.
3. The Bible doesn’t say how long it took for God to take the rib from Adam and build Eve.
4. When God finished building Eve He brought her to Adam.
5. Here is the picture of Jesus: Jesus died on the cross, His side was opened making it possible for the creation of His Bride. For the last 2000 years a Bride is being built by the Holy Spirit. When the last person to receive Jesus has been reached, His Bride will be complete. Then God, just as He brought Eve to Adam, will bring the Bride to His Son at the time of the Rapture.
VI. Now let’s take another look at Adam as a type of Jesus.
A. Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
B. Make a note of this, God spoke these words to Adam before Eve was created.
C. Eve didn’t hear the command directly from God.
a. Eve heard about the forbidden tree from Adam.
b. The devil would have scored a bigger victory if he could have persuaded Adam to sin because Adam walked, talked and was taught by God. Adam truly believed God when He said: “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
c. When Eve came along the command not to eat of the forbidden fruit was second-hand knowledge. Today, unless we heard the facts from the source, we would consider it as a rumor or possibly gossip.
d. That’s one of two reasons why the devil went for Eve instead of Adam. He knew he could place a seed of doubt in Eve because she hadn’t heard from directly from God.
D. Put yourself in the place of Eve. The devil says, “There’s a rumor going around not to eat from a certain tree. It’s the prettiest tree in the Garden. Did God really say not to eat the fruit from it?”
a. What’s our first reaction? “I wonder why God would say a thing like that? What is it about that fruit? I know what, Adam lied. He’s probably sneaking out in the night and eating it. He just wants it for himself.”
E. Eve was convinced the devil was right and Adam was wrong. She ate the fruit. (Gen. 3:6)
a. HERE’S AN IMPORTANT POINT: At that point in time Eve became the only human to sin in the whole world. She was a sinner. Adam was not. Put that thought on hold.
VII. Now we’re going to look at Adam in a way you may have never thought about before.
A. Turn to Eph. 5:31. Paul, speaking about the relationship between a husband and wife, says, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.”
B. That’s almost a word for word quotation from Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”
C. Verse 32 of Eph. 5 says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church”.
a. The mystery isn’t the fact that a man shall leave father & mother. That’s normal.
b. Part of the mystery is that husband & wife shall be one flesh.
c. Understanding how Blood covenant relationship works takes the mystery out of it.
d. In a Blood Covenant one party commits his life to the other party.
e. That commitment means giving up your own life for the other person.
D. So when Paul says it is a GREAT mystery he was talking about Jesus, the sinless Son of God Who was willing to leave heaven and come to earth to save a sinful, unfaithful wife by going to the Cross and dying for her.
VIII. Now we come to Adam being a picture of Jesus by his love for Eve.
A. I’m going to make a statement that some of you may not agree with. But I hope to back it up with scripture.
B. Here’s the statement: Adam wasn’t tricked into eating the forbidden fruit. He knew what he was doing. He knew it was sin and the penalty meant death. But it was his love for Eve that caused him to sin. I’ll give you a scripture in a minute to back that up.
C. The devil knew Adam loved Eve. If he could make Adam fall, Eve would have fallen with him because Adam was head of the family and had authority over Eve.
1. I Cor. 11:7-8, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Col. 3:18, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.”
1 Timothy 2:12-13, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.”
a. First of all Paul when Paul says he didn’t allow women to teach, he was referring to the Jewish law at that time which said that the women should not interrupt services in the synagogues with questions or object to what is being taught. It was okay for men to do that but women were to keep quiet.
b. The prophecy of Joel changed that when he prophesied that the Spirit of God would be poured out on ALL flesh. 1 Cor. 11:5 says a woman should have her head covered when she prayed and prophesied, so women were speaking out back then.
c. Besides, where would we be if it hadn’t been for a woman named Lydia? Paul had a dream of a man in Macedonia who was crying, “Come over and help us”. When Paul got there he met Lydia who started the first Christian church in Europe.
f. A point that is often overlooked is that it was a man that called out in the dream but it was a woman that answered the call.
