Start at the Beginning The Family

Well, take your Bible this morning, turn with me to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis, of course, that's a long way from the Gospel of John. We've been in John for quite some time. We've taken a few breaks along the way. Remember, we took a break between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 when we looked at what the Bible says about man. And we're going to take several weeks away from John. I have felt compelled to deal with some subjects. I've been praying over this small series, praying over these subjects for quite some time.

If I go back and look at some of my notes and some of my small journaling, I think it was in the beginning of August when the Lord began to really unfold some of this burden. We're going to look at the family first, and then we're going to look at a couple of other subjects. And I don't want to disclose those to you yet because I don't want to confuse you or clutter your mind. Let's just take them one at a time. And if I was going to title these messages, you know by now I like to give a sermon title, and I also like to title the series that we're going to be in. I really meditated over what to call these messages the past few weeks.

I've used this before, and I'm going to borrow it again. As a matter of fact, I'll probably hold on to this because there'll be other times I'll do this again. But we're going to call these messages messages from the pastor's heart. I'll give you an explanation as to why I would call these messages messages from the pastor's heart. From time to time, the leadership of the church is the pastor, the leader, the pastor in the pulpit, an elder in the life of the church. There are subjects, there are issues that I feel very compelled to address. Sometimes there could be problems in the life of the church.

Sometimes it could be discrepancies in the life of the church. Sometimes it could pertain and work around a call in the area of the church. But these are subjects, these are issues that are deeply God's working in a deep way in the life of my heart and in my own life. So I call these messages messages from the pastor's heart. And when we get through, you'll be able to hear me share my own heart. You'll be able to hear even my wife, Brother Keith explain to you and share with you how these things have been in my heart. Now, we're going to be in Genesis Chapter one. We're going to be in Genesis Chapter two and Chapter three.

A little later on, I'm going to read some of these scriptures. I'm going to touch on some of these scriptures anytime we cover a great amount of scripture. I'm not going to read it all because of the because of time. But we're going to be in those three chapters. Now, I want to start off this morning's message by making an obvious observation. One that many of you have already made. Many of you, this will not be news to you. And this observation is this, the family as it has been given by God is under attack within our culture.

And repeat that the family, the family unit, the nuclear family, some like to use that language that has been given by God is under attack within our culture. We are witnessing an open attack from Hollywood. Every time a movie or a television show portrays divorce families, children out of wedlock, homosexual families as good and normal and acceptable. It's an open attack on the family as God has designed it. I was reminded of that. I'm reminded of that very often. I ran across an article I've had for some time. It's dated November the 17th, 2012. In an hour day and time, that's very ancient news.

But this is an article that came from the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post is a liberal news organization. But the title of the article is this divorce TV characters are 15 favorite divorce characters on television. Now, I won't give you the 15 divorce characters, but I'll read you the little introduction to the article and listen to this. And I quote, "Turn on your television now and you're bound to see a character going through a divorce or dealing with the never ending demands of single parenthood. It wasn't always that way though.

For a long time, the small screen was home to scores of strong nuclear families and the occasional widowed father, Andy Griffith on the Andy Griffith show, Fred McMurray on My Three Sons, but hardly any divorce characters." And notice what the writer says. "Then, as if television writers finally caught up with the rest of America, divorcees slowly began to trickle onto our television screens. Hey, we can't all be June and Ward Cleaver, right?" Now, what do we see? That is an open attack on the family as it has been given by God. I saw another open attack this week. I have subscribed to Al Mohler's weekly blog, or it's called a briefing.

You might not know who Al Mohler is. Al Mohler is one of the leading men in Southern Baptist life. He is president of Southern Seminary, the Southern Baptist Seminary. And he gives what's called the briefing Monday through Friday. The explanation that he gives for the briefing reads like this. "A daily worldview analysis about the leading news headlines and cultural controversies." It's from a Christian perspective. But on this Friday, October the 28th, in Al Mohler's briefing, he referenced a USA Today article describing the events surrounding Miley Cyrus. You might not know who Miley Cyrus is. She is a popular musician today.

