It Is Not Good That The Man Should Be Alone

I started off last Sunday with a joke about a little boy praying and asking God for a bike. I will continue this morning with the little boy’s prayer life.

The little boy wanted $100.00 badly and prayed to God for a whole week, but nothing happened. So, he decided to write God a letter requesting the $100.00. When the Post Office got the letter addressed to God they forwarded it on to the Whitehouse. The President was very impressed, touched and amused so he instructed his aid to send the boy $5.00. He thought $5.00 would be a lot to the little boy. The boy was, indeed, delighted by the money. He sat down and wrote a thank you note immediately, which read:

Dear God,

Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington and, as usual, they kept most of it.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of

Genesis 2:15–18 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 2:15–25 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 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 Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Now continue with me in , ,

Genesis 3:6–7 ESV

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:6–7 ESV

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:9–11 ESV

9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

So, in this very familiar set of passages that many of us have seen numerous times, I want to point out a couple of things.

First of all, why did God say that He was going to give to Adam, a helper?

Because, God said that it was not good that man should be alone!

I’ll come back to that one in a minute, as it is the main point for today.

Next, What happened to Eve’s view of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and the condition of her heart, once temptation and desire was presented to her?

In verses 2-3 of this passage, upon the serpent asking Eve if they were not allowed to eat of ANY trees within the garden, Eve answered, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst/middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

There was no desire for this tree at that time and her heart was still bent towards listening to God.

Then, as soon as the enemy introduced ungodly desire to Eve, look how quickly the tree’s appearance changed and temptation entered into the picture, as in verse 6, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.”

The word used here for “delight” actually means, “longing, desire, craving; a wish or want for something for the pleasure it brings”!

The only thing different about this tree then from anytime before, was that the devil presented that which God had placed OFF LIMITS, as desirable.

It was desire for the forbidden that lead to the temptation to eat. Desire always precedes temptation.

We are not tempted by something that we don’t find desirable!

Isn’t that what tells us?

James 1:14–15 NLT

14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

So, a desire for something forbidden, was placed into Eve’s mind and heart and thus her eyes now beheld the exact same object that she had seen numerous times before, but differently!

She now was presented with the temptation to eat of the tree and thus gain something for pleasure that was denied her before!

Eve may have thought, “Obviously, I just misunderstood what God was saying. I mean, the serpent seems to know about all of this and God created the serpent, so this must be alright!”

This is how the devil gets us. He repackages and distorts the TRUTH in such a way, that it seems right and pleasurable in the eyes of men!

Ungodly knowledge, leads to ungodly decisions, without the guidance of Godly WISDOM!

And what was the INSTANT outcome of the first sin?

SHAME! Adam and Eve didn’t have a clue of what shame was, until that exact moment!

Have you ever wondered why they felt shame because of their nakedness?

There was no law, or commandment of God about sexual transgression. The only command was to not eat of the one tree.

So, why the shame of nakedness and the unction to hide their bodies from God?

Because, what the devil told Eve, had come true, but not in the sense that it was presented. They now knew good and evil.

They already new about GOOD (God and their existence with Him was GOOD), but now they knew EVIL, which comes only from sin and transgression (a.k.a. the devil)!

And with the knowledge of EVIL, comes the full gambit associated with it.

They now knew SIN and felt the full effects of it, which instantly made them feel shameful and dirty; even for sins they had not committed yet!

The knowledge of sin and the effects of sin, bring the the full weight and condemnation of sin.

This is why people who are living with a certain sin struggle so hard to justify their sin in the eyes of other people.

The weight of that one sin, brings the full shame of sin upon them.

It doesn’t matter the degree of sin, if God says it is a sin and you still do it, then you are guilty of SIN, period.

“For the wages of SIN is death.” Note that it doesn’t say the wages of a particular sin, but of ALL SIN, is death!

And in order to try and alleviate the weight of sin from their lives, the sinners try to get justification and acceptance from others for that sin!

