{"id":18555,"date":"2020-10-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/genesis-009-the-great-choice-part-2\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:53:20","slug":"genesis-009-the-great-choice-part-2","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/genesis-009-the-great-choice-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Genesis 009 – The Great Choice (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[12],"series_event":[511],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18555","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-genesis","series_event-genesis","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Genesis 009 - The Great Choice (Part 2)","sermon_date":"20201004","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":8480,"sermon_slides":8479,"sermon_mp3":8483,"sermon_id":"104201417354368","series_or_event":511,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":12,"chapter_and_verse":"2:8-17","sermon_transcript":"Genesis #9\r\nThe Great Choice (Part 2)\r\nGenesis 2:8-17\r\nOctober 4, 2020\r\nDr. Andy Woods\r\n\r\nGood morning, everybody. Let's open our Bibles to Genesis 2:8. The title of our message this morning is \u201cThe Great Choice - Part 2.\u201d We\u2019re calling it part two because I didn't get to the great choice last week. It\u2019s an extension of last week. \r\nThose of you who have been tracking with us know that we are moving verse by verse through the Book of Genesis. The first half of the book is about the beginning of the human race, and part of that is the subsection on Creation. \r\nWe\u2019ve look at Genesis 1, which is an overview of the whole Creation week. Now we move into chapter 2, which is no longer an overview of the whole Creation week; it's more exact detail concerning what happened on Day Six. \r\nDay Six is the pinnacle of God's Creation. Man and woman, the very image bearers of God, are created. We get a lot more information on what happened on Day Six in Genesis 2. \r\nLast week we saw the creation of man, verses 4-7. He is created from the ground. The Lord breathed into him the breath of lives, and man became a living being at the body level, the soul level, and he was alive in terms of his relationship with God because he had unfettered access to the Holy Spirit and could consequently understand the things of God. \r\nThis morning we move into verses 8-14 and, as time permits, verses 15-17. There we learn about how man, just created, is placed in a garden. \r\nNotice, if you will, Genesis 2:8, \u201cThe Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.\u201d The word \u201ceast\u201d in the Bible is very, very, interesting. Whenever it is used, it always refers to the same basic area on planet Earth, the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris. We might even call that area today modern-day Iraq. \r\nGenesis 11:2 says that's exactly where the Tower of Babel once stood\u2014in the east. And it's from that basic part of the world that the wisemen came, from Babylon, seeking the Christ child. \r\nSo, I believe the \u201ceast\u201d is basically that general part of the world between the Euphrates and the Tigris. The Greeks called it \u201cMesopotamia.\u201d \u201cMeso\u201d means middle, and you recognize the word \u201cpotamia.\u201d We have a Potomac River here in the United States of America. Potomac, \u201cpotamia.\u201d \r\nMesopotamia\u2014between the rivers\u2014between the Euphrates and the Tigris. In fact, in verse 14 we\u2019re going to find a direct reference to both of those rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. \r\nThe Hebrews called that area Shinar. Shinar, Hebrew; Mesopotamia, Greek. Shinar is the place where the children of Israel, eventually in biblical history, were taken into captivity for 70 years. Daniel explains that they were taken to the land of Shinar, 350 miles to the east of the land of Israel, between the rivers. \r\nI believe that is generally the place, between those rivers, where the Garden of Eden once existed. It's a very interesting place biblically. It's not just a place of the past\u2014this Mesopotamia area\u2014this Shinar area; it's a place of the future. Revelation 9:14, in the sixth trumpet judgment yet future, describes the armies of the Far East being summoned into the Middle East from that basic area.\r\nThe Euphrates River is an interesting river. It is the demarcation between the Far East and the Middle East. And, apparently, those armies from the Far East will be summoned into the Middle East to participate in the final battle called the battle of Armageddon in northern Israel. \r\nRevelation 6:12 also speaks of this in the sixth bowl judgment. That great throng is going to come from the Far East into the Middle East for this final battle, and they will be summoned from this area just east of the Euphrates River, this area called Shinar.\r\nWhy are they summoned from Shinar? Because that will be the headquarters of the Antichrist during the Tribulation period. That's the meaning of the woman in the basket in Zechariah 5:5-11, where this woman is going to be let out of the basket. \r\nIn answer to \u201cWhere are they taking her?\u201d Zechariah 5:11says, \u201cThen he said to me, \u2018To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.\u2019 \u201d \u201cTemple\u201d is religious imagery; it's going to be the center of politics, economics, and religion in the events of the Tribulation period. \r\nIt's a fascinating place of the world to study biblically because it's a place of the past where God did great things, and it's a place of the future. It's a part of the world to always keep your eyes on when we understand what God reveals concerning the end of the age. \r\nThat is the general part of the world where\u2014almost any world historian will tell you\u2014humanity began. Sometimes it's called the Fertile Crescent. Even secular historians acknowledge that that's where human history began.\r\nIt's a part of the world everything began, and it's a part of the world where everything will end. And that's the significance of this garden in the East. Notice verse 9, \u201cOut of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food\u2026\u201d\r\nNot Eve, of course; she hasn't been created yet. But Adam could see that the trees of the garden were good. It was good to his sight; it was pleasing and good for food. The reason I bring this up is a lot of people believe in a Gnostic interpretation of the physical world.