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A while back, Brianna and I were watching Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Some of you maybe remember this show from the 90s. Sorry, guys, I know you probably lost respect for me. This was a show that she was the main character, a female doctor, which was rare in the 1800s.
And they had an episode that was encouraging and frustrating at the same time. In this episode, a child was being abused. But the town could do nothing about it because there was no laws about child abuse.
But the town did have laws about animal cruelty. So Dr. Quinn tried to persuade everyone that this child was an animal. If she could prove that this child was an animal, then they could protect the child because this would be seen as animal cruelty.
As you can see, this belief that humans are not different from animals was in the fabric of Hollywood even in the 90s. To finish the story, because I know you want to hear the ending, Dr. Quinn was able to persuade everyone that the child was an animal and the child received protection.
Now, in one sense, this was encouraging because the child was brought to safety. But, of course, the means by which it happened is tragic. The Bible makes it clear that humans are not animals. The Bible goes out of its way to describe the uniqueness of humans over all other creatures.
On the sixth day of creation, eight verses are devoted to explaining that humans were created in the image of God. No other creature could make this claim, not even angels. Angels are created and are spectacular beings, but they are not made in the image of God.
Last week, we saw the importance of man's creation in chapter 1 of Genesis. And then chapter 2 follows with the creation in detail about the creation of mankind. And so that's what we're going to look at today as we continue our sermon series through Genesis.
So if you have a Bible, turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. And if you don't have a Bible with you, they're in the pews, the red Bibles. It's on page 2 of the red Bibles. So you don't have to look at the table of contents again.
It's just right at the front of your Bible. So the uniqueness of mankind is highlighted by the fact that a whole chapter is devoted to his creation. And we're going to look at five aspects of this special creation of humans.
And the first is the land is lacking without man. The first verse in our sermon today, verse 4 of chapter 2, is an introduction to the rest of this chapter. Some have said that this is actually following the first chapter of Genesis.
But in fact, it's introducing what we are going to look at today. And I say this because any time the word generations is used, it's always describing what follows it. For example, in Genesis 5 .1, it says this is the book of the generations of Adam.
And then it talks about the generations that came after Adam. In Genesis 2 .4, it's going to be describing what God is going to generate from the already created heavens and earth. And in verse 5, we get introduced to a land.
This is what it says here. Now the land here is not referring to the whole earth as was described in chapter 1 of Genesis. But rather to a specific place. This is a place in the Middle East. And I will explain that further in a little bit.
Now in verse 5, we see that there were no plants in the field. And if you're just reading through Genesis and you read chapter 1 and then you read chapter 2, you might say, well, this sounds like a contradiction.
Because chapter 1 described all the plants coming up and all the smaller plants and the trees coming up. But verse 5 of chapter 2 says here that there were no plants yet in the field. Because there was no water.
And then we'll see that there was no man to work the ground. But this is where you have to read very carefully. In context, there are two things highlighted here. God had not caused the rain to come on the ground and there was no man to plant the field.
So we know that this is not referring to the whole earth, but a specific garden. And what we're going to see is that this is the Garden of Eden. The plants described in chapter 1 of Genesis are referring to wild plants that multiplied through seed.
And we see this anytime you see a heavily wooded area. Obviously these trees are reproducing. And that's what chapter 1 is talking about. Chapter 2 is talking about mankind actually cultivating the plants.
And this area, this region, is familiar with this because farmers work the field so that it grows. Gardeners work the garden so that it grows. And so that's what we're talking about here in chapter 2.
Now in verse 6, what we see is a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. So in order for this garden to grow, two things are missing here. We need water, of course, to water it, and we need a human to cultivate the field.
So verse 6 describes a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. And so this is some underground water source that is actually nourishing these plants. But there's still a problem here because there still isn't a man yet to work the field.
Because without him working it, no plants are going to grow. And that brings us to our second aspect of God's special creation. And that is man is created unlike any other creature. In Genesis 2, mankind becomes the focus.
Last week we saw the creation of all things and we saw the creation of man on the sixth day. And everything that we see in chapter 2 today is referring to the sixth day of creation. And what we see in verse 7 is the unique creation of man.
God creates mankind out of the dust of the ground. Verse 7a, What is interesting about this is that scientists have done research on what kind of molecules are in dust and dirt. What scientists have found is that dirt has organic compounds, many of which are found in the human body.
They have also found amino acids, which are proteins that are used to build the body up. And they have found nucleotides, which is the material that's used to make DNA. And so they found all of this in dirt sources.
Now when secular scientists see this, they interpret this to say that humans accidentally came from this. But what they fail to realize is that Genesis 2 actually talked about this long ago. It says that they were actually formed out of the ground.
And so human beings, and actually all of creation, is formed from similar matter, similar properties of matter. God doesn't use something completely unique for us. He uses something actually quite similar for all of his creatures.
