I believe more and more as we
progress through this study, it will be a blessing to us as
we see what the Lord has revealed here in this first book. Looking at verse 4 to 9 of chapter
2, these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens. This is simply a declaration
of what has happened before in the first chapter and in the
first few verses of chapter 2. But interesting here in this
verse 4 is that the Lord's name Jehovah is used for the first
time. I'm not sure why. I thought about
perhaps it's revealing of the fact that since regeneration,
since the new birth is pictured in chapter 1, and we don't know
his name before that, Now we do. We call Him Jehovah, who
He is. Now before that, He's assigned
the title God, which means literally, that's the word Elohim, and it
means literally Almighty or Divine. And that's certainly a fitting
title for Him. But this is His name. This is
the actual, what's considered the personal name of God, Jehovah. And it means the Existing One.
It speaks of His eternality. When Moses saw that burning bush
and approached it, and God spoke to him and told him to take off
his shoes because he was standing on holy ground, the Lord Jesus
spoke to him from that bush and gave him, of course, the commission
to go and speak to Pharaoh and be the liberator of his people.
And Moses said, who shall I tell Pharaoh hath sent me? And the
Lord Jesus said, you tell him I am that I am hath sent thee. Also speaking of the eternality
of God, which is a description that's expressed in this name,
Jehovah, existing one, eternal God. And then look at verse five. This is an interesting verse,
very instructive. Verse five, and every plant of
the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field
before it grew. For the Lord God had not caused
it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the
ground. But there went up a mist from
the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." Now, this
may not seem on the surface to say a whole lot, but we spoke
earlier from chapter 1 about how God uses means, but He is
not dependent upon them. We saw that in that He spoke
light into existence by His almighty power before He ever made a sun.
He said, let there be light, and there was light upon His
earth. And then later He created a sun, and He established that
sun in the heavens and the moon to be lights upon His earth. So He uses means, but He does
not depend upon them. He does not need them. And this
is the lesson here also in verse 5. God made these plants, it
says, before they were in the earth. They were created. Every plant of the field before
it was in the earth. Now, today the plants are in
the earth, aren't they? They're seeds. There's already
seeds that have developed within the fruit and have fallen and
fallen into the earth. And come spring, they'll be popping
up. You'll begin to see the different things begin to grow. Because
they're already in the earth. But before that happened, God
put them there. You see what he's saying here?
God made the plants before they were in the earth. That is, before
the seeds and the natural, what we call the natural production
of things. And there is, there's nothing
wrong with talking about nature. It's just the way God has set
things up. There is no mother nature. It's God has established
these things in the earth. And they naturally produce seeds. They naturally shed those seeds. Those seeds naturally germinate.
It's the power of God. We just get used to it, so we
call it natural. That's what it is. But then it
says here, before that, every herb before it grew, that is
before there were those things in place that cause herbs to
perpetuate, God made them, you see. And then He established
those means that cause a perpetuation of plants and herbs. But before
those means were there, before He caused it to rain upon the
earth, and before there was a man to till the ground, God made
some plants and planted them. You see what He said? There wasn't
any rain yet, but eventually He did cause it to rain. There
wasn't any sun yet when He said, let there be light, but eventually
He made a sun and put it up there, And now it sheds light every
day. It's what we call the natural order of things, because in the
morning, if you get up early enough, you'll see that sun come
up over the horizon that he made, and there'll be light. You see,
there was no man yet to till the ground, to garden, to cultivate,
but God didn't need him. Though he does now use man for
such things. If we're going to have some okra,
This summer we're going to have fried okra to eat. Somebody's
going to have to plant some somewhere and till the ground before they
do. And make sure to irrigate it. Otherwise there's not going
to be enough probably. You reckon? It'll cost three
dollars a stick unless somebody somewhere does these things.
God uses him now. But God doesn't need him. Before
it grew, before it was in the earth, God made it. He could
do that today if he wanted to. He doesn't need man to form his
earth. He does not need means, but he does use means. And here's
the lesson. Those means that God has established
and said he will use are to be observed. They are to be observed. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. This do. Not anything else. He
didn't say anything about draping things or waving things or lighting
things. He said, do this. when you remember
Me." Well, we can remember Him without doing that. Do not neglect
the means that God has ordained. Do not. Well, I can worship God
out on the lake. He said, forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together. And when you get together, sing
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, praising God, and pray
together. My house will be the house of
prayer. Do not neglect His established means. Well, I believe if somebody's
elect, they're going to be saved no matter what happens. I'll
tell you how they're going to be saved. They're going to be
saved by hearing the gospel because it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's how He'll do
it. That's how He said He'll do it. That's how He'll do it.