\r\nThe Gnostics basically taught dualism. They taught that the spiritual world is good, and the physical world is bad, or evil. And some of that thinking seeps into our understanding as Christians. And yet, the Bible clearly says that everything that God brought into existence was not just \u201cgood.\u201d But what does He say there on the sixth day of Creation? It\u2019s not just \u201cgood,\u201d but it's \u201cvery good.\u201d \r\nThat would include a lot of different things. That would include the sunlight. That would include the strolls our forebears used to take with God in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). \r\nThat would include food. And did God not also say, \u201cBe fruitful and multiply\u201d? Procreation is good. Sex itself is good! That's tough preaching in a lot of legalistic environments. \r\nOf course, God gives us regulations on all things for our benefit. But the things themselves, when used rightly, are good things. God is a God not just of the spiritual realm; He is a God of the physical realm. And He makes a reference to that, I believe, here in verse 9.\r\nAlso in verse 9 we see two trees. \u201cOut 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.\u201d\r\nThere you see two trees that are identified for us in Eden: the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge. We know the end of the story. They ate from the forbidden tree, and humanity was ushered into the Fall. \r\nI used to think to myself as a new Christian trying to read and understand this, \u201cWhy did God even bother with the tree of knowledge?\u201d I mean, if the tree of knowledge is going to open the door to evil, why not just avoid the whole problem by not putting a tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden to begin with? Wouldn\u2019t that have preempted things? \r\nWhy not just have a tree of life? Why even bother with the tree of knowledge? And the answer to that relates to what was said back in Genesis 1:26-27, where we learned that human beings are manufactured in the image of God.\r\nBecause we are image bearers of God, we must have volition. We must have a choice. God Himself has a choice. We bear His image; we must also have a choice. You know, when you program your phone, your computer, or whatever electronic device you're using today, to tell you that you look great every morning, it kind of loses its significance because it's programmed to do that. \r\nGod, when He created humanity, did not want just a bunch of robots who would say, \u201cI love you,\u201d which meant nothing because the robot has absolutely no choice in the matter. Thus, there had to have been a tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.\r\nIf God had not placed a tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, He would've been disrespecting how humanity is created\u2014manufactured. The moment God decreed us to be image bearers is the moment we had to have a choice. Therefore, we had to have an avenue of rebellion against God should we choose that route. That's the significance of the tree of knowledge.\r\nIt's interesting to me. Moses, who wrote this roughly 1500 BC, is recording ancient events, no doubt. But he is recording them in such a way for his immediate audience was about to enter Canaan as Israelis having come through the Exodus.\r\nMoses would say to them later on in biblical history, paraphrasing Deuteronomy 30:15, \u201cSee, I have set before you today life and death, good and evil.\u201d In other words, I think Moses is recording this for the benefit not just of God's words to Adam\u2026but how that choice would play out in Moses\u2019 generation. And what God is saying through the writings of Moses is, \u201cIt's not just Adam and Eve who had a choice that was very, very significant. Your generation, Moses, is going to have a choice.\u201d\r\nIn Deuteronomy 30:19 God says through Moses to a much later generation, \u201cI call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose [see the choice involved?] life in order that you may live, you and your descendants...\u201d\r\nAdam had a choice. Moses\u2019 generation has a choice. And may I just say one other thing? You have a choice! The choice is completely yours. Are you going to reject Jesus Christ or accept Jesus Christ? God is not going to ram Christ down anyone's throat. The choice is available. The choice is theirs. And I would simply submit this: It's the same choice of life and death that is given us which was originally given to Adam, was originally later on given to Moses\u2019 generation. We have it as well. \r\nJesus talked about that choice in John 10:10\u2014the choice between life and death. He said, \u201cThe thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.\u201d There's a tree of life in your life: Jesus Christ. There is a tree of knowledge in your life: Satan. The choice is yours: one will bring life; one will destroy.\r\nRomans 6:23 talks about this choice that we have. \u201cFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d Life and death are yours\u2014and mine\u2014just like it was Adam\u2019s choice. Eve, when she's created later on in the chapter, is going to have the same choice.\r\nAdam and Eve, as you know from the biblical record, made the wrong choice. Moses\u2019 generation, and the generations that followed, by and large made the wrong choice. People today? \u201cEnter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) Christ talks about the broad road leading to destruction, contrasted with the narrow road leading to life. \r\nMany are those on that broad road. Then He talked about the narrow road leading to life, \u201cThere are few who find it.