D. Back to Adam: So Adam was the head of the family and Eve would have automatically fallen with him if Adam had sinned first.
E. But Adam didn’t sin first. The command from God not to eat of the forbidden fruit was still fresh in the ears of Adam.
F. The devil knew he couldn’t persuade Adam. But he could convince Eve that Adam had lied or the command from God was just so much hearsay from Adam.
IX. When Eve ate the forbidden fruit she became a sinner. Adam was still holy in the sight of God.
A. At that point, sin separated Adam from Eve.
B. Adam knew the penalty for Eve was death.
C. We don’t know what God taught Adam before Eve was created. We do know that God told him not to eat from the forbidden tree or else he would die.
D. Adam is between a rock and a hard place. He loves Eve more than himself but now she has disobeyed God and must die.
E. Adam searched for an answer. If only there was a third person, another human being who could die for Eve. A “redeemer”. Later God would refer to this person as the Seed of the Woman.
F. Eve needed a Redeemer, a Savior and the Savior must be her seed. Nothing else could pay the price for the sin.
G. There was only one way for the Seed of a Woman to be born. That was for Adam and Eve to come together and have a child.
H. But sin separated Adam from Eve. 2 Cor. 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
I. Adam was still clothed in Light from the Shekinah Glory of God. Eve was in darkness.
J. There’s a distance, or gulf between Adam & Eve. How can they be brought back together?
a. Adam can’t bring Eve up to his level of innocence without a Redeemer. That Redeemer has to be the seed of the woman and the only man who could become the father of that seed was Adam. (from Portraits of Christ in Genesis-M.R. DeHaan).
K. The only answer is for Adam to lower himself to her level by eating from the forbidden tree.
a. By doing so, the separation between them would be removed and he could become the father of her seed.
b. So Adam did so. He ate of the forbidden tree.
X. You may or may not agree with that interpretation but let me refer you to a scripture. I Tim. 2:14, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
A. Notice that Adam was not deceived. When he ate that forbidden fruit he knew what he was doing and he knew the penalty for doing it. But, it was the only way to save his bride.
B. That salvation had to come through the bearing of a child. Eve had to give birth to a Seed to be saved. Adam was the only way to make this happen.
C. 1 Tim. 2:15, “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they (meaning the child or children) continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”
a. Verses 14 & 15 from the NCV, “And Adam was not tricked, but the woman was tricked and became a sinner. 15 But she will be saved through having children if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.”
XI. Looking at it in this way, Adam was a picture of Jesus Christ.
A. When Adam sinned it was different than our sin. We sin because we are sinners. Adam deliberately sinned to save his bride.
B. Isn’t that what Jesus did for His Bride?
C. II Cor. 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”.
D. This is the Great Mystery Paul was talking about when he said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Eph. 5:31
LOVELETTER FROM JESUS TO HIS BRIDE:
Song of Songs 2:8-13, “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Song of Songs 2:8-13: (The voice of the bride of Christ is speaking, she says: ) The voice of my beloved! (the Bride recognizes the voice of her Groom. John 10:4-5, for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow) behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. (He will come above the earth at the Rapture) 9 My beloved is like a roe (gazelle) or a young hart (young buck) : behold, he standeth behind our wall, (the 3rd heaven – 1st heaven is atmosphere above us – no higher than 20 miles, 2nd is the Celestial heaven and includes the sun, moon & stars, the 3rd heaven is where God dwells.) he looketh forth at the windows (Here He is coming in the clouds of the 1st heaven), shewing himself through the lattice (or opening in the clouds). 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. (The Rapture 1 Thess 4:16 - For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout) 11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; (the battle is over) 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell (in other words, all has been fulfilled - it’s time to bring in the harvest of His saints who make up His Bride.). (Then He repeats His command: ) Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Angels don’t understand:
“Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” 1 Peter 1:12