She was a popular Disney actress, child actress. But she opened up in the USA Today article in other news articles or news outlets. She opened up about how she identifies as what she calls being pansexual. In the article in the USA Today, the article described how the media clamored to even define the term. Now, if you have problems with that term, see me, see Brother Keith, and we can explain that to you. It's an open attack in our culture on the family, the nuclear family, as God has given it. We see an open attack from political leaders in our day as well. Neither one of our presidential contenders will condemn same-sex marriage.

In fact, they openly support their right to marry. When those who are in political office pass laws giving those involved in homosexual relationships, whether they're men or women, the right to, under the law, be married, this is an open attack on the family as it has been given by God. We remember that just over a year ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states and territories except American Samoa and the Indian lands. That date was June the 26th, 2015. That is an open attack on the family from our culture as God has given. All around us, our culture.

In many different places, we see that the family is under attack, but this is nothing new. Some of us who are a little older, we have been really amazed at this attack, but this is nothing new. The family has always been under attack, and if we know our Bibles, we know that the family was attacked even within the Garden of Eden. We know that God created everything. God created man. God created everything. We see that in Genesis 1, Chapter 2. But what do we see immediately in Genesis, Chapter 3, an attack on the family? Now, I'm going to give you the title of the message.

It's a rather lengthy title, but this title will hang with us, will be with us all the way through these messages on the family. I've really wrestled over this title the past couple of weeks. The title of the message is "The Family, Our Fundamental Foundation." We're going to start at the beginning because we're going to go all the way back to the beginning to when God gave us the family. We will hold on to that portion, the family, our fundamental foundation as we continue. We'll just add to it all along. You see the main truths that we're going to explore.

The first family, we will be in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, and the failure of the first family, and we will be in Chapter 3. So, like I said earlier, we will cover quite a bit of Scripture. I want you to take notes, jot these Scripture references down, go back and read these chapters. Enlight of the message, and just let the verses sink in. Notice truths, maybe, that you've never seen. But let's glance and let's read out our Scriptures this morning. If you would, turn to Chapter 1. Let's turn to Chapter 1. Notice verse 26, this is nearing the end of the creation account. And what does the Scripture say?

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.'" Now, what is that? That is that holy conclave there in glory. That is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That language in the original is pluralistic. And although those Old Testament writers might not have understood that that was Jesus and the Holy Spirit there, Moses accurately wrote this the way God inspired him to. And that's why he said "our," because we understand that Jesus was there. And what it says is, "Let us make man in our image." And we go on to see that God did create male. God created female, verse 27.

And God created man in his own image, in the image of God who created male and female. He created them. And he blessed them, verse 28 says, and he says, "Be fruitful and multiply." And then he says to subdue, rule over the earth. "I give you the creation," God says, "to manage and rule." Now, if we turn over to Chapter 2, we'll see some more details about the creation. These are not two different events, but Chapter 2, God gives through Moses the details of the creation. Creating man. What do we see in verse 4?

"This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven." And then we go on to see verse 7. "Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust from the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there he placed the man whom he had formed." More details about the creation of man or Adam. Then verse 15, "The Lord God took the man, and he put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it.

There was his job, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree from the garden that you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, or you shall surely die.'" But then notice verse 18. "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for a man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him.'" And then what do we see? Verse 19, "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast." But then we go on to see verse 20, "But for Adam there was no suitable helper." In other words, in all of the creation, as Adam saw all of the animals, none of the animals corresponded to him. He was alone.

Verse 21, "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and he closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib, which he had taken from the man, and he brought her to the man, and the man said, 'Now this is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of the man.'" And if you study the original language, basically Adam is saying, "Wow, look what God has provided!" Earlier, none of the animals corresponded to him, and now God has provided perfectly for him, and he says, "Wow, she is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, this is what God provided." It's a popular verse, especially in marriage ceremonies, verse 24, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one." And the man and his wife, Adam and Eve, were both naked and were not ashamed.

