SERMON TEXT: GENESIS 2:1-17            AUTHOR: DR. JERRY VINES
                              OUTLINE

I.  Man was in ideal circumstances psychologically
     A. Man has a physical nature
     B. Man has an emotional nature
     C. Man has a spiritual nature

II. Man was in ideal circumstances environmentally
     A. An ideal place
     B. An ideal provision

III. Man was in ideal circumstances theologically
     A. God's authority to command
     B. Man's ability to choose

                            SERMON TEXT

     I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of Genesis, the
second chapter, and our Bible study tonight will be taken from the
first seventeen verses.  We're talking about paradise on earth.
This is the chapter that tells us about God placing the man and
the woman which He had created in the beautiful, beautiful Garden
of Eden: paradise on earth.  Now this is one of those places where
the chapter divisions really are in the wrong place.  The chapter
divisions, I know you're aware, are not part of the inspired Word
of God, they were added by people along the way.  And actually the
first four verses of the second chapter of Genesis fit in the
first chapter.  It really completes the creation account as found
in chapter 1, the six days of creation.  Because you will notice
in verse 1 it says,

     1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
        host of them.

     2. 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.

     3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
        because that in it he had rested from all his work which
        God created and made.

     Numbers have meaning in the Bible and the number seven is the
number of completion, it is the number of perfection.  And so at
the completion of the six days of creation we are told that God
rested on the seventh day.  Now this does not suggest to us that
God is tired, it doesn't mean that God was worn out and He had to
have a little break.  Let me read to you what it says over in the
book of Isaiah, the fortieth chapter.  In Isaiah chapter 40 and in
verse 28 listen to what it says about God; it says, "the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
there is no searching of his understanding."  God does not get
weary, God does not get worn out like we do.  The psalmist said,
"He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps."  So when it
says God rested on the day it just means that God completed the
work, God was finished with the work that He had done.  It is
referring to God's creation work.

     Now you push the fast forward button and you go over into
Genesis chapter 3 and you of course discover that sin entered into
the world, and so when sin entered into the world God had to start
to work again.  Genesis 1, He completes His creation work, sin
enters into the world so God starts out in another work, His great
work of completion, or His great work of redemption.  And from all
eternity God had a plan to make it possible for man to be saved.
The Lord Jesus came and you remember He said in John 5:17, "My
Father works hitherto, and I work."  And in the fourth chapter of
John, the thirty-fourth verse, Jesus said, "My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent me and to finish His work."  So, you see,
Jesus came into the world to complete the work of the Father, the
great work of redemption.

     Now when it says in Genesis 2:1 God finished His work of
creation, the word that is used there is picked up in the New
Testament when the Lord Jesus was on the cross.  And you remember
after Jesus had suffered there for six hours on that cross, when
Jesus Christ there became sin for us and bore all of our sin-debt,
when it was all completed Jesus cried, "It is finished," and the
great work of God's redemption plan was done.  So, you see, God
finished His work of creation in Genesis chapter 2.  In the New
Testament God finished His work of redemption to make it possible
for people to be saved, for people to have hope, for people to
know forgiveness of their sin.  And so the seventh day became a
very, very special day, and as you study through the Bible you'll
find that God set aside that seventh day.  In fact the Bible says
in verse 3 that God blessed it and that He sanctified it, he set
it apart.

     There's a physical reason why this is true: it is true
because we need a day to rest.  I hope you take a day of rest, I
hope you have at least one day a week when you rest.  Where I came
from, about 10 miles above the little town where I lived, there's
a little town called Bremen, Georgia.  It was known at one time as
the clothing capitol of the South.  Many of you are wearing suits
tonight that are made in that area.  There was a factory up there
that made men's slacks, known as Hubbard's Slacks, and for a
period of years they worked there for seven days, and they ran
those machines for seven days.  Then they found that if they would
rest those machines one day a week that the machines would last
longer.  And, you know, I just thought about it, they were just
really picking up on what God said in the Bible.  God knew all
along that we would do better if we had a day of rest.  So God
sets aside a day of rest intended to be a physical blessing.

     But, you see, there's also to be a special day which is to
have a spiritual blessing for us.  Now for the Jews it was the
Sabbath day, that is, Saturday.  You see, Saturday for the Jews
commemorated God's great work of creation.  It was the seventh
day, it was the completion day.  In other words there was work and
then there was rest.  That represents what the Law is all about.
The Law says that you have to work, that you have to earn and
deserve and merit salvation.  Well of course, you see, we know
that we can't earn or merit salvation.  The Law said do this and
live, work and then rest.  Well, see, nobody can be saved that
way.

