Grace In The Garden - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. What does God say? The day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that day you will what?

Surely die. Now, we come in theologically later and say, wait, now we've got to think about this, and here's what I know for a fact. They died spiritually that day, but they didn't die physically for a long time later. In fact, Adam lived 900 years.

Why? It's the grace. It's the grace of God. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now, as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. After God saw it was good, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. After he creates it all, he said, now let's make man.

And he said, well, yeah, but man, but watch. Moses writes, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In his image, God created a male and female. He created them. And God blessed them. And he said, you'd be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

You subdue it. You rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky. And over every other living thing that moves on the earth. And then God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree that has fruit yielding seed. It shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth, which has life, I have given every green plant for food. And so it was.

What did God say? I did it for you. That's all for you.

I did this for you. If you think about it, God created the world and then he gave it to us. That's grace.

Perfect environment. And notice what he tells them. I love the words that he gives them.

He gives them words like be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, rule. Enjoy yourselves. Because all this is for you.

That's the grace of God. We didn't earn it. We didn't deserve it.

We did absolutely nothing. I mean, think of that on a personal level. Beautiful sunsets are for you. Color.

For you. I mean, it didn't have to have color. It could have all been gray.

I like gray. But my. Starfield nights for you.

Planting, harvesting, variety of vegetables and fruit. What? For you. Salmon, speckled trout or redfish. For you. The beach for you. The mountains for you. The lakes for you. The rainforest for you.

Why? The grace of God. The grace of God. Here's a very important principle.

The first principle in this study. Grace is never just enough. Grace is always far more than enough. Grace is never just enough. Grace is always far more than enough. And it's not just on a grand scale.

It can even be personal. Look at Chapter two, verse 18. The Lord God said. It is not good. It's the first time anything has ever been not good. Lo Tov. Double negative in Hebrew.

It is not good. That man should be alone. I will make. Him a helper. Suitable for him. That's what a regrettable translation.

By the way, men did that. Yep. Helper or help meet. Help mate. Helper. Says right here in the Bible, honey, I'm in charge. You're the helper. I'm the captain.

You're a swabby. Says right there in the word of God. But it doesn't. Eve is the only person who has ever described. As a helper with that word, every other time that word is used, it's only used of God. Only God, my helper. Literally, in Hebrew, it means one who comes to the rescue of another.

That's what it means. Not good that man would be alone. I need to rescue him. You see, I need to rescue him.

One who comes to the rescue of another. And we have Eve. Verse 21. So the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man. And he slept and he took one of his ribs and he closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man.

And he brought her to the man. Again, regrettable translation. The man said, this is not bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

We miss it. That's not what he said. That's not what he said. Let me give you an idea of what he said. The man said, wow.

Eureka. Unbelievable. Let me pinch myself. You see, bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh is in Hebrew idiom. And it means like, I'm so excited by something.

Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. That's what it means. He's wound up. He's excited.

He ought to be literally beside himself here. Twenty years, I can't resist that. He said she shall be called Ish, or Ishah, for she was taken from Ish. She shall be called woman for she was taken from man. Wow.

Why? Grace. Grace. Think of how wonderful this relationship is.

It's incredible. Not good to man to be alone. By the way, God could have made us like amoebas. We could have all been neuter. No male, no female. We're just all neuter. And basically, through binary fission, we just split in half and there's another one of us.

That's how amoebas do it. How boring would that be? You see, why not?

We could have all been like that, but God says no, no, no, no, no. I want to create woman for man. You see, look what they get. They get love, intimacy, romance. They complement one another, purpose, meaning. Why? Grace.

Not because of them, but because of Him. Notice that Moses lays down these tremendous principles in verse 24. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and his mother.

Severance. By the way, if you thought about it a moment, this couldn't have applied to Adam and Eve, could it? Adam didn't say, hey, Dad, I got to leave.

Adam didn't have a father, but it sets in place. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife. What a great word that is. Job uses that word and he talks about it and he says when clods stick together. In other words, he uses it as a mud word.

Sort of like if you get mud on the bottom of your shoe and you can't get it off. Cleave. If we were going to translate it in English today or paraphrase it, we would say this. And shall be super glued to his wife. A man shall leave his father and mother and be super glued to his wife. And they shall become one flesh. One flesh. God says that's just like the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit. Community but oneness. That's what they are going to have.

They are going to be community but one. One flesh. And that theme is used throughout the Bible. What a wonderful blessing of the man-woman relationship.

And the man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed. Intimacy. Notice, severance, permanence, unity, intimacy. Why? The grace of God. It's good.

You see, it's good. But we kind of know the rest of the story, don't we? Man has a tremendous capacity to mess that up. You see, one of the things that God had given him was responsibility. Look back at verses 16 and 17 of chapter 2. And the Lord commanded the man and he said to him, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely. But from the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat from it you will surely die. You see, what was this whole relationship with God and his grace? What was it all based on? What was man's responsibility? What were Adam and Eve's responsibilities before God? Trust.

That's what it was. Faith. Trust. And God said, trust has to be tested.

We have to see if you trust. And so in the midst of all of this beauty and all of this majesty and all of this responsibility, in the midst of it all, God gives him one single commandment. Just one.

Just one. Have you ever thought about how big the Garden of Eden was? Well, if you remember, all the animals came by and Adam named them all. So that's a pretty good size. We have this tendency to think it's like a big garden in the backyard. No, it's enormous.

We know historically we say it's probably somewhere in the fertile crescent is where it originated. But I'm going to guess it's as big as, certainly as big as metropolitan New Orleans. Certainly that big. It's big. It's big.

