Genesis chapter 2 verse number 2
It says,
And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.
Okay?
So the title for the sermon this morning is the seventh day.
We're going to learn a little bit about the seventh day,
learn a little bit about the Sabbath as we go through this chapter.
Let's start off with verse number 1,
Genesis chapter 2 verse 1,
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,
and all the host of them.
And I love that about God.
Once it starts a job,
once it starts working,
He makes sure that He finishes it.
Alright?
And I've covered this before.
Men, we have a hard time with this.
You know, we're created in the image of God.
God wants us to be working men the way He is a working God.
And He expects us if we take up, you know,
a project, if we take up a job,
He expects us to finish it.
You know, if you're someone that's looking for work,
you know, and you land a job,
don't be that kind of person that goes from job to job.
You know, don't be that Christian that goes from church to church.
You know, be someone that, you know,
I'm going to be here, I'm going to do this job,
I'm going to settle myself here,
finish what you've started.
It's a bad, you know,
what's the word I'm looking for?
Reputation upon yourself
when you start things and you don't finish it.
A husband, it's going to frustrate your wives.
You know, you start this project and it never ends.
You tell, honey, I'll fix that around the house.
Months later, it's still damaged.
It's still, it's always halfway done.
You know, it's a frustrating,
it's not the characteristic of God.
God starts something, He finishes it.
Verse number two.
And on the seventh day,
God ended His work, which He had made.
And He rested on the seventh day
from all His work, which He had made.
The question comes up, does God have to rest?
I mean, I don't know.
Honestly, I don't know.
Okay, but the Bible tells us He rested.
Okay, that's what we know.
So whether God needed to rest,
I don't think that's a bad thing, okay?
Or He's just setting us the example here
of after you work hard, it's a time of rest.
That's fine.
And what I would encourage you to do,
you know, if you're working a full-time job,
you know, work your hours,
and when you get home, have a time of rest, okay?
And when I say have a time of rest,
have a time of rest with your wife,
with your children, just relax.
You know, get the burden off your work for the day,
spend time with your family,
have that rest time, relax a little bit.
I would truly encourage you to do that, okay?
But the great example that we see here
is that God sets the example of working six days a week
and resting on one day a week.
I think that's a great principle
that we should apply for ourselves.
You know, I know some people work seven days a week.
You know, they're just constantly working.
I mean, you can do that for a while,
but that's gonna have a toll on your body,
a toll on your mind, a toll on your spirit, okay?
God does want us to rest.
You know, get a good night's rest,
get your eight hours of sleep
or whatever it is that you need.
Make sure you give time to your sleep.
You know, the reason why a lot of people
don't give a good seven or eight hours of sleep
is because they have a lot to do.
They have a lot, they've got a busy day,
and if they're gonna sacrifice something,
it's usually their sleep.
But that's a bad approach
because when you get a good amount of sleep,
it's gonna give you the ability, the power, the strength
to do things the next day better,
to be more efficient, to be more practical,
to have greater strength, you know?
To not be tired during the day
because you've had your sleep during the night.
But if you sacrifice your sleep,
you're thinking, well, I'm gonna get more hours of work time.
Yeah, but there's more hours of work time,
you're gonna be more sluggish, you're gonna be slower,
you're gonna be mentally less prepared.
So things are gonna be slower anyway,
and you're going to be in that rut, you know,
of having minimal sleep, working long hours,
but you're not gonna be at your maximum efficiency.
You might as well get your sleep
and then use those hours with your maximum efficiency
to make time for your work and for your rest as well.
You know, God set this example,
we should follow after that example that he's given us.
Verse number three,
and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.
So it's a special day, it's been sanctified,
that means it's been set apart, okay?
It's been set apart from the other six days
because that and he had rested from all his work
which God created and made.
One thing I wanted to say
is even though God sets the example here
of six days of work,
I know most of us work five days a week.
That's how generally speaking our jobs, you know, our jobs.
But that doesn't mean you get two days of rest necessarily.
I mean, for me, I look at Saturdays as a day of work as well.
Usually Saturday was a day that I would have to do,
you know, a lot of chores,
a lot of things around the house
or just other things that need to be done,
you fill that up with a Saturday
and normally for me, I would normally rest on a Sunday.
Not so much now as a pastor, but before,
you know, when I was attending church,
that's kind of how it was.
Monday to Friday, working pretty hard at work,
Saturday doing all the chores around that needs to be done
and then resting on the Sunday.
So don't think about work as in my job necessarily,
you could be working outside of your workplace as well.
You know, so what I wanted to do here though,
is just to show you the importance of the seventh day.
God sanctified it, he set it apart, okay?
And you've heard of the seventh-day Adventists, right?
Or the seventh-day Baptist now,
seventh-day Baptist, okay?
And that is, they look at Saturday,
they look at the Sabbath day and they think,
well, I need to make sure I set this day apart
in the sense of, you know, worshiping God,
resting from all kinds of works
and if I do that, I'm right with God.
And they think if I don't do that, I'm not right with God
and in fact, if I don't do that,
I might even be in danger of hellfire.
I mean, they take the Sabbath to the point
where if you're purposely not keeping it,
you're probably not even saved or, you know,
that's part of your salvation process
or something along those lines.
Now we do see that the seventh-day is special, okay?
It was sanctified by God.
So in a sense, they're on the right track,
but they've gone beyond what God's intention was.
