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[0:00] Well, it's good to be with you here tonight as we continue our series through the book of Genesis.! It's like officially football season now, so I don't know if that means anything for you or if you're excited about that or if you watch football or play football or maybe you just don't care at all.

[0:19] But what it does mean for all of us, what it does mean for all of us is that cooler weather is coming. Maybe not this week, maybe not next week, maybe not like five or six weeks from now, but cooler weather is coming.

[0:35] And I am so ready for fall, I already broke out my stylish boots, baby. This is, I am so ready for fall and cooler weather. Just trying to stay up with the times, Johnny. Just trying to stay up with it.

[0:47] Well, if you like football, I'm sure, or if you've watched it at all, at some point, you've heard the phrase, the previous play is under further review.

[0:58] And depending on what just happened, that may be good news or bad news. It's usually bad news for my team, but that's okay. And so what happens is the refs are saying, we didn't get a good look at this or something controversial happened.

[1:10] We need to go back, we need to watch it again, slower, from a different angle. We need to try to catch every detail. We need to zoom in and focus on certain things.

[1:21] Maybe when you're watching a movie or TV show, there's something you miss and you rewind it. You go back, like, what did they say or did I miss something? What did I see in the background? What was that? You're rewinding it to see what took place.

[1:33] If you're reading and you're like me, sometimes you're like, I don't know what that page just said. And you need to go back and reread the page. You're going back to focus on something with specific detail.

[1:45] You're slowing down to observe details more accurately. Well, I've got a couple of videos that make this point. Before we play these, so when Lacey was pregnant with Charlie, so our daughter Amelia was just like one and a half or so, we were telling our families that we were pregnant again with Charlie.

[2:04] And so our idea was with her family, we're going to go over there and we're going to act like we're taking a picture and say, everyone say cheese. And really it was a video and we said, you know, basically we're pregnant.

[2:14] And so we were filming their reaction. So here's the first video documenting that. Say Amelia's going to be a big sister. Okay, so that's what happened.

[2:30] Bunch of happy white people. We're going to take a closer look. We're going to zoom in on one person in particular and slow it down. So this next video is my sister-in-law, Lauren Krauts.

[2:43] Maybe some of you know her. We're going to slow this down a little bit and focus in on her. Please say Amelia's going to be a big sister.

[3:04] All right. And then here's a couple of reactions of people around the table you couldn't see in that last shot. Her older sister and then my father-in-law. Complete, complete disbelief.

[3:15] Complete disbelief. All right. Thank you, Josie. If anything's going well in this youth ministry, it's because of Josie. So give it up for Josie. So when we're in Genesis 1, we get this high level kind of wide angle view of creation.

[3:33] Moses is just telling us all these details from 30,000 feet. What we get in Genesis 2 is like a 0.5 without the weird distortion angle stuff. But it's zoomed in.

[3:45] You can see much closer detail. It's slowed down. We see it from a different angle. And it's focused particularly on day 6 of creation. So if you would, open with me to Genesis chapter 2.

[3:57] And we'll be covering verses 4 through 25 tonight. And Moses is retelling the creation story from a different angle, from a different perspective.

[4:11] Genesis 1 is so universal and big. And Genesis 2 is zoomed in and so incredibly personal. So a couple of weeks ago, we covered Genesis 1 verse 1 through chapter 2 verse 3.

[4:26] And so this evening, we'll pick up in verse 4. Where Moses says, These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.

[4:42] Now just that first phrase of verse 4, These are the generations of. If you just were to read through Genesis, If you went home tonight and said, I'm going to read through Genesis and underline this phrase every time I see it.

[4:55] You would underline this phrase 11 times. And so what Moses is doing is he is structuring the entire story of Genesis around this phrase. These are the generations of, in this case, the heavens and the earth.

[5:08] We'll see in chapter 5, the generations of Adam. We'll see later in Genesis 11, the generations of Abraham. And so Moses is carrying the story along the backbone of this phrase.