\u201d He talked about the same choice, and yet the majority would make the wrong choice. The capacity to choose is awesome. \r\nIn fact, even after you become a Christian, you still have this choice constantly between life and death. I can submit to irritation. I can submit to anger. I can speak critical words and bring death to a church. I can bring death to my marriage. I can bring death to countless things. Or I can submit to the things of God moment by moment, and bring life\u2026to marriage and countless other things. \r\nThe choice, even as a saved person, is always there. Every single day I've got the choice. Am I going to follow the route that leads to death or the route that leads to life? That's why I\u2019ve titled this sermon, \u201cThe Great Choice.\u201d And it is somewhat disturbing to me to find in ascendancy in modern-day Christendom various doctrines which essentially deny that anybody has any choice! \r\nThere is a system of theology. It's very, very reformed, it\u2019s very, very Calvinistic, and they will essentially say, \u201cYou have no choice\u2014for anything!\u201d It\u2019s like the old joke. The Calvinist will fall down the stairs, pick himself up, and say, \u201cWow! I'm glad that's over with!\u201d \r\nThey basically act like you have no choice at all to accept Christ to reject Christ. They say, \u201cFaith is a gift\u2014and you have to be regenerated so that you can believe!\u201d Which is the exact opposite of what your Bible teaches. Regeneration is a consequence of believing; it doesn't precede believing.\r\nAnd faith itself is not a gift. God wants your faith. He wants your trust. And He wants it not just for salvation, but He wants it on a moment by moment basis as you seek to live for God in a Christ-hating, Christ-rejecting world.\r\nHe wants your choice every single day as you grow as a Christian. You are confronted with temptations and sins, and we learn to live according to the resources of God, to say \u201cno\u201d to temptations. That is volition! That is a choice! It's an awesome privilege that we have, and it relates to the fact that we are image bearers of God.\r\nI did find a very interesting quote from Louis Berkhof, who is very Calvinistic. Predestination is the idea that you have no choice because God chooses you. People often ask me, \u201cDo you believe in predestination or free will?\u201d And my answer is always, \u201cYes.\u201d \r\nI believe in both! I don't know how it all works; it's a bit above my pay grade. It's not something I'm to be obsessed about. I believe God chooses, but I believe that this doesn't negate the choice that all human beings have.\r\nBut, you see, what's happening today, particularly through the rise of neo-Calvinism\u2014the reformed and the young and the restless as they call themselves\u2014is that there is such an emphasis on the sovereignty of God that volition almost gets left out of the equation entirely.\r\nLouis Berkhof, very reformed, very Calvinistic, makes this very interesting point in his systematic theology. He says, \u201cPredestination does not form an important subject of discussion in [church] history until the time of Augustine.\u201d It is Augustine that put the emphasis so much on the sovereignty of God.\r\nHe writes, \u201cEarlier Church Fathers allude to it, but do not as yet but do not as yet seem to have a very clear conception of it. On the whole they regard it as the prescience of God\u2026\u201d That would be understanding the foreknowledge of God, as God knows what choices we will make and makes His choice based on what He knows we\u2019re going to do. That's the prescience view. I don't know if I necessarily believe in the prescience view, either.\r\nBut he says, \u201cOn the whole they regard it as the prescience of God with reference to human deeds, on the basis of which He determines their future destiny.\u201d See, the early church was just not hung up on this particular issue the way people are hung up on it today. \r\nAnd even if you have a theological system which says, \u201cGod chooses,\u201d that doesn't negate the Great Commission. We\u2019re to preach the gospel to every creature! The Bible is very clear on this. We\u2019re not to get so focused on the sovereignty of God, as if human choice is somehow negated. God cannot negate human choice; nor will He negate human choice. Because if He negates human choice, then He is not respecting how humans are manufactured. Not as computers, not as robots, but the very image bearers of God. Here you see it right at the beginning: a great choice confronting Adam and then, later, Eve.\r\nWe come to verse 10 where we talk about these four rivers. \u201cNow a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.\u201d Apparently, these rivers had a common source. \r\nAll four of these rivers flowing out of Eden had a common source. Now, it may have looked something like this. Do I know exactly? No, I don't. I did find this on the Internet, so it must be true. Right? But the best I can understand it is that you have this river flowing out of Eden, and it divided into four. And what we start to see here is a description of those rivers. We see it there in verses 11-12. \r\nI very much appreciated Jim reading earlier because his pronunciation of these rivers is much better than mine. So if there's a difference of pronunciation, go with him rather than me. In fact, I was just at a Bible conference in Duluth, Minnesota with Arnold Fruchtenbaum sitting on the second row. \r\nArnold Fruchtenbaum is a Hebrew scholar. As I was trying to make my way through different Hebrew words, I could see him in the second row just laughing\u2014which really didn't do much to build my confidence. But I'll do my best here.\r\nHere we go. Verse 11, \u201cThe name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.\u201d River number one is this river called the Pishon. \r\nNotice that it mentions gold here; it mentions gold twice. There is a reference to gold in the land in verse 11, and then also in verse 12. It says, \u201cthe gold is good.\u201d Do you see that? \r\nVerse 12, \u201cThe gold of that land is good...\u201d This, again, relates to a point I tried to make earlier: the physical world in and of itself is not evil. Gold is not evil; money is not evil; material things are not evil. God, in fact, is the Creator of those things.\r\nOne of the most misquoted verses in the entire Bible is 1 Timothy 6:10, where people say, \u201cMoney is the root of all evil.\u201d That's not what the Bible says. It says, \u201cFor the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil\u2026\u201d The issue with God is not so much, \u201cDo you have possessions?