Keep your finger there,
let's go to Exodus chapter 20 very quickly.
Exodus chapter 20, verse number eight.
Exodus chapter 20 and verse eight.
And I think because we have the seventh-day Adventists
and their extreme views,
what happens sometimes when there's an extreme view
is that we as Baptists sometimes
take the other extreme view
and we say, well, the Sabbath's not important, okay?
Now, I think that's an extreme view as well
and the right position to be in is somewhere in the middle
and I'll explain this to you soon,
but look at Exodus chapter 20, verse eight.
Exodus chapter 20, verse eight.
God says, remember the seventh-day to keep it holy, okay?
Keeping it holy is kind of the same idea
of keeping it sanctified, keeping it set apart, okay?
Verse nine, six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,
but the seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
In it, thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.
Why?
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day,
wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.
So, if we just, without any preconceived ideas,
we're just reading the Bible.
God rests on the seventh day.
He now instructs Israel to keep it holy,
to sanctify it, to rest the way he did
when he created all things.
Don't you think it's a pretty important concept?
It's a pretty important day,
the seventh day, the Sabbath day.
It's important, okay?
Now, I want you to now turn to Numbers 15, please.
Numbers chapter 15, verse 32.
Because here we have a story of Old Testament Israel,
when they don't keep the Sabbath,
we just see how much it angers God, okay?
And maybe for a lot of you when you read this story,
it just seems maybe out of character for God.
Maybe it just seems too extreme for God.
But look at Numbers chapter 15, verse 32.
Numbers 15, verse 32.
The Bible says,
and while the children of Israel were in the wilderness,
they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day.
So, is this guy working really hard?
The Bible says he's gathering sticks.
That's probably to light a fire or something, okay?
Verse number 33,
and they that found him gathering sticks
brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the congregation,
and they put him in wood,
because it was not declared what should be done to him.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
ah, let him be, you know, it's just sticks.
It's just sticks on the Sabbath day, let him be.
No, and the Lord said unto Moses,
the man shall be surely put to death.
All the congregation shall stone him with stones
without the camp or outside the camp.
And all the congregation brought him without the camp,
and stoned him with stones,
and he died as the Lord commanded Moses.
And what do you think of that story?
I mean, who does God normally command
or instruct to be put to death?
Murderers, right?
Sodomites, you know, these kind of,
you know, these perverts, you know, kidnappers,
people that committed adultery.
You know, God commands these people to be put to death,
and yet here we have an example of a man picking up sticks,
probably not even that many, you know,
and being put to death by stoning.
And what do you make of that?
Do you think that's a pretty harsh story?
It's a pretty extreme story,
but it just shows us how important
the Sabbath day was to God.
So look, I'm not excusing the seventh-day Adventists,
the seventh-day Baptists.
They've got it all wrong, okay?
But they're on the right track.
They've got the right idea that it's an important day.
It's so important that God will put a man to death
if he worked on the day, all right?
Now your question is, well, then do we keep the Sabbath?
Do we keep, you know, Saturday?
Well, before I cover that,
let me just say there's another false teaching out there.
You know, I think it started by the Catholic church
or by the Protestants, and the false teaching is this,
that God changed the Sabbath day to Sunday, right?
So the reason why we have church on Sunday,
apparently to these people,
is because God changed it from Saturday to Sunday.
And so Sunday now is the Sabbath day.
If you believe that, that's totally incorrect.
Sabbath basically means Saturday, okay?
In many languages, many countries around this world,
when people say Saturday, they're saying the Sabbath day
is what they're saying.
Like in Spanish, Sabbath is sabado.
Sabado is Saturday, okay?
I mean, there's heaps of languages across this world
that call Saturday the Sabbath, okay?
Or, you know, a variation of that word Sabbath,
to some extent, okay?
Saturday is still the Sabbath, okay?
And when you read about the Sabbath,
generally speaking in the Bible,
it's usually the Saturday, okay?
It was never changed to Sunday.
That's a misconception, that's a really bad idea.
If you say that, the reason I don't keep the Sabbath
is because it was changed to Sunday,
you're gonna look really foolish, okay?
There's no such thing about that in the Bible.
It's just something that was made up
by either the Catholics or the Protestants, okay?
Now, you asked, well, do you keep the Sabbath?
Well, I just told you that generally speaking
on a Saturday, I do a lot of chores around the house.
I do a lot of things that need to be done, okay?
Well, that's when I was working a full-time job anyway, okay?
So, am I keeping the Sabbath in the same way?
Look, I'm doing more than picking up sticks, okay?
So, what is the Sabbath?
Do I keep the Sabbath?
And my answer to that, if someone asked me the question,
do you keep the Sabbath?
I always answer this, yes.
I always keep the Sabbath, okay?
They say, oh, that's crazy.
Seventh-day Adventist, seventh-day Baptist.
Look, I'm not afraid to say yes
because I do keep the Sabbath
and we'll look at that shortly, all right?
But I don't wanna say no, I don't keep it
because then that's the other extreme.
You see, the Sabbath is so critical.
It's so important.
We even get taught about it in the New Testament.
So, let's have a look at the New Testament.
Let's go to Hebrews chapter four.
Hebrews chapter four, verse one.
I was at the door of the seventh-day Adventist.
Literally the first words out of his mouth,
do you keep the Sabbath?
I'm not gonna give him the answer.
Like, he expects me to say no, I don't.
And then for him to show me
how important the Sabbath day is.