This is a perfect creation. The creation is complete. There is all of the creation, there's Adam, there's Eve, they're in their home, and there is no sin within the world, and there's no sin within the family. But then what do we see in verse chapter 3? Sin enters the picture. Verse 1, "The serpent was more crafty." What does it say? It says that he said to the woman, "Indeed, as God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden." Then we have this correspondence between the serpent and woman, Eve. The serpent says in verse 4, "You shall not die." In other words, he contradicts what God said. And then what do we see?

On over in verse 6, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and she ate, and she also gave to her husband, and he ate. And then the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and they made for themselves loin coverings." Here we see sin has entered the world, entered the human race, and entered the family. Then verse 8, we see that God comes, and God seeks them out. Before there had never been any enmity between them and God, but now there is.

But what do we see? This correspondence from verse 8, all the way down to the end of the chapter, where God is dealing with Adam, he's dealing with Eve, he's dealing with their sin. Then we see the grace of God. In verse 21, this is not part of the message, but I must point it out. "And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, and he clothed them." That's a picture of Christ. Then what do we see? Verse 22, I'll read the end of the chapter. "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us.'" Pluralistic language again, knowing good from evil.

"And now, at least he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had taken." So he drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed a cherubim, that's an angel with a flaming sword, which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. So what are we going to look at this morning? We're going to go all the way back to the beginning, and we're going to look at the family, the fundamental foundation, and you see the main truths.

We're going to look at the first family, and then we're going to look at the failure of the first family. I know we took quite a bit of time to go over those verses, but I think that they were necessary, that review, that looking at those verses was necessary. So truth number one, notice the first family. Notice the first family. We saw that in chapter one. "God said, 'Let us make man in our image.'" We saw then in chapter two, there was no animal that corresponded with Adam, and what do we see there in verse 20, that God took Adam, put him to sleep, and God fashioned a woman.

This is the first family, and then they were naked, they felt no shame, and the two became one. So here we see the first family, and that was Adam, and that was Eve. Now, if you want to continue ahead in the chapter four, you will see their children. They had children, they had Cain, they had Abel, and then later at the end of the chapter, they had Seth. We know that they had other children, but yet we don't know the details of those other children. And then chapter five gives the descendants of Adam. So we see the family of Adam, the descendants of Adam, but here in chapter one and chapter two, we have the beginning of the first family.

So I want to go to the beginning, and I want to make two observations, and within these observations, there's a little bit of truth I want to share with you. So the first observation is the origination of the family. The origination of the family. We must see that the family originated with God. This was God's idea. We read that in Genesis 1.26. What do we see? Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. This was before mankind was created, and you have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and we see the origination of the family right there in verse 26.

Now, in this origination of the family, I want to make some specific observation. First, God created man. You might say, "Pastor, you've said that numerous times. You've read verses like 26, 27, chapter two, verse seven, when we see that God created woman, God created Adam, and then we see that God created woman later on, which was Eve. Yes, we've already said that. We've already alluded to that. We've read those verses, but we must see that it was God that created man. Man did not happen to come about. We do not believe in the theory of evolution that man just came about by an accident.

No, that is a lie right out of the pit of hell, but what we see is that God created man, and not only do we believe in intelligent design, but we know who created, and it was God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God created man, but also God created woman. As Adam took a gander at all of the animals, did you know that the scripture says he named every one of them? One by one, as he named those animals, as he dealt with the creation, there was not one that corresponded with him, but yet God in his perfect grace and love took from Adam a rib, and he created the woman, one that would correspond with him, and what do we see?

God gave him exactly what he needed. He gave him one that corresponded with him, and that was woman, and that's why he said, "Wow, look what God has provided." But I want you to notice something else. God took two and made one. Verse 24, "For this cause man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one." I've used this verse in weddings, what few weddings I have done, and I've said it like this. If God were in our math class, he would fail, because we know one plus one is two, but not in the economy of God, and not in dealing with Christian marriage, because that's what we have here.