Now, God can do anything He pleases. That's what it means to be God.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. But when He says He
will do something a certain way, That's what he'll do. You can
count on it and expect it. And it's also instructive to
understand that he does as he pleases. We see this truth in
that God caused this mist to come up from the ground and water
his plants until he got good and ready to establish the system
whereby rain falls from the sky. He did it a different way. He
can do it any way he wants to do it. He accomplishes His purposes
any way He pleases. And don't ever try to put God
in a box. Do you remember what Naaman the
leper said? Let me read it to you in 2 Kings 5.10. Elisha sent
a messenger to him. There's a leper. He's dying.
He's rotting. His flesh is grotesque and disgusting. And he was a great man, a mighty
man, but he was a stinky, nasty, filthy, dying leper. And Elisha
sent a messenger to him and said, you go wash in the Jordan seven
times and your flesh will come again to you and you'll be clean.
He should have been clicking his heels all the way to the
river, you reckon? You'll be clean! What greater
thing can you say to a leper than you obey me, you listen
to me and hear what I say? And do it and you'll be clean.
But he got mad. But Naaman was wroth and went
away and said, behold, I thought He will surely come out to me
and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not Abana and
Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned away and
went away in a rage. And his servants came near and
spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do
some great thing, Wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather
then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then he went
down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to
the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again like
unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. We think we
know how things ought to be done. We try to put God in our box.
But God can water his earth with rain. Or he can invent his own
sprinkler system. He does it the way he wants to
do it. But when he tells you, this is what I will do, better
listen to him. Do not limit him. Do not expect
him to do what you might expect him to do. What would Jesus do?
You don't have any idea what he would do. No idea. And it's
vanity to even try to speculate about it. Unless he has specifically
revealed beforehand what he will do. And then if he does that,
you don't need to ask, do you? So it's a stupid question, isn't
it? It's a stupid question. Why do you suppose God didn't
make it rain from the very start? That would just make sense, wouldn't
it, to us? Let me ask you this. I don't
know, but I know this. Do you remember the first time
it ever did rain? Miss Virginia does. You all do, don't you?
And when it did, when it did rain, It was an integral part,
beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus and salvation by the grace
of God in His judgment of God falling. And God's people safe
from that judgment within the safe arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man did not eat animals until
after the death of the first animal. And the death of that
first animal pictured God's wrath against His Son in the place
of the sinner. And it never rained until the flood. which pictures
God's wrath being poured out upon His Son. And those in His
Son resting safely, protected in Christ from His wrath. Genesis
7.23, And every living substance that was destroyed, which was
upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creeping
things and the fowl of heaven, and they were destroyed from
the earth, and Noah only remained alive. And they that were with
him, three words, in the Why didn't God make it rain in the
beginning? I don't know all the reasons for it, but I know what
happened when He did make it rain. He showed forth the glories
of His Son, and how that His Son bore the judgment of God
in our state, and how we rest safely. Look at verse 7 in our
text there in Genesis 2. And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living soul. There's no life until God
gives it. And the Lord God, verse 8, planted
a garden. Isn't that beautiful language?
The almighty sovereign of heaven and earth planted a garden eastward
in Eden. The word Eden means luxury. He
planted a garden in Eden and there he put the man whom he... He planted a paradise, an enclosure
is the word, an enclosed garden. and he named it luxury and pleasure. He put his man in it. Do you
see that? Oh boy. As we saw, this picture
is God's abundant provision for His elect. All things are provided
for them before they even need it. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was redemption through His blood because The book of
Hebrews tells us that when he shed his precious blood, he obtained
eternal redemption without any effort on their part. Adam didn't
have to do anything before it was in the ground, before there
was ever a man to till the ground or any rain or any other means.