Just like I showed you how important the Sabbath day is,
okay?
But I threw him off.
I said, yes, I do, all right?
So, I'll explain to you how I keep it
and how you all keep it actually, okay?
Hebrews chapter four, verse one.
The Bible says here,
Let us therefore fear, lest I promise being left us
of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it.
All right?
So look, just starting there in verse number one.
This chapter's a little bit challenging
the way it was written,
but let's break it down slowly.
God wants us, he's got a promise for us
that we can enter into his rest, okay?
And he doesn't want us here in verse number one
to come short of it, okay?
What does that sound like to you,
for those of you that preach the gospel door to door?
You know, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, all right?
God does not want us to come short of his glory.
God wants us to enter into his rest with his perfection,
with the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Let's keep reading, verse number two.
Is this about Christ?
Is this about salvation?
Verse number two.
For unto us was the gospel preached,
as well unto them.
Who's the them?
Old Testament Israel.
But the word preached did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
So you see, in order for you to receive the gospel,
you must mix faith with the gospel.
That's why salvation is by grace through faith,
by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, you add works to it, that's not resting, okay?
When the Bible says you're resting,
you're resting from your works.
When God created the world, he rested.
On the seventh day, he rested from his works, okay?
So do we, you know, the rest of God,
we mix that with faith to receive his rest.
We don't mix works with it.
Otherwise, it's not rest, okay?
Salvation is rest.
Let's keep reading, verse number three.
For we which have believed do enter into rest.
So how do we enter into the rest?
By believing, all right, faith.
As he said, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world.
Now that phrase there, as I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest,
it's a little bit hard to understand here
in the book of Hebrews.
But then if we go to the book of Psalms,
keep your finger there, go to Psalms 95,
because basically Hebrews here is quoting Psalm 95.
So go to Psalm 95, verse 10.
Psalm 95, verse 10.
A bit of a Bible study for you guys here.
But Psalm 95, verse 10.
The Bible says, look at this,
40 years long was I grieved with this generation.
What do you think that's about?
Well, remember when Israel were too scared
to go into the promised land?
God made them wander in the wilderness, okay?
How long did they wander in the wilderness for?
For 40 years.
So this is about that event, okay?
Verse number, sorry,
with this generation, verse number 10.
And said, it is a people that do err in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways,
unto whom I swear in my wrath
that they should not enter into my rest, okay?
So there's a quote there
that we just read in Hebrew chapter four, okay?
That God swore in his wrath, okay?
Because these people did not have faith
to enter the promised land.
They were afraid, okay?
They thought God would not deliver them
into the promised land.
And it made God angry, and he made an oath,
he swore in his wrath that this generation
will not enter that promised land.
This generation will wander in the wilderness,
and they will not enter into my rest.
Now the question is,
does that mean this generation were never saved?
No, no, no, no, okay?
This is an illustration, this is a type.
This is a foreshadowing example
of people that would not enter into the rest of God
because they did not have faith.
That's the same thing about our salvation, okay?
If you don't have faith in the gospel,
you cannot enter into the rest of God.
And as it were, you'll be wandering
in the wilderness for 40 years, okay?
You know, trying to seek the answer to salvation.
Go back to Hebrew chapter four, please.
Back to Hebrews chapter four, verse number three, number three.
So we see how God parallels here the Sabbath rest
with entering into the promised land,
but then at the end of verse number three,
he also uses another illustration,
another type, another foreshadowing about his creation.
At the end of verse number three, he says,
although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world.
So he's now talking about his works
of the creation or the foundation of this world, all right?
Verse number four, okay?
Verse number four, for he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest on the seventh day from all his works.
So now you see, he's tying it back into creation.
First the promised land is an example of salvation
or an illustration of salvation,
and now the Lord resting on the seventh day
is also an illustration of our salvation.
Drop down to verse number 10, Hebrews chapter four, verse 10.
Hebrews chapter four, verse 10.
The Bible says, for he that is entered into his rest,
he also have ceased from his own works,
as God did from his.
You see, salvation is not of works, all right?
Ephesians 2 eight and nine, for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast.
You see, if you try to work your way to salvation,
you'll never get it.
You'll be wandering that wilderness forever, okay?
You'll never enter into the rest
that God wants to give you.
If you wanna receive salvation,
you need to cease from your works.
You need to stop trusting your works
and simply put your faith in the gospel of Christ, okay?
Then you can rest.
So what is the seventh day, guys?
What is that a picture of?
What is that a fulfillment of eventually?
Salvation, let's keep reading.
Verse number 11, verse number 11.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest,
lest any man fall after the example of unbelief, okay?
So how do we not enter into the rest?
How do we not receive salvation?
Unbelief, it just said there, okay?
Now let me cover another thing.
So do I keep the Sabbath?
Absolutely, okay?
Because the Sabbath was just a foreshadowing
of Christ and his salvation, okay?
The Sabbath, as far as the New Testament is concerned,
is salvation, it's the gospel.
It's the freeness of resting in Christ.
So yeah, I keep it.
I keep it in Christ, you know?
That's how I keep it.
You know, even the Old Testament sacrifices,
you know, do I have a sacrifice?
Absolutely, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
I mean, all these things that were commanded
ultimately of the Old Testament Israel
that we don't do today,
the reason we don't do it today
is because they were fulfilled in Christ, okay?
They were fulfilled in the gospel that God gives us.
So yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with you saying,
I keep the Sabbath because I'm saved, right?