God took Adam, God took Eve, and this is a mystical, wonderful, supernatural thing that he took two, and he made one, and that is exactly what he did. God created Adam, God created Eve, and he brought them together, and they corresponded with one another, yes, and she was his helpmate, yes, but he took two and made one. And then notice something else with the origination of the family. God commanded procreation. Go back to chapter one, verse 28. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and feel the earth, and subdue it, rule over it.

Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, and over the living thing that moves on the earth." In other words, God gave them two commands, that was to multiply and to subdue the earth, rule over the earth, to have dominion over the earth, but yet dealing with the family, we see that God commanded procreation. So the first family was all from God. This was a supernatural creation of multiple levels. First, God made Adam. He took a handful of dirt and fashioned a man and breathed into his nostrils the very breath of life, supernatural from God. Then it was supernatural because of Eve.

He put Adam to sleep, took that rib, formed a woman, and you have Eve. Then third, it was supernatural because he took two and made one. And then also notice that this was meant to continue. This was not just a one and done. This was not just a one-time thing. And when Adam and Eve came and went, this was gone and over. No, this was meant to continue because what does he say? He says, "Multiply, feel the earth." So we see the origination of the family. And I don't care what the television says, and I don't care what the leaders in our culture say, and I don't care what popular psychologists might say.

I don't care what the scientific community might say. It does not matter. What matters is what the word of God says and the family originated with God. Second, notice the organization of the family. We must look closely to see how God organized the family, God purposely, organized the family according to His will and His plan. None of this was an accident. None of this was a happenstance. No, there was purposeful organization. First, I want you to see that God gave them a home. What do we see in verse 8?

The Scripture says, "And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there He formed, and there He placed the man whom He had formed." What do we see? Adam and Eve had a home. Also, we've already shown you in the scene from the Scripture that God gave them a job. What do we see? Verse 28, He says, "To multiply, feel the earth, subdue it." What do we see? In chapter 2 verse 15, He was to cultivate it and to care for the garden. So what do we see? God gave them a home, and God gave them a job. But notice within these jobs, Adam had a job, and Eve had a job.

Adam's job was different than Eve's because the Scripture says that there was no help made for him. And we see that Adam was the leader, and he was to cultivate, and to care, and to subdue the creation, and she was to come alongside to be his helper. They had a job. And then we see that God gives commands. What do we see in verse 16-17? "The Lord commanded man from any of the trees of the garden you may eat freely." In other words, I've given you food. "But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat." God said, "All of the fruit of the garden you shall eat but this one fruit." So He gave them commandments.

They had the Word of God, and then He gave them structure. Because within this, there is order and there is structure. God created Adam. God created Eve as his helpmate. God gave them a home. God gave them a job. God gave them commandments. And everything was done good. It was done in order. It was done according to His will and His plan. He organized the family. And those are details that some of us might overlook, but we see the origination of the family and the organization of the family. And there is super order here. Notice the structure.

It was God who was over Adam and God who was over Eve, but Adam was over Eve because she was to come alongside and be his helpmate. There is a chain of authority and there is a chain of subjection to that authority. So we see organization. And so what we do need to see here in this first main truth, we need to see certain things. And I want you to really take note of this. The first family was given by God and it was organized by God. And I really want to hone in on one word. And that word is authority. Authority. And if you're taking notes, I trust you are. Write that word down.

But it was not, listen, it was not that he gave and organized the first family and he left humanity in the family to do what they please know. He had authority over the first family and he has authority over the family today because the family originated with God and he organized the family according to His will and His purpose. Now, an application. We really need to see that the family didn't not just evolve. It just did not come about by happenstance. No, we trace it all the way back to the beginning. It came from God and he organized it. It originated in all of its structure and plan from God and it did not just evolve.