So science is consistent with the biblical account. Now this is humbling because our ancestor Adam came from dirt, which means that that's where we came from too. Genesis 3 .19 says that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.
And so Genesis 2 .7 describes the dust side of us, which is the physical side of us. Now the second half of verse 7 describes something else. We can't stop with just the first part. It says here, So you are not just physical, but you also have a spiritual side as well.
And so Adam had a physical body here, but he wasn't yet alive until God actually breathed the breath of God. Now this is a metaphor. God doesn't have breath, but he puts a soul into Adam. And Adam becomes body and soul.
And this is interesting because when you look at a dead body at a funeral, and all of us have probably at one time or another seen a dead body, it doesn't look like the person. It seems like something's missing.
It's lifeless. And that's because the soul is not there. It's not just that their heart has stopped beating and there's no breath nourishing the cells. It's that there's no soul in the body. James 2 .26 says,.
As faith without deeds is dead, so the body without the spirit is dead. So you need a body and you need a soul to have life. And that's why it says here,. And the man became a living creature. The man became a living creature.
Now this breath that God breathed in verse 7 describes both the lower part of the soul that even animals have, and also the advanced part of the soul that only humans have as God's image bearers. The lower part of the soul would include that which provides sense and motion to the body.
Now the advanced part is human intellect, and our capacity to worship God and to have a relationship with Him. Now there's some Christians who actually think that there's three parts to humans, a body, a soul, and a spirit, where the spirit is actually what relates to God, and the body and the soul are earthly.
I don't think the Bible supports that. The Bible actually says there's only two parts to us, a body and a soul. And so when the Bible describes the soul and the spirit, not the Holy Spirit, but our spirit, it's actually referring to the same thing.
They're two interchangeable terms that are being described. But animals, what's interesting about animals is that animals have intellect too. I mean they're able to, they know how to survive, they know how to make it from day to day.
But their intellect is very immature compared to our intellect as humans. So we have an advanced mind and they have a lower, inferior mind to ours. But either way, the spirit is a life force that is actually in animals and humans.
But humans are a special case because ours is an advanced mind that can actually relate to God. So we see here God's special creation of man. Everything in creation was created immediately, but God actually went through a process to form Adam by making him from the dust and giving him a soul.
So we see the detail in chapter 2 that's just describing the uniqueness of humans. Now in the second point, we saw that water came from the ground and now the man was formed to work the ground. Now in point 3, we are going to learn about this garden that Adam was placed in and his specific function in it.
So this is the third aspect of God's special creation of humans. Man was given the task to work the garden. So rain comes from the ground and trees start to pop up everywhere. But there wouldn't have been any order to it and that's where the man comes in.
Verse 8. Verses 8 and 9. Now Eden is a region somewhere in the Middle East, in the region known as Mesopotamia. And this describes a garden in the eastern portion of it. This text highlights two different trees and one is the tree of life and the second is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And we will learn about the nature of these trees in a little bit. But now let's look at the rivers that float in this region. Verses 10 through 14. And you're going to notice here, there are two rivers that you've never heard of before and there are two rivers that you probably have heard of.
And so this is fascinating. And one of them is not the St. Croix, just to give you a little clue here. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon.
It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Hevelah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bedellium and Onyx Stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.
And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. Okay, so you've probably heard of the second two. This region started off with one river and four were formed from it.
The purpose of this river and the four that it came to be was to water the garden. That was its function. We see four different titles that are given to these rivers. The first is the Pishon. Some have speculated that it could be certain rivers, but nobody knows for sure.
The second is the Gihon. Again, nobody knows this one for sure either. And it's possible that these rivers do not even exist to this day, but they might with a different name. But the last two rivers will sound familiar to you, and maybe even more so in the last 15 years because of the war in Iraq, because these rivers actually flowed through the nation of Iraq.
Verse 14. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. Now, the Tigris and the Euphrates are two rivers that exist to this day. Moses even mentioned specifically that the Tigris flows east of Assyria.
We know the general vicinity of the location of the Garden of Eden because of these two rivers. And actually, in my study Bible, they have two proposed locations for where the Garden of Eden was. One is in the southeastern portion of Mesopotamia, and the one is in the northwestern portion of it.
Now, the Middle East is mostly known as a dry and barren place, but this region of the Middle East is known as the Fertile Crescent because lots of crops are able to grow in this place. And I mentioned that this area is known as Mesopotamia, so that might give you an idea of where this is.
Now, Moses wrote this probably 2 ,500 to 3 ,000 years after Adam. So this information with the locations would have been passed down to him. And, of course, we can trust his accuracy because we know that this is Holy Scripture.
This is inspired by the Holy Spirit, which keeps Moses from error. So the garden becomes fruitful, and the man is placed in the garden to work it. It is worth noting here the important place of work in God's design.
