Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080316.htm
THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History Part I: Explaining The Creation Of The Universe, Genesis 1-2 E. Explaining God's Initial Ideal State For Humanity (Genesis 2:4-25)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

There is a huge need in our world for an affirmative pattern on how we should function in society so as to enjoy God's blessing:

(1) Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York, resigned his office Wednesday over a call-girl scandal. The March 13, 2008 Waterbury Repuplican-American ran stories about the call-girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, reporting her MySpace web page shows she came from a broken home in New Jersey and has abused drugs, felt alone, and worried over "paying her rent in a ninth-floor Manhattan apartment after her boyfriend recently left her," Ibid., p. 1A, 4A! So, dysfunction in two families, Eliot Spitzer's family in New York City and Ashley Dupre's family in New Jersey, has reached out to impact negatively the top office of one of the most influential states in our country!

(2) The news also reported how the drinking water of some of our nation's largest metropolitan areas are contaminated with residues of previously used pharmaceuticals. Apparently, the recycling of water needed by large cities does not involve purifying out its drug residues!

(3) Of course, the conservative talk show hosts this past week had a field day with these and other issues, but therein lies another problem: last Tuesday before breakfast, my wife and I were listening to a politically conservative radio talk show host giving his "take" on the issues. Though we empathized with various of his concerns, the hopeless suggestions offered toward solving them seemed depressing, so my wife turned the dial to a National Public Radio station. Yet, though the NPR announcer spoke more positively, his ideology was so inherently wrong, she finally turned the radio off!

When we sat down to eat, we discussed sad it is that our troubled world is unable to see its way to drastically needed solutions!

I then shared how the message I was scheduled to prepare that day for this sermon was to be taken from Genesis 2:4-25, a passage revealing the positive, righteous ideal state God initially set for human society BEFORE SIN (in Genesis 3) ruined it all!

Thus, though we will not experience a perfect state until the eternal state for believers (in Revelation 21:1-22:5), it is beneficial to review Genesis 2:4-25 to discern elements of our initial ideal state so that we have a PATTERN to use for aligning to God's will and receiving His BLESSING even in this temporal life . . .

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "With the lack of fulfillment humanity knows today, is there an IDEAL state to use as a PATTERN to maximize BLESSING?!"

1. At Genesis 2:4, the focus of Genesis narrows to view just mankind.
2. Genesis 2:4-25 then reports on the INITIAL FULFILLING STATE for MAN that occurred BEFORE SIN RUINED it all in Genesis 3.
3. So, though we will not experience such an ideal state until eternity (Revelation 21-22), we can VIEW that INITIAL IDEAL STATE as a PATTERN to MAXIMIZE BLESSING for TODAY (as follows):
1. God initially provided man with an ideal environment that we can use as a pattern to maximize blessing for today (as follows):
1. The Lord supplied a physically natural and pure environment:
1. Man's body was made from the ground, and we know from science that most of his body is composed of water, Genesis 2:7.
2. That same ground and ground water was also the source of man's food by way of plant life and water, Gen. 2:4-6, 10; 1:29.
3. Thus, man's physical health was to be supported as he breathed and ingested what was both natural and also pure.
2. The Lord supplied a psychologially nurturing environment:
1. God provided order to make man secure, placing him in the well-organized, food-producing Garden of Eden, Genesis 2:8.
2. Yet, God also provided stimulating motivation: He sent several rivers out of the garden to places offering riches so that man might be motivated to spread out to achieve, Genesis 2:10-14.
3. God assigned man a healthy balance of functions: He gave man the tasks of progressively tilling the soil to raise new plants while conservatively keeping current plants trimmed, Genesis 2:15; H. C. Leupold, Expos. of Genesis, 1974, v. I, p. 126-127.
2. God initially provided man with ideal human institutions we can use as patterns to maximize blessing in society today (as follows):
1. As Eve was a native part of Adam's body, God set mankind in the institution of marriage that was comprised of one man and one woman for life, Genesis 2:21-23 with Matthew 19:3-6.
2. That marriage was healthy in that the husband took responsible but nurturing oversight of his wife , cf. Genesis 2:19, 22-23:
1. Though God gave Adam rule over Eve as He gave him rule over the animals as seen in His bringing both the animals and Eve to Adam to name to signify sovereignty (Gen. 2:19, 22-23), Adam yet acknowledged Eve was part of his own body, Genesis 2:23.
2. Thus, though man was to rule his wife, he was to do so in a nurturing way just as he nurtures his own body (Eph. 5:28-29).
3. That marriage was meant to cultivate via the institution of the family future duplicate marriages through children, Gen. 2:24.
3. God initially provided man with an ideal occupation we can use as a pattern to maximize blessing for today (as follows):
1. God gave man a rewarding physical task:
1. Opposite a welfare state, man was to till and trim the Garden from which his food came, expanding its order by procreation and spreading out its likeness over the earth, Gen. 2:15.
2. Man was to rule the animal kingdom, shown in God's bringing the animals to man to name, Genesis 2:19; 1:28; Ibid., p. 31.
3. [As we found that man's rule of his wife was to be nurturing, by way of implication, his rule of animals was to be humane!]
2. God gave man a rewarding spiritual task: he was to obey God's Word not to eat of the wrong tree and thus to die, but to eat of the tree of life and so live forever, Genesis 2:9, 16-17 with Gen. 3:22b.
4. In view of man's fall into sin from his initial ideal sinless state, we know from other Scriptures the ideal spiritual salvation that we must accept to maximize spiritual blessing for today (as follows):
1. Sin has not only wrecked havoc in society, but left man spiritually dead and, left to himself, doomed for hell, cf. Romans 3:23; 6:23a.
2. However, as God made the first man spiritually alive by breathing into his nostrils the breath of physical as well as spiritual life (Gen. 2:7), sinful man needs regeneration by the Holy Spirit by believing the Gospel of Christ, Ibid., p. 30; Ephesians 1:12-14; John 3:5-8.
3. Then, one has fellowship with God and believers and blessing in life by heeding Scripture in God's power, 1 Jn. 1:4-10; Rom. 8:3-4.