And I'll show you something else. This organization is not malleable. Listen, we cannot just take some and leave others. No, we must see that this organization is not to be changed or to be altered. Now in application, I want to ask you a couple of questions. Are you going to approach your family according to the standard of God's word? Are you going to subject to God's authority concerning the family? You see where that word authority comes in. If we see that originated from God and God organized it, He has supreme authority over the family and then an application of what we've learned so far, we must ask ourselves those questions.

Are we going to approach our family according to the standard of God's word and are we going to subject ourselves to God's authority concerning the family? There are some people, even in the life of our church, the standard that they have adopted have come from their parents. There's some people in the life of our church, their standards have come from their friends. There are some people in the life of our church, their standard have come from their own dreams and aspirations in life.

See, if we're going to subject ourselves to the authority of God's word and His supreme authority over our church, it does not matter what our parents say, it does not matter what our friends say, it does not matter about our dreams and aspirations about what we want. What matters is if we line up according to the scriptures. Listen, remember the word authority, authority, authority. We are either under His authority or we are not. And if we are not under His authority in the area of the family, we're in rebellion. Let's move on. Truth number two, I want us to see the failure of the first family, the failure of the first family.

We see all of this taking place in chapter three. We see Adam, excuse me, we see Eve talking back with the serpent. Adam seems to be off to the side. We see him come to the forefront in verse six and seven. Then we see God himself come on the scene in chapter and verse eight. And then we see the ramifications, the consequences. So very soon after the creation account, we have the fall of man there in chapter three. Matter of fact, most of your Bible translations will have a heading over chapter three. It will say something like the fall.

So after the fall, now I want you to see that I've called it a failure, but after the fall, mankind, the family, and all of the creation was never the same. Everything is perfect in chapter two. Sin enters the world in chapter three, resulting in man being banished from the garden. And ultimately there is even murder in chapter four. So we see failure and we see the fall. I'm going to revisit those two words when we continue, but there are three observations that I want us to make here. The first observation is the breakdown of leadership, the breakdown of leadership.

Notice verse one, the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, and then starting in verse one all the way down until we get to verse six, it's the woman, the woman, the woman, it's the serpent dealing with the woman. So what do we see here? We have a breakdown of leadership. We see that Adam was not leading his wife because what do we see in verse six? When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delightful to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from the fruit, from its fruit, and she ate.

And she also gave to her husband with her and he ate. So what do we see? Adam was not leading his wife, but Eve was assuming a leadership role. Notice she is the one who talks back and forth with the serpent. And ultimately she is the one that takes the fruit. She eats the fruit. She gives the fruit to Adam. She is leading in every way while Adam is not. Somehow, some way, he is relegated himself off to the side and somehow, some way, she is in the forefront. There is a tremendous breakdown of leadership. Now one of you might say this, the temptation came to the woman, not to Adam. Do we not see that in verse one? The serpent was more crafty.

What does it say? And he said to the woman, that's true. But what we see here is this. We see that Adam had received specific instructions concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And look, it was Adam who was to lead his wife. Because what do we see later on in chapter three, verse 17? Then to Adam, God said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and you have eaten from the tree about which I have commanded you saying, you shall not eat from it. God holds Adam accountable for his responsibility as the leader. She was his helpmate and not his leader. And he was to lead her and not to follow her.

You see, there was a breakdown of leadership. Second observation, the temptation which led to sin, the temptation which led to sin. Now there is a process in this temptation that leads to the ultimate act of sin. I'm going to share with you and examine for you this process. First, we see that Satan starts with Eve and not Adam. You ever pondered why? Some people say that it was because she was the weaker vessel. I don't have a problem with that. She was the weaker vessel. She was the helpmate and not the leader. But notice that Satan starts with Eve. I like to use language like this. He didn't come through the front door.

