This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 8, 1978.

We have learned that our God has created time and space, but not in such a way as to not be limited. And we have also seen that our God is the one who has entered for the world. has established a place for dwelling, a place for living. And our God is so interested in theocracy that He has made our religion His own.

In this place that God makes for Himself to dwell in there, Instead, it is not good for man to be alone. Now, it’s important that we understand what God means when He speaks of man being alone. As the Bible indicates, He is the female sex. It wasn’t that God had in mind that all of us were blessed with abundance, happiness, loneliness. It was that God reconsidered this abundance, being, aloneness, and a solitary figure on earth. Instead of that, In reflecting upon this situation, man being solitary in the earth, that he would make for man that which would stand over against man and reflect man. and with whom man then could in this place have infinite knowledge, covenantal knowledge, if you will.

It is God Himself, you see, who has in man such a counterpart for himself. For over against God stands man, God’s image, God’s origin, with whom God has intimate fellowship and communion. This, then, is the meaning of what God is speaking of when he says that he will make a helper suitable for Adam. for the man. He will make for the man a helper that corresponds to man, that is like man, that reflects man, that is man’s image. The relationship, then, that God bears to man is reflective of the relationship that man bears to woman. As the man is the glory of God, the woman is the glory of man. Now, you might not want to buy that, but it’s not I who says it. In fact, the apostles said it in 3rd Corinthians, Chapter 11, verses 7 to 9. Where is it written? Where is that?

Woman is the image of man, and man is the image of God. And God, then, is not solitary in this way. that has over against him his image, with whom he has intimate fellowship and communion. So now in this place man has the one who stands over against him. activity in whom he has this covenantal relationship and bondage.

But before a woman appears, we have God busy with the dust of the earth. not that we’re to understand this biologically. But now you see, God is pictured as the one who is forming the animals and the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky. And God is seen as bringing these creations unto man. And there’s a sidelight to this that we must not hide that. For the beauty of our God in this is so wonderful. You see, it’s God who’s in the Lord in all of this business and displaying His sovereignty even in the forming of the animal.

And man is viewed as God’s servant. But yet, marvelously, in this activity, the roles are reversed. Is it only in Jesus Christ that God reveals Himself as servant unto man in creation, and in effect makes man Lord? It is not, for even here, this beautiful truth that is so wonderfully displayed in the New Testament and in the person of Jesus Christ, is being seen. It is God who, even here, is making Himself servant to man, to answer the thought that man stands alone in falsehood. His God who acts as shepherd, as herdsman, as servant, bringing the animals to man, as if man was king. And such is the existence of God. So that God even here is thanking himself for his service. So beautiful is our God. And so wonderful. So it’s not out of keeping. When we finally arrive at the new Testament revelation, Then our God should be such a God as to make Himself uncertain. And yet, He does.

And Adam has the image of God for whom the Godhead functions as a board in the earth. He names the animals, and in this you see Adam even displays a godlike knowledge, for he understands these creatures in their essence, and he names them according to what they are in their essence. He perceives them. As to what they are at their heart, he even has the ability to perceive what they are. He sees the creatures at their heart and in their essence. And in that conceit, he displays the ability to perceive that which his heart is. And he perceives it, and he aims it, and he captures it.

But in all His activities, He is realized and declared in the Word that the man does not find among these creatures one who requests Him, who is His image, who corresponds to Him, and is His Lord. He does not find here among these animals one with whom he can enter into transcendental knowledge. He does not then lower his disposal, able to make up something The one who knows that work is found in the world, fashions the world. They discern again, to answer, and to celebrate the vision.

Adam was praying for these three men from whom he had taken a wrist. I’ve always liked Matthew Henley’s discourse on the wrist. God didn’t take a bone from Adam’s skull to suggest that the woman should pour over the man. Nor did he make a moan from the man’s foot to suggest that the woman was someone he trampled underfoot. But he took a rib of the size of Adam to stand with him. And then, so that he then could refrain from it.

And you know, when Adam awakes, it’s the White Resurrection time. He’s been through the long process of naming these atoms and understanding that there is not one there with whom he can have covenantal knowledge. And he sees awakening now before him the woman. And he says, Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and he immediately recognizes her for flesh. This is the answer to my solitary condition. This is the one that the West gave as a gift to my Lord. It is woman taken from man. And he’s saying, or he recites a poem.

And how fitting it is that poetry and song should accompany the lovemaking of man’s heart in every area. It’s not something not something about which men in the full stature of the New Adam should be embarrassed by. It might be a good exercise for some of you men to try and write some poetry celebrating your mother. and not to hide away from the air. Such is his duty.

