The First Humans

Little girl crawled up on the lap of her great grandmother began to look carefully at her great grandmother's gray hair and ran her finger along some of her wrinkles and old age spots. Thought for a moment and said, Grandma, did God make you? Grandma smiling said, yes, he did sweetie. Little girl thought for a few more minutes and then said, well, Grandma, did God make me too? Grandma said, he sure did sweetie. He made you too. Little girl thought for a few more minutes and then said, well, don't you think he's doing a lot better job now than he used to? Well this morning we're going to look at the time when God did the perfect job of creating the first humans. In fact, those are the only humans God ever created. I know we talk about ourselves as being created but really we are, we come from procreation. God has set that process into place and in that sense we are created but the first man and woman were uniquely created and made by God. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. We are in a series just began last week series of messages on beginnings. Genesis chapters 1 through 11. So today we find ourselves in Genesis chapter 2. Last week we saw how it all began. Today we see the first humans and how God brought us into existence. Chapter 2 is just as great a battleground as we saw chapter 1 to be last week. In fact, there are numerous battlegrounds in chapter 2. Numerous battlegrounds. We're going to try to touch on some of them today and see how critical it is to our understanding of who we are. This story really is. There are three ideas as to man's origins. When it comes to how man got here, how mankind got here, there are basically three ideas. Lots of spin-offs of those. But basically three ideas. The first is evolution. Evolution teaches that the theory of evolution teaches that all living organisms arose from a common ancestor. Go all the way back to a one-celled organism which was just an accumulation of chemical and proteins and brought together by random chance occurrences. That's basically in a nutshell the theory of evolution. The second idea as to how man got here is what some people call theistic evolution. There are people who believe in God who are intimidated by the theory of evolution and try to combine the two. They've come up with several theories that together could be called theistic evolution. And that is the idea that God used the evolutionary process but ordered and directed it. Now a couple different ways that's usually seen. One is that God created that first one-celled organism and then let evolution do it from there. Or some say that evolution brought that first one-celled organism into being. And it continued to develop through the process of natural selection and time and chance and so forth through evolution. And whenever it would come to kind of a stopping point and jump to the next level across the missing link, God kind of gave it a boost and helped it to that next level. That's the way some people teach theistic evolution. The third idea as to how man got here is what I'm going to call special creation. Special creation. And that is that God miraculously brought into existence all life forms in a very brief period of time. Where there certainly is room for development within the different species or what the Bible calls kinds. There is no jumping from one species to another. There is no jumping from ape to man. There is no jumping from cat to dog or the other way around. Whichever you would think would be the better. There's no jumping between species. There is development within species but no jumping between the two. The Bible clearly teaches special creation. That's going to say that up front with no apology for that. The Bible clearly teaches special creation. Not only of all life forms but also of the first humans. If we believe the Bible, that's where we need to land. That's where we will land. That's what we're going to look at this morning in Genesis chapter 2. So I invite your attention to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 2. The first few verses of Genesis 2 are a summary of chapter 1, a summary of the creation that God did in chapter 1. So briefly let me just summarize what's there. In verse 1, you find that summary heavens and earth were completed in all their vast array verses 2 and 3 introduced God resting on the seventh day. We'll come back to that a little bit later. Verse 4 says this is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created and the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. You'll find that expression. This is the account several times. I think maybe 11 times in the book of Genesis and it always introduces a section or summarizes a section. And so what we're finding here is he's kind of concluding chapter 1 and moving on to something else. Now verses 5 and 6, I want to mention just briefly because someone actually in our congregation asked me about these verses. There are a little bit troubling. Verse 5 says, now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams or a better word to be missed. This came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. The question I was asked this has been months ago now and I wouldn't really sure how to answer it, but the question I was asked somebody was studying this and saying, you know, it says no shrub or no planted yet sprung up. That's a contradiction with chapter 1. Chapter 1, all plant life was created on day 3. So what is this and there are those who take this to be a contradiction and thus two separate records of creation that contradict each other and they just throw the whole thing out saying you can't trust this. But in looking at this a little more carefully, what we find here is it's not talking about the same thing as Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, all wild plant life, seed bearing vegetation was created by God. There's a different word used here. The word used here in verses 5 and 6, first viven particular, the Hebrew word is actually no shrub of the field and no plant of the field. This is not wild light, but this is not