This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-4” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 19, 1992.

We begin our reading tonight in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11. And no, I am not preaching on this tonight because of all of the hats that showed up this morning in church. This is 1 Corinthians 11. We begin at verse 1. The imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ, that I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same with her whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For the man did not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman’s sake, but the woman for the man’s sake. Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. However, in the Lord neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with head uncovered? does not even nature itself teach ye that if a man has long hair it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.” Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make him a helper suitable for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name.” The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept.

Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. and the man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Our Father, we do pray for your words’ access into our souls, that we would be found obedient to you, and Lord, the consequence of that obedience being then your pleasure with us in what we say and what we do. Our Father, even having you pleased with what we say and do, we will not take credit for it. We will give all glory to you, for we know your word, your spirit, your Son himself is at work in us to accomplish your good pleasure in us. Hear us then, our Father, as we pray to you in our need for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

God’s making the Garden of Eden and placing Adam in it are behind us now. These things have been accomplished in the narrative that precedes that which we read this evening. But both now, the activity of God’s creation of Adam His moving of Adam from one place, the place of creation, to another. His formation of the garden with its trees and rivers. All of these things are reflective of the relationship that exists between a heavenly original and the earthly sanctuary.

There is a heavenly blueprint with which God works, and it is the relationship between the heavenly blueprint and the earthly abode of man that now leads God to make the statement He does in verse 18 of the second chapter, it is not good for the man to be alone. The Lord’s comment at this point is motivated by more than just the fact that Adam stands as a solitary figure, that we might expect him to be, by and by, quite lonely. There is nothing in the text to suggest that Adam at this point is lonely. Let’s drive this further. understand the meaning of the Lord’s actions and his words.

The Lord’s interest is that the man has no one who stands over against him, who then, at the level of his own existence and significance, reflects him and enters into a bond of covenantal fellowship. This is the Lord’s interest. that the man at this time has no one who stands over against him, who then at the level of his own existence and significance reflects him and enters into a bond of covenantal fellowship.

This being the case, this earthly paradise, as perfect as it is, lacks as yet a crowning jewel. A crowning jewel in which it will even more perfectly then correspond to the heavenly blueprint. In heaven, you see, God has within himself a bond of covenantal fellowship. There is an inner reflection within God and that between the persons of the eternal Trinity, who all on a common level of existence and significance are reflective of each other’s glory, enjoying the depths of that bond of fellowship that is theirs.

God has. in part, bridged the gap between the heavenly and the earthly by creating the man at all. The man himself is uniquely bound to God. He is bound to him as God’s image, specifically. That man, although created standing in another world, nevertheless reflective of God in the earth. So God, in part, has bridged the gap between the heavenly and the earthly by creating the man. Even though that man stands now in another world, he is reflective of God in the earth.

But God knows that for the pattern to be filled out, it won’t be enough for him in his heavenly realm to be reflected by man in the earthly realm. In order for the pattern to be complete, man will have to have someone at his own level, in his own world, who corresponds to him, one who reflects him, who is his image. who is His glory, with whom He might enjoy the depths of covenantal fellowship and communion. Therefore, God determines to make a helper, that is, a creature corresponding to the in order that what is true here on earth might more perfectly reflect what is true in heaven. What is true among men, for men and women, might better reflect what is true for God and within God himself.

But God first brings the creatures that he has formed. You will notice what is said about these creatures. They, like man, are formed out of the ground, and therefore a similarity is remarked upon here between man and the creature. But despite this similarity between man and the creatures that are formed out of the ground, these creatures do not provide for man the covenantal fellowship that he is in need of. Not that they won’t provide a link between the heavenly world and the earthly, since the heavenly also has its creatures, angelic and otherwise, that parallel the creatures made by God for Adam. These heavenly creatures lack the bond that God enjoys within himself, that he enjoys within himself as the triune God, the Trinity. Likewise, the earthly creatures lack the ability for that bond that man would enjoy with someone at a common level of existence and significance. So God proceeds to create the woman. Now the creation of the woman is a story all of its own and worth a sermon. all its own.

So we won’t be dealing with that directly or extensively this evening. But in order to draw loose ends up into this message and wrap things up a bit, we need to set our sights on two particular matters. We need to answer a question, first of all, and secondly, we need to comment on a neglected fact in this material, a neglected fact that is sadly overlooked too often. But first of all, the question, why is it that God doesn’t create the woman immediately.

