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[0:00] All right, Genesis chapter 2, verse 4, that's where we will be through the end of the chapter. So let's read through that together.

[0:14] These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, and the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.

[0:26] For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. There was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

[0:37] And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

[0:51] And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

[1:04] And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Paisan. That is it which compasses the whole land of Havala, where there is gold.

[1:16] And the gold of that land is good. There is Bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon. The same is that which compasses the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hidikkel.

[1:29] That is it which goes towards the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

[1:41] And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

[1:55] And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet 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.

[2:10] 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 and help meet for him.

[2:25] And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept and 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.

[2:38] 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.

[2:49] 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.

[3:00] Father, we thank you for this word that you've presented to us this morning, Lord. We thank you that the words that you speak unto us, they are the spirit and they are life. And so by your spirit, Lord, we pray that you would make them life to us this morning.

[3:13] That we would glean from the scriptures, Lord, the message you have for us. That we could take into our lives an application that applies to us daily, Lord. Not just information, not just a message that tied some things together.

[3:26] But Lord, that you would speak to us. That as you were with Adam and Eve, as you were creating and preparing in the garden, Lord, for their life to come. You were not surprised. You did not react.

[3:37] You had everything set, Lord. And the same is for us. So this morning, I pray that you would speak, Lord, your words. That you would use me as your instrument, Lord. Help us to get through this passage and to not get bogged down, Lord, in the details that are not part of what you want to speak to us today.

[3:54] We thank you, we love you, and in Jesus' name, amen. So today we're going to see that God had for Adam a place, a purpose, a priority, and a partner as we go through the text.

[4:09] We're going to break it down. We're going to go through verse by verse. But we're also going to have this kind of overarching theme that we're going to see specifically of what God did with Adam. This is the only account we have, other than Eve and Adam's interaction with the serpent.

[4:27] This is the only account we have of the pre-fall garden, pre-fall creation that man was a part of. It's not a lot. It's a little. Moses wrote the book of Genesis.

[4:40] He wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the law. Where did Moses get his information? Obviously, as we've been looking through Genesis, the first seven days, chapter one, we're saying it's the revelation of God to man.

[4:51] It wasn't something man discovered. God revealed that to man. He must have revealed it, most likely first to Adam, and then Adam would have passed that down. But we're going to see a change here, and we see that in verse four.

[5:02] There's a word there that's not been used before. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord, God, made the earth and the heavens. This is our first use of the word Lord.

[5:16] That word is Yahweh, or as the Jews would have written it, Yehovah, or Jehovah, because they wouldn't pronounce or write Yahweh. And this is our first use of that. Why?

[5:27] Well, I think we're seeing here that we're now getting Adam's perspective. This is Adam's relationship with God. Lord, God. Yahweh, Elohim. Is what it is.

[5:39] And as we go through this, we're going to see man's relationship with God in verse four. And then we're going to get some revelation from God, for sure, because it's going to tell us how God formed man.

[5:49] And so Adam wasn't there as God was forming him, right? But verses five through six, and then especially 10 through 14, I think you could kind of couch that as, as I remember it.

[6:00] I think this is Adam, you know, after the fact, saying, hey, this is what I remember. And it's interesting what he remembers. He brings up these rivers. I have no context for what these rivers are, like spiritually or what they mean in the rest of scripture.

[6:14] They have names that are very similar to names that we would recognize today. But the shape of the entire world was changed during the flood. So where it says the name that's Euphrates or the name that, you know, the Gihon, you think of the Gihon Springs and where it says that Havala, where there's gold and the gold of that land is good.

[6:34] Nobody knows what that land is anymore. So there's some gold out there that's really good. But this seems to be Adam. This seems to be what Adam remembers. And then it's interesting, these names, because he's going to name the animals.

[6:46] And it says whatever Adam called them, that's what they are. Guess what? The zebra? Adam called a zebra. There are some things that have come about today that people discover, right?

[6:57] People find an animal, a new creature, and they'll call it whatever. However, it's interesting, the names they come up with are a lot more, I don't know, complicated than Adam's.

[7:08] You know, Adam came up with some good names. It's a horse. It's a dog. It's a cat. Adam named those in the garden. And I think these rivers, we have Ethiopia today as a place, right?

[7:21] We have Euphrates. These are things that have carried on from before the fall that Adam remembers. And so we have a relationship here, it seems like, between Adam and the Lord.