He considers himself the first human being. Adamant in having trouble breathing. inner, he finds his health as far as the image and glory, but even now he can have confidential knowledge, so that the act of the confirmation of that covenant is always concerned by knowing, and having new meaning. that she can see. And now you see the text reflects upon the exclusiveness and the intimacy It says, for this cause, for this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall leave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This is a unique relationship. It is an exclusive relationship, meant for one man and one woman. It is not something that is to be interrupted by ties from the home that we used to find ourselves in. It is not to be damaged or threatened by those who would come and tempt us to leave to someone else.

And it is something that is to be characterized by a continual A perpetual abiding in that oneness of the flesh, a oneness that is not to be interrupted, I know that there’s probably been a lot of work done on the last verse of this practice, but let me try to explain it this way. upon what it was that took place when Adam was involved with the animals, and he saw what they were at their essence.

He perceived in them which was invisible, that which was in them which was invisible to the naked eye. He understood invisible realities that related to them because he saw what they were at their heart and in their essence. And in the name of them He gave testimony to this, and the same thing is taking place with regard to the woman. He names her, and He names her according to what she is in her essence. It is impossible for Adam to stop at the flesh. He sees through it.

And therefore, patientness is not a problem, for we understand the body in terms of that which is behind it, and that is God, and He is life. The invisible is first, and in terms of the invisible, they understand what they see. So that they can exist is not a problem, because it is impossible for them to start with the flesh and end. They see so much more, and they wiser what they see than anything. They see each other from the perspective of God and His Spirit, and there is no disappointment in what they see. They work. There is no shame.

How things change. Sin is going away now. to thank God for Jesus Christ who comes establishing, re-establishing the original spirit. That is to say, in Mary, I know that two of the big problems in the Old Testament, as they relate to Mary’s history, are the issues of polygamy and divorce. But you check out and see, Matthew 19, in Jesus’ comment, with regard to divorce, you get a handle on what, in fact, did Jesus Christ say is taking place now that He is alive. His arrival means the reestablishment of the original state with regard to man and woman. No more divorce! None! Because it was never intended to be like that.

Jesus Christ comes reinstituting the garden back into our experience, and God’s original intention. Jesus Christ comes bringing to an end the days of the living, the holy. As it was in the beginning, so it is now. You can read in discourse, to those who have questions for him on this matter, in Matthew 19, verses 3 through 9. The significance of Jesus Christ is that He comes reinstituting that which was. And that’s the way things are, according to him. Jesus also comes as the new Adam, and he stands like Adam did, as the solitary figure. And Jesus Christ has prepared for him his Lord, his enemy, his body, that which is his counterpart, namely his church.

And in His Church there is to be no spiritual adultery. And it is individuals who make up this Church, His body, answering Him as if we are the oriented image. We are not to allow ourselves the luxury of licentiousness, whereby we join our body in covenantal unfaithfulness to that which is brought to us by the Lord and everything we do. See, such acts are not a task upon merely an earthly covenantal relationship that we might have with our husband or wife. They are a task upon the covenantal unity between us and Jesus Christ. And if you need proof for that, all you need do is read 1 Corinthians 6. practical matters that are on the mind of all. Matters of men and women’s relationships.

Jesus Christ comes re-establishing the old order and making it new. And the creation itself is being re-established by what Jesus Christ has done. And this, you see, then, is the ground upon which Paul, then, reflects concerning the relationship between men and women in the Church. Paul is convinced that the Church is the focal point of the recreation of God. And it is this which undergirds him in his approach to the Church.

What should never be done in the new creation of Jesus Christ, which focuses upon the Church, is that the discourse that interrupted the first one be introduced intermittently. We stand against women teaching in the church, why? Because Jesus only had men disciples? No. We stand against it because we believe that to countermand that is an attack just on isolated passages in Paul’s epistle, but an attack upon our very creation of God. That is the order that is coming to expression in the Church, and that is why Paul forbids the women to speak in the Church, because what happened in the first creation is not to happen in this.

What more is the practical extent of his inclusion? He was involved in what I feel is lost, a contemporary Christian parricide. And that parricide is And the challenge is the basic social experience and preaching. Peace! That is the challenge. The social music of his faith is of the relationship between God and man. That we see at the church in Perth. The relationship, you see, between God and man is not patterned after the relationship between man and woman, or father and son. It’s just the reverse.

So that in order to learn how to be a father or a husband, you learn, first of all, God. and he learned it in the assembly of his people, and he takes that home with him, and he studies it with children, and he comforts his parents and loved ones. Stardew.

So I need you to be thoughtful in the way that you’re going to address the problem. There will be opportunity for discussion this evening. And it is very good if you ask questions about that. Father, we ask you that you might give us instruction as to how to use customs, how to drive, The following phrase might begin where we all begin, this relationship between ourselves and you. May we realize, Lord, that that is our first priority. May we start there and truly learn how to be a father, a mother, a parent, a husband or wife, We pray, our God, that You will give us direction and give Your Spirit to rescue us, that Your Word might be properly spoken, and Your people properly rescued. Christ be all glory. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.