     And so when God sent His Son the Lord Jesus and Jesus died on
the cross, and three days later He rose again from the dead, the
Bible says that He arose on the first day of the week.  And, you
see, now when you study the scriptures you'll find that the early
believers gathered together on the first day of the week.  You
see, they start the week off with rest and then there is work.
And that's the difference between law and grace.  You see, law
says work and then comes rest, but grace says rest in the finished
work of Jesus Christ and then you work.  Ephesians chapter 2 says,
"For by grace are you saved...and that not of yourselves...not of
works, lest any man should boast."  So, you see, there is a day
set aside, the Lord's Day, the first day, where we come together
and we commemorate not creation but we commemorate resurrection,
we commemorate God's completed work of redemption for our soul's
salvation.  So here is a beautiful picture right in the very
beginning of our Bible of how God has set aside a day, a day to be
a physical blessing, a day also to be a spiritual blessing.

     Now from there, in verse 5, as you read down through these
verses, you'll find that there is another account of creation.
Now in Genesis 1 there is an account of creation given to us in
six creative days.  When you come to Genesis 2, verses 5 and
following, you'll find that there is another account of creation.
Now because of this this has caused some people to say the Bible
contradicts itself, and they point out the fact that in the first
chapter it mentions the creation of the animals and then the
creation of man whereas in the second chapter of Genesis it
mentions the creation of man and then it talks about the animals.
Well, you see, there is a very important law of Bible
interpretation known as the Law of Recurrence.  In those days they
wrote in a particular manner in order to emphasize a point, and
one of the things they did was to mention a subject and then come
back to that subject and fill in the details.  It's kind of like
an artist that would paint a painting: an artist will start off
and he will begin by just giving the broad lines, the broad brush
strokes, he paints in the broad picture.  Then, having made the
broad strokes, he moves in on the canvas and he begins to fill in
the details, and he begins to give attention to specific things
that are going to be highlighted and featured in his painting.

     And so, you see, that's what the Holy Spirit does in Genesis
chapter 2.  In Genesis 1 you have the broad picture, the big
picture.  Now in Genesis 2 the Holy Spirit zeroes in on God's main
object of creation, man, and fills in the details.  That's the Law
of Recurrence.  You'll find the same thing in the New Testament in
the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  It doesn't mean
that those four gospels contradict one another but it means that
the Holy Spirit, like a masterful artist, paints the picture, then
He comes back and He paints it again and He adds some more
details, and then He paints it again and He gives you some more
details, each writer giving you the particular shade and hue of
the life of Jesus Christ which He intends.  And so what you have
here is not something that's contradictory, you have something
here that is complementary, it adds to.

     Now another thing you will find in Genesis 2 is that there is
a new name for God.  Now up until this point the word that was
used was "God".  You notice in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning
God."  It is the Hebrew name "Elohim," which calls attention to
God's power.  Elohim, God, is God's name of power, it emphasizes
that God is a powerful God, that God is a God powerful enough to
create our universe.  But now, did you notice? it says in verse 5,

     5. 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....

Look at verse 7: "And the Lord God..."  Verse 8: "And the Lord God
planted..."  He adds "Lord."  Now the word there is really the
word "Jehovah": Jehovah God.  Elohim God, that emphasizes God as
power, the power of God.  Jehovah God emphasizes God as a person,
the personal name of God, God as our Savior, God as our Redeemer.
And so, you see, now we're going to focus in on man.  And, you
know, the wonderful thing about Genesis chapter 2 is that it shows
us from every possible perspective man is placed in an ideal
situation.  I want you to notice how ideal the circumstances are
for the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.

     The first thing I want you to notice is in verse 7, that man,
his circumstances are ideal psychologically.  What I mean by that
is how God put man together.  Look at verse  7, it says,

     7. And the Lord God formed man (By the way, the word 'formed'
        there is the same word that was used for a potter shaping
        a vessel, just as a master potter would mold and make a
        vessel of clay in his skillful hands, even so the great
        Lord God molded man, formed man) of the dust of the
        ground, and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life;
        and man became a living soul.

Now I especially want our young people, out teenagers, I
especially want you to get this seventh verse, I want you to look
at it very carefully.  Because, you see, this is God's account of
how you're put together.  I want our middle-schoolers especially
to get this because you see, kids, this verse right here tells us
how God put us together.  It tells us how we are constituted
psychologically.  It tells us what kind of beings we are, what
kind of people we are.

