This morning we turn to Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2, and I want to, I noticed just so you all know, they have taped the bulletins for me up here to the pulpit, so there's no more losing of those. We've solved the problem officially. We are in a study of the book of Genesis, if you are with us this morning and visiting, And this morning we come to Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 through 17. Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 through 17. We're going to be looking at this this morning in a little bit bigger picture and look at the importance of what the Lord is telling us here, Genesis chapter 2. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made a spring, 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. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided out and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havala, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Delim and Onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 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. For the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. May the Lord bless the hearing of the word. Not so long ago, there was an article that appeared by Victor Hansen called The Two Californians. And in that article, he describes riding his bike through much of the Central Valley. And I was of interest to that since I grew up there. And he talks about towns like Mendota and Fireball and Carruthers and Fowler and Selma. Towns you'd never want to ride your bike through, by the way. He records what he saw. Remember when the Dust Bowl travelers and they had come to California, they had come over and the first thing they said is, this is the Garden of Eden. This is amazing. He records and Hanson says this, the rural roads of California are fast turning into rubble, Poorly maintained and reverting to what I remember seeing long ago in the rural south. There has been a general depression in farming to such an extent that the small tree and vine farmer has ceased to exist. On the western side of the Central Valley, the effects of arbitrary cutoffs in federal irrigation water have idled tens of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land. Many of the rural trailer house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different than what I've seen in the third world. There's a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps substituting for replacement shingles, pit bulls unleashed, geese and goats and chickens roaming around the yards, vineyards overgrown with weeds. California coastal elites may worry about the oxygen content of water available to a three-inch delta smelt in Sacramento, but they seem to have no interest in the epidemic dumping of trash, furniture, and often toxic substances throughout California's rural hinterland. Yesterday, for example, I rode my bike by and stopped by a van just as the occupants tossed several bags, plastic bags, of raw refuse. on the side of the road. In fact, trash piles are commonplace out here. The article ends by saying, California, once so glorious, has become repressed and wild. I raised that this morning. I raised that because it gives you a sense, maybe if you can, I can see that. I can see it when I go back to the Central Valley. But if you can think of something that once was lush and watered and beautiful, becoming that, you know, living now in a fallen world, we see the devastating effects of the fall upon this theater that God created for his glory. A world full of misery and sadness and emptiness and what appears to us as a creation just by man stripping it apart and falling apart. I sometimes wonder if we ever stop and think, what was it in the garden? Do we ever stop and think, what was it when it originally had been created? What was that like? What was the glory of that? Can you imagine a world not falling? Of course not. But what was paradise like? You ever stopped and given consideration to it? And whose fault was it that we ended up like this? That's what we're considering this morning. We're looking at paradise before the fall. That's what's being described for you in Genesis 2. You're looking at your original home to make it even more clear, boys and girls. This was home. This was it. And the Lord has given a lot of detail here. Yes, to tell us this is a real place, but to think about what we lost, to think about what happened, that we might ask the important question, how could this all be recovered? What did it cost for this to be recovered? Would the Lord do that? That's what I want you to think about this morning as we go through some of the details here in Genesis and look at the big picture. God had said right from the beginning, everything that I made, it is good. Good. He delighted in it. It was a good creation. It was a beautiful creation. Whatever was to go wrong, it wasn't his fault. And the text is continuing to show us this. Genesis chapter 2 is showing us. It's showing us God's building project. It's zeroing in on this garden place that God had built, that God constructed. and that's where we're focused this morning in this first section here of genesis two and four following the lord is really dealing with two problems and you'll notice there in verse five that there are no plants or herbs because the lord had not caused it to rain on the earth the second problem being that there's no man to cultivate the ground both of these problems in the initial section here are solved by our Lord the Lord makes rain from the mist and in verse 7 he gives life to Adam and I love verse 7 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 being It's an intimate act. God breathed, and man became a living being. I think we're a little bit ignorant as to what the original creation was, what it was designed to be. We tend to think, maybe boys and girls, that the original garden was a place where Adam could run around and play with the lions and sniff roses, right? Is that what it was? What had God really done here? What is this communicating to us? Chapter 2. You read in verse 8 that the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. The creation now account is zeroing in. We're looking at this from a different kind of perspective. We're zeroing in on this particular region that the Lord had formed and now where he had placed the man. He had planted a garden there. i love to think about that for a moment