If you have your Bibles tonight, turn to Genesis chapter 2, verse 18. Please, Genesis chapter 2, verse 18. The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make and help me for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found any helpmeet for him. 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. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto 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 shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. As I said this morning, because they were clothed in the righteousness of the beautiful glory of Almighty God. Now having said that the Lord God was going to make a helpmeet for Adam, it appears in verses 19 and 20 that a parenthetical clause is instated. And he goes back and reminds us how the animals had helpmeets. And then brings us back to the obvious conclusion that God, in the very same way, gave Adam a helpmeet. We remember that Adam was created outside of the Garden of Eden, not inside. He had to be placed there. But Eve was created inside the Garden of Eden. The beautiful symbolisms in the Word of God make it very true that the Bible is a book about Jesus Christ. The great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to say, No matter wherever I take my text in the Bible, I always head straight across country and go to the cross. I find the preaching of the cross of Christ everywhere in the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. I do not intend to bore you with just a history lesson with the tenses of the verbs and a lot of the grammatical construction of the sentences. Where these things are important, we shall give attention to them. But there are some tremendously more important and powerfully weighted truths found in the Word of God. Now I said this morning that Eve, that Adam, while he was a person, was also symbolic of all men. In the same way, Eve, while she was the first woman, was symbolic of all womanhood. But there is a far more important symbolism than that. The Bible gives us some tremendous metaphors of the Lord Jesus Christ and His relationship to those that love Him. The Bible tells us that we run a race, as does an athlete. That our lives are like a pearl merchant seeking for a great treasure. And in our lives we find Christ, the greatest treasure. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible gives us tremendous illustrations of relationships from modern day life. There is no greater relationship, no better picture of Christ, the Lord, and His bride, the church, the redeemed, the saved, those who know Him and love Him, as the relationship of Adam and his wife Eve recorded in the Word of God. The word church, ekklesia, a Greek word, is used 119 times in the Bible. 90 % of the time it refers to a local body of believers. Part of the time, about 10%, it refers to the church in general. And every time that you and I bring someone to Christ, this individual, by faith, is added to the Lord Jesus Christ. They become a part of the bride of Christ. And the Bible says there's going to be a great meeting in the skies. There's going to be a wedding feast. I've been to some good wedding feasts. But this one's going to last three and a half years. I don't know how fat we'll all be when it's over. But that's going to be a beautiful and wonderful experience. Now, the church is, when we use the word church, the great world church, referring to the body of believers everywhere, the church, in its completed essence, is not in reality, in existence as yet. Not completed. It is being formed and will be completely formed when the last believer is saved before Jesus Christ comes. Until that time, God has ordained the institution of the local church for men to belong to. Now, if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me over very quickly to Ephesians, as we understand the beautiful illustration of Adam and Eve, a man and his wife, to Christ and the church, meaning all believers of every denomination. Ephesians chapter 5, I'm sorry, chapter 5, verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Let me pause there for a moment, lest you become mentally hung up at that point. The word water to a Jew always meant water, but when it was used symbolically, and it was so over 800 times in the word of God, it is to the Jew always symbolic of the word of God. It is never symbolic of baptism. I believe in John chapter 3 that they are talking about being born physically of the flesh of the water, a physical birth. But one thing is true. If it doesn't mean that, it must mean the water of the word because the word in Judaism is never used in any illustration, in any symbolism, except the water of the word of God. It is certainly not baptism. Husbands, love your wives as Christ gave, loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Now here's what he wants to do with the church, the Christians, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and that they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. It is obvious, and it is stated as well as inferred, that the relationship of the believer to Christ, when one believes in Christ, he becomes a part of the body of Christ, the great world church, the body of all believers, that is being called out, that is being formed by the Spirit of God to be presented to Christ at the coming of the Lord Jesus in glory, is a beautiful picture of the relationship of husband and wife, and vice versa. Now, the Bible says that the wife is firmly established in a position of subordinance to the leadership and the