He comes through the side door. So Adam, excuse me, Satan starts with Eve, not Adam. Second, I want you to notice that Satan questions God's word. What does he say in verse 1? "Indeed, has God said?" It's a form of a question. So he questions the very word of God that was given to Adam. Then also, Eve quotes God's word back, but she alters God's word because we see in chapter 2, verse 2 and verse 3, she says, "Yes, we're not supposed to eat of it," but she goes on to say that they were not even to touch it. God never said, "Don't touch it," but he said, "Don't eat it." So we see that she quotes God's word, but she alters God's word.

And then in verses 4 through 5, we see that Satan contradicts God's word. This is an open contradiction. The serpent said to the woman, "You shall surely not die." So there is an open contradiction. And then we see that Eve saw the fruit. She took the fruit and she ate the fruit. And now notice how this temptation appeals to her flesh when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. That's appealing to the flesh, that it was a delight to the eyes. That's an appealing, that is appealing to the flesh, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. That is appealing to the flesh. So what do we see?

She saw the fruit, took the fruit and ate the fruit. And then not only that Eve sinned against God, but she led Adam to sin. And she also gave also to her husband with her and he ate. Here we see the process of temptation. Satan attacks in the area of weakness. I do not have a problem believing. He attacked the side door with Eve. And then he starts this process. This is a process. Sin is an event, but it starts with the process that leads to sin. Adam and Eve did not fall into sin. They slid into sin. And then when they sinned, the result was the fall. You see? The sin brought about the fall, but there was a slide into that sin.

You notice that process? Satan came to Eve, he questioned God's word. She quoted God's word, but altered it. He contradicted God's word and looked there. The trap was laid and her flesh took over. So we see that they slid into this temptation, slid into this sin, and then they fell. And then the third observation is the sin and the consequences, the sin and the consequences. We see all of this start to unfold. Verse seven, they saw that they were naked. They were ashamed. And then in verse eight, God comes to meet with him. So within the sin and consequences, first there was guilt and shame. See, they knew that they were guilty.

Their eyes were open and they were shameful. That's why they sewed for themselves together loin claws. So the consequences of the sin, first it was guilt and shame. And then second, there was broken fellowship with God. Verses eight all the way down to verse 11 is all about their broken fellowship with God. Verse eight, they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. They had never hid themselves before God. They had never hid themselves from God before because they were not in sin. They were not engrossed with guilt and shame.

So there was broken fellowship with God. And we know that God called out to them addressing their sin. And then we see that there were irreversible consequences. We see this starting in verse 14. I want you to notice the order in which God works. Notice first that he deals with the serpent. Look at verse 15 and the Lord God said to the serpent. Isn't that amazing? He doesn't start without them. He started with a serpent. Then second notice, he deals with the woman. Verse 16, until the woman he said, and he issues consequences because of the sin. Same thing with the serpent. And then also notice that God deals with Adam. Verse 17.

And then Adam, then to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife. So notice the irreversible consequences in the order in which he deals with him. He deals with the serpent because the serpent was the one that initiated this temptation. He deals with the woman because she fell first and then he deals with Adam. And then last he drives them out of the garden. Verse 23. Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden. What does it say? That he placed an angel there to protect the garden and to protect them from coming and eating of the tree of life. Therefore them being enabled to live forever in that state.

So what do we see? The sin and the consequences. And notice that is the fall. There was guilt and shame because they had sinned against God. They had broken fellowship with God and there were irreversible consequences. They could never go back to the condition that they were in before, nor could they ever go back even to the garden. And they had to suffer the consequences of their sin all of the days of their life. And we see the consequences that they must face. These consequences were irreversible. They were final and they were lasting. These consequences were passed down through the generations. The second generation sinned.

What do we see? Cain killed Abel in chapter 4. And therefore incurred guilt and the generations after Adam were even born in sin. If you go on down to chapter 5 verse 3, we see that Adam's offspring were born in Adam's image and not in the image of God. Now why that language? It was because Seth was born in the image of Adam with that sin nature. See, this is the consequences of sin. So from chapter 3 all the way through the rest of the Bible, we are dealing with sin and the consequences of sin. So what do we need to see here in this second main truth that I wanted us to explore? There was tremendous failure that led to the fall.

