God's Garden

Turn with me in your Bible to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 to 17. We're going to talk about God's garden today. God's garden, that is the garden of Eden. Eden in Hebrew means delights. Genesis chapter 2 tells us that from the outset of creation, God had a purpose and plan for man. And that purpose was his delight. That is, that man would be delighted. You don't probably understand that, but from the very beginning of creation, God had a purpose that man would be blessed. In fact, God wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed.

God wants to use you. More than you want to be used. And today, as you look at God's garden, we're going to understand those two principles very clearly because God wants to use you in a mighty way.

So we come to understand that when man enters a relationship with God, he enters the most beneficial relationship because it's with the living God, the creator of the world. And because God is our Creator, we are the Created, we begin to understand God's delight for man by looking at Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 to 17. God's garden. We want to cover four things with you this morning. They're in your notes. Hopefully, you'll take notes today. We want to look first of all at the terrain, the terrain around the garden and in the garden.

From there, we're going to look at the trees, the tree of life. and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From there we'll look at the trust that God gave to man.

It was a special trust and it was a sacred trust. And then we're going to look at what is called the test, the command of God.

And the consequences for failing that test. Okay? Genesis chapter 2, verse number 4. We'll begin with looking at the terrain around the garden. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made heaven and earth. We'll stop there just for a moment. Chapter 2 tells us more of the creation account of Dave chapter 6. In fact, chapter 2 complements chapter 1. So when we study verses 4 and following, we're going to understand more of what happened on day number 6 of creation when God created man, when God created a garden to put man.

When God told Adam to name all the animals, and when God gave Eve to man. Read on, verse number five. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted. For the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth. And the water, the whole surface of the ground. So we see from the very beginning of time that there was no rain. That's why when. God told Noah that there was going to be rain.

Noah had no idea what rain was because he had never seen rain. Instead, there was a mist that would come up out of the ground. Now, the Hebrew word ed. Means inundation or flooding. This was more than just a little mist that might come out of a sprinkler system. This was literally God's irrigation system. It's a word that means to flood or to inundate with water. God had plenty of water in which to water the earth with because there was water underneath the ground and God would have that water be that instrument which would grow the plants and grow the trees.

There, not only around the garden, but in the garden itself. And then it says in verse number seven: Then the Lord God formed man of dust. From the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Let's go on to verse number eight. And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there he placed the man. whom he had formed. Moses tells us that this garden was placed eastward from Eden. It was placed in a different place, originally from where Adam was created.

Adam was not created in the Garden of Eden. God would put man into that garden, which is very significant because God is always looking to put man in the place of blessing. That's what God wants to do. That's what we learned from the Garden of Eden. God wants to put man in the place of delight. When man gets there, so many times he doesn't recognize it and chooses. The wrong course, and therefore sin envelops his life, and that's what happened with, of course, Adam from the very beginning of time.

But as Moses would write the Pentateuch. He would write to the children who were wandering around in the wilderness, and maybe he was thinking of Sin as the point of reference. And so he was looking to help them to understand that eastward from Sinai. Is where the Eden, the Garden of Eden, was located. That leads us to the terrain in the garden. It says in verse number nine, and out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, the tree of life, also in the midst of the garden.

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The terrain in the garden was pleasing to the sight. Upon looking upon that which God had created, it was very pleasing to the eyes. And the text says it was good. For fo. Everything was good. There was no diet for Adam in the Garden of Eden. Isn that a great place to be? He could eat anything he wanted. He could eat from every tree, except for one, we'll talk about that in a moment, from the garden. We have a hard time imagining the Garden of Eden.

We think that sometimes the gardens that we plan are like Eden, or the house we live in is like Eden, but it's unlike anything that God Himself had designed specifically for man. It was for man's delight. It was for man's blessing. God had created everything in the world very good. And he created this specific place for man to experience the beauty of God, maybe more so than any other place. It was the perfect place for man. Read on with me. It says this in verse number 10. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four rivers.

The name of the first is Pesh. It flows around the whole land of Avil, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good, and Bed and the Onyx stone are there. And the name of the second river is Gihon.

It flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris. It flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. Now, you're going to ask me the significance of all those rivers, and all I'm going to do is tell you is that there was plenty of water in the Garden of Eden. Here's the point: the terrain, this garden. Consisted of that which was absolutely perfect. There was nothing wrong with this garden. To point out this fact. That Adam was in the perfect environment.

He was in the perfect place. There was no deficiency where he lived. There was nothing wrong with where he lived. And there was nothing wrong with him. He was the perfect man. He was created sinless. He was created in the image of God. All that to say. Is that he could not blame his sin on his environment? You see, we today, we love to do that. If we were married to somebody different, we'd behave differently, we'd say. We say that that person just draws out the worst in me. No, they draw out the true you.