wild vegetation. This is plants that are planted, cultivated, irrigation brought in, whatever by mankind. These are plants of the field. These are things that you do as a horticulturalist that you actually develop and plant and cultivate and tend and care for. That's a different thing. That hadn't happened yet because that was awaiting the creation of man. That's how he leads into the creation of man. Although God had created plant life, there had been no gardening yet or farming yet if you will. That awaits the hand of man. He leads up to that to introduce to us the creation of the first humans. That's where we want our focus to be this morning, verses 7 through 25, the creation of Adam and Eve. This story is much more than a creation story. There's a whole lot more packed into this chapter than just the fact that God made Adam and then God pulled Eve out of his side. There's a lot more than that. In fact, Genesis 2 shows us what man was intended to be as the crown of God's creation. It is foundational. It meets head on so many of the philosophies and false teachings that we have in our culture today. Again, this beginning of mankind is so critical to our understanding because what God does here is not only show us our created man, he paints for us a picture of man as he was intended to be. This is what God created us to be. So we're going to look at this passage in some amount of detail so that we can find out who we are, where we came from and where we are going as God's creation. First of all, God created us to be a natural being. Verse 7, God created us to be a natural being. Verse 7 says, then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground. We want to stop right there in the middle of the verse and we'll come back to it in a moment. But God created us, formed us to be a natural being. You see the word formed there. The Lord God formed a man. It's a different word than the words that are used in chapter 1 for creation. Two different Hebrew words are used in chapter 1. Both of them kind of overlap. They're used interchangeably in the Old Testament. But they mean basically to create out of nothing. And we saw last week that God spoke and matter, popped into existence. Creation out of no existing material. This is a different word here. The word fashion or formed literally means to take existing material and craft it, mold it, shape it into something special. It's a word that's also used later in the Old Testament of a potter working with clay and shaping and molding a vessel. So what we have here is not God speaking and man pops into existence. The way man is created is different from what's happened in chapter 1. In chapter 1, he's just briefly summarized. God created man, male and female. He created himself. We're created in his image, gave him the creation mandate that we saw last week. Now in chapter 2, he's saying, okay, let's back up a little bit and get a little more detail about how man was created. Man was created differently. God took the dust of the earth and like a potter, shaped, fashioned and molded. I take the dust here not to be dry, pulverized earth. This is probably damp mass of the finest earth. And so it is much like a potter's clay. God takes that damp mass of earth and forms it into a human body. Now there's something very common and humbling about that. We're all a polydirt. Something very common and humbling about that, isn't it? And that's what Paul had in mind when he said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7. But we have this treasure speaking of the great gift of the ministry of the gospel. We have this treasure that God's given to us in jars of clay. Just clay pots and he's talking about us. God's given us this treasure. But he's entrusted it to jars of clay, clay vessels. And the reason for that is to show that this also passing power is from God and not from us. The power belongs to him because the vessel that we have is just a pile of dirt really. The composition of the body is really an amazing thing to think about. Coder and how and their book, the Bible, science and creation have taken the trouble to calculate the different chemical and physical elements of the body. The body is composed of about 58 pounds of oxygen. Preachers have a couple of extra pounds of oxygen by the way. But 58 pounds of oxygen, two ounces of salt, 50 quarts of water, three pounds of calcium, 24 pounds of carbon and some chlorine, phosphorus, fat, iron, sulfur and glycerin. That's you. That's me. We're made of the dust of this earth. And there's something very common and humbling about that. But don't stop there. There's also something extraordinarily grand and divine about that. Because God could take that common substance and form a masterpiece. The human body is an incredible masterpiece. When you think about how God has made us, only God could take the common elements of muddy soil and make this. Yes, did you know that your brain has 10 billion nerve cells to record what you see in here and how you experience life? 10 billion. Now you're not using them all. I can guarantee you that. Neither am I. But we have 10 billion nerve cells in our brain. Did you know that your skin has more than two million tiny sweat glands, about 3000 per square inch of your skin. And some of you are thinking all mine work at the same time, too. You have 3000 sweat glands per square inch of your body, all part of God's intricate design to keep the body at an even temperature. You know, God put a pump inside your chest. We call it the heart. That makes your blood travel 168 million miles a day. You say enough, John, that's not possible. When you think of all the vessels, blood vessels, arteries, veins, capillaries, every little part that your blood travels through your body, it has been estimated 168 million miles a day, 6,220 times around the world in one day. Your blood travels. Incredible. Do you know the lining of your stomach contains 35 million glands that secrete juices which aid in the process of digestion? No wonder I have acid reflux. 