when you look at the way it's presented to us and some of the wording that's used you get the idea that the lord had fastened something in this work something stood out in eden something that was different garden even giving the sense of an enclosed park a beautiful park fenced off fully protected eden name means luxury or or pleasure and so in this garden you'll notice that that art it's described as having all manner of trees and vegetation all of these resources were there every physical need for man was met it was a place of fulfillment it was a place of enjoyment absolute full of delight enclosed off if you will from everything else and the luxury that's being described if you look at verse 9 out of the ground the lord god made every tree grow that is pleasant to sight and good for food it was a tree park fully enclosed and everything that we could imagine of beauty was there we don't appreciate beauty today the way we should you know when you go to yosemite and you look up and you see half dome and you see all of the beauty we really should even today stand in awe of the creator But I tell you, that doesn't hold a candle to the Garden of Eden. Beautiful. And notice, you have all these things described that, you know, when we read it, you think, well, why is the Lord giving us this detail? Is it really important? You have rivers described. And you have all these stones and gold described. And you'll notice here how these things are described in Eden. This is unique. You know, rivers usually come together and they go out to the ocean. But you'll notice here that the center of this water source is in the Garden of Eden. And from there it parts out to the four corners of the earth. Beautiful. This mass water source starting in Eden, in the Garden. What in the world is this? What are we looking at? I could pile on a lot more detail about this and try to tell you where the rivers are and what this mist is. I've heard sermons on the mist. Sorry, I just don't think that's helpful. What is this? In Ezekiel 28, the Lord had described the king of Tyre and he compared him to Adam. And this is what he said. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. And he goes through all the sardis and topaz and diamond and beryl and onyx and jasper and sapphire and turquoise and emerald with gold. You were anointed with cherub who covers you. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. And that is an amazing statement. You walked back and forth amidst the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity found you. Then you became filled with violence and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out as a profane thing. Here it is again. Out of the mountain of God. The mountain of God. Eden was God's original mountain. The holy mountain. Eden was a sanctuary. Eden was the first sanctuary. Eden linked earth to heaven. A grand mountain there sat. And it linked the two. It was beautiful. God was on the temple mount. And as the sovereign, He had erected this new house. He had erected a beautiful house, a theater of glory for Himself. Creation was God's construction place. And it was a place, we think, yes, for us to house us, but I think we should think of it too as a place where God came down to dwell with us. God tabernacled with us. And you kind of understand when David, you know, said, I'm going to build you a house. And the Lord said, you're going to do what? Who builds who? You're going to build a house for me to dwell in? I'll raise somebody up who will build that house. But the perspective of Scripture and the psalmist was, you know, They understood this about creation. They understood this about the theater that God had made. When they talked about being before God, Moses, as I quoted in the prayer, understood that God Himself was His house. And that in Psalm 84, I love to be in your courts. I love to dwell in your house because, Lord, You are a sun and a shield. When God rested on the seventh day, The work of creation being finished. You get the sense that when he sat on the throne, there he is on the mountain of God on his throne. And Adam is enjoying that. Adam is enjoying access. The heavens being his throne and the earth is what? Footstool. It's linked. When we come and we read that God placed man in the Garden of Eden, what we have here is the original, and you see this develop throughout history. You see this being taught to you. This is not so unfamiliar to you if you understand the flow of the Scriptures. What you see developed here is the original temple sanctuary. The original holy place. The cherubim were there. We know that from the next section. it was a sanctuary temple garden they say home is uh is where the heart is right and now you can kind of appreciate i believe that proverb's true you can kind of appreciate why the lord said don't store it up here there's a home for you elsewhere where the lord is and that's where you should place your value that's what you should understand he who dwells psalm 91 everyone loves psalm 91 he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide under the shadow of the almighty all of that for me when i read that is garden language it's beautiful the garden of eden was holy ground the tent the this particular garden was holy ground when god came down this shouldn't surprise us to dwell with israel remember what he commanded them to build it was a structure and moses goes up on the mountain and he goes up and he receives a building plan is what he receives and it was a building plan not of of anything that moses had constructed he had received a copy of what was in heaven and so moses comes down and what did he build he said the lord said let them make me a sanctuary that i may dwell among them according to everything that i showed you on the mountain it would be wrong to think that when god went in the wilderness with them he was put in a little box it'd be wrong the exact opposite is true if you study out the plans of the tabernacle which is really an amazing study the inner room was the most holy place and in that inner room there was a seat and then you remember there was a curtain a first curtain that came down and woven all over that curtain and on the inside of these rooms were cherubim everywhere when you walked in all you saw were images of cherubim with outstretched wings. And you remember that after that veil from the most holy place which has the image of cherubim there