headship of the husband in the home, in the very same way. The Bible says that the husbands are to give of themselves selflessly, as Christ loved the church and gave himself selflessly for it. Now, the Bible commands that the man be given reverence by his wife, that he be the head of the home. But he adds, you men are likewise commanded to be selfless and kind and forbearing and self -giving in your relationship with your wife, as Christ did the church. And I have found that men are worthy recipients, that women are only too happy to honor their husbands as the head of the home when the husband loves the wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, courteously, selflessly, unselfishly. The importance of the husband as the head of the home is of vastly more importance than you and I may ever realize. They tell us that we have a 100 times higher divorce rate in the United States than they do, for example, in Italy. And also, in no country more than among the Italians is the husband revered as the head of the home. Dr. Wyatt Hurd said on our television program, Higher Ground, this week in an interview that over there in Italy, a wife and husband will never disagree in front of a child. Now, they may go in the bedroom and she may eat him a lot, but they'll never argue in front of that boy, in front of that girl. What the husband says is rule. What he says is law. And they firmly establish in the minds of that young boy and girl the authoritarian power and rule and lead of the husband in the home. Now, the Bible tells us that God gave Adam a beautiful wife named Eve. Five things. Each of them are a tremendous comparison of Christ and the church. First of all, consider the declaration. He said it is not good for man to be alone. Now, when I go back through Genesis, you will recall that we discovered that six times the Bible says that it is good. God created and said it is good. He created again and said it is good. But when he made man his supreme creation, he added it is very good. Man was important to God. Now, it almost seems as an afterthought that the Lord says, wait a minute. Having said it is good, it is good six times, and added it is very good. He says, wait a minute. It is not good. It is not good that man should be alone. The Bible wants men to have wives. How happy it makes me when a Christian young person with a dating experience who has met a lot of young people and made a spiritual and intelligent decision under God and finds a wife. The Bible says, he who findeth a wife findeth a good thing. How pleased I am to have the privilege of performing marriages and our single adults and our college and our young people who under God have been led to the right Christian partner. The Bible says it is not good for man to be alone. One day, man looked down. God looked down and said to his son, it is not good for you to be alone. Son, I want you to have a bride. I want you to have a wife. And the Bible tells us that you and I, as believers, as part of all believers in Christ, are a part of the church which is going to be presented a chaste and holy, pure, virgin, and spotless, unblemished, adorned for the wedding feast to Christ the day the Lord Jesus comes. Now, someday your pastor may take a stand on things that seem to be very important to you. But remember this, as Paul prayed, it is my prayer, O God, that I might present them unto you, a glorious church, without spot, without wrinkle, having been washed in the blood of the Lamb. How important is a wonderful wife. The Bible tells us that God gave Eve to be the wife. You know, someone said that behind every good man, there's a good woman. Well, I'll add this. Behind every good man, there's a good woman and probably a very surprised mother -in -law. But I'll tell you this for sure. There is always a good woman behind a good man. I wish you could know, as I know, for example, the wives of the men on this staff and how unselfishly, when they need a counselor, when they need a pastor, their own husbands are off and working and out helping other children and other women and other people with their problems. Sometimes they're so busy helping other folks that they don't have time to help their own folks. I decided, as I told the prayer meeting group the other night, that it was time I stayed home a little bit. When I came home one evening and my daughter, then about six years of age, looked out the window and saw me coming and said, Oh, mother, here comes our pastor. I realized that it was time for me to slow down. But the Lord said it is not good. And in the same way, he said that his son was going to have to have a bride. Now, we've noticed the declaration. Look at the new creation. She did not make herself. She was created by God and presented unto Adam. But there are only two camps of theology into which every school really boils down in all of the world. That is, is man saved by grace or is he saved by works? The Bible says by grace are ye saved through faith. She was the product of God. But we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works to be presented to the Lord Jesus. We have no part in the creation of ourselves. Consider the operation. How was it done? Look in verse 21 once again with me, if you will, please. And the Lord 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. Now it is interesting to me to note that God did not create Adam's wife, Eve, from his head. She was not to rule over him. As Christ is the head of the church, so the husband is the head of the home. And Adam was the head of