God planted a garden. This would be a good time to
consider the gardens of God. Let's think about that for a
little while. Some things happened on this
earth that we can talk about for the rest of our lives and
never exhaust the glorious subject. And they all seem to have happened
in gardens. Have you ever noticed that in
the Word of God? The first garden was an absolute paradise. It
was luxury. It was pleasure. Every imaginable
fruit and vegetable and herb and spice grew without thorn
or disease or any lack of means. The sun was never too hot or
never was it too cold. perfect. How wonderful a place
can God create? How much pleasure, how much luxury
was there? The puny man creates luxury and
we marvel at it. The God of heaven and earth planted
a garden and enclosed it and called it luxury. Can you imagine? Do you have any idea what it
must have been like? But when Adam fell, when Adam
sinned, when he disobeyed God, he ruined himself He ruined all
of mankind, and he ruined the garden. He ruined God's earth. Paul said in Romans 8, 22, we
know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. The earth's not the same as it
was. It's not a paradise anymore. It's not luxury. It's a hard
place. You go out anywhere, away from
where we've made things that sustain us, and that protect
us, and that keep us. I don't care where it is. You
see them on these TV shows. You know, one day they're in
Africa, and one time they're in Mexico, or one time they're
in Alaska. You go out into this earth. It's
not paradise. It's wilderness. It's dangerous. It's treacherous. It's impossible
to live in it for long without some kind of help. The whole
creation is different now. The weeds and thorns grow better,
faster, taller than the vegetables and the good things. Man worked
before the fall. Verse 15, God made man and put
him in the garden to dress it and keep it. Work, labor, is
not a result of sin. It's absolutely not. No, work
is good. Work is wholesome. Work is enjoyable. Everything
works against us. That's the difference. Work is
not what it was then. You ever heard of Murphy's Law?
It goes like this. Everything that can go wrong,
will go wrong. Anybody? Can I get a witness? That's not Murphy's Law, that's
called the curse. The curse. Genesis 3, 17, and
to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee." You remember Adam kind of turned things off and said,
the woman you gave me, notice the way the Lord words it, you
listened and you sinned. And you transgressed against
the thing I commanded you saying, thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed
is the ground, Adam, for your sake, not for Eve's sake. It's not her fault. The ground
is cursed because of you, Adam. You see what God said to him?
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt
eat of the herb of the field, and in the sweat of your face
thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out
of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou
return. Adam ruined everything. And we
pay the price every day, don't we? To some extent, we're under
that curse. We can never pay, we can never
repay God for what we owe Him. But we suffer under that curse
every day. And we ought to do it humbly.
Every day we get up for work and we don't feel like it, oh
man, if I could just sleep in today. Get up and go do it. God
said you'll do it or you won't eat. If you're going to eat bread,
you're going to sweat. Is that right? You try to get
out of it and you end up working harder than you would have if
you had just got up and gone to work. Because I've seen people
try to get out of it. But before God banished man from
his garden, he told man how he would conquer the power of sin
and Satan. Told him how he'd do it. The
power of sin and the treachery of Satan which had entered and
destroyed that beautiful place. The seed of woman, he said, will
one day crush the serpent's head. And about 4,000 years later,
or give or take, I think, I don't know for sure, another Adam entered
another garden. In Matthew 26, turn there with
me, verse 36. This Adam is called the last
Adam. His name is Jesus, Jehovah Savior. In verse 36 of Matthew
26, it says, then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called
Gethsemane. And saith unto his disciples,
Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and
very heavy. And then saith he unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here
and watch with me. And he went a little further
and fell on his face and prayed. Now we're told in Mark that when
they approached this place it says they came and there was
a garden there and the garden was named Gethsemane and the
Lord Jesus came here with his disciples and he told the nine
to wait in a certain place and he took Peter and James and John
with him a little further and he said you wait here and watch
with me and he began to pray he fell on his face and he cried
saying, Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples
and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, What? Could you not
watch with me one hour? Notice here before we move on,
Adam was given God's will in the first garden. You may eat
of all of the trees of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it." That's God's
will. That's God's established authority. And Adam said, I will. I will. I'll do what I want to
do and defy the will of God. The last Adam in the second garden
said, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And then he went back to
his three choice disciples there. They were asleep, and he said,
what, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that
you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. Walk not after the flesh. Mind
not the things of the flesh. Don't succumb to the flesh. The
spirit is willing. And he went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, oh, my father, if this cup may not
pass from me except I drink it, thy will be done. If the first Adam, when Satan
tempted Eve, and Eve ate of the fruit and gave to Adam, if Adam
would have said, God said don't eat of it, God's will be done,
there wouldn't have been a fall, would there? Thank God there
was. If there had not been a fall,