\u201d It's, \u201cDo your possessions have you?\u201d\r\nHave you made a god out of those possessions? Do you look to those possessions for your security, and your identity, and your future? Now it's problematic. Because Jesus is very clear in Matthew 6:24, the Sermon on the Mount, that you can't serve both. \u201cYe cannot serve God and mammon.\u201d (KJV) \r\nBut money or material things? In and of themselves, there's no inherent problem with it. Sin hasn't even entered the picture yet\u2014and won't enter the picture until Genesis 3\u2014so the gold is good. It just gives a basic understanding of it.\r\nNow, gold? It's interesting. As you work your way through the Bible, you'll run into Daniel 2, that great image which describes the Gentile kingdoms of the earth trampling down Israel from the time of the Babylonian captivity right up until the Second Coming. That giant statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw, and then God revealed it to Daniel.\r\nAs you work your way through that statue, the metal deteriorates in terms of value. But the beginning of that process is Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, and he is described as the most valuable metallic substance or source; he is the head of gold.\r\nGold is one of the most valuable metallic commodities or resource that we have on planet Earth. And there we have gold, which is called good, right at the beginning in the Garden of Eden. And, in fact ,when all is said and done and God brings in the new heavens and new earth, gold is going to become so common that we are destined for streets of gold.\r\nThe most valuable thing in the world\u2014gold\u2014is going to be so common in that eternal state that it's beneath our very feet. So, things begin with gold and they end with gold. In Eden there was gold in the land, but in the eternal state there will be gold in the city.\r\nOne of the best descriptions I've ever heard of the entire Bible is, \u201cFrom a garden to a city with a cross in between.\u201d Human history is moving somewhere. And the issue? Through volition, are we on the right side of human history?\r\nHe continues on with these discussions about these various rivers. Verse 13 says, \u201cThe name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush.\u201d Now we come to a second river which, like the first river, is unknown. \u201cHey, let's take a vacation to the Pishon and the Gihon!\u201d We can\u2019t do that, can we? We don't know where those rivers are\u2014they don't make any sense to us.\r\nBut verse 14 describes a couple of rivers that we\u2019re very familiar with. Verse 14, \u201cThe name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.\u201d The Tigris and the Euphrates\u2014the Euphrates and the Tigris. Mesopotamia, Shinar, in the East, which we talked about a little earlier.\r\nThere is a view of early Genesis that the things that are mentioned in this chapter are not literal; they are de-historicized. After all, you don't really think Adam was a real person, do you? He just symbolizes, we\u2019re told. He represents all humanity, but there was no literal Adam.\r\n\u201cYou don\u2019t really think there was a literal Adam, do you? What kind of na\u00efve fundamentalist are you?\u201d In fact, I did some flying Tuesday. Not me flying\u2014but in an airplane! Left Tuesday; came back Friday. And you know what? I prayed to the Lord that the pilot was a fundamentalist, that he took gauges and gas tank numbers, the compass\u2014and all that stuff\u2014literally.\r\nA fundamentalist is simply one who takes the Bible at face value\u2014unless there is an obvious figure of speech. What if you turn Adam into \u201cthe symbol of all humanity\u201d? The problem is that Adam is on a genealogy leading to Jesus Christ in Luke 3. And if what begins the genealogy is not a real historical person? And there are countless evangelicals today denying that!\r\nIn fact, that's a big discussion today: the historicity of Adam. Not taking place in liberal circles\u2014but in conservative evangelical circles\u2014the big debate is, \u201cWas there a real Adam? Do you believe in the historical Adam?\u201d And if you deny the historicity of Adam, how much longer do you think it will be until you deny the historicity of Jesus Christ, the last Adam? Because the two are connected in Luke's genealogy from beginning to end!\r\nBut there is a view that, \u201cWell, you know, this is all symbolic. And the tree of life? I mean, I know the Bible says it was in the middle of the garden, but we know that really wasn't the case.\u201d Really? So you\u2019ve been to Eden, and you know that for sure, huh? \r\nThen along came Philo, just before the time of Christ, and he was a great allegorist. And he said, \u201cThe four rivers here\u2014the Pishon, the Gihon, the Euphrates, and the Tigris\u2014aren't real rivers! Those represent different parts of the soul.\u201d And everybody would say,\u201dOoooh, that\u2019s spiritual!\u201d Because who wants to hear a sermon about four rivers when you could talk about something exciting\u2014the soul!\r\nOne of the very first sermons I ever heard as a new Christian was around Nehemiah 2, and it talks there about the gates around the city. And there's a water gate. The person preaching said, \u201cWell, that's the Holy Spirit\u2014that is what the water represents.\u201d\r\nAnd there was a sheep gate. \u201cWell, Jesus is the Savior of the sheep.\u201d So they were de-literalizing the city and this wall around the city of Jerusalem. You know what the water gate means in Nehemiah 2? Read it for yourself: they took water in and out of the gate. That\u2019s all it means.\r\nNow, who wants to hear sermon on that? B\u2026o\u2026r\u2026i\u2026n\u2026g! Give me a spiritual meaning! So what began to happen in the history of Christianity? This allegorical method of interpretation began to develop. And the nice thing about being an allegorist is you can never lose your job because you're the only one that knows what the allegory means. \r\nAnd what starts to happen? What is being interpreted is not the Bible, but people's carnal thoughts are rewriting the Bible! Now, look, we could have some great sermons about the fish gate and Jesus is the Fisher of men. But it\u2019s not in Nehemiah 2; there are countless other passages I could send you to. \r\nThat's the way it is today in modern-day Christianity. You hear a lot of things taught, and you say, \u201cGreat sermon; wrong passage.