[5:19] These are the generations of. If you notice, towards the last phrase of verse 4, I read Yahweh God. And maybe you've had this explained to you and this will be review.

[5:31] But I just want to pause here. If you notice, the word Lord is in all capital letters. And so what that means is that this is God's personal covenant name being used, which in the Hebrew text reads Yahweh.

[5:43] And this word just means I am. This is God showing his self-existence, his complete independence of everything. He doesn't need anything or anyone.

[5:55] He has everything he needs in himself. And it's also the name he goes by when he reveals himself to his people. It's the name he uses when he makes a covenant.

[6:08] It's the name he uses when he makes promises to his people. And so it's intensely personal here. And this is fitting because what we get in Genesis 2 is a personal account of the creation of Adam in the beginning.

[6:22] And this is the first use of the word Yahweh in all of the Bible. And as we read through verses 5 to 9, we need to ask ourselves a question.

[6:33] Is Moses describing day 3 or day 6? So on day 3, God created all the plants, all the trees, everything that grows out of the ground.

[6:44] On day 6, he created the land animals and he created mankind. And as Moses retells this account, it almost, if we're not careful, it seems like he might be going back and forth between day 3 and day 6.

[6:58] So just pay attention to that as we read through it. I'll read verses 5 through 9 for us. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.

[7:14] And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then Yahweh God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

[7:26] And the man became a living creature. And Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

[7:37] And out of the ground Yahweh God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[7:51] So as we read through this, you see very quickly that Moses is giving us a different angle of this account, filling in some of the details that we're missing from Genesis 1. And this isn't a bad thing.

[8:01] It's not as though Genesis 1 was wrong. This is good storytelling. Moses is taking us in closer. He's rewinding the tape for us so that we can see exactly how it was that mankind came into existence.

[8:16] And what we learn from this chapter is that actually Adam was formed first, and then Eve was created. We learn that Adam in verse 7 was formed from the dirt, and God was like a potter hand-making Adam.

[8:31] And when you consider how personal this is, God just spoke the other creatures into existence. God just spoke everything else into existence. But when it comes to Adam, he's forming him.

[8:43] He's breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. There's face-to-face closeness to God when Adam began to exist. And while this is special, and this is close, and Adam is made in the image of God without sin, we're just made of dust.

[9:05] Like we're just rearranged dirt. You know, like we're more than that. We're image bearers of God, but that's how God made Adam in the beginning. We're not made of gold or bronze or sapphire or diamonds.

[9:17] We're made out of the dirt. And one commentator said that this is a strange mixture of dignity and lowliness.

[9:29] Dignity and lowliness. So much honor given to Adam. Face-to-face in relationship with God.

[9:40] And yet so lowly that he was made out of the dirt. And a name you might recognize, John Calvin had this to say. And this is old language from the 1500s, so it might be over your head a little bit.

[9:53] So just stay with me. Only an excessively stupid person does not learn humility from this. So Calvin's looking at this and he's like, we should be humbled by this.

[10:08] We should recognize that we are just dirt in the presence of an almighty God. We're made in his image. We're bestowed with dignity and honor, but we are just made from the dirt.

[10:20] And Psalm 103 says that God knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. We're nothing when compared to our almighty God.

[10:33] But when we read through chapter one, it was the entire cosmos, the entire universe that was being created. And this chapter hovers over one particular place, the Garden of Eden.

[10:47] And in verse eight, it says that Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden. Now verse eight comes after verse seven.

[11:00] So in verse seven, God creates Adam. Verse eight says that God planted this garden. So when did the Garden of Eden begin to exist?

[11:10] Did it exist from day three when God created all the plants and all the trees? Or is this something that he created on day six after he formed Adam? And the text actually could go either way.

[11:24] When we look at verse eight, we could read this as the Lord God had planted, or as the ESV renders it, the Lord God planted a garden in Eden.

[11:35] And so it's difficult to discern if God created the Garden of Eden on day six or on day three. What we know from day three is he created all the plants and all the trees. So it doesn't rule out the possibility that he created Eden, the Garden of Eden, especially for Adam to rule over and inhabit on day six.