We don't like to admit that, but the true you is what's being drawn out, you see. We have to say, if we had a different kind of job, I probably would sin less. If my environment around me was different, I would be more likely to behave the way God wanted me to behave. No, you wouldn't. That's false. That's what the world tells you. How do we know that? Because Adam was in the perfect place. He was a perfect man. There was no deficiency in him. There was no deficiency around him. So when Adam fell, he fell because he chose to sin.

When you sin, you sin because that is your choice. You see, God's not out to make you miserable. God's not out to make your life painful. God's not out to drive you to the depths of despair. He is not the cosmic killjoy out to create problems for your life. God wants you to be delighted. God wants you to be blessed. God wants you to experience His supreme ecstasy. The problem is not God. The problem is you and me. Which leads us to the second point, and that's the trees.

Go back up with me to verse number n: the trees, there's two trees. Of significance in this garden. One is the tree of life, and the other is the tree of the knowledge of good. and evil. Let's take first of all the tree of life.

There's something significant about this tree. Now we know that all trees that produce fruit are there given to help sustain the life of man, but there's something significant about this tree. And that is, not only does it sustain life, it produces life. And if you go over to Genesis chapter 3, verse number 24, you realize that when Adam and Eve sinned and they were finally expelled from the garden, God would put a cherubim there to guard this tree.

That they might no longer partake of this tree of life in Eden. God would protect Adam and Eve as well as guard that tree. Because he wanted to make sure that there was a chance for recovery, a chance for redemption for Adam and Eve. But when man sinned, he was no longer able to partake of that tree until one day he realizes his sin. Repents of his sin, gives his life to Christ. And God promises the wonderful opportunity to partake once again of that tree of eternal life. The tree that gives life forever.

And then, second of all, there's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree is the tree that explains or symbolizes. Humanity's moral understand. It 's a tree of the knowledge of good, all that's good, and all that which is evil. Are moral concepts that are dependent upon the will and the revelation of God, not upon man's experience and not upon man's Feelings, but more about the tree of knowledge of good and evil in a moment. Let's move on to main point number three: the trust that God gives to Adam.

It says in verse number 15, Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden Of Eden. We'll stop right there. This was a special trust. A special trust. God would take Adam from where he was eastward of Eden. And he would place him in this garden. This garden was a delightful place to be. And so God made a special place. For Adam to exist and to live. But God had to place him there. Folks, let me tell you something: man is incapable.

Man is incapable of reaching out to God. From the very beginning of time, we see God doing for man because man cannot do for him. Man does not seek after God. No man seeks after God. It's John 4: God seeks true worship. No man see after God. The only man who seeks is a man in whom God has already sought after, and therefore the Spirit of God draws that man. Man is incapable. Being where God wants him to be. God has to put him there. And the story of creation tells us that from the outset. So here you have.

Adam being placed in the area of supreme delight by God Himself. Man was created in the image of God. He was to represent God. And God had a special place for him. It was called the Garden of Delight. The garden of Eden. This is where man was to be. And back in Genesis chapter 2, verse number 7, it says. That God breathed into his nostrils the breath of plural li, and man became a living soul. Folks, I want to let you know something. God breathed into man, and man became what God wanted him to be.

You are sustained by the breath of God. You are literally one breath away from eternity. Job would say it well over in Job. 34 When he said this, verse number 14: If God should determine to do so, if he should gather to him his spirit and his breath. All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust. God sustains your life by his breath. And the moment he ceases to breathe into you is the moment your body dies. It returns back to the dust of the ground. So next time you see all these people focusing in on the body and the and the new commercials come out for the For the new millennium, and you can join Bally's Fitness Center and have the great body for the new millennium.

Remember, it's all dirt, it's all gonna die, it's all gonna return to dust. How is the inner part of man progressing? How is the image of God being conformed more and more to his image, being renewed day by day? Through the energizing work of the Spirit of God in your life. It was a special trust, a special place that God would put man. And second of all, I want you to notice that it was a sacred.

Trust. It says back in verse number 15 that when God put him there, he was there to cultivate and to keep the garden. This was a sacred trust. God not only had a delightful purpose for Adam, he had a divine purpose for Adam. He had something worthwhile for Adam to do. He had something challenging for Adam to do. Adam was not to sit idle. Sit back underneath the tree of life in the Garden of Eden and just eat grapes and just have a wonderful time sitting by the water as it rippled down through the rivers.

He had a job to do. It was a sacred trust. God gave him something to do. God gave man the responsibility of taking care of God's great Possession, the garden that He had created for man. It was a sacred trust. Now translate that through our life. God has entrusted things to you and me. He's given us responsibility, hasn't he? He wants us to rise to the occasion. He wants us to be challenged. He doesn't want us to sit back and be idle. He wants us to be engaged in doing some kind of work because what we have from Him is a sacred trust.