35 million of those things down there. Yeah. The body is an incredible creation of God. How could God take the dust of the earth, a mass of mud, if you will? And form that. Well, it shows the amazing ingenuity and creativity of Almighty God. God formed and fashioned that. We are the work of His hands. And the original was absolutely perfect. I love what Sir Fred Hoyle said. A British astronomer who was well known for debunking a lot of evolutionary arguments, although he was not a Christian. He proclaimed himself to be an atheist, but he did believe with what he saw as an astronomer in the universe. There had to be some kind of designer and some kind of design. Fred Hoyle said this. The chance that higher life forms, and this is a very familiar well known quote, the chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way speaking of evolutionary processes is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein. That's a great analogy. And he goes on to say, I'm at a loss to understand the compulsion of evolutionary biologists to deny what seems to me to be obvious that evolution is not tenable. As far as the creation of human life is concerned, he found it untenable. There must be a designer, some kind of designer, although he did not believe in a personal God, he believed in some kind of design to the universe. When you look at what God has created and made out of the dust of the earth, it is an amazing work of God. And God has made us to be natural beings. He's made us with a body. And where to use that body to glorify him, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, you are not your own, you were bought at a price, therefore honor God with your bodies. Now I know that passage is most often used for weight reduction programs and exercise programs. And certainly that could be included. And certainly I would do well to take that into account. But that's not really Paul's point. Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 6 is how we use our bodies sometimes for sexual immorality. That's the context. In fact, in verse 18, he says, flea sexual immorality, all other sins are done outside the body. Sexual immorality is done in the body. It uses the body as a vehicle for sin. And that Vinny goes right on to say, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Don't let it be given over to sexual immorality. We have natural bodies. We are a natural being, but we are not just a mass of physical processes and chemical reactions. We are not purely on this earth with an earthly focus, just living in responses to physical urges. We have a natural body that is to be used for the glory of God, not for our own self-indulgent sexual immorality. Glorify God with your body, he says. So God created us to be a natural being with a physical body that is a masterpiece of his passion and design and to be used to glorify him. But secondly, he has also made us a spiritual being. We are not only a natural being, we are also a spiritual being. You will notice that we stopped in the middle of verse 7. Verse 7 says, then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground. Here it is. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. This is fascinating terminology. God breathed into that first man, Adam. He breathed into him and Adam became a living being, a living creature. Literally the word is a living soul. It is the Hebrew word for soul. Now admittedly the same word is used of animal life in chapter 1 verses 20 and 24 where the sea teams with living creatures and the earth set, God said living creatures be on the face of the earth. And it is the same word which means animals also have breath in them but there is a great difference in how it happened which illustrates the great difference between animals and mankind. In chapter 1, animals do have breath in them. They are living souls in the sense that they have breath, the Hebrew word nefesh. They do have that but they were spoken into existence already breathing. The moment they popped into existence they were breathing. Not so with man. God first of all formed his body and then in a very personal almost intimate way with special care, God breathes into him the breath of life. In parts to him the breath of life. Actually breathing into him almost like we would think of mouth to mouth resuscitation. We are doing CPR. Even if that is figurative language either way the language indicates that there is the closest possible relationship here between God and this unique creation unlike the animals whom God speaks into existence and they are automatically breathing. God forms man and then breathes his own breath into him. You know what that indicates? We have a different relationship with God. We were created to have a relationship with God unlike the animal kingdom. God breathes his life into us as a natural being we were designed to live in tune with this earth to be able to experience all of life around us. As a spiritual being we were designed and equipped by God for a relationship with him and that's what it means for God to breathe his life, breathe his breath into the first man that he created. There is even more here the word being or creature or soul at the end of verse 7 we are living soul. That Hebrew word has at its root, the throat or the neck. That's the idea in the word and it really goes all the way back to the root idea of a desire or longing literally a thirst, a hunger for. So what God is saying is I created you a living nefesh, a living soul, a living throat oriented hunger and thirst oriented creature and the hunger and thirst I created you for is that relationship with me that I breathed into Adam the first man I created you for that. I created you for that hunger and thirst to know me and to be in relationship with me that's what David was talking about in the song we sang earlier and in this verse in Psalm 42 verse 1 as the dear pants for streams of water so my soul pants hunger thirst for you my God. God created us with that hunger and thirst in our throat if you will he created us a living nefesh hunger and thirst for God he created us for that I love the book of Ecclesiastes I've mentioned before is my favorite book and the reason for that