[7:33] Verse 4, Adam's relationship with God, and 5 and 6 is kind of a description, I believe, from Adam, as things were. And then it's a revelation, obviously, from the Lord, because it says, And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field, before it grew, for the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

[7:56] So where it says there, in verse 4, that these are the generations of the heavens. It's like when we have the genealogies and the generations of Adam. When we get into Adam's genealogy, and so-and-so had children, and then this was his generation, and then this is his generation.

[8:11] The idea there is this is that, of the heavens and the earth, as God progressed through them, in the same way as you would progress through, like a genealogy. He makes a statement in verse 5.

[8:22] So before the plant of the field was in the earth, before the herb of the field, before it grew, and before there was man to till the ground, God developed this system by which to water the earth.

[8:34] And he says a mist that goes up from the ground. It's interesting, that word doesn't really occur very often again in Scripture. We have rain, we have dew, we have springs, but you don't really have this idea of this mist that's going up.

[8:50] And I was thinking, why does it say rain here? Rain, Adam didn't know anything about rain. Rain doesn't come till Noah. Why did God tuck this right here, that he wanted us, in chapter 2 of Genesis, to acknowledge and see this word before us, that the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth.

[9:06] Well, what was the purpose of rain when it first came about? It was judgment. There was judgment. God was not yet using rain, which came through judgment, because there was not yet sin on the earth.

[9:17] But I was thinking of how good the Lord is, how there's mercy, you know, in judgment. How when we get to chapter 3, we're going to see the curse. It's like, oh, man is under a curse. Yes, man is under a curse. But within that curse is a blessing and protection for man and woman.

[9:32] And so here, rain was judgment for the world when the flood came. But in Isaiah 45, verse 8, it says, Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down judgment.

[9:45] Let them pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation. And let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it. And Hosea 10, verse 12, Sow to yourselves in righteousness.

[9:59] Reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground, for it's time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. And so God takes what was meant for judgment, originally, and then he uses that as a blessing, to bring a blessing in righteousness.

[10:14] But at this point in time, there was no rain on the earth. And there's also no man to till the ground. We're not going to go into right now what Adam's purpose is. We'll get to that a little later. Verse 6, So man is different.

[10:40] This is different than the animals. At the end of verse 7 there, it says, Man became a living soul. That's the exact same words in the Hebrew used in verse 24 of chapter 1, where it says, God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature.

[10:55] And man became a living creature. Okay, well, how's he any different? The Lord breathed into him, into his nostrils, the breath of life. Breathe is to blow.

[11:07] It's used a lot in terms of anger. It has to do like with nostrils. You know, like when you get mad and your nostrils flare, right? Maybe you don't. But some people do that, I know.

[11:20] But anyway, so a lot of times you'll see it's the same word there. It's used for nostrils. And so God breathed. He blew, right, into his nostrils the breath of life. That word breath is only ever used in reference to people that breathe.

[11:35] When it says that God tells Israel to go in and wipe out everything that breathes, man, woman, and child. I always read that and thought, everything that breathes. Because there's times where he'll say, take out the animals as well.

[11:46] But when he specifically uses this word, it's only in context to people. Because it's also the same word that's used in Scripture for spirit.

[11:58] It's primarily used for spirit. If you look in Job, there's a bunch of references in Job. We're only going to look at one of them. Job says in Job 33, verse 4, this is the same word.

[12:11] The breath, the Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty has given me life. Here Job links those two together. That the breath that God is breathing into Adam isn't the same as the animals.

[12:24] There's a spirit that's attached to it. Psalm 150, verse 6. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise you, the Lord. Specifically to people.

[12:37] And so here, Adam is different. Man is different. He's formed from the dust of the ground. We're going to see over in verse 19, where God says, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field.

[12:50] Well, he did the same with Adam. They're built of the same substance. But then he does something different with Adam, where he gives him of the Spirit. Isaiah 42, verse 5. I liked this verse because it kind of linked together.

[13:04] God is creator of the universe, of the creatures, and then how he sets man apart. Thus says God the Lord. He that created the heavens and stretched them out.

[13:15] He that spread forth the earth and that which comes out of it. He that gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. So God links these two things. He's breathed in Adam, but it's not just breath, is it?

[13:29] And when he said this, Jesus, he breathed on them and said unto them, receive you the Holy Spirit. John 20, verse 22. Here Jesus is breathing that breath of life.

[13:43] Adam received from God a breath of life, the Spirit. And then Adam died. Jesus, our second Adam, comes and breathes on us again. It says, receive the Holy Spirit.

[13:54] And we know, we've looked at this scripture before. 1 Corinthians 15, 45. That Adam was made a living soul. And the last Adam, Jesus, was made a quickening spirit.