I'm saved, I've entered into his rest.
In fact, I'm keeping the Sabbath every day of my life
for all eternity because I'm always gonna be in that rest
that God has given me, okay?
Now, I just wanna cover something
that might be difficult for some people to understand.
I've heard some people twist this
to add work to the gospel.
Look at Hebrews 4, verse 11, once again.
It said, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.
Well, isn't laboring working?
Well, what did verse 10 say, all right?
For he that entered into his rest,
he also have ceased from his own works, okay?
So hold on, do you think laboring here in verse number 11
is working for salvation?
If God just told us in verse 10,
cease from your works to enter into the rest,
and then you think the next verse it says,
well, actually work for it.
Of course not, okay?
What does it mean to labor therefore into that rest?
And we've already covered this in the book of Luke
when we're going through the book of Luke.
So let's just go back to Luke chapter 13.
And the reason I'm bringing this up
is just in case this gets brought up to you
as a workspace example of salvation or something.
Luke chapter 13, verse 23,
the question gets asked of Jesus.
Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?
And he said unto them,
strive to enter in at that straight gate,
for many I say unto you will seek to enter in
and shall not be able.
So here we have Jesus Christ give an example.
Yeah, you know what?
If you wanna be saved, you've got to strive
to enter into that straight or narrow gates
to strive or to labor, okay?
So does that mean we're trusting our works to get us saved?
No, what's the teaching there?
What's the teaching?
You see, for some of you that did not grow up
in a Christian home or in a home
that was preaching the gospel,
or for some of you that were believing in a false religion
or trusting your works, you had to labor,
you had to strive to find the truth, all right?
For me, I didn't have to strive at all.
I had mom tell me at four years old how to get saved.
And she gave me the right gospel, praise God.
I didn't have to labor, I didn't have to strive.
But for many others, they do have to strive,
they do have to labor, they have to come to realize,
man, all these things that have been shown
is the broad way, it's the wide way,
it's leading me to destruction, I need to find the truth.
And sometime in that search of truth,
that requires labor, that requires striving
to find the truth.
But once you find the truth, amen, it's by faith, okay?
I just rest into His promise.
I just trust Christ, and it's not by works, okay?
That's how we understand Hebrew chapter four,
verses 10 and 11.
All right, let's go back to the book of Genesis, please.
Genesis chapter two, Genesis chapter two, verse four.
I hope that answers your questions about the Sabbath.
Say why was it important?
Why did God put that man to death?
Because he worked on the Sabbath, okay?
And the Sabbath represents salvation,
and salvation was not by works.
If you're trusting in your works,
yet God will put you to death.
Spiritually speaking, the second death
in the lake of fire, if you're trusting in your works, okay?
If God did not put that man to death,
then he would open up a loophole to say,
well, maybe salvation is by works.
Maybe I can pick up a few sticks and earn my way to heaven.
Salvation is a time of rest.
It's to be kept holy, to be kept set apart
from all the works that anybody does, okay?
So back to Genesis chapter two, verse four.
Genesis chapter two, verse four.
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, all right?
So verse number four changes
basically, what's the word I'm looking for?
It's kind of like this change
of what we were just discussing, okay?
So Genesis chapter one, we have the six days of creation,
all right?
And then the beginning of Genesis chapter two
spoke of the seventh day, that he rested on the seventh day.
Now we have a new focus, okay?
We actually, well, it's not a retelling of creation.
We just focus now on day number six, okay?
So God's given us this top level view
of creation, six days, rested on the seventh.
But now he takes us all the way back to the sixth day
to tell us what happened in detail.
Why is that important?
Because God created man on the sixth day.
And we already saw that man was the primary creation of God
during creation.
We were created in his image, all right?
So verse number five.
Verse number five narrows down the setting
to the sixth day.
It tells us number five,
and every plant of the field before it was in the earth
and every herb of the field before it grew.
So verse number five gives us a bit of the setting here.
We know that God created all the vegetation,
the trees, the plants on day number three.
So we know this is after day three, okay?
And then it says,
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,
and there was not a man to till the ground.
So we learned something else,
that when God created all things here,
there was no such thing as rain, okay?
And then he says there was no man to work the ground.
There was no man to till the ground.
So we have two issues here that God needs to rectify.
There's no rain, there's no watering,
and there's no man tilling the ground.
Verse number, so if there was no man tilling the ground,
we know that man's not yet created, right?
So we're getting to the setting here in chapter two.
And then number six, verse number six.
But there went up a mist from the earth
and watered the whole face of the ground.
So that's how God deals with watering the plants.
He creates that there'll be a mist coming up from the earth,
I don't know if it's like a fog or something like this,
and that would water the whole face of the ground.
So that's issue number one dealt with.
And then verse number seven.
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.
So you see God created man because he needed a worker.
He needed someone to till the ground.
I mean, of course, God was gonna create man anyway, okay?
But he creates man with a purpose.
He doesn't create man for no reason, just to have somebody.
He says, look, there's work to do.
I need someone to till the ground.
All right, man, all right, I'm gonna create Adam, okay?
He didn't create a woman to till the ground.
He didn't say, well, I really need a woman now
to start working on the ground.
He created a man, all right?
And here he says that he breathed into the nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
It's my belief that scientists will never create
like life, or a man, I should say, from nothing.
Like a living soul, okay?
Now, apparently people, apparently, you know,
they clone animals, they clone creatures
and stuff like that.