is I believe it was Solomon's missionary track to Gentile nations to show to them that you cannot find satisfaction for that hunger or thirst and anything but God. And and men and women men and women try every way possible to satisfy that hunger and thirst thinking that it's a hunger and thirst for meaning and fulfillment and purpose in life I want to know who I am and what I'm here for what I'm supposed to do and so I'm going to get all the knowledge I can get or I'm going to have all the fun I can have I'm going to indulge in pleasure or I'm going to pour my life into my work and what Solomon says you do all that and anything else under the sun just on an earthly horizontal perspective. And you will wake up the next day with that same hunger and thirst. That's why I said it's all empty it's like chasing the wind why because the hunger and thirst God put in you is a hunger and thirst for him and it can't be satisfied any other way. Then through a relationship with God that's what he please ask these tells us several times in that book he talks about finding true purpose and fulfillment he calls it enjoying life and he makes it clear that it means to have a relationship with God. First then and only then can you interpret the world around you in the right way and you know my friend how that relationship with God comes. It's not through religion it's not through rituals and rights and ceremonies that you try to do to please God and gain his acceptance. The Bible says that we are all born into this world separated from God because Adam first send and passed down a nature to us that automatically chooses sin. We don't have to be taught to do wrong look at your little one or two year old child or grandchild you have to teach him how to do wrong. Of course not automatically do that because we're born with a sin nature and that separates us from God. God said I loved you so much I don't want you to be separated from me I want you to be in my family and so he sent his perfect son Jesus to die for us on the cross. When Jesus died he wasn't paying for his own sins he never had any. He was paying the penalty for your sin and my sin and it's not through church or religion or baptism or any right or ceremony or ritual or good life that you please God and get into heaven. It is through the death of his son and through you saying I can't get there my own way I lay it down I turn it over to Jesus Christ I lay down my own plan and purpose for life and I lay it down to him and I trust him and his death on the cross to save me. That's the only way you get to heaven. God made you for that my friend. Yes he made you a natural being he also made you a spiritual being but thirdly God also made us a practical being. In verses 8 through 15 we find at least one half of this practical side of of our being made in God's image and that is God intends for man to work. You say how John you you've put preaching on the medallion. God really did intend for man to work he intended for mankind to work look at verse 8. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food and the middle of the garden there was where the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He goes on to describe more about that garden of Eden particularly the water sources and streams and rivers in verses 10 through 14. Then look at verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Now this is before Adam's sin. This is before the curse of God on nature because of Adam's sin. I think some of us think that work is a result of the curse. That's why we hate Monday and Love Friday. But work is not a result of the curse. God put Adam to work before he ever sinned. It was to fulfill the high calling of doing what God did. God worked. He created and he made us in his image. We are designed. We are intended to work. So Adam was given a job to dress, take care of, keep, cultivate that beautiful garden that God had built. God intended man to work. Not until after the fall did work become a drudgery. That was added as a part of the curse. The thorns and thistles that would make work difficult. That was added as a part of the curse. That part of it, the drudgery part of it is a result of sin but not work itself. God intended us to work and work is still a good part of what he wants us to do. It's a part of being in his image. There is dignity in all work that obviously is morally correct, law-biting kind of occupation. There is dignity in that kind of work. Any job which helps mankind and glorifies God is something that God intended for us to do. But God not only intended man to work, he also intended man to rest. Go back to verses 2 and 3 and you find how God himself gave us the model. Verse 2 says by the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. In other words, he set it apart for a particular purpose because on it he rested from all the work of creating he had done. So God is setting up a model for us here. Did God rest on the seventh day after the six days of creation? Did God rest on the seventh day because he was tired? No. God has all power. He's omnipotent. Which among many other things means that God never loses any energy by the exercise of his power. If so, he would not have all power at some point. So the fact that God is omnipotent has all power means that there is no loss of energy through any exertion of his power. Which means God never gets tired. So God didn't rest because man that's six days of creating stuff. That was hard. I got to rest. That was not the issue. The issue was he wanted to set a pattern for us. So Moses picks up on this later when God gives Moses the ten commandments. One of them is to set aside one day of the week as a day of rest. And that was patterned on the creation model. Read it in Exodus 20. It refers back to this creation model. Israel was to take the seventh day. The day that God gave as a day of rest. That was a part of their law. We're no longer under the law of Moses, but still the pattern established in God's creative activity that we should have a rhythm of work and rest is still in place. We should work six days, rest one. There should