[11:55] In verse nine, he says, out of the ground Yahweh God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. And so in the Garden of Eden in particular, everything is pleasing to the sight and useful.

[12:14] Everything is very beautiful and very useful to him. And we talked a couple of weeks ago, God could have just made it only useful. Like, you know, prison cell, there's your bed and your toilet, that's all you got.

[12:27] What else do you need? But he made it beautiful as well. And so Adam would have been amazed by the colors that God used to create, especially in the Garden of Eden where he was eventually placed.

[12:39] And it says, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam would have had free access to this tree of life.

[12:52] This tree of life, we learn later, would actually seem to represent and communicate eternal life in the presence of God to him.

[13:02] And as Adam would, we don't know if he actually ate of this tree, the text doesn't say, but as he would have, he would have daily remembered where his life comes from.

[13:15] His life comes from the gift of God. He would have remembered who it was who created him and who he was responsible to obey.

[13:27] God gave Adam everything he needed for life and for happiness. God had given Adam everything.

[13:39] He didn't withhold anything from him except this one tree. And if you know your Bible, verse 9 is this ominous foreshadowing of what will happen in chapter 3.

[13:51] We know how this tree is going to be involved in the story, but we're told it is there in the midst of the garden in a very prominent place. And it's not as though this tree was evil in itself.

[14:07] This tree was part of God's very good creation. And so we'll come back to that more because God mentions it explicitly later on in this text. And so Adam and Eve's greed and foolishness are just completely past our understanding.

[14:24] They had everything they could have possibly needed to please God and to be happy, but they went their own way. God had given them everything they could have needed or wanted.

[14:38] And in verses 10 through 14, we see the waters of Eden. And so Moses is going to describe what sources of water this garden had. And so verse 10, a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.

[14:52] And so the description we get here is that Eden is a big region and the Garden of Eden is a place within that region. So it would be like Mustang is inside of Oklahoma.

[15:03] We're basically the Garden of Eden of Oklahoma. That's what I think at least. I don't know. And so this river had its source in Eden and flowed into the garden.

[15:16] And he says, there in the garden, it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon. It's like Kishon, but different. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold.

[15:31] And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

[15:41] That's in the area of Africa. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. So if you've paid attention in school at all, you probably recognize two of these rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

[15:56] And the way Moses writes, it seems that these are the same rivers that we call the Tigris and the Euphrates today because Moses is writing after the flood. And so he's giving these people a reference point. But we have no idea what the Pishon River is or the Gihon River is.

[16:13] We don't know where they are. These would have been prominent rivers because Moses is mentioning them by name. But if you look at the Tigris and the Euphrates today, there are no other really two major rivers that intersect with them.

[16:27] And so some people have said this is like, one of these must be the Nile, what we call the Nile today. One of these must be another river, but all the rivers they suggest are too far away to be connected.

[16:39] So what do we make of these other two rivers? Well, we know the flood would have changed the world dramatically. But if you look at the text, it seems like two of these rivers have already dried up by the time even Moses is writing.

[16:52] So if you look at verse 14, he says the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows, that's in the present tense, that's currently happening east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

[17:06] So he's speaking of these things as they're currently happening and existing. Now look back at verse 11. The name of the first is the Pishon, it is the one that flowed. That's in the past tense.

[17:19] Verse 13, the name of the second river is the Gihon, it is the one that flowed. And so it seems like even Moses is saying these rivers have now dried up or gone away, but we do know where the Tigris and the Euphrates are even down to this day.

[17:33] So a question we often want to ask is where is Eden? Where was this? And I think we're safe to say it was in the Middle East because that's where the Euphrates and the Tigris are today.

[17:44] But where was Eden exactly? Well, we don't know. We can't find it. A guy came up to me a couple weeks ago and was like, do you think the Garden of Eden is Australia because there's so much death there?