full of beautiful colors and beautiful purple and woven images of these cherubim, all of that was to be Israel in understanding of the throne room of God. And that around the throne of God our cherubim wings together this was the vision of isaiah wings together shielding the glory as as ezekiel says the glory torches passed between them it was on fire god was on fire and that glory had to be shielded even the cherubim couldn't see it so there was the most holy place and and there the throne represented and that cherubim there and then the entrance if you remember to the outer courtyard had another veil and you know if you ever look at representations of what was on that veil they're beautiful images of the earth colors all these beautiful colors the jews understood when they depicted it of having the sun the moon and the clouds and the stars you know those rooms never touched the earth they were never allowed to touch the earth and putting this together the inner room being the most holy place which corresponds to where god dwells in his holiness the second level distinct from the second level and when we look up what do we see we see the images we see the sun the moon and the stars as the door to heaven if you will and then you had the court where god's people could come then you had the far outside where the world well and and what you have here is a replica that the lord commanded them to make a mini replica of the universe how they were to understand it that the lord was the center And you know, that's what you have here. In Genesis chapter 2, you have these rivers flowing. And where in the Scriptures do these rivers come from? The throne. This is where God is. Revelation says at the very end, there's a pure river of water, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Remember Isaiah's description. spirit lifted me up and brought me in the inner court and behold the glory of the lord filled the temple and i heard him speaking to me from the temple while a man stood beside me and he said to me son of man this is the place of my throne and the place of the souls of my feet where i dwell in the midst of the children of israel forever now i rehearse all of that this morning to say this is what Adam had. And Adam was in communion with God. And Adam had that communion and fellowship and access to worship, working and resting. The original land of milk and honey. Not having anything enter that offends, right? We'll get there. And Adam was given this privilege to work for this king. Adam was given the privilege to serve this king. And so you notice how the text transitions to telling us of the responsibility of Adam. You'll notice there that there were two responsibilities outlined in the garden for Adam. The first God gave to Adam was to what? Cultivate. And I love the second word. You know, you have keep, but the word means to guard. Adam, you are to guard this garden. So verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and guard it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 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, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Guard it. Keep it. Cultivate it. If Adam was in the holy place and he had here this great responsibility, what kind of function was it? It was a priestly function. What do I mean by that? He was to cleanse the temple from anything that offends. There was a responsibility, you know, throughout history, a priest to guard and not let anything in the temple that offended. And Adam was given a military post, if you will. Adam was a warrior. I don't know what he looked like, but I think before the fall, this guy was something. He could put on the armor of God. And he was called to crush. And I say, guard the sanctuary wide. Who comes in in the next chapter? Who slithers right on in there? Which tells you that the angels had already left their proper abode. Adam was to crush the head of the serpent. Adam was to defend. He was given this responsibility. And then the Lord established a covenant with Adam. And the Lord God commanded the man, every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. In this garden were these two trees. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A tree of testing, of loyalties. The issue before Adam was, who would Adam serve? He had this choice here to align himself with the true God of heaven and earth and fight the good fight that God had assigned him in opposing the kingdom of Satan and glorify his God as he was created to do. Or would he align himself with the greatest counterfeit? The one who had become antichrist. In other words, putting it this way, would Adam pursue knowledge and glory apart from God's Word? What he reveals. Will you try, Adam, to take this power and to take understanding and define it for yourself. And that has been history of mankind. Trying to define things for themselves. Adam was faced with this choice. And when the devil came to him, would Adam live by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God or not? In the midst of the garden, there's another tree. There's the tree of life. a tree that had the ability to give life, eternal life. All of this you've heard and you've probably studied for years. But I want you just to pause for a minute and to think about this communion. Adam stands there. He's able to worship and enjoy God. He's in happiness. He has no agony. He has no sin. He has a great privilege given to him by God. He's satisfied with the Lord, his God. And you know what happened. He turned from it. He turned from it. He chose death. And he partook of the fruit, and here we are. He partook of the fruit, and he ate, and we're in this misery. And what a horrible moment it must have been. You know, we'll get there next week. When God came on the first judgment day, that's what it was. It was the first judgment day. And the Lord came, and He approached Adam. And Adam hides from the glory of the Lord. And the Lord curses, you remember. And death fell on all of us. And what did the Lord do? Lest He come and partake of the tree of life, He's gone. He's out. He booted them out of the garden. The cherubim put up flashing swords. and what has been the picture of mankind ever since he is a wanderer and they're wandering and they have no place to go i can only imagine the horrible sense of loss at that moment for adam cast away by god himself alone in a dry and thirsty land where there's