[14:08] And so in Christ, we gain more in Christ than we've lost in Adam. And so we have the creation of man here. That God formed him. The word formed, Isaiah 64, verse 8. That you are the potter, we are the clay.

[14:21] That God is the potter. It's the same word, forming. That he had his hands in this. That God was very interested in man's creation. Not that he's not interested in the rest of his creation. But just like we talked about, there's no purpose for creation without man.

[14:35] And so God has formed man out of the dust of the ground. He's breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man became a living creature. But man became a living creature with a spirit that God put in him.

[14:47] And then, what did God do? Well, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed. So God had a place for Adam.

[14:59] Like we said, God has a place for Adam. He created him. He gave him life. He breathed in him the spirit of God. And then he put him in a place that he had prepared for him. Where's Eden?

[15:11] I always thought Eden was the garden. You know, growing up in the church, going to Sunday school. It's the garden of Eden. Well, it says that God planted a garden eastward in Eden. So Eden was a location.

[15:23] But God then, within that, created a garden. Eden means pleasant or pleasure. And there God put this garden.

[15:34] Eastward. What does that mean? God put it in the east. Like, how far east? Where in the east? Well, that word, eastward, throughout scripture is not usually referred to as eastward.

[15:44] It's when we hear someone say, from ancient times. So an example of that would be Isaiah 46.10. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.

[16:00] And so God creates this garden. And in verse 9, he says, And so, where was Eden?

[16:17] God planted a garden from ancient times in Eden. And from, in other words, deep in the past, in our history, is where God put this garden. What did he put in it?

[16:28] God made every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. So, God creates this situation for Adam. And he places him in it. God's desire is for our good, right?

[16:42] God's desire is for our pleasure. That word, pleasant there, every tree that is pleasant, the idea is everything has to be desired for the eye. So, God looks not on the outward appearance.

[16:52] Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. He does. But God also created beauty. And he specifically, right in the beginning, the first thing Adam enters into is this garden that God's prepared for him.

[17:05] Garden, the word garden indicates the idea that it's hedged about, that it's a secure place. God didn't just throw Adam out there and say, Hey, I've given you this command. I've given you a calling to go forth and multiply and be fruitful, to have dominion and subject and subdue the earth.

[17:20] He then created a place for him. And we're going to see in a little bit, God's going to give him a purpose. And whatever purpose God gives, he gives us a place that we can perform that purpose in.

[17:30] God specifically has this place for Adam so that he can fulfill the purpose that God has given him. And so Adam is here in the garden. It's pleasant to the sight and good for food.

[17:42] And this is where I think you have Adam kind of giving his account as I remember it. You picture him sitting there talking to his boys, Cain and Abel. You know, you think Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel must have been the most lookalike family there ever was.

[17:56] They all came from the same thing. Wasn't much expression of genes yet. Sitting there telling his boys, I remember, I remember God made every tree that's pleasant to the sight and good for food.

[18:08] Oh, what was that? What did it taste like, Dad? Oh, was it like this tree? Oh, I don't even know if I can describe it. You know, put in perspective for me when Cain brings of the fruit of the ground and he's trying to bring this offering to the Lord.

[18:21] You think of what Adam's experiencing before the curse. And then you think after the curse, the best that Cain could get out of the ground that was responding to him under the curse, that brought forth thorns and weeds, and he brought all that, must have been so pitiful in comparing what this garden was that the Lord had made for Adam.

[18:41] And so he took him, he took Adam, and what did he do with him? He put him there. He placed him there. He gave him a charge. Genesis 22, verse 6, we see the same word.

[18:55] And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. That word there, to lay it upon. Adam was taken by God and placed in the garden.

[19:08] Abraham is placing this burnt offering, the wood, upon Isaac, his son. And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. We think of what was placed upon Jesus, what God placed upon him when he put the cross upon him.

[19:24] And so here's Adam in the midst of this garden. It's wonderful. It's paradise. Everything he could ever desire. He's eating this food. He's enjoying life. And I had this thought that I'd never thought before.

[19:35] What's the purpose of food? Why do you eat? Stay alive. That's kind of what I came to, too.

[19:45] Well, it tastes good, but if I don't eat it, what happens? You die. Right. If Adam didn't eat, what would happen? He wouldn't die.

[19:58] Death comes after sin. Death is a result of the fall. Why did Adam have food? Food. God tells him back in the end of verse 2 that for all of the animals and Adam, there's food.