\u201d That's allegorization, and the Bible really is not being interpreted. The mind of the allegorist is being forced into the text. And people like that, I think, would be good on the United States Supreme Court because, sadly, that's what many jurists do on the United States Supreme Court.\r\nBy the way, this new gal, appointed as Trump's pick to the United States Supreme Court? That's the whole battle! Because she has the audacity to say, \u201cI'm going to interpret the Constitution as it's written!\u201d And the left gets quite hysterical about that, because they\u2019ve built all of their social doctrines\u2014like abortion on demand\u2014from things in the Constitution that don't even exist! That's why they don't like this new Supreme Court pick. How in the world did I get off on all that?\r\nThe Pishon, the Gihon, the Euphrates, and the Tigris? These are not four parts of the soul! These are four rivers in Eden. That's all that's meant! And if the rivers that we do know, the Euphrates and the Tigris, are real, literal, historical rivers, then why couldn't the rest of this be literal? Why can't the Pishon and the Gihon be literal as well?\r\nSo that raises another question. Why don't we have the Pishon and the Gihon today? Why do we just have the Euphrates and the Tigris? Well, there was something called the Flood. The flood altered the topography of our world. It was a global Deluge; we\u2019ll see that coming in Genesis 7.\r\nIt's very clear that these waters covered the whole face of the earth, and it altered the topography of our world. And when Noah's descendants got out of the ark after the waters abated, they found two rivers in the general area where the Garden of Eden once existed. These reminded them an awful lot of the rivers that existed in Eden that had been passed down to Noah's descendants through oral tradition. \r\nSo they got out of the boat, and they saw two rivers that looked a lot like the Euphrates and the Tigris that they remembered in the same general part of the world. Although they were not the exact same rivers, they sure reminded them of what was once known of Eden. So, they named those two rivers the Euphrates and the Tigris. The Pishon and the Gihon are gone because of the global Deluge. \r\nDon't let what I have said bother you too much. When those in Europe came to America, if they came from Yorktown they came to the United States and said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to call our city New York because it reminds us of what we once knew.\u201d If they came from England, they called their part of America New England, because it reminded them of what they once knew. That's what's happening here with the Euphrates and the Tigris.\r\nWas it the exact same Euphrates and Tigris? I don't think so. But it reminded them of what was known in Eden of the Euphrates and Tigris being in that general part of the world and looking an awful lot like the Euphrates and Tigris that had been passed down to them through oral tradition from Adam's descendants.\r\nNow we move into verses 15-17 where man is given responsibilities in the Garden of Eden. Notice what it says there in verse 15, \u201cThen the Lord God took the man\u2026\u201d The woman doesn't exist yet.\r\n\u201cThen the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.\u201d God gave man\u2014in this case, Adam\u2014an assignment; He gave him a job. His first job was the office of theocratic administrator.\r\nA theocratic administrator is someone who governs for God. God's original design for Adam and Eve, according to Genesis 1:26-28, is God was going to rule over the first Adam. And he\u2014along with his wife as co-ruler\u2014would govern Creation for God. Here we\u2019re seeing the initial part of that process where God gives Adam a responsibility.\r\nGenesis 1:26-28 just summarizes the larger discussion here in Genesis 2. But you remember Genesis 1:26-28, \u201clet them rule.\u201d Authority\u2014theocratic administrators. \u201cLet them\u201d is both of them.\r\n\u201c\u2026and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.\u201d 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, \u201cBe fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.\u201d And the Fall of man hasn't happened yet!\r\nThis becomes very, very important to understand. Not only is God giving man authority to govern on God's behalf, but He is giving him what we would call a pre-Fall institution. This is something that God wanted man to do from the beginning before the Fall of Genesis 3 ever existed.\r\nThe Fall of man did not change the institution. What the Fall of man did is it took that institution and made it hard! It made it difficult! Because now, post-Fall, man has to work to survive (Genesis 3:19). That's not the original design of God. Man worked for enjoyment. It was a joy to work, to keep and cultivate the garden. \r\nBut once the Fall of man happens, man must work to survive. Genesis 3:19, \u201cBy the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground\u2026\u201d Now you\u2019ve got to eke out a living for survival! You\u2019ve got to work because you have to! But work and labor and industry and creativity was always part of the plan of God before the Fall ever happened.\r\nIt's a lot like procreation. What did God say to Adam and Eve? \u201cBe fruitful and multiply.\u201d That's pre-Fall. And what happened with the Fall? Now pregnancy becomes painful and difficult. But the difficulty and the pain of pregnancy was never part of the original design of God. Procreation is something that God created from the beginning.\r\nIndustry, labor, work, creativity, productivity is something that God created from the beginning. But with the Fall, man must work now to survive. Second Thessalonians 3:10, \u201cFor even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.\u201d That's not what's happening here in Genesis 2. There's nothing about, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do it to survive\u201d; that's Genesis 3.