     Now we know more about psychologically today than we've ever
known.  Psychology is a relatively new subject in terms of its
inception and its beginning and the information that has become
available, but we've gone a long way psychologically in
understanding the human personality.  Some of you are majoring in
psychology, we have a number of Christian psychologists who are
members of our church, and psychology is a fascinating subject.
Many of you maybe majored in psychology in school.  But, you know,
modern psychology, apart from the Word of God, apart from the
Christian faith, makes a very serious mistake.  Modern psychology
teaches that man is basically a twofold personality.  Modern
psychology approaches man as a body and a mind; they say man has a
body and man has a mind.  That's the reason modern psychology, for
the most part, is totally unable to really help people with their
basic problems.  Because, you see, the Bible approaches it in an
altogether different manner.

     The Bible does not teach that man is just a body and a mind,
but rather the Bible says that man is a trinity.  You see, the
Bible says man was created in the image of God; God is a Trinity:
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  And in verse 7,
if you will notice very carefully, you'll find that man has a
threefold nature.  Now look at it.  "And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground..."  Now that means that you and I have
a physical nature; I'm referring to our body.  We have a physical
nature.  You see, our body is our world-consciousness, it is that
part of us that relates to the world around us, it is our world-
consciousness.  You see, we relate to the physical world around us
by our physical senses.  How many senses do we have?  Five isn't
it?  Let's see: hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling.
Did I get them all?  Five.  We have five senses and with those
senses we relate to the physical universe.  You have a body.  And
of course as we've already seen in our study of the Bible the
Bible tells us that this body indeed is a wonderful, wonderful
thing that God has created.

     I was reading just the other day about one square inch of the
skin on your body.  Look at your hand for a moment and imagine
just a square inch, just the size of a postage stamp.  Just
imagine the size of a postage stamp, a square inch, on your hand
right there.  Did you know that square inch of your skin has got
three million cells in it?  Did you know that there is a yard of
blood vessels in it?  There are four yards of nerves in that
square inch, there are a hundred sweat glands, there are 25 oil
glands, and there are 50 nerve endings, all in that square inch of
your skin.  No wonder the psalmist said that we are fearfully and
wonderfully made.  Is somebody going to tell me that just
happened?  Is somebody going to tell me that that just
accidentally came into existence?  Oh, no, no, no.  God formed man
of the dust of the earth.  And so, you see, you have a body.  By
the way, the Bible says your body is very important, too.  In
First Corinthians 6:20 the Bible says glorify God in your bodies.
And in Romans 12:1 the Bible says, "Present your body a living
sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service."  So you have a physical nature.

     But then notice it says the Lord God breathed into man's
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  You
see, not only do you have a physical nature, your body, but you
also have an emotional nature, your soul.  Now your soul is that
part of you which is your self-consciousness.  It's what the
psychologists would call the id, or the ego.  It is that part of
you that relates to yourself, that makes you aware of who you are.
You see, there's something down inside of you you can't exactly
touch, it is not your body but you know it is the real you.  And
so, you see, God made man a soul; that is, his ability to relate
to himself.  And, you know, Jesus said the soul is very important.
In fact one time Jesus said, "What shall it profit a man if he
gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"  So your soul is very
important.

     But not only do you have a body, your physical nature, not
only do you have a soul, your emotional nature, but you also have
a spirit, because, you see, the Bible says the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and then He breathed into man the
breath of life.  You see, you have a spiritual nature.  Now that
is your God-consciousness, that is that part of you that is able
to relate to God.  So, you see, as God originally created man He
was ideal psychologically.  So there was no problem inwardly that
would cause man to sin was there?  I mean no problem.  Now today
we see man a wreck psychologically.  We see people a wreck
physically, we see them wrecks emotionally, we see them wrecks
spiritually, but as it came in the Garden of Eden man was in ideal
circumstances psychologically.  But that isn't all.

     Look at the second thing.  Man was also in ideal
circumstances environmentally.  Now you hear a lot about the
environment today.  Well look at the perfect environment where God
put man.  Verse 8.

     8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and
        there he put the man whom he had formed.

     9. 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
        the knowledge of good and evil.