[20:10] I think, well, wait a minute. What's the point of Adam? Well, it was enjoyable. Okay, it was enjoyable. It was. But I think, and we're going to see this in a little bit, that God had something a whole lot more intended for food and tied in with food.

[20:22] Well, what caused the first sin? What was it over? Food. Food. Food. It wasn't like, Eve, I think you should curse God.

[20:33] Come on, just try it. Swear. No, I'm not going to do that. You know, Eve, go home and slap your husband and tell him you're in charge. See what happens. No, it wasn't that. Right. You know, Eve, I think you need to go and you need to be rebellious and go join a band.

[20:47] A rock band. You know, like, she's going to go solo. Right. It was over. Food. And then here's God. He's given to Adam food that is good, that's pleasant, it's desirable, it's fulfilling.

[20:59] Like, okay, what's this about? We'll find out later. But out of the ground, he made that. And also, he put in there the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[21:10] When Adam sins and Eve, God puts the angels between to keep the way to the tree of life so they can't get back to it. Right. Why?

[21:20] Because if they eat of it, they'll then continue on. They won't die. Right. Why would there be the tree of life now? What if Adam ate of it? Well, he won't die.

[21:31] He wasn't going to die anyway. So what is the point of the tree of life? We'll get to that in a little bit. It's just really interesting, these things that come up that have been so Sunday schooled in me.

[21:43] From being a little kid, sitting in Sunday school, and just, oh, I've heard this story. Oh, I know how that, oh, yep, yep, I know. God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life, and there was good food for them and a garden.

[21:56] But why did God do these things? What is his purpose? And what is his point? And then this section with the rivers.

[22:06] And again, I think this is just Adam being like, oh, I remember, I remember those rivers. There is something unique about this. If you look in verse 10, a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads.

[22:19] Today, what happens with rivers? You have a stream that grows into a larger stream, a small river, a large river empties into a lake or an ocean. You have multiple going into one.

[22:31] This is one going into multiple. That doesn't happen. This is one river that was parted and went into four. So it seems like there's this river going out of Eden that then splits into four, which is such a cool picture.

[22:43] What do we have in Christ? We have one source, one river, and yet he flows into many streams, doesn't he? Into each one of us, we have the same river and the same source.

[22:56] And it flows into this land of Havala, which means circle, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good, and there's bdellium and the onyx stone, and the name of the second river, Gihon, that means bursting forth.

[23:09] The same it is that compasses the whole land of Ethiopia, or Cush, or Black. And the name of the third river is Hidakal, which means rapid. That is it which goes down toward the east of Assyria, or meaning a step.

[23:24] And the fourth river is the Euphrates, fruitfulness. So Adam's remembering these things from his time before the fall. Verse 15.

[23:37] Verse 15 now is God gives man a job. We've seen man's relationship with God in verse 4. Adam, as I remember it, verse 5 and 6, 10 through 14.

[23:48] Man different from the creatures in verse 7. God making a place for man in verse 8 to 9. And now he's going to give man purpose. He's giving man place in the garden, and now he's going to give a purpose.

[24:01] And he says this to Adam. And God took the man, took him, and placed him, put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it, to put, to lay up, to set, to place, to rest, to leave alone.

[24:17] Adam was taken out and separated to this place that God had for him for a specific purpose. And it says there to dress it and to keep it. To keep it, the idea there is to preserve it, to watch over it.

[24:31] We see that in Psalm 127, verse 1. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

[24:43] And so here God is expecting Adam to keep the garden, to watch over it, to look over it, and to care for it. And then we have this word. We saw this word already. To dress it.

[24:55] To dress it and to keep it. That is the same word we saw over in verse 5 where it says, there was not a man to till the ground. That word, till and dress. This is like the only place you're going to see it translated this way.

[25:06] Everywhere else. It's used as serve. Psalm 100, verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness.

[25:17] Come before his presence with singing. That's the same word. Till the Lord with gladness. Dress the Lord with gladness. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[25:28] Think of how you, so he's to till the ground. He's to serve it. He's to dress it. What does that look like? You know, there are gardens out there.

[25:40] Okay, when I was a kid, we had a garden. When I think of garden, I think of like rose and beans and corn and peas. Every summer, we'd have to plant a garden. Every spring, we'd be out there with my grandma who lived next door.

[25:51] We were made to dig and plant all the stuff and I didn't like it very much. But we'd get, you know, the vegetables from it. That's what I think of with garden. But God, when he plants a garden, it's going to be beautiful, right?

