In this sermon, the preacher begins by introducing the great drama of human history and the fallen condition of mankind. He emphasizes the powerlessness of man to walk in righteousness without divine grace and highlights the spiritual effects of sin. The preacher also discusses the attitude of God towards guilty sinners and the provision He has made to meet their needs. The sermon then focuses on the importance of chapter 3 in the book of Genesis, which is considered the pivot of the Bible. The preacher concludes by emphasizing the significance of marriage as a divine institution and the need for people to recognize their responsibility to their Creator.

And notice what God did. 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. Now, she's taken from Adam, from the side of Adam. And as Dr. Matthew Henry said years ago, God didn't take her from the head to be his superior or from his foot to be his inferior, but took her from his side to be equal with him, to be along with him. And that is exactly the purpose. She is to be the other half of man. And that's exactly what God meant when he said, Wives, obey your husbands. It means respond. It means answer to. You're the other part of him, the other half of him. He's only half a man. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And believe me, she was beautiful. Any woman today that you see that's beautiful, she inherited it originally from Mother Eve because there's no beauty that she didn't have. She was a doll, let me tell you. Now, she's the other half of Adam. 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. And actually the word for woman in the Hebrew is very similar to man, ish and isha, very similar, just the other part of man. She's the answer to man. And that's the reason that God intended man to take the lead. He created him first. But he created woman to just follow. And the man is the aggressor. And God even made him that way physically. He's the aggressor. And woman is the responder. And don't tell me that a wife has to love her husband. God doesn't say that. God says that she is to respond to him. Now, if he says to her, I love you, then you know what? She's going to say right back to him, I love you. She's to respond to him. When a man tells me today, and every now and then one does, you know my wife is very cold. That's a dead giveaway that he's not really the kind of husband he should be. Because if he's the right kind of husband, she'll respond because he is the one to take the lead. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. In other words, he's now subject to his wife in the sense that he's responsible for her and he's no longer under control of father and mother. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. I think they were covered with some sort of a glory light. And may I say I think this is the loveliest and the freshest account of the creation of woman and of man. Here is a couple that God really joined together. Now, there are certain things I think God's given to his people that they should obey, but God has given to the human race marriage. And that's one of the things men are trying to throw off today. Let us break their bands asunder, cast away their cords from us. What's man trying to do? Well, he's trying to get rid of God, friends, because God is the one who established marriage. Now, you have in this chapter something quite wonderful. You have the creation of man. You have where his place, what his occupation is, the condition that he's there with a responsibility. He had a need for a companion. And then God created woman. There is to be an identity between the husband and the wife. And God says to the husband, husbands, love your wives. This is the creation story. The man who was the chaplain at Nuremberg prison tells about the last days that he had with those men. One was Henry Gehrig, and he tells about that, he says, the last evening, that evening around 830, I had a session with Gehrig, during which he made sport of the story of creation, ridiculed divine inspiration of the scriptures, and made outright denial of certain Christian fundamentals. Less than two hours later, he committed suicide. May I say, one of the ways to get rid of this alarming suicide rate is to let men and women know they're a creature of God, and they're responsible to their Creator. How important that is. We come today, friends, to the third chapter, and before we get into that, I move rather rapidly through the last part of chapter 2, and we were looking at the creation of woman that was indirect creation, for God took her out of man, and to reveal the fact that she's part of man. And someone has put it like this, for woman is not undeveloped man, but diverse, not like to like, but like indifference. Yet in the long years, like her must they grow, till at the last she set herself to man like perfect music under noble words, distinct in individualities, but like each other even as those who love. And may I say that this is one of the most beautiful stories and the most beautiful record. And we've seen now in chapter 2, man's kinship with God, man's worship of God, man's fellowship with God, man's service for God, man's loyalty to God, man's authority from God, and man's social life from and for God. That is the great message of chapter 2. Now we come to what some consider the most important chapter of the Bible. It's conceded, I think, by all conservative expositors to be just that. Dr. Griffith Thomas called chapter 3 the pivot of the Bible. And if you doubt that, read chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis. Then omit chapter 3 and read chapters 4 and 11, and you'll find out that there's a tremendous vacuum that needs to be filled that something happened. For instance, in Genesis 1 and 2 we find man in innocence. Everything is perfection and there's fellowship between God and man. But the minute you begin in chapter 4 of Genesis, and don't go any farther than chapter 11, this first section, you find jealousy and anger and murder and lying and wickedness and corruption and rebellion and judgment. And the question is, where did it all come from? Where did it begin? Where did all the sin originate? Well, I don't think it originated, actually, in chapter 3 of Genesis. But as far as man is concerned, here is where it began. I'd like to read you a statement of another at this particular point. And he's speaking now of Genesis 3. He says here, Here we trace back to their source many of the rivers of divine truth. Here commences the great drama which is being enacted on the stage of human history, and which well-nigh 6,000 years has not yet completed. Here we find the divine explanation of the present fallen and ruined condition of our race. Here we learn of the subtle devices of our enemy, the devil. Here we behold the utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness when divine grace is withheld from him. Here we discover the spiritual effects of sin, man seeking to flee from God. Here we discern the attitude of God toward the guilty sinner. Here we mark the universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by a device of man's own handiwork. Here we are taught of the gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need. Here begins that marvelous stream of prophecy which runs all through the holy scriptures. Here we learn that man cannot approach God except through a mediator. May I say this is a tremendous statement, by the way.