He’s the one who defines the problem, verse 18. He obviously knows what man needs, what man lacks. He obviously knows what sort of helper is suitable for the man, and yet the Lord delays. Why is it that the Lord does not create the woman immediately? We may surmise, we may surmise that it has something to do with the heightened joy The delay is deliberate. The Lord saves the best for last. The most wonderful is held in abeyance who may then surmise that the reason why God has done this is in order that the joy that Adam experiences may be heightened against the background of the process itself by which he is brought to this point.

When the woman finally does appear, the man is absolutely ecstatic. We don’t have Adam’s words recorded for us as he names the creatures, but we do have his words recorded for us as he beholds the woman and names her. He breaks out in song. That is why in some of your Bibles you’ll see the words that Adam set as if they were poetry, as if they were verse. The man is absolutely ecstatic when at last the woman is presented to him. There may be parallel in this for the general experience of man.

Why, for instance, is man created in a world like this world at all, standing as it does at a distance from the order of glory in heaven above? Why, of course, we know there are purposes of testing, trial, these matters that must be endured for man as he moves from the lower to the higher.

But also, is it not true that the reason why we are created in this world at a distance from the perfect order of glory above is so that our joy might be magnified and heightened immeasurably, when in fact that realm of glory is set before us when we are set within it. Well, Scripture says, I have not seen, nor fear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for his children.” This is not, then, the fact that in part because of the heightened joy that we at last express when that glorious world is presented to us, that we are at first placed in a world that stands at a distance from it. And if our joy would be immeasurably great had we achieved that heavenly world in our innocence, how much greater our joy when that world is given to us as a free gift of grace against the background of our own corruption and unworthiness. If Adam is ecstatic over a woman, How much should men and women be ecstatic over the glories of heaven? Finally, that matter that we spoke of earlier, the neglected dimension to this particular episode.

We must not overlook the posture of God. We must not overlook the posture of God. You see, the good of the man becomes the mission of God. The good of the man becomes the mission of God. It may have been a rough week for you. In fact, so rough that you found yourself doubting that God intends good for you at all. Even from the beginning, even from the beginning, the good of the man became the mission of God. It is not good that man should be alone.

And this is what I’ll do for him. In order to fulfill his own mission, self-assigned, God will don the posture of the servant. He will become the servant for the sake of the good of the man. In order to fulfill his mission, then, self-assigned, God will play the servant. But for him to play the servant, for him to lower himself, will mean the corollary exaltation of the man.

Man’s need will become God’s command, which he then imposes upon himself. He will be compelled by man’s need. So then God plays servant. And man, by this action on the part of God, becomes a lord. Man’s need then becomes legislative for God as God takes that need to himself. He makes himself servant to that need. He humbles himself, but by so doing he exalts man.

So then, God, as a servant to man, makes creatures for man. He makes a woman for man. He brings the creatures and the woman to man, and as if man were commanding the scene, the man then names the creatures, he names the woman also, and those names given by the man are the creatures and the woman’s name. They are the names of the creatures and the woman, not only for the man, but for God also.

What is the lesson in all of this? is the lesson that God, yes, is just our servant, our slave at our beck and call to do our bidding, to make our life easy and comfortable. He’s there to bring us the newspaper. He’s there to make things quite easy for us, to give us the job and the income we want. That’s what God is all about. No, not at all.

The lesson is that if man is to be a lord himself in this creation, he must be a lord like God Himself, who has made Himself the servant. There is no other way then. to exercise the dominion that is assigned to man, but as it has been demonstrated by God himself, and that from the beginning. So when it comes to God’s creatures, how will man exercise his dominion? exploiting them, destroying them wantonly, slaughtering them without a thought of anything, being utterly irresponsible with respect to them, their habitats and their futures? And how will man prove to be a lord with dominion with respect to women, abusing them, abusing them, keeping them down by force, insulting them, infuriating them, Destroying them, hating them, mocking them, using them? Much better to follow God than to exercise of such dominion that simultaneously perfect service is evidenced.

Well, there’s more, much more to be said. And yes, those of you who have heard my one wedding sermon are in for it again when we get to particulars of the latter part of this chapter. But we have a good foundation here laid for us in these verses as we make progress to the concluding verses. Let’s pray.

How wonderfully consistent you are, our God, from creation to the coming of the kingdom in Christ, so that the very things that we perceive in our Savior are there laid within the fabric of your revelation of yourself from the beginning. Is it any mystery to us then as to how your servants in the New Testament age were able to see the pattern of your son’s activity, the patterns of your own condescension, the patterns of your servanthood even there at the beginning. All things were made by him and for him. We thank you, our God, that we are now the recipients of this revelation, by which the beginning of the world and its consummation are made plain to us. But even more, you yourself are made plain, and we, understanding you, know how to live.

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.