[26:02] It's a beautiful garden. We have to make our gardens under the curse. So when we till the land and yet you still, you see, look at the beauty that God puts into creation.

[26:14] And then when it's combined with man, doing what? Having dominion over it. Taking it in hand. Doing what they're supposed to do with it. You get some beautiful gardens.

[26:25] You see, nature and creation, there's a beauty to it when it's left to itself. But there's a beauty when God allows man to kind of shape it and bring it into this. Imagine Adam when he comes, because what's man's curse?

[26:40] That by the, you will till the ground by the sweat of your brow that you will get bread. Imagine what it was like in Eden when God says, hey, I want you to dress the garden.

[26:51] I want you to serve it. Not, not make it do what you want to do. But imagine Adam going to one area of the garden and being like, oh, you know what would look really good here? Maybe a flowering hedge.

[27:02] And then he just starts to do whatever he does and it's just responding. Just like, you know, no curse. No having to till the ground by the sweat of his brow. It's enjoyment because God put it there for pleasure.

[27:15] And so this is his purpose. God says, your purpose, Adam, is to serve in the place I've placed you. I want you to serve in this garden. Genesis 25, 23, we see the word again.

[27:30] And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in your womb, speaking to Rebecca. And two manner of people shall be separated from your bowels.

[27:41] And the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the elder shall serve the younger. He shall come under the younger. He shall serve him. He shall be in subject to him.

[27:52] In the same way, God is telling Adam, Adam, I want you to bring this garden in subjection. But you're not gonna, it's not gonna be like we think of it.

[28:04] It's not gonna be with the curse involved. It's gonna be a beautiful thing. I think, man, that must have been wonderful for Adam to just be response, seeing creation respond to him in this way.

[28:14] And so God's given Adam a place, and he's given Adam a purpose. Adam, the purpose I gave you, I gave you the specific place that you can accomplish that.

[28:25] Adam, the place I put you in, I designed that purpose for that place. It's the same with us. The purpose and the place that God puts us.

[28:36] He puts us in a place to fulfill his purposes for us, and he gives us purposes that are specific to the place we're at. And so here he is in this garden.

[28:47] Now remember, what's in the garden with him? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It seems like they didn't even care, and I don't think they did because it says God put every tree in the garden. It's beautiful.

[28:57] It's wonderful. There's no desire to sin. They don't have a sin nature. So somewhere over there is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God says this to Adam in verse 16.

[29:10] The Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.

[29:20] For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And so God says, he commands him, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.

[29:32] Nothing is withheld in God's will. In God's will, there's nothing that is withheld. The only thing that's withheld is what's outside his will. But it's God's will for Adam to partake of everything in this garden except this one tree.

[29:46] Why? Why the tree? Why couldn't it have just been perfect creation and paradise forever? Because paradise had to have a choice.

[29:58] Because man is created after his kind. Just as we saw the cattle and the creeping things, everything after his kind, man has to be, man is created after his kind.

[30:09] Our nature is free will and man is not man without choice. Right? A man is not man without choice. If you remove the choice from us, well we're no longer the creation that God created us to be.

[30:23] If you remove a fish out of water and you turn it into something else, it's not a fish. It has no characteristics of fish. Right? If you could turn a fish into a frog, which never actually happened, never will, the frog is not a fish.

[30:40] It's now a frog. Isn't that interesting how silly evolution is? It's like, well we were once apes. No, actually if we were ever apes and if apes were ever frogs and frogs were ever fish and fish were ever single-celled animals and then we were all just moss on the back of crystals and we just metamorphosized and changed over time, then technically we're still just moss on the back of crystals.

[31:03] Funny, isn't it? Satan turns it upside down. God said, I started with dust. Dust is not necessarily evil in scripture, but it's pretty low. And he says, I'm creating something wonderful out of it.

[31:15] Satan takes what's wonderful, turns it on his head, and says, no, you're just nothing. You came from nothing and you are nothing. But man's created after his kind. And after this kind, well, God breathed into him, God made him in his image, and that image is to have spirit, soul, and body, and that image is to have a choice.

[31:35] And so without choice, man is not man. And so there can be no paradise without choice. There will be no paradise for us without choice. You say, wait, is there going to be a tree of the knowledge of good and evil in heaven?

[31:46] We're going to sin? No. But we will be there because of choice. We have chosen. And so there's no paradise without choice. And God commands him. So God's given Adam a place, a purpose, and now he gives him a priority.

[31:59] What is this priority? Well, it seems small and insignificant. It seems so irrelevant and harmless. It seems like they never even acknowledged the existence of this tree except until the serpent comes to Eve and says, hey, check this out.