But really, they're not really, you know, twins, you know?
Especially fraternal twins, twins that look alike,
they're actually clones of one another, in a sense.
But do they have the same soul?
No, they have different souls.
They're different people, okay?
And so even when people create like clone sheep or whatever,
if they're doing that, I don't know, okay?
That's what they're saying.
If they're doing that,
it's actually a totally different shape, okay?
Yes, it was made from the same specimen,
the same tissues, the same, you know,
whatever DNA of that previous creature,
but it's still a totally different creature.
I mean, think of children.
Children exist because they're made from the same seed
and the egg that the parents had, okay?
So, you know, this is the beginning of life,
and through Adam and Eve,
that's why Eve is called the mother of all living,
we all come to be, okay?
But we're not all the same soul,
we're not all, you know, just this, I don't know,
copy of one, well, we are, I guess,
a copy of one another in a sense,
but we're all individual people
and we're all given our own souls.
Let's keep reading, verse number eight, verse number eight.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.
So Eden is a place,
but then there's a garden on the east side of Eden, okay?
That's why it's called the Garden of Eden, we call it that.
And there he put the man whom he had formed
and out of the ground made the Lord God
to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and good for food,
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
So very quickly, some people say,
well, there's a contradiction in the Bible.
First, God created man,
and now he's creating the trees, all right?
They say, well, hold on,
Genesis one said he created the trees, then he created man.
They've got it all wrong.
God has narrowed it down to day number six,
the Garden of Eden and the formation of man.
And in verse number eight, it doesn't say,
sorry, in verse number nine,
it doesn't say God created every tree all over again.
It says here in the garden that he placed man,
he says out of the ground made the Lord go to grow
every tree, every tree that exists?
No, every tree that is pleasant to the sight.
So every tree that was beautiful,
that was beautiful to look upon,
maybe the beautiful flowers or whatever,
God created them in the garden.
I mean, this would have been a beautiful garden, all right?
And good for food.
So every tree that is good to be eaten from,
he creates in the garden as well.
So the Bible doesn't say
that he created every tree in the garden,
just everyone that's beautiful to look on
and every tree that they can eat from, okay?
So this is not a contradiction.
God is showing Adam his creation,
his power of creation,
but also giving Adam what he needs, beauty and food, all right?
Verse number 10, verse number 10.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden,
and from thence it was parted and became into four heads.
The name of the first is Pizon,
that is that which compasses the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good,
there is Bedlam and the ointstone.
So here we have, I mean,
I'm not gonna go too much into these rivers,
but we see that God also gives Adam gold,
like in the earth, right?
Or Bedlam, ointstones, these are precious stones as well.
God's put this material in the earth
to be harvested and used, okay?
Harvested and used.
Now, I looked up,
because evolution is contrary to the Bible,
I looked up, how did gold come to the earth,
according to evolutionist scientists?
You know what they teach?
They believe gold is extraterrestrial,
because they can't come up with a way
for gold to be on the earth.
It doesn't make sense.
It doesn't form, okay?
You can't just get material and form it out of something.
You can't just get iron and copper
and make gold or something like that.
It's not formed, and I mean, God had to create it.
So what they teach is when stars explode,
when stars go supernova and they explode,
that when they explode in the universe,
that all this material comes out of the stars,
all these metals, all these elements,
and then eventually all those materials and elements
crashed on the earth, and one of those was gold.
And so gold is extraterrestrial, gold is an alien,
and it's just crash landed on the meteor or something
onto this earth.
That's why we have gold on this earth.
But is that true?
God put gold in place.
I mean, say why?
Gold is such a soft metal.
It's not used for construction.
You can't set up frames to build a building with gold.
It's too soft, it'll get destroyed, okay?
But you see what, I mean, most people, what gold is used for,
and we see it used in the Old Testament,
is for something to be beautiful.
You know, that they would have beautiful jewelry
or even the temple of God, the tabernacle,
was things were laid in gold, okay?
So it was beautiful to the site.
God tells us that New Jerusalem is like pure gold.
So something about gold illustrates eternity,
it illustrates the beauty of God,
it illustrates something about heaven.
And then it's also, because it's precious,
it's used for money.
And we see people in the Old Testament using gold and silver
as their sources of money.
So we see money in of itself is not evil.
Things that are precious, things that are beautiful
are not evil in themselves.
God's put it in there.
He just tells us in chapter two for some reason,
He just says, hey, look, I put gold there.
And it's good, it's good gold, all right?
Let's keep going.
Verse number 10.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.
So here's another way that God waters the plants
is through a river system here.
And from thence it was parted and became into four heads.
The name of the first is Pizon.
Did I already read that?
Yes, I did.
Sorry, verse number 13.
And the name of the second river is Gihon,
the same as that compassed of the whole land of Ethiopia.
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel,
that is at which goeth toward the east of Assyria.
And the fourth river is Euphrates.
So just again, yeah, God had a watering system
to provide water, not just the mist
that came up from the earth,
but He also had rivers that were watering the ground.
Verse number 15.
And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it.
Hey, day number one, day number one,
or day number six of creation.
You think He tells Adam,
hey, Adam, take it easy, relax in the garden,
enjoy the beauty, eat whatever you want,
just take it easy, just relax, go and play games,
go and play basketball, go and play soccer,
go and play rugby, just take it easy.
This is paradise for you.
Now He says, you know what, Adam?