Is it not true that our workplace is a sacred trust from God? I don't know where you work. I don't know what you do, but that's a sacred trust from God. God placed you in your workplace. He puts you there. Work is not a result of the curse. Sweat from your work is a result of the curse. But work was always designed by God from the very beginning of time for man. And God has given you a place of employment. It's called your sacred trust. God gave it to you that you might be responsible for Him, that you might live for Him, and that you might glorify Him and take care of what is God's because it's all from Him.

Anyway, is't it? God has given you children. They too are a sacred trust. They are God's kids. They 're not your kids. God has given you a house. God has given us a church. And this church building is a sacred trust from God that we are to take care of. God has given you your money. It's his money. And he expects you to treat his money. As he him would treat it. But God has given you that challenge. He has given you that responsibility. How you doing? Are you doing good at taking care of God's possessions?

Are you doing good at taking care of God's children? Don't ever think for one moment they're your children. For the moment you do. You will not treat them the way God wants you to treat them. They're God's children. You'll look at them entirely differently.

Your wife is a gift from God, the Bible says. It's from his hand. He gave her to you. How are you doing at taking care of God's sacred trust to you? See that? Adam was given the garden to cultivate and to keep. He was to be the gardener and he was to be the guardian of God's sacred trust. What God has given to you, you are the guardian of that. It's God's. How are you doing at taking care of God's possessions? And then lastly, I want you to look with me at the test in verses 16 and 17. It says, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. God gave a test to Adam. I want you to notice something.

Adam was not a puppet on a string. He made Adam not a mechanical man, he made him a moral man, as J. B Phillip says. And he gave a test to Adam. He said, Adam, every tree here is yours, every one of them, except one. You can eat freely. You can eat as much as you want, as often as you desire. Except from one tree. Except from one. That was the command from God. It was clear and it was plain. God's commands are, aren't they? God never is gray on his commands. But is it not true that we are often tempted to experience what God prohibits rather than enjoy what God provides?

We want to experience what God prohibits. It's that natural tendency of fallen nature to go after that one thing that God says, no, don't do that.

Well, why not, God? What is it about that one thing I cannot touch? I cannot have. I want that. And when God gives a command, He is the Creator. We are the Created. And the Creator always has in mind your benefit. And my benefit, doesn't he? So he gives the command: any tree you want is yours. Eat it freely, but only one you cannot touch. It's a test that God gave to Adam. God tells Adam, just one. One tree, just one tree, one lous tree, just one. And then he says, These are the consequences, Adam.

He says, if you eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the day you eat, You will die. Let me ask you a question.

Did Adam die the day he ate of the tree in Genesis chapter 3? Answer, you bet he did. You say, well, wait a minute. He was 130 years old when he had Seth. Genesis 5: says he lived to be 9 years old. How did Adam die? How did Adam die? Well, very simply this: de means separation. Life means union. When Adam sinned in the garden, he was separated from who? From God. Adam died spiritually. Because he died spiritually, he would ultimately die physically. Adam was created to live forever. To part of the tree that gives life, that produces life forever.

It was the garden of the light created for all mankind to dwell in. But the day he ate, Is the day he died spiritually. He was separated from Almighty God. And because of that, he would die physically. That is, the immaterial part of man. Would be separated from the material part of man. The soul and the spirit are separated from the body. That's death. When you die physically, You don't just forget about it. It's over. No? Your spirit either goes to heaven to be with God, absent for the body, present with the Lord.

Or goes to She, Hades, the place of the dead. One of the two, awaiting the day of the great white throne judgment. And if in this day you don't deal with the spiritual separation you have from God, you see, there are many dead men walking around. Ephesians 2 tells us that. Man is dead in his trespasses and sin. Isaiah 59, verses 1 and 2 says, that it's our sin that has separated us from our God, so that he will not hear us. There's a lot of dead men walking around. They don't even know it. Oh, they're alive physically.

Their soul and their body are united. They have life. But they don't have spiritual life because their life, their soul, is not united with the Savior of the world, the Creator of the universe. And so they are spiritually dead. And if man who is spiritually dead does not rectify that before he becomes physically dead, He will experience, as Revelation 22 tells us, the second death, which is eternal separation from the life of God.

For by one sin, or for by one man, sin ent the world. And de through sin. So death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Romans 5, verse number 12. There's only two things that last forever: the soul of man and the scriptures of God. That's it. Everything else is passing away. The lust thereof. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Praise be to God for the fact that he redeemed man. And because he came to earth to die for your sins and for mine, guess what? We can experience the delight that was for because the first Adam sinned.

The second Adam provided for us eter blissfulness. I trust. That as you partake today at the Lord's table, that you can do it with joy, realizing what God the Son has provided. For you. Let's pray together.