[32:15] She can't even quote correctly what they had been told. And there's a priority given here. The Lord commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat.

[32:28] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it. For in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. So of all that God's given Adam to do, he's given him a place, a calling, a purpose, a job.

[32:42] What's the most important thing he needs to remember in all of this? God's word. God's command is what he needs to remember. Psalm 119 verse 138 says, thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteousness and very faithful.

[33:00] Well, it seems kind of unfair. Isn't it funny how we respond that way? Adam has everything at his fingertips he could ever want. God says, of the 337,000 fruits that I put in this garden, don't eat that one.

[33:12] Wow, that's not really fair. Why can't I eat that one? I think I should be allowed to eat that one. It's weird how we have this response in us like, well, that's a little ridiculous, God. Like, that's over the top. It's either not fair or it's a little over the top that you make sin and the fall of humanity based on this one thing.

[33:29] Well, Adam needed to know what God's commands were, that they're righteousness and very faithful. How true and faithful was this command? Adam, do you want life? Don't eat the tree.

[33:41] Oh, okay, I think I can do that. Right? Jesus comes to us, says, do you want life? What must he do to be saved? Believe. Think of Naaman, right, who had the leprosy and Elijah tells him, I'm sorry, Elisha tells him, go wash in the Jordan seven times.

[34:00] He's like, I'm not going to do that. And then his unnamed servant comes to him and said, Master, if you were given something hard to do, wouldn't you do it? Then why won't you do this small thing? And so often, the commands of God hang on the smallest, seemingly insignificant thing.

[34:14] He just gives his word. He says, obey it. Follow it. So the scripture here where it says, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, out of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

[34:26] There are three Hebrew words here that are repeated. To us, it just says, of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat. Now I think, looking at this, and looking at the last scripture, that we looked at, verse 11 there, it says, the name of the first is Paisan.

[34:43] I think Adam was Italian. Because, in the Hebrew, it's, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden, eat, eat, eat. So he could be Italian, or not.

[34:58] But, I'm just thinking, maybe, it literally says, eat, eat, eat. And God commanded Adam, of every tree of the garden, eat, eat, eat.

[35:09] Why three times? Well, the scripture that came to mind, I was thinking of where, it says, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 20, the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus.

[35:20] They're all ours. Jesus is like, take them, take them, take them. Come on. Don't leave any. Why won't you take this promise? Oh, I feel so discouraged today. I've got that. In my presence is fullness of joy.

[35:32] Lord, I don't have rest. Come unto me. Oh, all the promises of God. So he says, eat, eat, eat. Well, guess what? In Genesis 2, 17, if you eat of the tree of knowledge, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it.

[35:47] For the day that you eat thereof, you shall die, die, die. Why three times? What is our nature? This part blew my mind.

[35:58] It's being blown again. We are created spirit, soul, and body. So when Adam ate of that tree, he died, he died, he died, and he died. Isn't that crazy?

[36:09] Well, wait, then what does eat, eat, eat do? And this is where I think God's desire for food is not what we think of it as. When we get together, we have a fellowship meal, right?

[36:22] We don't all go away and go, man, that was good food. That's part of it. I can't wait for another fellowship meal so I can eat. But you could have that food on your own. No, it's the fellowship of being together.

[36:35] We say, soul food, comfort food, right? There really is chicken soup for the soul. And so God created this food to do something.

[36:47] What do we lose through the curse, through sin? We lose the spirit, right? But we recognize food nourishes our bodies. Food does something to our souls.

[36:58] And I think God intended it to do something as well for the spirit. Jesus said, this is my body broken for you. Take, eat. Well, that's a spiritual thing.

[37:10] Does Jesus need to eat currently? No. If Jesus doesn't eat, does Jesus die? No. Well, it was one of the first things he did when he comes back to his disciples.

[37:21] Hey, anybody got some food? What do we get? He said to them when he did at the Last Supper. He said, hey, this cup of the vine, I won't drink again until I drink it anew in the house of my Father.

[37:32] We're going to the marriage feast of the Lamb. Why do we need to eat in heaven? What does it do? It's not nourishing our bodies because God had this wonderful design for food that was to nourish us spirit, soul, and body.

[37:45] That there's something that's supposed to happen, right? So when we come to the table, communion, and we eat and drink together, we break bread and drink of the blood, we remember him, there's something that happens spiritually that we gain back in our Adam.