You're created, go to work, all right?
I need someone to till the ground.
I need a gardener, I need someone
to look after this beautiful garden of Eden
that I've given you.
See, men, your purpose is to work.
What's gonna give you satisfaction?
What's gonna give you joy in life?
Playing video games?
No, it's going to work, all right?
Working hard with your hands,
being productive, providing.
That's what's gonna give you value in life, okay?
Please, don't think you're gonna find,
you know, joy and satisfaction anywhere else,
but going to work, say, I don't like my job.
My boss is frustrated in the work.
I'm just doing the same thing over and over again.
Look, find joy in your work.
Start sending God as your master
and just remind yourself,
I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He's gonna reward me for my service.
You don't need to work hard
just when the supervisor's watching.
The best time to work hard is when no one's watching.
Well, you know, God's watching at that point in time, okay?
And God's gonna reward you for your hard work.
You know, it's a beautiful thing to work hard,
to come home, provide for your family,
knowing, hey, I've put a roof over the heads of my family.
They've got food to be eaten.
Hey, and I can rejoice now.
I can rest after a hard day of work.
I can rest with my family and enjoy their company.
Let's keep reading.
Let me just, and I'm gonna say one more thing.
He gave Adam work before he gave him a wife, okay?
If you wanna be, if you're a single person
and you wanna find a husband,
oh, sorry, husband, you wanna find a wife, all right?
What's the best thing to do?
Well, do what God did to Adam.
Go to work.
You know, start saving up.
Start making sure you can provide for a wife.
You know, God's given him the garden there.
They've got a place to live.
You know, there's food.
He's tilling the ground.
He's gardening.
He's making sure there's food to provide for
once he has dependencies upon himself, okay?
Now, one thing I wanna take you to
is the book of Ezekiel now.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 28.
Ezekiel chapter 28.
Because, again, remember, there's a misconception
of when Satan fell, okay?
And a lot of people think he fell
on day number one or something.
You know, when God created the heavens,
then Satan already fell, okay?
It's like there's no chance for Satan.
He immediately fails, you know?
But we see when he turns to the book of Ezekiel,
is that Satan was actually walking in Eden, okay?
In the garden, actually.
Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 28,
he's walking in Eden, okay?
In the garden, actually.
Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 13.
The Bible says here in verse 13,
Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.
Speaking of Satan.
Every precious stone was thy covering.
The Sadias, the Topaz, and the Diamond,
the Beryl, the Oinks, and the Jasper,
the Sapphire, the Emerald,
and the Carbuncle, and Gold.
The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes
were prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
So you see here that Satan has not yet fallen.
He's still that beautiful angel,
actually, who says here cherub.
Verse number 14.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth,
and I have set thee so.
Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God,
and thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire.
Now, I won't go into all of that right now,
but I just want to show you that this is when,
before Satan fell,
he was that anointed special cherub of God.
He was beautiful.
He had all these stones, this gold,
whatever, to cover him, and he was beautiful, okay?
And he walked the garden of God.
Do you think then, if God created the garden
in day six with Adam,
could he have fallen before day six?
No, of course.
And again, at the end of day six,
God says he was all good, he was all very good,
all of his creation.
Satan had not yet rebelled in heaven, okay?
So he was even walking the garden of Eden.
We know later on that he became the serpent at that point.
We'll cover that later on.
But look at verse number 15.
Ezekiel 28, verse 15.
It says, that was perfect in thy ways,
from the day that thou wast created,
when was he not perfect?
Till iniquity was found in thee.
Till iniquity, till sin was found in Satan.
And we know what that iniquity was.
That was his pride.
He elevated himself, he wanted to be as God,
and God cast him down.
Now, when did that iniquity take place?
Well, definitely after the six days of creation.
Sometime after the six days of creation,
could have been several days later,
could have been several weeks, several months,
several years later,
could have been even 100 years later, okay?
The Bible doesn't really tell us exactly
when this took place, okay?
But it's my personal belief,
my personal belief,
I don't really have scriptures to support this,
but that when iniquity was found in Satan,
was probably at the same time that he tempted Eve,
around that same time, okay?
That he was fallen,
he then came in the form of a serpent
or possessed a serpent and spoke to Eve.
We'll cover that in chapter number three,
Genesis chapter three,
we'll cover that on Wednesday, all right?
Let's keep reading, verse number 16.
Genesis chapter two, verse 16.
I just wanted to show you that about Satan, okay?
That's a lot of, a lot of people don't realize that,
that Satan was actually there in the Garden of Eden
in his unfallen, perfect state, okay?
Verse number 16.
And the Lord commanded the man saying,
of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shall not eat of it,
for in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shall surely die.
Now, I love these verses, okay?
Because what we see here
is that God gives Adam great liberty,
he gives him great freedom
to look of every tree he can eat,
of every tree he can behold and look at the beauty of it,
except this one tree, one tree, all right?
Well, there's one tree,
the tree of knowledge of good and evil
that you cannot eat of, all right?
Now, what I love about this is
God gives us great freedom, all right?
Some people do not want to follow Christ,
some people do not want the Bible,
some people don't want to be saved,
because they think of Christianity
as all these rules that's very hard to keep.
You think that was God's intention?
No, God wants us to have freedom, okay?
God does not tell us
how to do every little aspect of our life.
He gives us a lot of freedom,
but then he also gives us boundaries,
and those boundaries are when we break his laws
and we commit sin, all right?