\r\nToday we\u2019re in post Genesis 3\u2014we\u2019re working to survive. But that's not God's original plan. This, by the way, is one of the reasons that Marxism or socialism never work, because they are rebellions against what God said from the beginning, particularly post-Fall, \u201cYou work, you eat.\u201d Marxism and socialism say, \u201cYou work, I eat.\u201d \r\nAnd it always sounds good on paper. But there's no example anywhere where it's ever produced anything. It produces misery everywhere it's tried. Why is that? Because it's a rebellion against what God said as a foundational principle as the Creator from the beginning. \u201cGee, Pastor, you are the most hardhearted man I've ever heard! Don't you believe in a safety net?\u201d The problem is when the safety net turns into a hammock\u2014then it's a problem\u2014and I start to live off something someone else produces. That is when the economy starts running into problems, because it's a rebellion against what God said from the beginning.\r\nIt's interesting that when God re-creates everything\u2014eternal state\u2014sin will be gone\u2014Revelation 21 and 22. What do you think you're going to be doing in that eternal state? Wearing a halo and sitting on a cloud in a white sheet and singing the hallelujah chorus 10 million times because you're bored out of your mind? No. You\u2019re going to be producing!\r\nOf that time period, Revelation 22:3 says, \u201cHis bond-servants will serve Him...\u201d That's industry! That's creativity! That's productivity! That's exactly like it was prior to the Fall in Genesis 2:15. Think about that for a minute. You have certain energies, you have certain drives, you have certain interests, and you want to pursue those, but they\u2019re really not moneymakers. So you have to put those on hold to eke out a living.\r\nThink about living in the Eden where you don't have to work to survive. Think about the eternal state where you don't have to work to survive, and you\u2019re just allowed to pursue your God-given energies and interests. You want to pursue art? Go for it! Entertainment? It puts a few limits on that, of course, but go for it! \r\nWant to write a book? Go for it! Want to paint a painting? Go for it! No more of this situation where, \u201cI can't do it! I can't do it! I can't do it\u2014I\u2019m too busy. I\u2019ve got to survive. I\u2019ve got to do something I don't want to do to survive.\u201d That's what Eden was like. That's what the eternal state will be like when that burden is lifted, and the curse is lifted, but the productivity and energy continues. \r\nThen we come to verses 16 and 17, and what does it say here? \u201cThe Lord God commanded the man, saying, \u2018From any tree [and you ought underline the word \u201cany\u201d] of the garden you may eat freely [and you ought underline the word \u201cfreely\u201d]; 17 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 will surely die.\u2019 \u201d\r\nWhat do we see again here? Free will. It is stated there in verse 9. It is stated again in verses 16 and 17. \u201cGee, God could have certainly saved a lot of problems by just not giving them that option.\u201d But if God doesn't give them the option for rebellion, He's disrespecting how He's manufactured them as image bearers of God.\r\nWhat does He mean here when He says, \u201cThe day\u2014or the moment\u2014that you eat from that tree is the day you will surely die\u201d? What does that even mean\u2014to die? Well, I've got the Hebrew word underlined there\u2014the word \u201cdie.\u201d And that word is used 791 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, and guess what it means every single time? Physical death.\r\nPhysical death will come. They didn't even understand what physical death was. \u201cPhysical death is going to come the moment you rebel against Me. So you're free to do what you want, but payday someday.\u201d You can pick your sin, but you can't pick the consequences. \r\nPhysical death is going to come, and that's borne out in Genesis 3:19, is it not? \u201cBy the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it [the ground] you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.\u201d\r\nI want to be very clear on something. Death did not exist before Adam's rebellion. God did not create a world with death in it! It's very clear here; it's also clear in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, \u201cFor since by a man [Adam] came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.\u201d\r\nRomans 5:12 bears this out very well. \u201cTherefore, just as through one man [who would that be? Adam] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned\u2026\" You have no scenario\u2014New Testament, Old Testament\u2014where death somehow exists before Adam's rebellion.\r\nThat, by the way, is why the Bible makes painstaking effort to tell us that original humanity, prior to the Fall, were herbivorous. They were not carnivorous. Because if they are carnivorous, you\u2019ve got to kill an animal. This is Texas, and now I'm on thin ice, right? We\u2019ve got a steakhouse on every corner. Well, you\u2019re going to get your steakhouse in Genesis 9\u2014not Genesis 1. \r\nIt's very clear that God said to them, \u201cYou can eat from the plants. You can eat from the trees. You can eat from fruit.\u201d Again, He says, \u201cevery green plant,\u201d but there was no death. That's why, when the original sin happened and God took garments of skin and clothed Adam and Eve, that was a shocker! Because obviously God had to kill an innocent animal to retrieve for them those garments of skin to clothe them. \r\nThey didn't even know what death was. They just learned the consequences of sin\u2014that to cover death God Himself must bring in death of an innocent animal and sacrifice. But prior to that sin, there was no such thing as death. And guess what? When God re-creates everything, what will be absent in the eternal state? No more death! Death is gone. And this is why you will not hear from this pulpit\u2014as long as I'm here\u2014a single word advocating the gap theory.