[38:00] When we have fellowship meals, we see that in Acts. That's why I just love the, the, we've had a fellowship meal and I think next time we have one, we're going to do communion, put it all together. Because you see in Acts, they continue steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine and the breaking of bread and fellowship and in prayer.

[38:16] I think there's combined breaking bread and fellowship. But, and the, so they continued in that. They continued in their doctrine in breaking of bread and in prayer. The breaking of bread wasn't just, here's a little wafer and here's a cup, they ate together.

[38:29] And even still, in that culture, if you eat with someone, you're considered one with them. That there's something that happens. And so to see tucked in here that when God said to Adam, eat, eat, eat, and there's the tree of life in the garden.

[38:44] Well, that must not have been for the body because Adam's body was functioning apart from sin and there was no death. So we gain back in Jesus that ability, guys.

[38:55] Next time you eat and when you read and Peter says, hey, that sanctified the food you eat by the word of God in prayer, recognize when you sit down to eat that God is doing something more than just nourishing your bodies.

[39:08] And not like, oh, I got some Chick-fil-A in the car and I ate it and woo, I'm praising Jesus. No, that's not what it means. But like when you sit and you eat with your family, what is the world tearing apart? Right?

[39:19] Natty was telling me that a co-worker of hers was, like her mind was blown that we actually eat meals cooked in our house and as a family. That's what I grew up doing. We always ate five o'clock or 5.30.

[39:31] It was one or the other. We ate then. And what is the world doing? Tearing that apart. Right? Because Satan knows there is something that happens at a level beyond just the flesh when we eat.

[39:45] And it was the cause of death, death, death. When Adam ate in something he was not supposed to. When he partook and became one with something that was forbidden, then it caused death, death, death.

[39:57] Do not eat of it, Adam. So Adam's given a place. He's given a purpose. And now, he's been given a priority. Keep my word, Adam. And it's the same for us.

[40:08] God puts us in a place with a purpose. But the priority, whatever place we're in, whatever purpose we have, the priority is always the word of God. Keep his commands.

[40:20] What else could he need? He doesn't need anything else. It's great. He's in paradise. It's perfect. And God said, in verse 18, it is not good that man should be alone.

[40:38] I will make him and help meet for him. So I think all this took place on day six. It seems like a lot's happening. But the fact that God said it's not good, and at the end of day six, he says, and God saw everything he made and behold, it was very good.

[40:55] I don't think after the fact he said this is not good. I also don't think Adam and Eve were in paradise for very long. I think it was pretty fast. A couple of reasons, and we can get into this more when we get into chapter three.

[41:08] There's no children. If they were in the garden before sin for a year, children would come along. There's no children. They don't eat of the tree of life, ever, in this time that they're in the garden.

[41:22] That never happens. And knowing the nature and character of our enemy, Satan doesn't lose any time in coming in as quick as he can when there's an opening and a vulnerability.

[41:33] But either way, this seems to be happening on day six as God is, we're kind of getting the perspective from Adam now. We've had God's perspective. This is Adam's perspective on creation as God is bringing these things forth. It's the things he's interacting with.

[41:45] He's interacting with the mist that's coming up from the ground as God waters the earth. He's interacting with these rivers. He's interacting with the garden and his place in it. He's watching life explode around him as he tills it, as he serves it, as he steps in to do what God has called him to.

[42:01] He's been given a command to keep. And now God looks and says, this is not good. This is not good that man is alone. I will make and help meat for him. That word, help meat for him, it's the word help.

[42:16] It has meat there. I don't know why the English puts there. I think because for him, the idea is, it's before his face. I'll place before him something that will help him. That's interesting too, isn't it? He didn't say, I'm going to give him a companion.

[42:28] He could have said, hey, go get that dog over there. You know, Fido or whatever. What do dogs do? They kind of follow, right? Don't they? Even if it was like, well, man's going to till the ground, lash up that ox and let's go plant something.

[42:43] Well, you're looking at the backside of the thing. What do you have with people that you don't have with other creatures? Face to face. You have something before your face. And so God says, I'm going to make something before your face.

[42:55] Something for you to see. And the point of this is to do what? To help you. To be a help to you. That word help there means to secure. We all know what that means, right?

[43:06] I'm going to secure you. I don't know. I guess they probably use it in King Arthur's Day. Fair made, thou shalt be secured. It just means like to support or to sustain, but particularly in distress.

[43:22] And so God said to Adam, hey, I'm making you something that's going to help sustain you in times of distress. Adam's like, dude, Lord, I've never been distressed in my life, which is only about seven hours old.