This is why

This is why you are always hearing the question of, “Is homosexuality a sin” being asked to notable people all of the time. Even though the question has been answered numerous times from true Christians, as a resounding, “YES, IT IS A SIN ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE”, they keep asking others, because they are looking for absolution of the sin, rather than repentance and forgiveness and release from the shame of that sin!

The prognosis of living in sin is death. That is the wages that are earned by living in sin! Sin is the spiritual disease of the soul and death is the prognosis.

PROGNOSIS NOT GOOD

A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor’s office. After the checkup, the doctor took the wife aside and said, "if you don’t do the following, your husband will surely die."

1. "Each morning fix him a healthy breakfast and send him off to work in a good mood."

2."At lunch time make him a warm, nutritious meal and put him in a good frame of mind before he goes back to work.

3."For dinner, fix an especially nice meal and don’t burden him with household chores."

4."Satisfy his every whim."

On the way home, the husband asked his wife what the doctor had said, she replied "you’re going to die."

On the way home, the husband asked his wife what the doctor had said, she replied "you’re going to die."

Without the Blood of Jesus Christ covering you and washing you clean from all sin and unrighteousness, your prognosis is spiritual death!

I have said this before, but I personally, do not believe that there was anything special about the tree called the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. It was just a tree that was set as a boundary for Adam and Eve, because God knew that satan was loose and that he would bring ungodly desire and temptation into the picture, as God is omniscient.

So, God placed a boundary, one simple command, within the garden that identified that God was both watching and expecting His creation to adhere to His will and to His will only!

If there is no sin, then there is only the knowledge of GOOD and there is no knowledge of EVIL. And so the tree, itself, didn’t give them this knowledge, but rather going against God’s command brought into their lives, the knowledge of evil.

The more you sin, the more of the knowledge of evil you gain.

And let me say this in at this point, about confronting the adversary, Satan, and of how we are to deal with his temptations to sin.

When you are approached with the temptation to sin and you know what God has said is right and what is wrong, then you had better make sure that you speak accurately and with belief in what God has said, because, the devil knows God’s words also!

I will come back to this in a few minutes!

Why? Because the devil both knows and even speaks God’s words when is suits him and his plans, BUT, when those same words are spoken in belief and faith against the devil and his lies, they become the Sword of the Spirit and they destroy the works of the devil.

Anyway, just a thought or two about the whole garden account, that I find interesting and wanted to share with you guys!

One more thought here, prior to fall of mankind in sin, Eve was not yet given her specific name.

In other words, when God formed Eve from the rib of Adam and presented her to Adam, he called her, “isha”, (WOMAN), because she came from within the “ish” (MAN).

Adam, basically did as he had done with every other created thing that God brought before him, he assigned a name to her as part of God’s creation and called her, “WOMAN”.

After they sinned though and God gave the spoken proclamation that there would be a man who would come through the seed of a woman who would crush the devil, then Adam gave her a specific name, “ḥǎw·wā” (Eve), which means, “life, to give life”!

There was going to be one who would come through Eve, who would return or give life to all!

And now, to my original question from these verses, that I said that I would come back to, “Why did God say that He was going to give to Adam, a helper?”

Because God looked at man and said and that it was NOT GOOD that man should be alone, right?

God gave to man, a helper who would assist him in his role as the authority in keeping the garden.

But not just one created for him, but also Created from him.

For this reason, she was called “isha”(woman), because she was created from the anatomy of the “ish” (man).

As Adam said, “She is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman”, because she was taken out of man.”

The two were created FROM ONE FLESH, only to be spiritually rejoined through God and become ONE whole unit again!

This was the original will of God and it has never changed, as God and His will are immutable!

Throughout the Old Testament, it is God who tells His chosen people that if they would obey His laws and keep His commandments, He would prosper them and bless them and that He would never leave them and never forsake them.

Moses recognized the need to have God with them at all times, as he said to God, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.”

And David recognized the same thing with the continual need for God’s presence as found in ,

Psalm 27:4–5 ESV

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

And it was God, Himself, who said to Israel, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

You see, to those who love God and desire His presence, there exists no other place of refuge and provision apart from God that the believer can go, or be!