\r\nI know there are different renditions of the gap theory. But the gap theory, by and large, is going to tell you that death existed before Adam. In fact, Merrill Unger, one of the great Hebrew scholars of Dallas Seminary? You can go back into his writings, and you can see him arguing for a pre-Adamic race that was wiped out through Satan's fall. That is not what this is saying.\r\nYou don't have death prior to Adam's rebellion. Also, you will not hear a single word from this pulpit advocating theistic evolution\u2014that God somehow used the evolutionary process to bring forth humanity. You want to blame evolution on God? \r\nDo you understand what evolution is? It's the survival of the fittest over billions of years where the week die out and are replaced by the strong. And that was going on for billions of years until finally the first man climbed out of the primordial soup sometime in the distant past. That system is billions and billions and billions of years of cruelty before man even comes onto the scene! You want to blame that on God?\r\nBe an evolutionist, but don't blame it on God! God knows nothing about evolution! He knows nothing about the gap theory! He doesn't know anything about the pre-Adamic race! These are all inventions of man\u2014read into the Bible\u2014rather than derived from the Bible.\r\n\u201cWell, gee, Pastor, I wish you could preach on something more practical. I wish you would preach on something more relevant.\u201d You want to know how relevant this is? If you evangelize someone this week\u2014and I'm going to pray that you get that chance\u2014you know the first question they're going to ask? \u201cYour God is a God of love. My grandmother\u2014or my mother\u2014or my son\u2014or my daughter\u2014or my cousin\u2014just died of cancer. Now you tell me about ,your God of love!\u201d What are you going to say?\r\nWe actually have an answer to that! They may not like the answer, but it's in the Bible. By the way, when you evangelize someone, you're not responsible for the results. The results are God's. You're responsible to be faithful with what God has said.\r\n\u201cWill, gee, Andy, What are you going to do to build Sugar Land Bible Church?\u201d Nothing! I\u2019m not going to do anything to build Sugar Land Bible Church, because the building of the church is something God does. God never called a pastor, He never called elders, He never called deacons to build anything! What He called them to do is be faithful.\r\nWhether the person converts or not? That's God's business. By the way, you might plant a seed, and they may not be converted for 10 years. You might look at yourself as a failure because you don't see an immediate result, when all God wanted you to do is plant a seed that He would water.\r\nSo people will say, \u201cGod is a God of love? How do you explain all of the evil in the world?\u201d The answer is very simple: There was a time in which evil didn't exist. There was a time in which death didn't exist\u2014even in the animal kingdom. And you know what? There is a time period yet future when evil will be a thing of the past.\r\nI realize the insurance companies call catastrophes \u201cacts of God.\u201d What a misnomer that is! These catastrophes are caused\u2014and the groanings of the world that we\u2019re living in have been caused\u2014by the creature through their own volition making the wrong choice. That's who you blame it on. I prefer to call them acts of Adam and Eve, acts of the serpent, acts of Satan. Don't give God a bad name because of this.\r\nIt's interesting, as God is analyzing these two trees, how important special revelation was. What is the difference between general revelation and special revelation? General revelation is the disclosure of God in all of creation. See, God has written two Bibles. He's written the nature Bible, but He's written something more finite\u2014this Bible. This Bible is called special revelation. What you see around you is called general revelation.\r\nGeneral revelation is things like nature and conscience. Special revelation is things like the Incarnation, Scripture, miracles. General revelation is available to everybody. In fact, even atheists get up every day and read God's Bible all the time as they're looking around the natural world. Because God is the Author of the nature, just as He is the Scripture.\r\nBut special revelation is available to those who want it. General revelation can\u2019t get you to heaven! You know what it can do? It makes you accountable to search for truth. But in the words of this Book is the information necessary to save the soul.\r\nGeneral revelation is nonwritten; special revelation is written. General revelation is natural; special revelation revolves around the supernatural and the miraculous. Do you know what God just gave Adam and Eve here in verses 16 and 17? Not Eve\u2014I keep saying that; she's coming. \r\nDo you know what He just gave Adam with the two trees? He gave them general revelation. And then God says, \u201cBy the way, this tree over here will bring life to you. That tree over there will kill you.\u201d He's not giving them general revelation anymore; He's giving them special revelation. \r\nAnd He's teaching them an important principle that you interpret general revelation by the special revelation of God. You are not free to interpret everything in nature and the universe any way you want to interpret it! You have to interpret it through a lens.\r\nI would think that in Eden those two trees\u2014life and knowledge\u2014looked exactly the same. I mean, from a human perspective there was probably no conceivable or discernible difference between those two trees. And yet there was a world of difference. One was going to bring life to him; one was going to kill him.\r\nAnd if they did not have a special Word from God, they would have not known the difference! You see that? And if they needed that special Word of God before the Fall, how much do we need this Word after the Fall? I am not free as a Christian to go out and interpret geology and the natural world any way I want to interpret it. I have to interpret it through a lens\u2014that\u2019s special revelation.\r\nBack to Louis Berkhof. Look at this quote. \u201cSince the entrance of sin into the world, man can gather true knowledge about God from his general revelation only if he studies it in light of Scripture\u2026\u201d That's what your college professor isn't doing. They\u2019re not studying it in light of Scripture; they\u2019re studying it through their own darkened mind.