It is Not Good

Good morning, welcome. Please open your Bibles to Genesis 2.

Will we be shaped by the Word of God?

Joshua 24:14-15- “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Not merely choosing what is right, but what is better.

Pray together.

Read Genesis 2:18-25.

1. God sees a need.

Text begins with God noticing something- It is not good.

Man has been created alone, and God sees and states that this solitude is not a good state of being.

Reminded of the need for community. God created us to be social. Even the introverts.

When we find a lack of community and fellowship, bad things follow.

Consider the great need of Adam.

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

We can never comprehend the loneliness of Adam, and yet the text gives no indication that he noticed anything was wrong or incomplete.

Of particular interest- God sees that something is not complete with man. God does not first consult with the man.

Don’t see that the man notices anything to be lacking.

God is the main actor, or doer, in our text- He is the instigator of everything that is taking place.

Until God tells him to name the animals. Then there is no suitable helper according to his kind.

What God commands opens the eyes of Adam to his loneliness.

Major point to be learned- It is possible for God to see that something is wrong, or incomplete, within us even while we believe ourselves to be complete in every way.

Seen most clearly in sin. God sees something in us that we cannot seem to see in ourselves.

One of the reasons Jesus was so convicting with His words- He saw what others could not.

Mark 10:20-22- And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Matthew 23:27- “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

Changes how we approach the Word of God. It is to be the lens through which we see ourselves.

We are meant to hold ourselves against what we read in Scripture.

Galatians 5- Fruit of the Spirit

John 8:43-44- Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Matthew 7- I never knew you.

Matthew 25- The final judgement- the least of these.

Do we allow ourselves to be confronted with the truth of who we are? Can we allow for God to say to us that something is not good and must be dealt with?

Adam did not know his need. Are we aware of ours?

2. God provides for the man.

God alone- man was asleep.

Man is put into a deep sleep- why?

Always thought it was pain management- removing of the rib.

Could it be something else? Man went to sleep and awoke with woman.

We are often not privy to the ways in which God works.

Consider our very salvation, being saved from sin. How are we brought from death to life? How does God make this possible and accomplish it?

Romans 8- Foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified.

G.K. Chesterton- “The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”

Not only are we unaware of how God works, but putting Adam to sleep also allowed for God to take all credit for Eve’s creation.

Adam is in no way a co-creator.

1 Corinthians 4:7- For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

We always seem to try to take credit for anything we can, even if we had no part in it!

By the time of the fall, God’s work alone in the creation of woman was seen clearly by Adam- The woman whom you gave to be with me.

3. God still provides.

What we have read is still true in profound ways. Consider the steps of what we have seen.

Something is incomplete in man and God sees the need.

Man is often unaware of what is needed, let alone of the necessary remedy.

God does a work in man that is completely of God.

God makes complete that which was incomplete.

This is the nature of the gospel.

Man finds himself to be incomplete, or broken, what we would call sinful.

Not only is this true, but like Adam, unaware of his incompleteness, we are unaware of our own sinfulness.

1 Corinthians 2:14- “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Does not mean that we are unaware that we mess up or make a morally bad choice, but rather that we offend the very person and glory of God.

We have no concept of the magnitude of our sin.

God does a work in man that is completely of God.

Philippians 1:6- And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Titus 3:5- He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit...

God makes complete that which was incomplete.

Remember the Shema? That was the best possible life for Israel.

Deuteronomy 30:6- And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

What does this mean for you here today?

Understand the work that God has done in your life.

The response of Adam to the gift that God had given.

Understand the work that God can do in your life.

I would ask you to consider what is missing in your life.