there would be no Savior, there would be no redemption. If there
had not been a fall then, what about tomorrow? You see, we would
always be susceptible, we would always be potentially in danger
of falling. If Adam had not fell in the beginning,
and we were still walking around in paradise perfect, what about
tomorrow? But now in Christ Jesus, we're
more than conquerors. We don't just have a fallible
personal righteousness, but the very righteousness of God in
Him. But our second Adam, the last Adam, our Savior, said,
not My will, Thy will be done. And He came and found them asleep
again. for their eyes were heavy. Oh
my, my eyes are heavy. I want to worship him. I want
to please him. I want to serve him, but my eyes
are heavy. And he left them and went away
again and prayed the third time saying the same words. Then cometh
he to his disciples and saith unto them, sleep on now and take
your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand and
the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let
us be going. Behold, He is at hand that doth
betray me." And we'll leave the scene there. But this man who
fell in the first garden and became a sinner, learned what
it was to hate, learned what betrayal is, learned what fear
and treachery are. He acted out his hatred. You
see, there's no difference between Adam and Judas. Not a bit of
difference. It's cut out of the same lump.
And when Adam fell, he became a Judas, didn't he? He became
a betrayer, a hater, a sinner. And so this man that God made
in perfection and holiness in the garden, acted out the hatred. And Satan that had tempted man
in the first garden, entered into fallen man in the second
garden. It says Satan entered into Judas
Iscariot. And he came into that second
garden to the second Adam and betrayed the Son of God with
a kiss on the cheek. The first blood that ever fell
to this earth fell in that first garden. God slew an animal and
made coats of his skin and covered his naked children. And Luke
tells us in Luke chapter 22 verse 44, in this garden of Gethsemane
it says, and being in an agony, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
more earnestly And his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling to the ground. Turn to John 19 with me. This
is the third garden that we're told of in scripture. John 19
verse 41. Now in the place where he was
crucified, there was a garden. There was a garden. In the place
where the first blood fell to the ground, there was a garden.
And in the place where the blood of God fell to this earth, there
was a garden. In the place where all men died
in Adam. Everyone who Adam represented
died. And there was a garden there.
And in the place where all who are represented by the last Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ, were made alive. It was a garden. God planted
a garden. And it says in the garden, verse
41 there, in the garden a new sepulcher, a tomb wherein was
never man yet laid. And there laid they Jesus, therefore,
because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulchre was nigh
at hand. And the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene
early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth
the stone taken away from the sepulchre. And then she runneth
and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, whom Jesus
loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out
of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came
to the sepulcher. So they ran both together, and
the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the
sepulcher. And he stooping down and looking in, saw the linen
clothes lying. Yet went he not in? Then cometh
Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and
seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about
his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself. Then went in also that other
disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and
believed. For as yet they knew not the
Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the
disciples went away again unto their own home, but Mary stood
without at the sepulchre, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped
down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white
sitting." Can you picture that? She's standing there weeping
and she looks in there and there's two angels in there sitting down.
The one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of
Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? And she saith unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have
laid him. And when she had thus said, she
turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it
was Jesus. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? And she, supposing
him to be the gardener. In a way, she was right, wasn't
she? He is the gardener. God planted a garden. And she
saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me
where you've laid him, and I'll take him away. And Jesus saith
unto her, Mary. She thought he was the gardener
because the place that they buried him was a garden. But then when
he spoke her name, He said, I know my sheep, and I call them by
name. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabbani, which
is to say, and Jesus saith unto her, touch me not, for I am not
yet ascended to my Father. But go, tell my brothers, and
say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and
to my God, your God. He had taught them concerning
this earlier, hadn't he? In the text we've been looking
into in John, he said, I go to the Father. You know where I'm
going and you know the way. And he said, you tell him I'm
going now. It was in the garden that man died, that all of mankind
was plunged into eternal death, alienated from God and we were
banished from that garden. And it was in a garden that the
Lord Jesus Christ began to suffer for our sins. In Gethsemane,
the reason he sweat blood and the reason his soul was exceeding
sorrowful was because my sin was laid on him. and He bore
my sin to Calvary and suffered and died there in my place. The
just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. He was made
sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It happened there in the garden.