at least be some kind of rhythm to our lives where we have some time to rest. And we ignore that to our own detriment physically, spiritually, and socially. So yes, we are made to work. We're intended to work. We're also intended to rest and God established a rhythm whereby we could refresh and rejuvenate, renew ourselves to go back to work. I remember sitting in chapel services when I was in Bible college and more than one speaker would get up and say, bless God. I'd rather burn, I'd rather burn out than rust out is the way they would say it. And they were saying, devil never takes a day off. Don't you guys ever take a day off in ministry either. I learned a long time ago that devil is not my model for anything, so that wasn't good advice. But the whole concept sounded glamorous to me at the time. I'd rather burn out than rust out until I was reading a few years after that a book by Chuck Swindall. And he was talking about God's rhythm of work and rest. And he said, you know, I've heard that expression too, but he said, you know, either way you're out. And that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Whether you're rust out or you're burnt out, either way you're out, you're no good to God if you're out, stay in the game. And the way you stay in the game is by doing what God intended us to do, God intended us to be practical beings, a rhythm of work and rest. So find some time in your busy hectic schedule where you can rest, rejuvenate yourself physically and spiritually. You have any time you can do that? I hope so. God made us to be a practical being. Forthly, and this is very important, foundational, basic. Forthly, God made us to be a moral being, a moral being. Look at verses 16 and 17. Verse 16, and the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat from it. You will certainly die. And we've heard this story so much that I think we miss what's going on here sometimes. There was nothing magical about that tree. It was not a Disney tree where there was pixie dust on the fruit, or something glimmering or glamorous about that piece of fruit. And if you touch that fruit, or eat that fruit, boom, your eyes are really opened and you know good and evil. That's not the issue here. The issue is that God had placed one restraint on mankind. Now follow me a moment. This is so critical to our understanding of morality. And how God instituted morality in mankind. God gave man one restraint and it was to test his love for God by giving him an opportunity to reject God if he sowed chose, if he sow desired. You see, true love is based on trust and choice, not force. And so from the very time of creation, God gave man a choice. He created him with the ability to choose to reject God's will and God's command if he sowed choose. And in obedience to God's command, he would prove and show the genuineness of his love. And that's still true today. That's why Jesus said in John 15, if you love me, you will what? Keep my commandments. The evidence of love is the willingness to obey God. So there's not something magical about the fruit of this tree that imparts some kind of special knowledge. They already knew what good was because all of creation was good. They knew what good was to this obey God would be to have their eyes opened to evil. That is the whole point. Nothing magical about that piece of fruit that the fruit of this tree won't do this to you but there's something in that apple or pear or whatever it was that will make you no good and evil. It's not that. It's the concept itself that God gave a choice if you choose to obey God, you continue to experience and no good. If you choose to obey or disobey God and disobey his command, then you learn by experience what evil is. That's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's why it was there. Now embedded in that whole deal here about God making this tree and placing it in the garden and giving them this opportunity to either obey and show their love or disobey and reject his will. To no good or to no evil. The whole point of this is to help us understand how morality is based. There are three principles of morality in this story right here in verses 16 to 17. Number one is this. God made man with the capacity to recognize and choose right and wrong. God made us with the capacity to recognize and to be able to choose the difference between right and wrong. You know there is a surprising sense of morality in all people. Now that may surprise you but there is. People have the inborn put there by God capacity to recognize right and wrong. Now not everybody gets it right. Not everybody has the right concept of right and wrong because even the most immoral people and wicked people who have some idea of what's right and wrong, it's twisted and perverted because of sin. So we don't always agree with God and what he says about what's right and wrong but everybody has some sense inside that there is a right and wrong. Even even philosophers who say there are no moral absolutes. There is really no moral absolute of right and wrong. You choose whatever's right for you. I'll choose what's right for me and you can't tell me I'm wrong. I'm not saying those who say that. The next time they say that to you just ask them, oh okay so there is no real right or wrong. You know what I feel like doing to that? I feel like taking your life. You can't do that. That's against the law. That's wrong. Oh really? So there is an absolute wrong. Or I want to empty your bank account. I want to steal everything you have. You can't do that. That's against the law who established the law. The government. Where they get that? They got it from God. There is absolute right and absolute wrong and God made man with the insight to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. Now that has been polluted by sin and so people don't always understand what's right and what's wrong. Get it all confused and messed up. But Paul talked about this in Romans chapter two about this inbuilt part of morality that God's put in the heart, the human heart. He says indeed when Gentiles who do not have the law speaking in his day, they don't have the Old Testament, the law given to Israel, they don't have the scriptures in other words. When Gentile nations who do not have the Bible telling them what's right and wrong, do by nature things required by the law. I mean most people understand that to steal is wrong, to lie is wrong, to commit adultery is wrong, to take human life is wrong. They do by nature the things are in law. So what is that? He says they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law, the written word of God. Now notice how he goes on to describe that. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts. You see there's something that God has built into the human nature that has the capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong. So they show the requirements of the law written on their hearts. Their conscience is also bearing witness to that inborn capacity that is terming right and wrong. Conscious bearing witness and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and other times even defending them. The reason why people feel guilty, even if they've never read a copy of scripture when they do certain things is because of the inborn capacity God has put in the human heart to know that there is a right, there is a wrong. And the reason why people sometimes feel like they have to defend themselves is because deep down they know they violated something, they've done something wrong. And so their thoughts are either defending them or accusing them based on this unwritten law of God in their hearts. What we're talking about here is that God has placed within mankind the capacity to recognize and choose right and wrong. But there's a second principle of morality in this tree of knowledge of good and evil placed in the garden and the reason why it was there. The second principle is this. God alone determines right and wrong. You say, how do you get that out of Genesis 2, 16 and 17? Because God put the tree in the garden. And God is the one who said, if you take that fruit, if you disobey my command, then you learn by experience what evil is. I'm the one who establishes what right and wrong is, what good and evil is. Again, please don't misunderstand this. It's a literal tree. Yes, but there's not necessarily any magical quality in that tree or it's fruit. It was just that God said, this is my test. God could have also said, here's a stone. Don't pick this one up and move it. Or he could have said, okay, here's a brook in the garden. Don't cross over to the other side of this one. The point is not the tree. It could have been a stone or a brook or anything else. The point is that God said, I'm establishing what is right and what is wrong. What is right is to obey my will, my word. What is wrong is to violate my commands. That is what right and wrong are. God is the one who determines right and wrong. To experience right is to be obedient to God. To experience wrong and evil is to be disobedient to his command. Whatever that command would have looked like, he just chose it to look like a tree. That was his command. So God alone determines right and wrong. And then the third principle of morality is man violates God's standard at his own peril. If you violate God's standard, if you choose to go against what God teaches in his word about what's right and what's wrong. If you choose to disobey the right and go toward the wrong, you will do so to your own destruction and ultimately to God's judgment. You do so at your own peril. My friend, what the book of Genesis is teaching us in the beginning when God placed man in a garden and placed one restriction on him, what the book of Genesis is teaching us is this. And we need to hear this in our culture today. There is absolute truth. There is absolute morality. There are absolute rights and wrongs. There is absolute good. There is absolute evil. And those are said in stone. It is not the pluralism and relativism that we hear from our culture today. Relativism basically says, there is no absolute right or wrong. You have to determine for yourself what's right for you and what's wrong for you. And it may be different for someone else. So you can't tell me that I'm wrong when I choose this or that or the other. That's relativism and that flies directly into the face of the Bible. The Bible does not teach that. There is an absolute right and absolute wrong and absolute good and absolute evil and it is God who establishes what they are. We also live in a pluralistic culture. Purilism teaches that every world view, every religion, every philosophy is equally valid. So you can choose whatever one you want and you can't criticize me for choosing mine. That flies directly in the face of the Bible. But it is what is shouted to us today in our culture. It flies directly in the face of the Bible. Now we are not pluralistic. God himself as our creator has given us his word. And we know from his word what is right, what is wrong. Not every religion is unequal terms. Not every philosophy is unequal terms. Not every viewpoint is unequal terms. Those which align with God's word are right, those which do not are wrong. We need to get back to that friend because our whole culture is telling us the exact opposite. And I don't know about you but I'd kind of rather stand on God's side than man's on this issue. We were created to be a moral being. God made us with the capacity to choose right and wrong. God alone determines what is right and wrong and we violate his standards at our own peril. This is absolutely foundational and basic because it goes against everything we are being taught today. We are also a rational being. God created us to be a rational being versus 19 and 20. Very quickly the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man called each living creature that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. Isn't it interesting that God expected Adam to use that brilliant mind that he created him with? He expected him to use that mind to think, to analyze, to study, to apply the fruit of his knowledge. He didn't just bring the animals, parade them by Adam and say, okay, this