[17:59] I was like, I like the reasoning. I like the reasoning. Nothing good comes out of Australia except Louie. So I like the reasoning, but geographically, Australia is not really close or in proximity to where we're talking about.

[18:11] So why can't we find Eden? Why can't we find it today? Well, a few reasons. We'll see in Genesis chapter 3 that God sent an angel there to keep Adam and Eve out of this garden, away from the tree of life.

[18:24] If they had sinned now, if they ate from the tree of life, they would live forever as sinners in this sinful world. And so it was a mercy of God that he prevented them from getting back to it. Secondly, the flood completely destroyed much of the earth's surface.

[18:38] And so it's likely that the Garden of Eden would have been destroyed or at least covered up by lots of layers of sediment and stuff. And then thirdly, rivers also change course over time.

[18:48] So if you look up a time lapse of a river, you can see it change fairly dramatically based on erosion and other things that I'm not smart enough for. But so just a few reasons why we probably can't find Eden today.

[19:01] If you do find it though, make sure I'm the first one you tell. We can make a lot of money together. All right, so verse 15. Yahweh God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

[19:17] To work it and keep it. And now look at the verbs that are used to describe God's action. God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden. It's almost like Adam had already been created and then God transported him into the Garden of Eden that he had created.

[19:34] And he put him there to work and to keep it. Or to work it and to guard it. And I said last week that Adam is really kind of a priest serving in Eden.

[19:47] And these two words are used to describe the priest throughout the rest of the Old Testament. They're charged to work and to keep the temple. To work and to guard the sanctuary of God.

[19:59] And so Adam is really a priest in the presence of God here in Eden. And notice that he was created for work. How are we introduced to God in the Bible?

[20:12] He is working. He's working for six days. And then on the seventh day it says he rested from his work. And so Adam being made in the image of God is created to do work.

[20:24] He's created to be active and to fulfill and obey God's commands. And what we learn from this is that work is a good thing. Work existed before the fall.

[20:36] How many of you have jobs? Yeah. Y'all proud of them? Y'all want them for life? Okay. Yeah, I don't think so. But anyway, work is a good thing. You may have a difficult boss.

[20:47] Right, Kishon? You might have a work environment that's difficult to get along in. You might not get paid as much as you one day want to. But work itself is good.

[21:01] Work itself is not a curse on us. We were created to work. Now Adam's work would have been different than ours. His work in the beginning at least wouldn't have been corrupted by sin, wouldn't have been difficult in terms of causing him to sweat or causing him intense pain or difficulty or completely exhausting him.

[21:21] Everything about his work would have been good and delightful. And so just as we think about what we were created for, it is not good for you not to work.

[21:36] It's not good for you not to work. And now, I'm not saying like you've got to go apply to Whataburger tonight. You've got school. Work doesn't have to be just paid employment at a fast food joint.

[21:50] Very particular illustration. But just anything the Lord's given you to do. What has the Lord called you to? For many of you in this phase, it's school, unless you've dropped out already.

[22:00] I'll pray for you. But you're called to work. And you'll find your highest joy and satisfaction in that. It doesn't mean your work itself will be enjoyable, but your work itself is not a curse.

[22:14] It is something you were created for. These responsibilities God's given you are for your good. Some of you just want to eat and sleep and play video games.

[22:27] And I understand the temptation of that life, but you will not find ultimate satisfaction in that. Anyone played video games all day before? Like you've just done that or watched movies or whatever?

[22:38] How do you feel after that? You're not like, ah, I feel successful. No, you're just kind of, ugh. It's not satisfying.

[22:49] You enjoyed it in the moment, but afterwards you realize you're on the track to wasting your entire life. Dramatic. Dramatic. But we were created for work, and so be faithful in your responsibilities.

[23:04] You have homework, I know, because we're like deep in school, so you've got homework. Be faithful in that. It's what you were created for. Verse 16. And Yahweh God commanded the man.

[23:18] Now Adam was like the king, right? He was the ruler over this world. He didn't answer to anyone except God. He still takes commands from the Lord who made him.