[43:36] God was preparing. That was the other thing I was looking through this. This whole account is also to show us that God was prepared and preparing them. Adam's about to go through a fall and God knows this.

[43:48] Eve's going to go through a fall and God knows it. So he's preparing them. He's like, Adam, you need to know my love, like we said before, in a sacrificial way, but I, I can't let you go through that alone.

[44:00] I need someone who's going to be with you to help you. A couple quotes on marriage. It is not good that man should be alone. And for the first time, God saw something that was not good.

[44:11] The aloneness of man, alone, means to separate out, to be separate from. And that was what Adam was from all of the rest of creation. God never intended for man to be alone, either in the marital or social sense.

[44:25] Marriage, in particular, has a blessed, civilizing influence on man. The wildest, most violent, sociopathic men in history have always been single.

[44:36] I didn't know that. Never under the plan God gave to influence men for good. For society as a whole, this is not good. It is not good. And then lastly, we only see helping as a position of inferiority when we think like the world thinks.

[44:53] But God considers positions of service as most important in his sight. You will not lose your reward if you give a cup of cold water to the least of these. And so Adam here has this helped me.

[45:07] God sees this, but he doesn't let Adam see it yet. He's going to now use this next section of scripture here we'll look at briefly to open Adam's eyes. And then in verse 19, And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them onto Adam to see what he would call them.

[45:24] And whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. You see Adam's calling reflecting his, excuse me, reflecting his nature. The first thing God brings Adam to do, well the second thing, the first thing beyond telling him his purpose in the garden, I guess he didn't even tell him, did it?

[45:43] He told us that he put him in the garden to dress and keep it. The first thing God tells Adam that we see the first words spoken to man were the command of God, the word of God. Adam, don't eat of this.

[45:54] The second thing we see is God putting him in a place and telling him to do what he was created to do, which is to exercise choice. That's man's nature. So God gives him two things of choice.

[46:06] Obey my command and then here's your job, which revolves around choice. He got to choose whatever he wanted to call him or whatever he called him, that they were.

[46:17] Picture once Eve comes along and goes, you named that what? How do you spell that? What is that? Oh, I don't know. I just thought it was a good name. Yeah, he should have waited for me.

[46:28] No. No, right now Adam's complete, right? And so when God separates out Eve from Adam, it's not that God makes something inferior, something incomplete, right?

[46:43] But God makes something that is, God doesn't focus on the incompletion of man. He focuses on the fact that he's created something to complete it, I guess what I'm trying to say. And Adam gave names to all cattle under the fowl of the air and every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found and help meet for him.

[47:04] Nothing is my nature. Nothing's after my kind. And so God, at this point, he is awakening Adam to his need. God now awakens man to his need, and once man is awakened to his need, God puts him to sleep.

[47:17] 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 thereof instead. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her under the man.

[47:31] What Adam lacked, God already planned for. God knew this. He said, hey, it's not good for Adam to be alone. I need to show Adam that. God could have just come and said, Adam, it's not good for you to be alone. Oh, okay, whatever.

[47:44] Adam needed to see what being alone was. We've been looking for a house. And our phrase, our new phrase, is that the Lord is showing us what it's not so then we'll eventually know what it is.

[47:58] There's a lot of seeing what it's not before you see what it is. And God takes us through that path many times. And here with Adam, he had to show Adam, you know, one thing Adam didn't do. He didn't look at the monkey and say, you know what?

[48:12] That thing's got a face a lot like mine. It's got opposable thumbs. If I shave its legs and let its hair grow long, I bet it could be a woman and I could have like a partner.

[48:23] This is good. You know, monkeys, men, we're similar. We're brothers. No, he didn't do that. Not at all. There was nothing there that he saw in the monkey that he thought, hey, this could, this could work.

[48:34] Now, stupidest thing, evolution is just all around. I mean, even as a kid, thinking like, well, I would, if there was evolution, that would be cool.

[48:46] In the sense like, I'd love to see like a half man, half sea lion thing create, you know, like the midway point. Where are they? Well, there aren't any. Oh, okay. That doesn't make any sense.

[48:59] So yes, Adam didn't, and God didn't create Bill either. You know, I don't mean Adam and Steve, some weird homosexual thing. I mean, Adam and Bill. He didn't just say, yo, you need a dude. You need a buddy.

[49:09] You need a bro. Somebody you can just hang out with. So, you just need companionship. You just need a friend and everything's gonna be good. No, God wanted something more. God wanted what?

[49:22]  Well, in verse 23, Adam says, after it says, God brought her to the man. Adam said, this is now bone of my bone.