    10. And a river went out from Eden to water the garden...

Then it talks about how that river split into four parts and it
names those others.  Now we have not been able to locate anywhere
on the earth a geography as it is described right here.  The best
we can guess is that it would be somewhere in the area of the
Mesopotamian Valley in modern Iraq, but we have not been able to
locate this.  You see, sin did a number on the creation.  In fact
in Romans chapter 8 the Bible says that the whole creation groans
and travails together in pain until now.  When sin entered into
the world it threw the whole creation out of whack.  Did you know
that?  But, you see, when man was put in the Garden of Eden he was
in an ideal place environmentally.  I mean just an ideal place.
The word "Eden" means delight.

     And man has not only an ideal place but look at the
provision.  Every tree, and some trees were just pleasant to the
eyes.  What that means is is that God created the world with
beauty, and everywhere Adam and Eve looked they saw beautiful,
beautiful trees.  And then some trees were for the purpose of
food.  I can just imagine how it must have been in the Garden of
Eden.  Adam and Eve were walking along, came to a banana tree, and
he pulled off a banana and they had zippers on the peels.  I mean
you didn't even have to work to unpeel it.  I'm being facetious,
but you just think of what a beautiful, beautiful place.  Now, you
see, modern sociology, which is the study of man's institutions
and man's relationships, goes astray because it says that man is
basically good and that the problem with man is his surroundings,
his environment.  And yet, my friends, I want to show you right
here in the Word of God, here are Adam and Eve and they are in a
perfect environment, everything the heart could desire.

     I was reading the pronouncement of the Grand Jury about the
Sheriff's Department the other day and one of the things they're
recommending is that the policemen have a college education.  Well
that's fine, I think that would be great for them to do, but a
college education is not going to solve problems of corruption in
the Police Department.  You see, you could take an uneducated man
and he would steal a box of oranges off of a railroad car, you
take an educated man, he'll steal the whole railroad.  You see?
It's not what you get in your head that'll make you do right, it's
what you get in your heart.  You've got to know Jesus in your
heart.  And you see, friends, what people need, though it's good
to have adequate housing, but a brand new home is not going to
solve the problems of a heart that needs to know Jesus as personal
Savior.  So there it is: man is in an ideal circumstance
psychologically, he's in an ideal circumstance environmentally.

     But then notice this: he is in an ideal circumstance
theologically.  What I mean is this: he is right with himself, he
is right with his surroundings, he's right with his Creator.  And
look at what he says in verse 15:

    15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden
        of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

That is, to take care of it, to work.  By the way, work is not a
part of the curse.  Did you know that?  Before sin ever entered in
God wanted man to work.  And you see God said, "I want him to
work, I want him to take care of this garden."  And then God says
in verse 16,

    16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree
        of the garden you may freely eat:

    17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
        shalt not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof
        thou shalt surely die.

Now notice what God did.  God gives a maximum of liberty and a
minimum of prohibition.  God said every tree you can eat, a
maximum of liberty; but a minimum of prohibition, he said there's
one tree, you can't eat of that.  Now why did God do that?  Two
big reasons I want you to put in your heart tonight.

     The reason God made this prohibition is twofold.  Number one,
to establish His authority to command.  To establish His right as
God to issue commands.  You see, friends, people are talking about
right and wrong, and people are talking about moral values, you
see, if you don't have some objective standard by which you
determine right and wrong then everybody's idea is just as good as
another.  And like the Bible says, every man did that which was
right in his own eyes; there has to be an objective moral
absolute, and the objective moral absolute is the revealed Word of
God.  God has the right to say this is right and this is wrong.
And God has never abdicated His position as final authority in the
universe which He's created.  So He's establishing His authority
to command.

     But you know what else He's doing?  He is establishing man's
ability to choose.  He is giving man the ability to make a choice,
and He's saying to man, "You have a choice.  I'm saying don't eat
of this: in the day you eat thereof you will die."  Man had a
choice.  So, you see, here it is: everything is ideal.  Ideal
psychologically: no problems inwardly.  Ideal environmentally: no
problems outwardly.  Ideal theologically: no problems upwardly.
And in that ideal, perfect environment you and I know what
happened.  Adam and Eve disobeyed, and when they did man became a
wreck psychologically, he became a wreck environmentally, he
became a wreck theologically, he was wrong with himself, he was
wrong with his surroundings, he was wrong with God.  And, my
friends, there is only one solution to the dilemmas and the
problems that modern men face tonight and the solution is Jesus
Christ.  He's the only hope; just like our beautiful middle
schoolers told you tonight.  And I want to tell you what, friends,
if you really want to know the meaning of life, and if you really
want to know how to be happy, and if you really want to know how
to deal with the violence, and if you really want to know how to
have peace in your heart, it's all wrapped up in a person and His
name is Jesus Christ.