the first family. He was the head of his wife. And it is only when that right relationship is established that children are able to grow up with the proper identity roles and normality and mental stability is established in the home. He did not make her from his feet. She was not made from his head to rule over him. She was not made from his feet to be trampled beneath him. She was made from his side, near his heart, to be loved, under his arm to be protected, from his side to be his equal as they walked down together down the road of life. I know I look around and I think how, do you ever see a big ape? Sometimes I think I believe in evolution. You know, there's something about love. It's just kind of a, when a man loves a woman, it's just kind of a scratch you can't itch. I mean, it's just kind of something that's just there. Did you ever see a big old gorilla, you know, just trying to scratch like that? I think he's scratching where that rib used to be. I really do. I think he's just peeling. There's just something there. Bad joke, wasn't it? Now the Bible tells us that God prepared the operation by putting the man to sleep. Remember that the word sleep is always symbolic of death in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. I want us to establish some of these important symbolisms in the Old Testament. I don't think that I can justify your time three times a week by giving you a history lesson. We need to see the spiritual application that our God is trying to make. The Old Testament previews Christ. The New Testament presents Christ. The Old Testament promises Christ. The New Testament presents Christ. The Old Testament veils Christ. The New Testament unveils Christ. The entire book of the Old Testament is a preview of things to come. How I feel sorry for the Hebrew, for the Jewish person who has missed Christ. They've read the Old Testament. They've seen the preview of things to come. And now the main event's here. And they're still sitting back there looking at the preview. It's like going to a movie and sitting there for a week looking at the preview of the coming attractions over and over and over and over and over again. The importance of the Genesis is that it is a book about the coming Christ foreshadowed in every turn of events. It says the Messiah is coming. The cry for the priest. The need for the priest. And Christ became the altar and the priest and the lamb all in one so that man could be saved when he came and died on the cross. Now notice, if you will, please, the presentation. I wonder what Adam said when he was presented his bride, Eve. I've always wondered. You know, I like a good laugh. I like humor. I asked my Bible professor in Oklahoma Baptist University once, if there was any humor in the Bible. He said, I think it's inferred a lot of places. I'd like to have seen the look on Jesus' face when he said to those Pharisees, You without sin cast the first stone. I think I'd like to have seen the look on old Pharaoh's face when Moses took off across the water and he got swallowed up. And I'd like to have seen the look. I'd like to have heard the words when this first man saw this first woman. You know what I think he said? I think he said, mmm, mmm. I've always thought that's what he said. I really do. Ha, ha. I don't know what a fellow would say. Lord, I about never did see anything like that in all my born days. All he'd seen was snakes and buzzards and alligators and donkeys and rabbits and now Eve. Oh, I expect something lit up and went tilt. He never did see anything like Eve. But when he was presented to Eve and she to him, I noticed a very wonderful thing. He says, she shall now be bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It never entered the mind of Adam to reject her. He could not accept her soon enough. He loved her. Never, never did it enter the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ to reject us. How can it be that good, normal, wise, intelligent men will reject the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ? How can it be that men would hesitate, that they would say no when our God has promised to bring unto oneness, to unity with Christ, those that believe in Him? I said this morning that it seems that there is the pull of nature in man to go back to the Garden of Eden every time the staff puts in an hour, every time you give a dollar, every time you make a witness for Christ, every time all of us together work for our Lord, we are vehicles of the Holy Spirit to draw them into Christ, and yet men reject Him. Oh, but when they come to Him, the Bible says the twain become one flesh. There's the security of the believer, and no more than you and I can take of our body and remove it can you and I be removed from the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the two come together, the Bible tells us the twain are one. There's a ring that's worn by a man when he's married to his wife. In the same way, we are baptized. The ring shows we belong to Christ, to our wife, our husband. The baptism shows we belong to Jesus Christ. One makes a public profession of faith. I found when two people love each other and are married, they don't want to hide it. They want the world to know. When a man believes in Christ, he wants to walk down the aisle and make public his faith in Christ, letting the world know he belongs to Jesus. When the two are married, they go on a honeymoon. When a man comes to Christ, he starts on a honeymoon that shall never, never last. Ah, but I find another and last important