Sometimes we can think of work as a bad thing, like maybe this is God's punishment, that we have to work to make a living. But what this is actually telling us is that work is a good thing because what you will notice is that sin has not happened yet, and Adam's working.
So this should encourage you in your own work, in your own life, that it's not a curse to work. It's not a bad thing to work. It's actually a good thing. And you notice this in your own life. When you have a good day's work, you feel good about it.
You were created to do this. Like yesterday, I think most of us felt pretty good about it. It was really humid and sweaty. But besides that, we felt really good about the day. I hope some of the guys took a shower, by the way, after the day.
I know I did. It was really humid out there. But this is a good thing. And you might say, well, I have bad days of work. Well, Genesis 3 explains to us why that is. Your work is actually cursed. But within this curse that's happened, it's still good.
It's still redeemable. And my guess is that in heaven one day, we probably will still work because in the garden they worked and, too, in heaven, I believe we will work. So that's the third aspect. Now, the Lord talks to Adam while he is in the garden and issues a command.
And that leads to our fourth point. Now, the fourth aspect of God's special creation of humans, God's moral command and prohibition to man. So everything I'm telling you today is something unique about humans that is different from all other creatures.
And we're going to see here that his command to humans. Up to this point, we have seen that Adam is working the ground. He is sinless and feels no effects of sin's consequences. Adam is living in a paradise where God is dwelling with him.
But for the first time, the Lord gives a command. This command to a human and not to animals shows that humans are moral beings. We have a sense of right and wrong. So when we talk about our minds being advanced, animals do not have a sense of right and wrong.
One time I had a dachshund who ate through a whole packet of hot dogs. And he was noticeably bigger the next day because of this package of hot dogs that he ate. And I was like, do you think he felt bad about that?
No, of course not. He doesn't have a sense of right and wrong. And you'd think maybe at the fifth or sixth hot dog he might have started to think that, but he did not. But with humans, we have a sense of right and wrong.
And this is because God placed it there. Adam is not a sinner at this point, but he is in a state where he could sin, which is why God gives him this command in verses 16 and 17. So follow along with me.
I'm going to read these two verses. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, So he has all these trees, but of course, that's what sin does. He gets curious. And I'll give you a little preview. We're going to talk about that next week.
But of course, we know how that ended up. Well, the answer is, it's referring to both. The Hebrew literally translates this way. That's what the Hebrew says. And next week, we are going to look at this first sin that Adam and Eve committed.
Now, we don't know how old Adam was when he sinned, but eventually he died. In fact, he was 930 years old when he passed away. So he probably lived hundreds of years before he died physically. But he didn't only experience the consequences of physical death.
He also experienced the consequences of spiritual death. The consequence, dying, you will surely die, highlights the significance of both physical and spiritual death, being under God's judgment. When you're born into this world, you are separated from God.
And when Adam sinned, he was separated from God. Of course, until you are reconciled through Jesus Christ, does this barrier between you and God become mended, where you can come together. So, when we ask the question, is this physical or is this spiritual, it's clear, it's both.
Now, I'm not ruining the ending here by saying that Adam ate from the tree. We know that he did. But every day, we feel these consequences from Adam's mistake, from the sin that he committed. We feel the consequences both of physical death, because all of us are terminal.
Every one of us will die. But not only physical death, we also feel the consequences of spiritual death, especially before we come to faith in Christ. We are under God's judgment until we are reconciled.
So that is the fourth aspect. God gives this command specifically to Adam. The fifth aspect is the first woman and the first marriage. The fifth aspect of God's special creation of mankind is the first woman and the first marriage.
In this section, I'm going to begin by reading verse 18. So, let's look at verse 18 together. One of my jobs as a preacher is to point out things. I want you to see this for yourself. I don't want you just to take my word for it.
I want you to see it for yourself in the pages of Scripture. And this is one of those examples. This is the first time that God said that something was not good. He says Adam did not have a helper fit for him.
And it was not good. So God plans to make someone who will complement the man to work well with him. In verses 19 and 20, introduces a first. For the first time, God tells mankind to name something. Where before God named everything else.
So verses 19 and 20. Okay, so we see this highlighted here. That in verse 18, it was not good that he should be alone. And then the end of verse 20, there was not a helper found fit for him. Okay, so he has all these creatures.
And he probably had giraffes and zebras and bears and muskrats and birds. All these creatures were surrounded by him. And yet, none of them made him feel at home. None of them were fit for him. Until verses 21 and 22.
Okay, so we see another first here. The woman is formed. And God does this by taking a rib out of Adam to make Eve. And that's a good question, this is a good question to ask. Why did God do this? Why did he, he creates Adam out of the dust of the ground.