And then near the place where He was crucified there was a
garden and they laid Him in it. But just as He told them, you
destroy this temple and in three days I'll build it again. He
had power to lay down His life And he had power to take it up
again. And he did. And he did it in a garden. And
there's one more garden. Turn to Luke 23 and we'll be
through. There's one more garden. When
everything was perfect, when there was no sin, there was only
the Holy God and His creature, His man. He put that man in His
garden, didn't He? He made a place called luxury
and put His man there. Where do you think we're going
to end up? Luke 23, 35, And the people stood beholding, and the
rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be
Christ, the chosen of God. And you know the scene. Here
hangs the Savior on a cross, on a Roman cross, between two
thieves. And he's mocked and derided and
ridiculed. And the soldiers, verse 36, also
mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. and saying,
If you be the king of the Jews, save yourself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews. And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? Don't you fear God. And people
who don't know him say things like, save us, save, and they
mock his holy name. Don't you fear God, seeing you're
in the same condemnation and we indeed justly, for we receive
the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing.
When we suffer, we deserve it. When he suffered, he suffered
for somebody else. He suffered because we deserve
it. Verse 42, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. That's all that's necessary.
If I'm just on his mind, if he just acknowledges me at all,
if he doesn't forget I exist, if he thinks upon me, if his
heart is directed toward me, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. It says you're the king of the
Jews. You're coming into a kingdom. Remember me when you can. The
Lord Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt
thou be with me in... Look that word up. You know what
it means? Today thou shalt be with me in
an enclosed garden. God made a paradise. He made
a place. And I can't get over that. I
can't... I've been thinking about it all day and yesterday. If
God makes a place and says, that's luxury. I can't picture that. I don't have any idea what that
looks like. But the most glorious of all
the things that he said in this beautiful promise are those two
words with me. I don't know what the garden
looked like in the beginning, but I know what the most wonderful
thing about that place was. It was that Adam walked with
God. He walked in fellowship and communion
with God. And the epitome of all religion,
the epitome of all worship was pictured in the Old Testament
in that mercy seat where God said, I will meet with you there
and I'll commune with thee. That's what we lost in the garden.
The presence and favor and fellowship and communion that we had with
God Almighty our Creator. That's what we lost in the garden.
And God said, if you shed blood, if you obey my gospel, I'll meet
with you. There's a way that favor can
be had with me again. There's a way that you can come
before me and I'll receive you unto myself. And it's through
my only begotten Son, pictured in that mercy seat, sent to this
earth one day, went into a garden and bled for me. Went into a
garden and died for me. Adam died in a garden. The last
Adam died in a garden and was laid in a garden and rose from
the dead in a garden. And he said to that thief as
he hung on that cross, you're going to be with me today in
a garden, paradise, and a place of glory, a place of luxury,
a place of pleasure with me. That's what it's all about. Adam
walked with God. After the fall, God said, here's
what you do, and I'll be with you. I'll commune with you. And
then he said to that thief on the cross, you'll be with me.
That's what we lost in the first Adam. And we're more than conquerors
in the last Adam, because not only will we be with Him, but
as somebody read in Revelation this morning, there'll be no
more curse. There'll be no night there. There'll
be no sea. There'll never be any sin again.
Nothing can enter into it that defileth. Not like in the first
garden. More than conquerors through
Him that loved us. With Him, eternally with Him, immutably
with Him, gloriously, perfectly with Him. Luxury and glory forever
with me in paradise That's what that's the gospel my friend.
That's the promise of his grace in Christ God planted a garden
aren't you glad he did and somewhere. There's a garden Wherein nothing
has ever entered that defileth There's a garden not made with
hands There's a garden not cultivated by man not dressed and kept by
man, but made by God where God dwells dwells there with His
people who fell in Adam and who are made alive in Christ. I'm
going to be there with Him one day. And because of that promise,
I can walk through this world rejoicing. This sin-cursed earth,
and I can sweat, and I can struggle. And He said, in sorrow you'll
eat, and I do. There's sorrow in there. And
yet in my heart there's the joy of God because I have the Lord
Jesus Christ.