[23:30] And so Adam is representing God and in authority over creation, but he still receives commands from God. And God says, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

[23:49] For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Now again, it's not that the tree itself is bad. The tree itself is not evil. It's a part of God's very good creation.

[24:00] So why this commandment? God is teaching Adam and all of us that disobedience is what's evil. Disobedience to the Lord's word is what is bad.

[24:13] This tree itself is fine. It was part of God's good creation. He called it good already. But he is teaching Adam that disobedience leads to death.

[24:24] The wages of sin is death. And that's a lesson. That was the first lesson that mankind was taught by God in the garden before sin entered the world.

[24:37] And if you notice in verse 16 it says, you may surely eat. In verse 17, if you eat of this tree you will surely die. Eat anything you want Adam but if you eat from this tree you will die.

[24:53] And this is actually the first promise recorded on the pages of scripture. The first promise that God makes to man is a negative promise. It's what we would call a threat. He's telling Adam if you don't listen to my word you will die.

[25:11] And the same is true for all of us in this room. If we do not listen to him the wages of our sin is death. Now why did God tell him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

[25:23] Well God didn't give him this command because he wanted Adam to be stupid and not know things. He's telling Adam he wants Adam to pursue knowledge and wisdom and discretion through obedience to his word.

[25:39] He will make Adam wise. He will teach Adam what he needs to know but Adam needs to obey him. So now why this tree? Why would God create it at all?

[25:50] Why would God give this command to Adam? God could have very easily just not given this command or not created this tree. This was a test of obedience. And God does this and God has the right to do this as God.

[26:04] And if you remember later in the future from where we are at in Genesis God would cause the Israelites to be in the wilderness for 40 years. And in Deuteronomy 8.2 God says I did that to test you so that I could know what was in your heart.

[26:22] And God already he knows all things so he knew what was in their heart but he was trying to show them that their hearts were sinful. And he's here giving a test to Adam in the very beginning.

[26:33] Would this man be willing to listen to his maker or would he try to go his own way? Would he submit to God's word or would he carve his own path in this world?

[26:46] And friends God's commandments are for our good. John says they're not burdensome to us. They're not robbing us of fun. God's not trying to keep us from having joy and enjoying this life.

[26:59] He created everything for Adam to enjoy and to live to the full. And so don't make Adam's mistake. we'll see this in Genesis 3 but Satan would love us to think that God is against our joy.

[27:16] Satan would love for you to think that God gives commands so that we don't enjoy life. Don't make Adam and Eve's mistake and listen to him.

[27:28] God had given Adam everything he could possibly want. But I want you to notice who wasn't there to receive this command. Eve. Eve hasn't been created yet.

[27:41] And so God gives this command to Adam and last week I called Adam a prophet. He was to take this word of God and pass it on to his wife. He would be the one who would tell her what God said and how they were supposed to live.

[27:57] In verse 18 we see then Yahweh God said it is not good. What? We just read through chapter 1 where God said it was good.

[28:08] It was very good. He says good seven times and now here in 2.18 it is not good. What isn't good about his creation that the man should be alone?

[28:22] I will make him a helper fit for him. Adam was created as a social creature. And this was spoken about Adam primarily but it applies to all of us.

[28:41] Solitude isolation is no bueno. So do you have friends? That may seem like a dumb question but do you have friends?

[28:55] And I want you to think about that. Do you have deep friendships or do people just know your name? Do people just recognize you? Are you investing in friendships?

[29:07] And the reason I'm drilling down on this is because the number one complaint or whatever you want to call it is yeah my son tried to come but no one was friends with him.

[29:24] My daughter tried to plug in and she just didn't have any friends. friends. It is your responsibility as a human being to cultivate relationships.

[29:39] And so it's very possible for you to come in just right as we're starting sit down by yourself leave as soon as this is over and you could very easily claim that you don't have friends here.

[29:52] You were created to have relationships friendships. And so that means you need to work hard and some of us have to work harder than others. I am not much of a talker in person so I have to work hard at this.