I mean, think of raising your children.
God tells us raise them in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, great.
I've got to nurture them, I've got to admonish them
the way the Lord tells me in the Bible, okay?
And when they need discipline,
God instructs us, use that road of correction, okay?
Use that road of correction, smack them,
but then that's all we're given, okay?
The next question is, well,
when you have kids and you start learning
how to be a parent, well,
how do I apply what God has given me?
Is there just one way of doing things?
No, there isn't just one way of doing things.
God has given us great freedom,
God has given us different personalities,
God has given us different family sizes,
different children, some have more boys,
some have more girls, some have smaller families,
some have larger families, God has given us a variety,
so there's never this one way of doing things.
And one thing you need to learn
if you're a young married couple,
or even if you've been married for a long time,
there's nothing wrong with getting advice,
there's nothing wrong with saying,
hey, how do you do this?
But never, let me just say this,
never pattern your family after another family.
Never say, well, I'm gonna do things
exactly like that family.
You're gonna, look, it's not gonna work for you, okay?
If you try to do things exactly the same,
it's gonna fail in your family,
and you're gonna be frustrated and go,
why doesn't it work for me?
And you're gonna put doubts in yourself,
you're gonna hurt your marriage,
you're gonna put strain in your family,
your kids aren't going to be, you know,
relate to you because it's just not working for the family.
You know, God has given us wisdom, okay?
God has given us his word as our direction,
and then he gives us freedom
to how do we apply what God has given us
within the boundaries that he's given us, okay?
You don't break the boundaries,
but within the boundaries, there's a lot of freedom
of how to do things, all right?
Never be someone that says,
well, I've got it the right way,
other people have to be like me.
No, wrong, okay?
God has given us different ways of doing things
as long as it's within his word
and within the boundaries that he's given us, great freedom.
You know, I'm reminded of a lady
that would go to Christina and ask,
how do you homeschool the kids, okay?
There's nothing wrong with that.
I think it's good, this is how we homeschool the kids.
But this same lady, this is in one of my previous churches,
went to all the homeschooling mothers.
How do you homeschool, how do you homeschool,
how do you homeschool?
Eventually, you know what she should have done?
She should have gone to her husband,
say, husband, how do we school our kids?
How should we do this?
What hours, when do we start, when do we end?
What curriculum do we use, what material?
You know, what's important to us?
You know, that's what she should have done.
Instead, she went to all the mothers,
she found the one that she thought was the best solution,
she goes, well, I'm gonna do it just like that.
You think she's homeschooling today?
No, it didn't work, okay?
Her kids are now in some school, okay?
That's the problem, when you start patting your life
after other people, it's not gonna work for your family.
Please use the instincts, you know, the gut feels,
the knowledge, the word of God that he's given
each one of us, and make sure your family
walks according to his word, all right?
Don't put expectations on other families to be just like you
and don't put expectations upon yourself
to be like any other family, no.
You know, make sure you and your husband, wife, husband,
you guys work out what's gonna be best for your family.
Adam was accountable for his family, not other families.
Well, it was the only family that he had to worry about
anyway, okay?
But that's the truth, okay?
Adam was accountable for his family.
I hope that gives you a bit of relief, please.
Okay, if you're not like some other person, relax.
As long as you're within the boundaries
that God has given us in his word, it's all good, okay?
Do things according to the way God has given us.
He gives us great freedom, great liberty.
Verse number 18, please, Genesis chapter two, verse 18.
And the Lord God said,
it is not good that the man should be alone.
I will make and help meet for him.
So God says, look, man, it's not good for you to be alone.
Yeah, I agree, all right?
So he makes a help meet or suitable for him.
See, God realized that man needed help.
And that's right, he's the feminist, you know?
What are you saying?
Are you saying that women were created to help man?
You know, how demeaning of us.
We're there to just help man.
Is that what God created us?
Yeah, that's why God created you, okay?
Ladies, God created you to be a help to a man.
That's what's gonna give you satisfaction.
That's what's gonna give you fulfillment in life
is when you find your husband
and you become a great help to that man.
And don't listen to the feminist, please,
because the feminist would not be happy
even if he was the other way around.
Could you imagine if God created a woman first
and says, you know what?
It's not good for a woman to be alone.
I'm gonna create man to be a help meet for her.
The feminist would be like, what are you saying?
Are you saying women need help?
You think women need help from men?
They're not happy, no matter which way it is.
Don't listen to those feminists, okay?
They're against God, they're against the Bible.
You can't satisfy them.
You know, God knows why he created us.
And if you fulfill the roles that God has given us,
you're gonna find joy in life.
You're gonna find satisfaction and joy.
Verse number 19.
And out of the ground, the Lord God formed
every beast of the field and every fowl of the air
and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever, this is a busy day for Adam.
I thought he'd be resting on day number one, right?
Well, I was taking that easy.
You know, he's got to work.
Now he's gonna name all the animals.
I mean, you know, hey, he's a working man.
He's got two jobs at this stage, right?
Now he's gonna name all the animals.
Sorry, what was I doing?
Verse number 19.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle
and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam, there was not and help meet for him.
So two purposes, to give Adam work,
but for him to realize that, well,
no animal is gonna fulfill his life, okay?
Now, I'm all for pets.
I don't have any pets.
I don't like, 10 kids is like having 10 pets, all right?
I don't need more things to look after, okay?
So I don't really want any pets in my life,
but I'm not against people having pets.