And I want us to see one word here and that word is failure. But we must see that there was a failure on many fronts. Adam failed. Adam blew it. He was responsible. He was responsible for his wife. He was responsible to God. He was responsible to the commandments of God. But Adam failed. And then we also see that he failed. And they failed ultimately together. So what do we see? This tremendous failure, they failed to obey God and therefore they failed because the failure brought about the fall. Now how might we apply what we've learned here in this main truth?

Whereas before in our first main truth, the application was mainly centered around one truth and that word authority, here I want to do the same. And I want to center around one word and that is failure. We must have men who lead their families spiritually because if we do not have men who lead their families, what do we have? Failure. Exactly like Adam. Men must lead spiritually in the culture. Listen, if you are a man of God, no matter where you work, if you drive the space shuttle or a garbage truck, you must lead in the culture and the life that God has given you.

We need men to lead, but we also must have lead men to lead spiritually in the home. That means that they lead out in the home. They are the most godly in the home. They leave their wife. They leave their children. Yes, they lead in all areas of their life and in their home and with their family and they lead out to do the things of God, in the word of God, and in the church of God. We must have men who lead spiritually in their workplace, but in their home. Now I want to ask you men, what hinders your leadership? Does your job hinder your leadership? If your job hinders your leadership, you must question the necessity of that job.

Does your family influences, do your family influences hinder your leadership? Do your own dreams and aspirations for your life hinder the leadership, spiritual leadership in your home? See, there's a whole list of questions that we could ask. What hinders your spiritual leadership in your home? Now ultimately and finally, you will never lead in the areas of God and then the scriptures in your home unless you are born again. A lost man will never lead. And in many cases, there are women and there are wives who must lead because their husband can't lead because they're not converted. But what hinders our men from leading?

And if we as men were to examine our lives and anything that hinders us from leading our wives and our children and being the ones that lead spiritually in all of the areas of our lives, if we were to examine anything that gets in the way of that, we repent of it and we reveal that area of our life. Listen, we will have a revival of men leading in the home and anything other than that is that one word failure. I believe the key to the whole thing was Adam. Adam, where was Adam? He was just relegated off to the side. What was he doing? What was he thinking? What was he saying?

If Adam would have just stepped up and said, no, God said, listen, sweetheart, I love you, but God said, you see, authority and failure. Now, as we begin to conclude, see, we hear, listen, we see there, there's an open attack on the family within the garden. God created this first home and there's a upfront attack. Now, why am I trying to show us this today? What's the point of this message? This specific message, listen, this message must be digested in light of the other messages, because listen, if we will not subject to his authority and refuse failure, the rest of the messages won't mean anything.

Title of the message this morning is the family, our fundamental foundation. If we don't have the family right, we don't have the foundation right. And we start at the beginning going all the way back to what his authority and failure is not an option. And we must see in a new way and digest these truths and refuse to suffer these consequences. Now, all of this message, everything I've said has led me up to these few statements, and then we're going to close.

In our study of the family, if God shows you that things in your family are amiss out of order against God's word and plan, will you repent and seek to order your family according to God's will and plan? Will you do that? It could take time. There's some things you can't repent of overnight. It could take great sacrifice. It could take monetary sacrifice. You might have to take ridicule. You might be out of step and out of joint with family. You see, it might even require you to take a great leap of faith. But listen, when we take a leap of faith, it's not a leap of faith into the dark.

No, we're taking a leap of faith into the light because of the light of the gospel and the word of God and the workings of Christ in our life. We're not just jumping into the dark. We're jumping into the light of what the Lord has revealed. So my question is, as we study the family, if God shows us things that are amiss in our family out of order, out of step and out of joint with God in his word and his plan, will we repent to be in line with God's word and God's plan? It's a simple message, but it needs to be digested before we get into any of the other messages. So the family, our fundamental foundation, we start at the beginning.

Lord Jesus, thank you for letting us be here this morning.