is donkey, this is cow, this is horse, this is dog. No, no. He said, Adam, you study them. You look at them and Adam did this incredibly quickly because he had the only perfect mind in all of human history. He and Eve. Before it began to be contaminated by sin. He did it incredibly quickly but he was able to analyze and scientifically categorize the whole animal kingdom. Incredible. Now Adam had a lot to work with up here that was not contaminated by sin yet. But I think God in doing this, in bringing him the animals to name rather than just telling him what they were to be named. And also intending the garden, God was saying to him, I'm giving you the opportunity to discover, to use the intellectual capability that I've given you to the fullest extent. So analyze, describe, discover, observe and categorize. This is the beginning of scientific observation and categorical analysis. This is the beginning of zoology. This is the beginning of all of that kind of science. And God intended us to use our minds. I love this verse. I laugh almost every time I read it in Proverbs 25, verse 2. It says, should be there. It says, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is the glory of kings to search out a matter. I love that verse and it's almost humorous because it's like, God says, I'm going to create this amazing earth and I'm going to hide a bunch of stuff. And I'm going to give man the opportunity to analyze, discover, find it out. Now in that day of course kings led that matter and they delegated certain things to other people. But it's for all of us really to search out what God has hidden every scientific discovery is fulfilling that verse and the mandate that God gives mankind in creation. To be able to analyze what God has placed here for us to discover and learn and then to use and turn demands benefit. God intended us to think, to use our mind to interact with the creation he's put around us. So he made us a rational being and then finally God made us a social being. He made us to have relationships with one another and he highlights the closest of human relationships in the rest of the creation story. The relationship of husband and wife. Notice, verse 18. The Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. You know, six times in chapter one, God had said it's good. And if the end of creation he had said it is very good. But now for the first time it's not good. For the first time something is not good. Is there something wrong with God's creation? Did he make a mistake? No, obviously not. It's just that he's not quite finished yet. This is still on day six when he made man. So his creation is still incomplete because man does not have a matching companion. And so what God does in order to make Adam aware of his need for a companion is bring the animals by for him to name. Now there's an intellectual pursuit involved in as we just saw, but there is also an object lesson of the fact that, hey, there are two cats or two dogs. I believe God made two of each to be able to procreate. But I don't see anyone else around here looks like me. I don't see anyone that corresponds to me. I don't see someone suitable for me. And so God created this awareness of a need of a companion. And then in verses 21 through 23, God did the first surgery. 21 and 22. God did the first surgery. A lot of firsts in the book of Genesis, aren't there? And you doctors will love this. It's the first surgery that God, God himself did. And you know the story. The Bible says he took a rib. He put Adam into a deep sleep. He did the first anesthesiology and put him into a deep sleep and took a rib. Literally the Hebrew word is sighed. Part of the besides is not necessarily just the rib, but part of his side, part of Adam himself, part of what was close to his heart. He took it and made a woman. And then he brings the woman to her. Look at verse 23. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She should be called woman for she was taken out of man. I've read this before and kind of just kind of read through it. You know, not really grass, the significance of what Adam must have been feeling. It's easy for us to think this is just another part of Adam naming something a living creature. You know, he's got his little note pad out, this clipboard. And he's been naming all the animals. Okay, this is chipmunk. This is dog. This is hog. This is skunk. This is woman. This is... No, it's not that. Especially not in relationship to some of those animals, I mentioned, but it's not that at all. There's something unique here when the Bible says this is now. This is now. Don't slide by that. Adam has just seen a parade of all the animals and nobody corresponds to him. And the Hebrew word literally means at last. Where you been all my life, Eve? At last. She's like me. This is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. I have a companion. She should be called woman for she was taken out of man. Interesting word play here. This is a different word for man than used in the first chapter. The word for man is the word Adam or Adam. Literally the first man was Adam. Adam. This is a different word. It's the word ish. You can say that in a way that almost sounds like some of us men ish. But on the end of it, there's an ending ishah, which means out of ish. Ish man ishah out of man. And it symbolizes the very wording symbolizes the beautiful relationship and union that God intended man and woman to have. So here is one who is designed to correspond to him and complete him and be a helper to him and all of his creation mandate and discovery and work and everything to be a helper to him and to really complete him. This is this is woman and Adam is delighted to see her. But what we have here is something more than just a cool story. What we have here is principles of marriage being laid down for us. And again, I don't have much time, but just to briefly mention them. But you know when you hear them how critical these are in the culture in which we live, in the society and how we're being bombarded. Again, we need to go back to the basics. We need to go back to the basics, the