Application: May we (1) trust in Christ as Savior to be spiritually born again (John 3:16) and (2) fellowship with God in heeding His Word, 1 John 1:4-10; Romans 8:3-4. (3) May we then ALIGN as much as is POSSIBLE with the Genesis 2 pattern to MAXIMIZE fulfillment while awaiting God's coming, fulfilling eternal state!

Lesson: Though we must wait until eternity to enjoy the degree of fulfillment man had prior to sin, by ALIGNING as much as POSSIBLE with the INITIAL IDEAL, we can MAXIMIZE God's BLESSINGS for TODAY until God provides that eternal state!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Evidence exists that a marriage of one man and one woman for life under the influence of the Holy Spirit as seen in the Genesis 2 pattern maximizes first personal and then worldwide social welfare:

(1) Mary Ann Kuharski, in "An Inside View" in the February, 1991 issue of Focus on the Family, reported a nurse instructor told her at the birth of her seven-hour-old son, Joseph, that "Newborns will react to reassuring voices and the sounds they were used to hearing before birth. In fact, in most cases, they've already formed attachments -- not just to Mom but to the other family members as well."

Mrs. Kuharski noted that when her oldest daughter, Chrissy, then entered the room and spoke for the first time to her infant son, "he turned toward his big sister. He so locked his gaze in her direction that no amount of the instructor's gentle coaxing could detract him." (Ibid.)

So, his birth parents and siblings, the Genesis 2-style family, already form a newborn's BASIC support group; their continued interaction with him is critical for maximizing his development!

(2) Sharon Begley and Pat Wingert, in the article, "Teach Your Parents Well" in the April 28, 1997 issue of Newsweek, p. 72 noted that "the foundations of social, emotional and intellectual development are all laid early, in the first 10 years of life."

Yet, citing the advocacy group Zero to Three, the article noted that "talking, reading, singing and playing must be carefully matched to a child's level of development, temperament and mood, or the child will tune out or even cringe from the interaction. 'Only 20 to 30 percent of parents know how to do this instinctively,' says child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan of George Washington University." (Ibid.)

Well, parents in Genesis 2-styled families who are FILLED with the Holy Spirit, the Perfect Parent (John 14:16-18 NIV), will INSTINCTIVELY know how to do this WELL! They produce GOOD CITIZENS for eventually the whole WORLD! (Psalm 128)

There IS an IDEAL PATTERN for mankind in Genesis 2. Though sin has obstructed our gaining the FULL blessing of that pattern until we get to the eternal state, by yielding to the Lord in our lives, and aligning as closely as possible to His Genesis 2:4-25 pattern, life becomes easier and more fulfilling. May we trust in Christ as Savior, heed His Word and ALIGN with the Genesis 2 ideal pattern as much as is possible to maximize God's blessing!