truth here, and that is that the Bible says, and I believe this is God speaking here, not Adam. Here in the 24th verse, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. There was a separation that was imperative. There was a separation involved. Eve was separated from the body of her husband that she might be brought back into oneness with him. We were separated from God by sin and then brought back into union with Christ through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. A separation was involved. He had to be separated. The Bible says a man must be separated from mother and father. Now why does it say that? Because the parental child relationship is the strongest of relationships, and if a man is willing in his youth to even be separated from his mother and father to take a wife, he is willing to make separation from everything. The gifts, the name, the attributes, the possessions, all of one become part of the other. And if you're going to be one with Christ, the Bible says we must be separated from some things. Now the apostle was saying it like this, oh, I want to present you a chaste virgin, a pure bride, a glorious church to Christ. Jesus doesn't want any two -timing bride. He doesn't want a church that loves the world and loves him. He said come out from the world, be separate, dare to be different. No two -timing brides are going to be a part of the body of Christ. The Bible says don't be deceived. Don't be mocked. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That doesn't really mean worldly possessions, a home, a car, a television. It means this present world system which is dedicated and set in opposition to God. The world's drives, the world's desires, the world's prejudices, the world's attitudes, which are basically oriented against God. Now many a person is wearing the ring of Christ. They've been baptized as a public testimony of their union of Christ, but if they've ever been saved, they're two -timing the Lord. They love the world and they try to love him. He says be a glorious church, pure, unspotted from the world, chaste, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. Oh, prayed Paul that I might present him, you to the Lord Jesus, a glorious church. Church, let us dedicate and rededicate our lives in honor of that new coming day when we shall stand around the throne with our Lord, when we shall be presented to Christ, when we shall engage in the married supper of the Lamb, a banquet of blessings that shall last forever, to be faultless, to stand before the throne. Oh, that with yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. I don't know what they're going to be singing, but I do know this. I am engaged. I'm engaged to Christ. I've given myself to him and I'm going to be married to him. There's going to be a feast and a honeymoon that shall last forever. Let's start living more and more and more as chaste, separated, pure men and women that are engaged to the coming Christ and ready for the banquet and the wedding and the honeymoon. Shall we stand and pray together? Our Father, we do not have to guess at the spiritual application. We do not have to speculate as to whether we're on safe ground. Lord, for thou hast said through thy servant in Ephesians that the husband -and -wife relationship is the picture of Christ and his bride. We know that when a man accepts Christ, he does so in faith. He does not know everything about the Christian life. He does it in faith. When a man accepts a bride, he does so in faith. He believes she'll make a good wife. And he believes that Christ will be a wonderful Savior. Oh, dear Lord, we have the testimony, the evidence, the proof of so many that have tasted and found the Lord as gracious. And we pray, our Father, tonight that not one soul shall go away who shall not have given themselves to Christ as well. For we pray in Jesus' name. Our heads are bowed and eyes are closed. No one is looking around. If you're here tonight and know not the Lord, by simple faith in Christ, you can be born again. You can enter the family of God. You can become his child. The two shall be one when you say yes in faith to Jesus Christ. In the same way, if you know him, you are engaged to him, you are living for him, you are waiting for him, walk with him, live for him, honor him. Now, you cannot honor him unless you are a part of his church. There are many parts of his church in this city. I do not know which one God wants you to join, but you can know in your heart. You say, how do I know I ought to move my membership? How do I know I ought to belong to Christ through this part of this local church? You'll just know. How do you know when you're hurt? You know. How do you know when you're hungry? You know. The Spirit of God will lead you. You'll just feel it. You'll know. And if you've found something you like, if there's a warmth, a camaraderie, if there's a koinonia, a fellowship, if there's something here that tugs, and you say, this is what I like, this is for me, God is in this place. I want to be a part of First Baptist Church. We invite you to serve Christ through this part of his family here on earth. You say, I'm a part of that great world church. Fine. So are we all who have accepted him. But until it is completely formed at the coming of Christ, we are to serve him through a local body. Thus saith the Lord. Will you come as a believer and lead the way? Will you come and be united to Christ by faith, receiving him as your Savior? God bless you as you do. Let's sing the invitation together. Yep.