If it gives you some companionship,
it gives you something to do.
You know, pets also can show great love to the owner.
I mean, God created us to have authority
over the animals anyway.
I'm all for pets if that's what you want.
But let me say this.
You're not gonna find fulfillment,
complete fulfillment in an animal, okay?
You know, just like Adam said here,
for Adam, there was not fount and help meet for him.
See, at the end of the day,
the animal is not gonna be able to help you
the same way a spouse can, okay?
So, you know, please don't be someone that thinks,
well, I'll just surround myself with animal,
become that crazy cat woman that people hear about.
No, you need interaction with human beings, okay?
And, you know, especially, you know,
with a husband or a wife, okay?
Verse number 21, verse number 21.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept.
And he took one of his ribs
and closed up the rib instead thereof.
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man
made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
Okay, so once again, we see the correct process.
Man's working, he's got a place to live,
he's got the garden of Eden, he's got two jobs,
well, he's finished one job now, naming the animals.
Now it's time for you to have a wife.
That's the process, guys, okay?
And, you know, honestly, if you want to find a wife,
you wanna get married, you've gotta make sure
that you're working hard, that you have enough
to provide for that wife to come, okay?
That's key, that's key.
Verse number 23.
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman
because she was taken out of man.
And you know what, man,
that's how we should treat our wives, okay?
Yes, she was literally his bone.
She was literally his rib.
But that's how close we should be to our wives.
You know, that's how we should look at our wives.
You know, love her as much as we love our own body,
as much as you take care of yourself.
You know, you ought to take care of your wife.
You know, that's how much you ought to love her,
that she's that close that you're just the one flesh.
You know, when I think of married couples,
I don't think of you as a husband and you as a wife.
I think of you as one team, as one flesh,
united, combined together, all right?
And then verse number 24.
This is really interesting, verse number 24.
Because did Adam have a father,
like an earthly father and mother?
No, he was created out of dust, all right?
But look what he says here.
Therefore, these are Adam's words.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother
and shall cleave unto his wife
and they shall be one flesh.
Who should be more important to you once you're married?
Your spouse.
Husbands, your wife should be more important to you
than your father and mother.
So important that Adam did not even have a father and mother
and still he said, yep, this is a true teaching.
This is a true doctrine.
And notice he left father and mother.
He didn't have one, but that's a teaching, right?
And we know this is important
because Jesus repeats it in the New Testament
and so does the apostle Paul.
We know these are not just the words of Adam,
but these are inspired words because Jesus again uses them.
So does the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians, all right?
So let me strongly advise you,
if you're wanting to get married
and you can't afford a place to live
and you think, well, the only place I can live
is with my in-laws or with my parents, don't do it.
That's my advice to you, don't do it.
Now I know some people have done it, okay?
Well, let me just say this.
It's gonna cause strain in your marriage, okay?
It's gonna cause strain.
It's hard for parents to let go of their children
to get married.
But if you came and lived with them,
it's like, well, they're back or they're still here
and they've just got this other person with them.
And they still feel like they've got control of your lives.
Now they're not doing it to be evil or hurt you, okay?
They're trying to be friendly, they're trying to love you,
they're trying to help you.
But from your perspective,
especially from your spouse's perspective,
it's going to seem like they're interfering with your life.
And they are, in a sense they are
because the instruction was to leave father and mother.
If you've got a place to live on the same land,
something but it's totally separate, that's fine.
You've left them in that sense.
But I strongly advise you,
I've seen so many marriages in the early stages
when you should be getting to know one another,
loving one another, becoming familiar with one another,
you know, trying to change your bad habits
to appease the other person.
You know, and having that honeymoon relationship
being spoiled by living with father and mother
and having strains so early in the marriage.
There's no reason, there's no kids.
Your responsibilities are minimal
until you start having kids
and your life develops from there.
But you already have these great strains in your marriage.
It can really be a problem, okay?
We see the instruction here.
Make sure you leave father and mother.
This is why you need to be able to provide for your wife.
You need to have a place
where you can put a roof over their head, a place to live.
All right, let's keep reading.
Verse number 25.
And by the way, let me just say this.
When I got married to Christina,
we had a few thousand dollars in the bank account, okay?
We couldn't afford a place really to rent.
And both my parents and her parents,
why don't you leave with us?
Like, no thanks.
We found the smallest little shed of a granny flat.
It was hot in summer, stinking hot, freezing in winter,
but I loved it.
You know, I was with my wife.
You know, I loved it, I was with my wife.
So verse number 25.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed.
So let me just finish on this.
You know, there is a time,
obviously we don't come to church naked.
You know, you shouldn't be going to nude beaches
and walking around naked.
Okay, that would be sinful.
That's a problem, all right?
But there is a time when nakedness is not a sin.
When's that time?
That's in the privacy between husband and wife, okay?
Between husband and wife,
there should be times when you're intimate,
you spend time together in that physical sense.
And that's exactly what we see here happening.
So hey, he worked hard.
He had two jobs for a little while, right?
He had a place to stay, he got his wife,
and then they voted my bone flesh and my flesh,
one flesh, they were a team, they were united,
and then they obviously had physical intimacy as well,
okay, in the nakedness there.
So that's chapter two.
I hope that's given you a good breakdown of that chapter,
and especially if you learnt a few things about the Sabbath.
If you do have any questions for me after the service,
please ask, all right?
Let's pray.