[30:04] So some of us have to work harder than others at cultivating friendships but God saw Adam alone with no other human being and said this is not good. And so God says I will make a helper fit for him.

[30:17] And so God's intention from this point in time is to create a woman for him but God also needed he wanted Adam to feel his isolation before he did this.

[30:29] What does it mean for a helper to be fit for him? Well suitable to him or corresponding to him or compatible with him? A compliment to him? Not a compliment like hey I like your hair but a compliment like complimentary angles in math.

[30:44] They add up together to equal 90 degrees. And this is the final kind of compliment in creation.

[30:56] If you've paid attention this far God has created a lot of complimentary things. Things that have different roles they're different from each other but they fit together beautifully like the sun and the moon the day and the night the land and the sea.

[31:18] And at the end of this God creates man and woman. different roles different purposes working together to bring glory and honor to God.

[31:32] And part of God's good design before sin enters the world is that man Adam would be the leader and this woman that he would create would be a helper to and would be submissive to him.

[31:44] And so this isn't a result of sin. This is how God designed it from the beginning. In verse 19 we see that man has authority. So now out of the ground Yahweh God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

[32:01] And whatever the man called every living creature that was its name. So why did I say Adam has authority? Well naming things means you're in charge of them.

[32:12] Naming things means that you're over them. And so Lacey and I have named our kids because we're over them. We give them direction. We have authority over them.

[32:23] And so if someone came up and was like hi I'm so and so and I said hi I'm Joey. And they said I'm going to call you Steve. Say who are you?

[32:36] I would say have you lost your mind because I'll help you find it. They don't have the authority over me to change my name. Who are they? Now if it's Michael or Joe Rogan I'll just be like yes sir.

[32:49] Yes sir. Steve. I always wanted Steve. But naming things communicates authority and so Adam names every creature.

[33:01] Adam has authority over all creation. And in verse 20 it says the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

[33:14] Now Adam had a perfect brain one that was completely untouched by sin and the fall so it's not crazy to think that he could have quickly come up with names for these creatures and remembered them.

[33:27] Adam would have been a genius and he quickly names these creatures and categorizes them but nothing is suitable to him.

[33:38] Nothing is complementary to him. Nothing can even really communicate with him in any meaningful way and if God had not given woman to Adam he would have remained all alone.

[33:51] God knew that Adam wouldn't find a helper fit for him among the beasts of the earth but God wanted Adam to be convinced of this himself. And then verse 21 so Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

[34:15] You know what this is? This is anesthesia. Anesthesia. And when I had surgery on July 1st they gave me some anesthesia. They injected me with something. I thought I was dying.

[34:27] And they were like you'll feel kind of warm. I was like oh that's nice. Fell asleep. Out cold. Woke up and they're like hey see you buddy. No idea what happened.

[34:37] That's what happens to Adam. God sends him to sleep and opens him up and takes a rib and closes its place up with flesh. Now fun fact. Ribs will actually grow back.

[34:49] If conditions are left right ribs can grow back. It's true. I read it in a book. So there. And another fun fact. Men and women have the same number of ribs today.

[35:00] So if someone's like I hypothesize that men have one less rib than women. They're wrong. Just fun facts. But from church history. Martin Luther the reformer.

[35:11] He called his wife. Her name was Katharina. Pretty name. Katharina would be the English equivalent. Do you know what he called her? My rib. Just you know it's affectionate romantic whatever.

[35:24] Verse 22. And the rib that Yahweh God had taken from the man he made or built into a woman and brought her to the man. God made Adam from the dust and then built the woman from man.

[35:41] And this order is important. Paul picks up on it in 1 Corinthians 11. He says that for man was not made from woman but woman from man. Neither was man made for woman but woman for man.

[35:58] And so the man came first. The woman was made from him and for him. She was made as a helper for him. And so there has to be equality in value.

[36:09] They're both human beings. They're both image bearers of God. And they came from the same source. Adam came from the dirt. The woman came from Adam. So they both have their origins in the dirt ultimately.