\r\n\u201c\u2026in which the elements of God's original self-revelation which were obscured and perverted by the blight of sin, are republished, corrected, and interpreted\u2026 Some are inclined to speak of God's revelation as a second source; but this is hardly correct in view of the fact that nature can come into consideration here only as interpreted in the light of Scripture.\u201d\r\nI'm at the Grand Canyon, and I\u2019ve got all these strata. In fact, I went through one of those kinds of things in Australia, and the government financed tour guide said, \u201cThese were created through billions\u2026\u201d And he kept saying it over and over again. Every time he said it, I said, \u201cThat's once.\u201d \r\n\u201cBillions and billions of years!\u201d He kept saying it, kept saying it, kept saying it, and kept saying it. I was well behaved; you would've been proud of me. But I felt like saying, \u201cNo, they weren\u2019t. They were created in an instant through a catastrophe called the global Flood.\u201d \r\nNow, why would we be interpreting these layers of strata so differently? He's looking at it without the right lens! See that? I'm looking at it with the correct lens. God here, before the Fall, is giving Adam and Eve a lens. He is explaining to them that, \u201cYou are not free to interpret things anyway you want, but you've got to interpret it through the correct lens.\u201d\r\nGenesis 2:17, \u201cbut from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.\u201d \u201cHold the phone, Pastor! Hold the phone! They didn't die that day.\u201d Adam, Genesis 5:5, lived to the ripe old age of 930. So, aren't days ages? No. A day might be an age here. But in Genesis 1 it doesn't just say YOM\u2014day\u2014it gives a number. It says, \u201can evening and a morning.\u201d \r\nDo you see that formula here in Genesis 2:17? It's not here. So this is not grounds for saying the Creation days are not 24 hour days. And even beyond that, when you look at this in the original language, \u201cin the day\u201d is a preposition attached to the Hebrew word \u201cday.\u201d And when that preposition is attached to the Hebrew word \u201cday,\u201d a better translation is \u201cwhen.\u201d Not \u201cin that day,\u201d but \u201cwhen you eat of it you will die.\u201d That's how the NET Bible translates Genesis 2:17\u2014\u201cwhen.\u201d\r\nIt's that same translation, same construction, in 1 Kings 2:37. \u201cIf [YOM + the preposition in] you ever do leave and cross the Kidron Valley, know for sure that you will certainly die! You will be responsible for your own death.\u201d God is not saying that the death process is going to start in 24 hours, \u201cIn 24 hours you are going to be dead.\u201d What He is saying is, \u201cYou're introducing a process now that can't be altered\u2026and physical death will come.\u201d\r\nIt didn't come that day, but it came. It came, in the case of Adam, 930 years later. \u201cWell, Pastor, I don't like that interpretation. My Bible says, \u201cIn the day you eat from the tree you\u2019ll die.\u201d Okay, you can keep your interpretation. And here's how it can work: they did die that day\u2014spiritually. The cord was cut. They were severed and alienated from a relationship with God. And if you want this to be death in that day, I would argue it that way. But you don't have to go that route; it can easily mean \u201cwhen.\u201d \r\nAnd we haven\u2019t even gotten married yet. So next week we\u2019ll see the first marriage, beginning in Genesis 2:18-25. Is this really relevant? Well, the whole culture wants to redefine marriage. Why don\u2019t we go back to the original blueprint and see what God has in mind?\r\nThe fact of the matter is \u201cin the day ye eat thereof is the day you shall surely die\u201d spiritual death. We\u2019re all dead. Did you know that? We\u2019re dead in our trespasses and sins. And the primary need that we have is to hear the gospel, through volition\u2014through free will\u2014respond to it by faith. And guess what? You'll come alive spiritually.\r\nPhysically your dying day will come\u2014if we\u2019re not the Rapture generation. But you can be made alive right now through the new birth simply by hearing the gospel concerning the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, what we celebrated today at the Lord's Table, the Lord's body sacrificed in our place, the Lord's blood spilled in our place. \r\nAnd simply by believing\u2014or trusting\u2014in that transaction\u2014not just intellectual assent. But it's a matter of trust, or it's a reliance. In a nanosecond a person is brought from death unto life. They receive the Holy Spirit; they are regenerated at that point. If that's never happened to you? \r\nAnybody in the room hearing this, anybody hearing online, anybody listening to this 10 years after the fact via archive, the offer is still the same. It's the choice between death and life. Same choice Adam and Eve had. Our exhortation is to choose life, because God loves you and wants to spend eternity with you.\r\nYou can make that choice right now in the quietness of your own mind and thoughts and heart. You don't have to walk an aisle to make that choice. You don't have to give money to make that choice. You don't even, quite frankly, have to pray a prayer to make that choice. Now, if you want to do all those things? Great. But those don't save anybody. It's faith alone in Christ alone. It's a matter of privacy between you and the Lord. It's a condition in the heart. And once that happens, a person is ushered from death unto life. If it's something you need more explanation on, I'm available after the service to talk. \r\nShall we pray?\r\nClosing Prayer\r\n\u201cFather, we\u2019re grateful for this foundational book and the things that it teaches and reveals. Make us good stewards of this section of Scripture as we seek to interpret our world in its fallen state according to the lens You've given us.\r\nWe\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d And God's people said, \u201cAmen.\u201d\r\n","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t