Because we were fashioned and created in the image of God, as a spiritual being, our spirit within us, desires His presence, because this was God’s original will for us!

Your heart and soul and mind may be at war with the things of this world and the cares of this world, but the spirit of a man who has been bought with the blood of Jesus, desires only for all eternity to be in presence of God!

To be ONE with Him!

So, God never wanted His people walking alone and out from under His covering and blessings, both from the time of creation and throughout the Old Testament.

Now let’s flash forward thousands of years from the creation account in the garden and the time of Moses and David and all of the Old Testament, to the day and age of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Because what we find in the New Testament and what is revealed about God’s plan for us and the mystery of the gospel, is the exact same as God’s plan and His will at the time of creation for us that we just looked at in the Old Testament!

John 3:17 ESV

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

And this is what I mean. Turn with me in your Bibles to , ,

John 14:15–18 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:23–26 ESV

23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Do you see what Jesus is saying to His disciples in these passages on the night of His arrest?

Jesus had been telling them that He was going to have to leave them and return to His Father and that they would have to continue doing His works and to a greater degree, but that He would not leave them as orphans to do so.

In other words, Jesus is letting the disciples know, as well as all of us as His true followers, that He and His Father do not want us alone, as we go out doing His work for the Kingdom.

Jesus said in verse 18 that He would not leave us as “orphans” and this word can mean without parents, but it also carries the meaning of, “one who is without companions who may be of sustaining help, a friendless person, helpless”.

Simply put, Jesus would never leave us ALONE, and devoid of someone to come along side of us and serve as a helper!

Now, reflect back to God’s initial statement about mankind at the point of creation and of what He said was “NOT GOOD”. In fact, as to creation itself, this is the only thing that God said about His creation that was “NOT GOOD”.

And what was that THING?

“It is not good that man should be alone!”

Jesus is saying this same thing again with regard to our walk with Him as His servants.

It is not good for them to be alone! So, Jesus promises us the same thing that He and His Father promised all the way back in Exodus, “I will not leave you, I will not forsake you. I will not put you into a place where you are without any comfort and without any source of help!”

“I will ask the Father and He will give a replacement for me being here with you. He will send another HELPER to you, who will NEVER LEAVE YOU!”

Jesus said that this “helper” would be as close to us as another person could be. This “helper” would be IN US, as Christ said, “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

As in, we and this “helper” would become one functioning unit. Just like that of husband and wife, two separate entities who become one spiritually!

Who is this HELPER that Jesus promised to send to us? HOLY SPIRIT!

The same Holy Spirit of God who dwelt within Jesus and empowered Him, would come and dwell within us!

The divine Godhead would set up shop in these living, breathing vessels we call our bodies!

Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home (dwelling place) with him.

And just as God said that the woman would be a “helper” to the man, so also, would Holy Spirit be a helper to the believer.

And how is Holy Spirit a “helper” to a follower of Jesus Christ?

Well, Jesus said this of Him. (Note that I said “Him” and not “it”, because Holy Spirit is not some spiritual force, or unrecognizable entity, but rather He is a person and one third of the Trinity.)

In fact the Bible is clearly shows us that Holy Spirit is a PERSON, because He:

Makes decisions that help to direct our lives.(Acts 15:28)

He can be grieved, hurt. (Ephesians 4:30)

He can be angered and insulted. (Hebrews 10:29)

He can be lied to. (Acts 5:3,4)

He gives us “spiritual” gifts as He sees fit for our walk with the Lord. ()

He intercedes for us and has a mind with which He acts. ()

He bears witness about Christ to us! ()

He bestows new life upon us, as we are born again through Him. (John 3:8)

These are all attributes and characteristics of a person and not just of “a person”, but of the person which is the Holy Spirit of Yahweh!

And of how He becomes a “helper” to us, Jesus said:

“He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

He is the Spirit of Truth who bears witness and testifies about Jesus to us.

We share the gospel and the Truth of that message to others, but it Holy Spirit who CONVICTS those who hear the Word so that they may believe in the Christ, He brings righteousness to those who believe.