[36:21] And so they have equality in value. They're worth the same amount if you were going to put a price on it. Even though they have a distinct role. They have different functions.

[36:32] They have different purposes. But they are equal in value. And if they came from different sources there could have been this kind of hatred that developed or envy or fighting.

[36:44] Like Adam you were made from that bad dirt. I was made of gold. Sometimes husband and wife fights are like sibling fights. But they are made from the same source.

[36:55] And it says and he brought her to the man. This is the first marriage ceremony. God is walking Eve down the aisle. God created this union.

[37:06] Adam didn't ask for it. Adam didn't come up with this idea. Adam just slept and woke up married. What a nap. God said he needed a helper and he gave him a bride.

[37:26] This is the creation of marriage. And for us if we don't speak and act in a way that honors marriage it's an attack on the one who made marriage.

[37:39] And you might think I'm 12 bruh. I don't need to think about marriage now. This starts with how you think and act now. So guys careful how you treat girls.

[37:52] You were made to honor marriage and honor the God of marriage. And ladies be careful how you talk to and about guys. You were made to honor marriage as well.

[38:04] And so don't think that you can just dabble in sin or think sinful thoughts until you get married and then you'll be fine. Because you'll have years and years of work to do to chisel up that concrete foundation of bad habits and bad thought patterns.

[38:21] If you want to have a healthy marriage start today. In how you think and in how you act. This begins now. What's Adam's reaction to all this?

[38:33] He went to bed single, wakes up with a wife. Like what? Verse 23, Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

[38:44] She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And really this is poetry. He breaks out into song. This is like a Disney movie. It's love at first sight.

[38:56] Adam's good looking. He can sing too, of course, because it's a perfect world. And he breaks out into this poem. Praising what God has done and giving him this wife. He's like, those animals, I don't care.

[39:10] This one right here, she's mine. She belongs with me. She works with me. So he breaks out into poetry. And how did Adam know what took place?

[39:24] He says so specifically, this is bone of my bones. He recognizes she was taken from man. Well, God likely told him what took place while he was asleep. And he praises her.

[39:36] And notice he names her too. He has authority even in their marital relationship. He's the leader of even this union. He says she'll be called woman because she was taken out of man.

[39:49] That's what woman means in Hebrew, coming from man. And verse 24, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

[40:03] Is this Adam talking or Moses? If you have an ESV, it's clearly marked off that this is God speaking through Moses. And Adam wouldn't have had a father or a mother, obviously.

[40:15] And so Moses is saying that this is what happened in history. This is what happened in the beginning. And out of this, this is what marriage is. A man will leave the headship of his parents and become head of his own household.

[40:29] And when you think about the Bible, the story comes before the teaching. God creates woman, Moses teaches based on that event. And this actually sets Christianity apart from a lot of religions.

[40:42] If you think about other religions, there's something they want to teach and so they make up a story to go along with it. And you think even about evolution, which is a religious belief, very much so.

[40:54] It's a faith-based worldview. They want to be able to explain how the world got here without God. That's their teaching. And so they make up a story of how things came into existence without him.

[41:07] But in the Bible, the story happens and then we live based on that story. So God creates man and woman. That's where we get our understanding and teaching of marriage. Christ rises from the dead and out of that we know how we're to live and who we're to follow.

[41:21] The story comes first. And so the pattern is that a man leaves his parents, clings to his wife and they become their own household.

[41:32] They become one flesh. So don't be a mama's boy forever. Honor your parents, love them, submit to them right now, but once you get married, you are your own household.

[41:45] Seek their advice, love them still, honor them still, but they can't ground you anymore once you get married. Some of you are like, I want to get married right now, right now. But they become their own household and become one flesh.

[41:57] This would be through their union together physically. And this is intended to have a bonding effect between them. And so we cannot play around with sexual sin.

[42:11] This is how God designed it to cling a man and a woman together for life. This is not easily broken. And something interesting, it says one flesh. So these two become one.