no more water for him and now He can't come to the sanctuary. Isn't that what we sung out today? Can't come. Can't come. And you see this morning, this is the story of mankind. This is the story of human existence. This is the reality all around us. A lost human race under the grip of sin and daily trying to sustain themselves but daily treasuring up for themselves the wrath of God. Wanders with no purpose. It's no small coincidence that in Genesis 11, they get together and they say, let's build it back. Let's build the mountain back and let's get back up there ourselves. It's the Tower of Babel. We'll do it. And God says, no. Disperses them. Did God leave us here? What did God do? He could have consigned us all to hell. He could have left us in this state. He could have done that justly and rightly and punished us in Adam. But what's amazing about the Scriptures, and I wonder if there's anyone who's come in today off the streets and hearing this, and you've wondered about the sadness of this life and where this all came from, God just defined it for you. He spoke. But the beautiful Christian gospel is this. From Genesis 3 so early to Revelation 22, what we have revealed on the pages of the Bible is God's incredible love and mercy to bring people back to Him. To bring them back into His presence. His relentless pursuit to do that. And that's why all of the Scriptures are teaching us, you can't bring yourself back. But God would do it in His Son. The second Adam would come. And here's the central message. Christ comes. And what's the first thing that's declared about Him? What's the first thing that John reveals about Him? In the beginning was the Word. And what does it say about the Word? He is God and He came down here and became one of us and tabernacled among us. And I think those early apostles understanding the full story were mind-blown. He comes not to a paradise but to a wilderness. And there He's met right at the beginning of His earthly ministry by who? Satan. who tries to conquer him with the same issue. Will you live by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God? And Jesus does. No deviance. And then he enters, he goes into John, and he goes right on into the temple early in the ministry, and what does he communicate to everyone? He's cleansing it. I have come to cleanse my Father's temple. My Father's house. And the whole picture of Christ's mission, he's plundering the kingdom. He's plundering the kingdom of Satan. Binding him, plundering his house. Jesus is doing what the first Adam did not do. And he's cultivating and he's guarding. Notice how much passion he has for the truth. Notice how much passion he has for God's truth to defend it. It's what he's about. And we wouldn't do real well with how passionate he was with that truth. And on the last day of the great feast, imagine this. He stands up and he says to the people, if anyone thirsts, think of these rivers in Genesis. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. That's what I give. And he represents himself in his ministry as the river of life that imparts life to the four corners of the earth. And then what does he do? He's the only way we have access back. He begins a temple building project, doesn't he? And he rebuilds the Lord's house with his own body. Something still needed to be done. The curse was on us. And so he sets himself toward Jerusalem. And where does he go? The holy place. Still, in our filthy garments, he's concerned about this. He steps into a garden. The Garden of Gethsemane. This garden was nothing like the garden that Adam was in. This garden is overrun. And he enters the garden alone and he faces the excruciating wrath of God in Adam's place, in our place, when the Lord said, Death to you, it hits him. And there, he goes and climbs up Golgotha, which is the place of the skull, crushing the head of the serpent, saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that you might be given today the right back to what? What appears in Revelation? the tree of life giving us the right to eat freely of that those who overcome and how do you overcome you overcome by his blood you see in revelation there's described a river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of god and of the lamb there is no more curse there It says, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. There's no night there. They have no need of a lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. I close this this morning having us think about which Adam we're in. Because that seems to be the way that the New Testament Scriptures apply it in Romans 5. You're either in one or the other. And if you remain in the first Adam, you go to a place called hell. But you see how wonderful this gospel message is? That the Lord announces freely to whoever come to Him, trust in Him, believe in Him. You know what He's done for you? He's built you a house. He's the builder. That's what the Old Testament tells us. He's the builder of the house. He is your sanctuary. And He has made a way back to paradise, conquering. And today He says, fix your eyes on me. I know it's hard. I know it's a struggle. I know you feel at times you're in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. But you see what I've done for you? I have given you access. You understand the beauty of it when Hebrews says you can come. You can come today with boldness and enter and enjoy Him anticipating. Anticipating the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness shall dwell. The Lord just said to you, to all who believe, I'll bring you there. I will bring you there. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. I pray every last one of you here today love Him. Let's pray. O Lord our God, we thank You for giving us this text and giving us a big picture that we would see, Lord, how glorious the work of Christ is for us. And that we, Lord, when we see all of the sadness happening around us and we see a world full of sin and misery, that our eyes would be fixed on the One who came to deliver and to restore and to make right. You are so good, your creation declares to us that what you start, you finish. And that you have been working to ensure that every last one of your sheep are brought before your face in glory. We praise your name for this and ask, Lord, that our minds and hearts would be overwhelmed and thankful for your truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.