He convicts us and the world of our sins to bring forth repentance and righteousness!

He guides us into ALL TRUTH.

He tells us of what the Father wants us to know and He tells us about the future, by speaking the words that Jesus gives to Him for us!

Jesus said that when Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive POWER.

And the Apostle Paul said that, “As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.”

And when we yield to and walk in the anointing and power of Holy Spirit, then He produces within our lives, the very things that we long for, the things that the Bible refers to as the fruit of Holy Spirit:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control!

He will guide you and I into all TRUTH. (When Jesus prayed to His Father for all of us, before going to the Cross in John 17, He said this, “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.”

Jesus Christ is the living breathing WORD of God and all of God’s Word is truth.

If you remember, a few minutes ago when I was talking about Adam and Eve and of being approached by the enemy with desires and temptations to sin and I said that you had better know God’s Word accurately and be able to speak that Word in faith and belief, because the devil knows God’s Word also. I said that I would comment again about this.

Well, here is my point in saying that. In the garden, when Eve was approached by the devil and presented with the lie of sin and the temptation to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this is how she answered the devil, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, LEST you die.’”( The word “lest” that Eve uses here, has has an unsure implication of “in case” or “perhaps”; no of certainty!)

Now listen to exactly what God said of the trees in the garden, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Here is my point, when the enemy approaches you and tries to lure you into sin and you try to counter his attack by speaking some form of the Word of God, you had better know with faith and belief in exactly what the Word of God says and not speak some here-say that you have heard used before!

Eve used the phrase, “GOD SAID” and then misquoted what God had said and even showed uncertainty of what God said the repercussions would be for mishandling His command.

God said, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God never said, “don’t touch”, He said, “don’t eat” and if you do EAT, then you will SURELY DIE!

This is why we need Holy Spirit empowering us and actively guiding us DAILY in our lives. Because He will lead us and guide us into ALL TRUTH of the Word! Not partial truth and not uncertainty.

The devil knows God’s Word and he will use it to deceive you unless you have implanted the TRUTH of God’s Word in your heart, in which case Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance that TRUTH and guide you in speaking it over the lies of the enemy!

Listen to me very carefully today. Eve was inaccurate in her handling of God’s Word and the devil recognized it and deceived her into sinning. And the person who was her helper, Adam, stood by and watched it happen!

Holy Spirit, OUR HELPER, will not sit idly by and watch us just walk into temptation and sin, but He will guide us into all TRUTH by God’s Word in our lives!

Paul said, in , “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Without Holy Spirit actively guiding you and giving you the TRUTH of the Word when temptation arises, then you will end up living in sin and deception and living in a false and heretical version of the gospel message!

This is why Paul said, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

On our own and without the guidance of the Spirit of TRUTH, we will fall to sin!

The nation that we live in today has fallen to deception and is overrun with moral uncertainty and no ABSOLUTE TRUTH!

And this deception of the enemy has even infiltrated the Body of Christ.

A survey taken this past year revealed this deception.

In this survey, some statements were read to the people and they were asked whether they agreed or not.

Listen to a few of these statements and the answers:

“Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” Among evangelicals, 71% agreed and only 22% disagreed.

“The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual new birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ.” 60% of evangelicals agreed with this!

“The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.” 59% of evangelicals agreed to this statement!

This postmodernist moral relativism that the world around lives in today, is leading millions to hell every day and without the TRUTH of the Gospel Message being administered, it will continue to grow in numbers!

This is why you and I desperately need our HELPER, Holy Spirit, leading and guiding us into all TRUTH.

It was and still is God’s will that we should never be alone!

And we need never to walk alone, because Holy Spirit is there to guide us in ALL ABSOLUTE POWER and AUTHORITY and TRUTH of the Kingdom of God, each and every day of our lives, that we submit to Him and His will for us!

HE LOVES US........HE LOVES US.........HE LOVES YOU AND I!

SHARE OF THE STORY OF TOM AND KATHY OLSON AND THE TORNADO HITTING THEIR HOUSE.