[42:22] These two separate individuals now belong together. And this same word is used to describe God. In Deuteronomy 6, it says we have one God. God is one. And some people look at that and are like, okay, yeah, so the Trinity is not real then because God is sometimes Father, Son, sometimes He may be the Spirit.

[42:40] What we learn from the occurrence here in Genesis 2 is that there can be plurality in this unity. Adam and Eve still exist as individuals but they are now functioning together as one unit.

[42:53] And that's a faint reflection of who our God is in three persons. Verse 25, the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

[43:08] And this is the origin of marriage. It involves two people. That idea only comes from the Bible. The marriage between two people comes directly from the Bible.

[43:20] It's to be between a man and a woman and it's to last for a lifetime. This is God's definition of marriage. This is the God who created you.

[43:32] This is the God who has saved us in Christ. And this is His thing that He created and this is how He sets it up. So we see that God created it and not man.

[43:44] And so it's not something that guys created. It's not a social construct like we talked about with speed limits. It's not just something like this seems good to us to lead our lives. It wasn't created to suppress women which some people will claim.

[43:57] Maybe you've heard that in school and if you go to college you'll definitely hear it there. And let's just imagine that marriage was Guy's idea to oppress women. How did that meeting go?

[44:08] It was like, hey fellas, meet tonight at nine. You know, we can just, we can be with whoever we want, we don't have to deal with the kids, but you know what would really oppress women?

[44:20] women if we just married one at a time and just stayed with them for all of life. And some guy at the back was like, yeah, that'll show them. No, marriage is a protection to women.

[44:32] Marriage causes flourishing for both men and women. And we see that they're unashamed, they're living together with complete fellowship and sin would bring a disruption to this unity and to this intimacy.

[44:49] It would introduce shame and distrust, but for a moment, they enjoyed the world as God intended it to be. And from this point forward, nakedness would be marked by shame and distrust and embarrassment because of sin.

[45:09] And so we learn that modesty is a good thing because nakedness is now shameful due to sin. And maybe your grandma's, you know, been like, where are her clothes at?

[45:19] But she never says that to the dog or to the cow. You know, like, animals don't share in this shame. Animals are affected by our sin, but they haven't participated in our sin.

[45:31] And so, but we are corrupted, we're stained by sin, which brings shame to us. But in Genesis 2, this was a different world. So what we see from man so far in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, he worships God, he's in relationship with God, he works, he eats, he sleeps, and he's married.

[45:58] And this is what God created men for. This is what God created men to do even in a perfect world. This is who mankind is intended to be.

[46:12] And so for us, will you be content with God's word? Or will you pursue joy in your own way? Will you listen and obey what God, listen to and obey what God says?

[46:28] Or will you try to find satisfaction somewhere else? And maybe more direct question, do you obey? Do you do what God says?

[46:39] That's what obedience means. James says, if you claim to love God but don't do what he says, that's a dead faith.

[46:52] And so you can say, I believe God, but if you don't do what he says, you're a liar. You're deceiving yourself. Do you obey? And it's not that you'll make yourself righteous before God.

[47:04] Righteousness is a gift from God, but the true sign that you believe the Bible is that you do it. You obey it. And Jesus says himself, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

[47:20] Later, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he's the one who loves me. But whoever doesn't do what I say doesn't love me. And in 1 John 5, he says, and this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life.

[47:37] And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life, but whoever does not have the son does not have life. And he says, I write these things to you who have believed in the name of the only son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

[47:54] John's saying, God gave us eternal life. I'm writing so that you would know you have eternal life. And what's the proof that he gives for knowing you have eternal life? Obedience.

[48:06] Do you obey Jesus and his word? That's the test of faith. I pray you to look to Jesus in faith and obey him. Our Father, we thank you for your word.

[48:17] We thank you for the opportunity to fellowship around it and worship you. I pray you keep these students safe this week and help them to obey you. If they haven't, bring repentance to their heart and save them, Lord.

[48:30]  And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.