foundations, the beginnings. How did God intend this to work? And therefore principles for marriage that he clearly institutes here. First of all, marriage is instituted by God and it is good. It was not good for Adam to be alone. When he makes the woman, then Adam is excited about it. It's good. That's a good thing. All the problems in marriage are caused because of sin. God's original intent was for marriage to be good. Now, any pastor who has been in ministry long at all knows that sometimes sin absolutely destroys marriages. Sometimes, sad to say except for the miraculous act of God sometimes beyond repair. Now, I know that. I know that happens. But it was not God's original intent. God's original intent marriage is good. It's instituted by me. Second principle about marriage. Marriage is to be monogamous. In other words, one man, one woman, one partner, one mate, one spouse. You know, God did not create Adam and Eve and Ethel and Edith and Evelyn and there were a lot of choices. There was one choice. One mate. That was it. You say, well, John, well, I know that really. Our culture doesn't. Time magazine. This week's issue. September 21st, issue of Time Magazine titled The Question Everything Issue. And they raised 21 cultural questions in that issue. Just looking at it this past week. The whole purpose of this lead article is as designed on the first page of that article to celebrate uncertainty. It's a direct quote from the article. To celebrate uncertainty. And so they raised all these issues. Question everything that, again, that's pure relativism, which is not what the Bible teaches. Basically, if that's saying there are no absolute rights and wrongs, you decide for yourself what's right and wrong. So question everything. Come up with your own definition of right and wrong. And you know what the lead issue of the 21 is? The one that's on the front cover? I'll quote it. Is monogamy over? Now, to their credit, they give both pro and con. And the one they quote to give the against question is monogamy over. No, it's not. It's anti-standly in Atlanta, well in pastor. But they have about three other people that argue for yes, monogamy is over. That's the thing of the past. Have as many affairs as you want to have this question of this issue of monogamy. That's the thing of the past. Forget that. It's not the way we live anymore. And there's one person that even argues for polygamy. That's where we're headed as a culture. Not God's original intent. That's why friends. That's why because of time magazine September 21st, 19th or 20th, 2015 article, that's why it's a reflection of our culture. That's why we need to be regrounded in God's word and the original arrangements he made. And that is that marriage was to be monogamous. Monogamy is not over in God's eyes. Third principle of marriage marriage is to be heterosexual. God made a woman for Adam, not a man. And our culture, as you well know, is slipping quickly, lightning fast speed away from this basic principle. And then lastly, marriage was to express a deep union between husband and wife. Adam even said it. This is why man leaves his father and mother. That relationship changes. United to his wife, they become one flesh. That becomes the priority relationship. And it is so close that the physical union illustrates the union of the two lives. And Adam and Eve were both naked and they felt no shame. There was an a oneness with perfect ease, beautiful ease, no guilt, no shame. That's the way God intended it. Those are the principles of marriage found in Genesis 2. Now, friend, this is what God made us for. This is the beginning of man. These are the first humans, Adam and Eve. And they show us what God intended us to be against everything that is flying at us and being thrown at us in our culture. We need to come back to these basics. We are a natural being. Yes, made of flesh and bone. Yes, made of the dirt of this ground. Yes, but to glorify God with our bodies. Not to use them for self-indulgent, self-centered immorality. We are a spiritual being designed with the very hunger and thirst for a relationship with God. We are practical being designed to have a rhythm of work and rest. We are a moral being with the capacity to choose right and wrong, but God determines what right is and what wrong is. And we violate that at our own peril. We are a rational being designed by God to interact with all that's around us with the minds that he gave us and we are social beings, particularly designed for relationships. And when God allows you to marry, that relationship becomes the chief relationship designed after his pattern. I want to ask you two questions in closing. Not in closing. I hope I do ask you these questions in closing, to be honest. I just got done with verse 25. Sorry. In closing, two questions. Number one. Are you trying to find yourself? That's a big deal today, isn't it? Go find yourself. Get off going a world tour or do something. Go find yourself. Experience other things in life that you always thought were wrong so you can find yourself. You want to find yourself? I'll tell you where to go. Go back to Genesis 2. That's where you'll find exactly who God made you to be. Exactly what he intended for you. It's all wrapped up in these six things. You'll find yourself there. Second question. Are you living as God intended? This is what God intended for you. Take home these six elements of who God made you to be and ask yourself, am I living up to who God intended for me to be or am I falling short? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. So clear. In your word, if we just give it the time to penetrate our hearts and minds. Thank you for what you've shown us. You intend us to be. Father, I pray especially this morning for anyone who's never recognized their need of a relationship with you. They've never realized that hunger and thirst they have inside is really for you. It's not for money. It's not for fame. It's not for pleasure. It's for you. I pray that today they would come to their senses and come to Christ. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.