And now he takes a rib out of Adam and forms the man. Or forms the woman. I think he did this to show that this is a similar, this is the same kind of creature as Adam. This is a human. And so by taking the rib out of Adam, it's saying, okay, this is the same.
Now, it's the same, but it's a little bit different. And of course, it's different because this is a female. Moses wrote in 127, male and female, he created them. God designed men and women to be different.
And each would complement the other. Each would help make up for the deficiencies of the other. Now, we know this from our experience, do we not? Yeah, if we had this event yesterday at the River Road Ramble without women helping, it would have been a complete disaster.
There would have been no flavor to it. It would have been bland. It would have been boring. It would have been, we probably would have had less people. It just wouldn't have gone well. There wouldn't have been any pies.
We probably would have ordered pizza. I don't know. It would have been, it wouldn't have gone well. And I think about this too in my own house. If Brianna left for a week and you came to my house, it would be a disaster.
And Aletheia would tell you that too. And so, men need women. And it goes the other way too. Women, the leadership that men provide is a great help to women. And so, we see that men and women complement the other.
Now, this woman, Eve, is specifically made for Adam. This is the first romance in human history. This precedes Romeo and Juliet. As the man tells of his desire for the woman by saying a poem in verse 23, then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of a man. So, this is the first poem in human history. Adam saying a poem about his wife, Eve. And so, it's natural for men to write poems to their wives.
This is something we should do. As I look at Sean and Jeremiah in the front here. Now, as we transition here to verse 24, we transition from poem, so Adam writes his poem to Eve, to marriage. Verse 20, So, this is where marriage comes from.
And if you go to weddings, this is often read. This verse, Genesis 2 .24, Now, the order of this, a man leaving his father and mother, may seem backwards with what we're used to in weddings because isn't it the dad of the bride who gives up the bride?
The pastor says, Who gives this woman to be with this man? And the father says, her mother and I. So, let me explain what this is all about. In these times, so very early in history, of course, the earliest in history, the son would work with his parents and help provide for them.
But once he got married, he would no longer help provide for his parents, but would rather provide for his wife. So, by leaving his parents, he would provide for his wife and future children. And that is why the beginning of marriage is described in this way.
So, you see that responsibility. The man is being passed off as a provider for a new family. Then at the end of verse 24, Moses writes that they shall become one flesh. People say this all the time in our culture, that meet my better half, or this is my better half.
That's where this comes from. That you become one flesh in marriage. And this oneness stresses the intimacy between husband and wife. This intimacy is expressed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
And for a marriage to be healthy, you need all three of those. You need physical intimacy, you need emotional intimacy, and you need spiritual intimacy. If any of those are missing, there's going to be a deficiency in your marriage.
And that's why you become one flesh. You become one together. You have this intimate relationship. And that's God's design in marriage. So, this is where marriage came from. And this is God's good design.
And this section closes by saying in verse 25 that they were naked and not ashamed. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. This affirms their sinless state. Nakedness typically symbolizes shame or guilt.
This sets the table for chapter 3, where they were naked, self-aware, and were now ashamed because of their sin. And so we'll look at that more next week. What we saw this morning is the uniqueness of mankind in creation.
We highlighted five aspects of this special creation. God creates mankind unlike any other creature. The garden is lacking without man to work the field. God designs man for work the ground. God prohibits the man from eating from a specific tree, showing his moral capacity.
And God creates the first marriage between man and woman. So we saw today the importance of mankind and the place that we hold in God's creation. It is important for us to know our place in creation, to realize that we as humans have this unique ability to have this communion with God, to have this relationship with God.
And so what a privilege that we have as humans to have this. And how important it is that we put our trust in Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for our sins, so that we can have this communion with God.
And so anytime you share the gospel with someone, you're calling them to enter into this relationship with God. They were created for this. And that's something we need to remember, that as humans we were created to have this relationship with God, this intimate relationship.
And so what we will see next week is the bad news. But we will also talk about the good news. The bad news is, of course, Adam and Eve fell into sin. And the good news is, reconciliation, the hope of salvation is provided in Jesus Christ.
And so I look forward to digging in to Genesis 3 with you next week.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for your word this morning. Father, when I preach, I'm preaching your word. I'm standing behind it. I'm explaining what it means. And, Lord, this is so relevant to every one of us here, because this is the origin of all of us.
And the predicament that we find ourselves in, it all traces itself back to the beginning of Genesis. And so, Lord, thank you for the clear reading of this scripture. I pray, Lord, that people would understand, that you would give them the gift of understanding.
I pray that they would be changed as a result. Lord, the goal is not just to have data, just to have this Bible knowledge, but the goal is that we would be changed as we learn the Bible. As it says in Romans 12, that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
So help us to do that, Lord, as we continue to work through scripture together. In Jesus' name, amen.