Wonderful. Big. The reason I'm saying that is not because I want to prove, you know, pastor said it was big.

I don't want to do that. But I want you to think about it in terms of the size because in this garden he put a myriad of yes trees. Yes trees are everywhere of every kind of fruit. There are yes trees everywhere. Orchards of yes trees. In the middle of it he put one tree that's a no tree.

Just one. I don't believe it was any different than the yes trees except it was the one God said, not that tree. Now why is that so important?

Because it tells me something. If I were Adam and Eve, looking back with the hindsight I have because I would have done exactly what they did without that hindsight, but wouldn't have you thought that if God said every tree, all the yes trees from here to West Wego are yours? You would have said, Eve, look, honey, we need to stay away from the tree in the middle. Let's not even go near the middle. Let's stay away from the middle because there's so many other trees and it could have been a lot bigger than that.

But they're not doing that, are they? Because when we get to chapter 3, they're in the middle. You know the story now. The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field of which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, indeed as God said that you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman said from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said you shall not eat from it or touch it, she added that, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you'll surely not die, for God knows that in the day that you eat from it your eyes will be opening.

You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. And she gave also to her husband with her and he ate.

They're right at the tree. Then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. It's called the fall. And it's basically this, we don't trust God. In fact, they ended up trusting Lucifer himself. But they did not trust God. And so there's a fall.

But don't miss something here. Grace, it's everywhere. What did God say? The day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that day you will what? Surely die. Now, we come in theologically later and say, wait, now we've got to think about this.

And here's what I know for a fact. They died spiritually that day. But they didn't die physically for a long time later. In fact, Adam lived 900 years.

Why? Grace. It's the grace of God. You see, could have they died physically and spiritually that day?

Of course. They could have. God told them that's what was going to happen. But they didn't. Do you think it was possible that God could have started over with two others, Betty and Ernie?

Started them, started over again and did it again? Of course. God could do that. But he didn't. Grace. He gives them grace. Notice they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God and from the trees of the garden. And then the Lord called out to the man and said, where are you?

By the way, it's a rhetorical question. God's looking for you. Don't think you can hide somewhere. God says, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. God knowing already all the answers, he said to him, who told you that you were naked? Eve?

No, I don't know. Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat?

God already knows all this. Now here's a chance for man to show a little bit of character finally. Lord, yes.

Yes, I did it. But just like every athlete ever accused of doping or steroids, Adam steps right up and says this, the woman which you gave me, she gave me from the tree and I ate. And ever since then, we have been blaming God for our own trouble, we blame God. God, it's your fault. You gave me that woman.

I hear that over and over again. Something terrible happens in our lives and boy, one of our first fallen instincts is to say, why didn't God stop that? Why didn't God do something? Why didn't God intervene? Why didn't God? So often, the answer is simply, we reaped what we sowed. We made our own choices. Well, it doesn't get much better with Eve than the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done? And the woman said, the devil made me do it.

Not my fault. Now the holiness of God has to be insulted. Not only did they fall, but they wouldn't even take responsibility for it. They deserve extreme judgment.

And what do they get? Grace. Grace. It's the nature of God.

Grace. The Lord said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and in dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And he says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. Here comes the first prophecy of the Bible. The first prophetic words ever spoken and they're spoken by God. And he says, and he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.

He will destroy you and you will hurt him. When is that prophecy? It's grace. You see, it's grace. The prophecy is all about grace. The seed of the woman, as we know, as Paul says in Galatians, the seed is Jesus Christ.

The seed. And he's going to offer man reconciliation with God. He's going to make right all the wrong, not just of this sin, but every sin that has occurred since the original sin.

And he's going to do so by paying for it. Someone has once said that grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. You see, the thing about grace is it's costly. And Jesus Christ comes along, that seed comes along, centuries and centuries later in a little town called Bethlehem. And he is born of a teenage girl named Mary. And he lives among us. And he lives without sin. And then willingly, he goes to the cross and he experiences the wrath of God for every single one of us, from Adam and Eve on, every single one of us, undeserving. Every one of us.

Why? Grace. Grace.

See, that's the most amazing thing. There is grace everywhere. Christianity is not like any other religion on earth. The Buddhists have an eight-fold path. The Hindus have this idea of karma.

Judaism has with it its covenant, its laws, and the Islamic world goes through the unbreakable code. Everybody working hard to get their A. But there are no As.

Because you can't earn it. All you can do, sign your name, the end of the test. Say, I put my trust and faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross. You know what God writes on you? A. A. You didn't earn it.

You don't deserve it. It's grace. You see, in the beginning was grace.

And that's only the beginning. Let's pray. Father, I pray not only for this week, for the weeks to come, that we begin to understand the depth of grace, the greatness of grace. Father, when we see your creation, we know of your power and your majesty. Because what you created is awe-inspiring to us. But Father, I want us to also see the grace in your creation.

You did this for us. And then you offered us a phenomenal existence based on trust and tested by one single commandment. And Father, we fell.

And when we fell, we wouldn't even take responsibility for our own falling. And yet, in spite of all of that, you offered mankind grace, hope, through the seed of the woman in the person of Jesus Christ. And Father, if there's ever a place to see grace, it's on the cross of Calvary. Because that should be me.

Or that should be us. Father, I thank you for your grace in creation. I thank you for your grace, the common grace you have given all people in this world. And I thank you most of all for the grace that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. Father, I thank you that we can't earn it. We deserve it. It's unmerited.

But it's real. Thank you for the grace of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .