God Is Not Holding Out On Us (Genesis 2:4-17) [2026-3-29]

It's good to be back from vacation.

We were in mostly in at home, but over the weekend we were in

Spokane for a middle school basketball tournament.

And but it is good to be back with God's people worshipping

with you. We are continuing our study of

the book of Genesis. This coming Friday we'll be here

at 7:00 for Good Friday service. I hope you'll join us for that.

We'll be taking the Lord's Supper.

We'll also be doing a church wide fast that day.

If you'd like to participate with us, we invite you to.

And then next Sunday we'll have our Easter service and we won't

be in Genesis. We'll be probably in one of the

Gospels or maybe somewhere in the New Testament, but I'm not

sure yet. But that'll be next week.

And so let me encourage you to invite friends, family, Co

workers, classmates, either on Friday or Sunday or both.

But this morning we are continuing our study of the book

of Genesis that we started a few weeks back.

We've just made it through chapter one, and we just started

chapter 2, but this morning we're going to be in verses 4 to

17. I won't read the text upfront.

I'll read it as we go through it in the exposition.

So if you will pray with me and then we will jump into the

sermon this morning. Lord, as we prepare our hearts

for Good Friday, prepare our hearts for the resurrection.

Lord, we we take time this morning to see how all of it was

put into motion at the very beginning of your plan of

creation. Lord, that You would display

Your glory in the way in which You created this earth and all

the things that you made and how You created humans.

That would eventually lead to the most unbelievable miracle of

one of our descendants, one of humanity's descendants, God

taking on flesh and coming in the likeness of man, that He

would redeem man. And so, Lord, would you help us

to see this morning all of your beauty, all of Your plan of

salvation and how it started all the way back at the very

beginning. I pray especially this morning

God, as we look at this text that you would help us to see

you are a good father who gives good things to his children and

how you are not holding out on us.

I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. We've been going through Genesis

for a few weeks and I want to give the context before we jump

in. I'll have I'll give the context

first and then we'll do exposition of the text and then

I'll give us application. I do have 10 points of

application this morning. Genesis is just filled with so

much and so let's let's we got a lot to get to.

Let's jump in the context is the past two weeks prior to last

week, we've been looking at the seven days of creation.

Just as a refresher. On day one, God made light and

he made the day and the night. On day 2, God separated the

waters below from the waters above.

He gave us an atmosphere and he gave us oceans.

On day three, God separated the waters and the land, land here,

waters here, and he made all the vegetation on the land.

On day four, God made the sun and the moon and the stars.

On day five, God made marine life and the birds of the sky.

On day 6, God made land animals and he made the first thing in

his image, humans, male and female, He created them.

And then on Day 7, God didn't make anything because He rested

from all that He had made. And that's where we left off 2

weeks ago. We're going to pick right back

up again this morning with the exodus of the text.

So if you'll follow along in your copy of God's Word, Genesis

2, we're going to begin in verses 4 to 7.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they

were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the

heavens, when no Bush of the field was yet in the land.

No small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God

had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to

work the ground. And a mist was going up from the

land, and was watering the whole face of the ground.

Then Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathe

into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a

living creature. Our text begins this morning

with this statement. These are the generations of the

heavens and the earth. You're like, what does that

mean? Generations of the heavens and

then what does that mean? This may not be the most helpful

translation by the ESV. Most translations have this.

This is the account or this is the record of the heavens and

the earth. I think that's how it should be

translated. This is the account or the

record of the heavens and the earth.

The reason he states this, the narrator states this is because

if someone had read chapter 1, imagine you read chapter 1 where

God created everything. They might have the question, So

what happened? What happened with all this

creation? God made this whole universe and

this world. What happened?

I want to know how the story, what happens in the story, and

this introduction here in verse 4 is basically saying this is

what happened. This is what became of all that

God created. Now this introduction tells us

that Genesis 2 is not a parallel account of creation as some make

it out to be. There are some scholars who

believe that Genesis 1 is one account of creation and Genesis

2 is a parallel account of creation.

I don't think that's the case. I think Genesis 2 is rather a

zooming in. It's a zooming in to to explain

what happened. And I think that introduction is

telling us this is the account of what happened with everything

that God created. Verse 5, the narrative says that

there is no Bush of the field and there was no small plant of

the field. Now that's interesting.

How do we reconcile this with day three and chapter 1, which

said that God made vegetation? Day three, God made vegetation

here he says there's no Bush of the field.

There's no small plant of the field.

How do we reconcile this? Victor Hamilton, who was a

commentator, has a helpful note here.

Here's what he writes. The plants the vegetation

referred to in Genesis 1 must be those that grow wild, those that

reproduce themselves by seeds alone.

The plants referred to in Genesis 2 must be those that

grow only as a result of human cultivation through planting and

artificial irrigation. It appears that these types of

bushes and small plants in Genesis 2 are the are only going

to come after the fall. I think it's part of Remember

when God curse man? We haven't gotten there yet, but

when God curses man and he caused them to work the ground,

there's thorns and so forth. These types of plants only come

from man's work, right? They don't naturally, they have

to be artificially through planting and irrigation and so

forth. Now, there are two reasons why

there is no Bush in the field and there's no small plants in

the field #1 God did not 'cause it to rain yet, it hasn't rained

yet, and #2 there was no man to work the ground.

This is assuming that it's still day three, right?

Still day three. And so there's no humans yet.

There's no one to work the ground.

So if God didn't 'cause it to rain, how did the fruit trees

and the vegetables get their water?

Text tells us that there was a mist that was going up from the

land and was watering the whole face of the ground.

There was a short window where it didn't rain in Seattle.

Three days later. God created a man to work the

ground. I want to draw your attention to

how God made man. Look at verse 7.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and

breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man

became a living creature. Notice this word formed.

The Hebrew word for formed is often used of a Potter.

God here is described as a Potter forming man, and God used

2 items. A He used the dust of the

ground. God had created the earth, He

took the dust from the earth and he used this to form man.

That's important. We'll see.

As is contrasted to how God made woman.

That's the first thing. The second thing is he used his

breath. God made man from the dust, but

what separates man from the dust is the breath of God.

It is only after God breathed into this man's nostrils the

breath of life that he became a living creature.

One last item I want to draw your attention to is I want you

to notice the name the Lord God. Did you notice that?

The Lord God? We didn't see that in chapter 1.

Now we do. It actually occurs 7 times in

our passes this morning. This is important because we are

now introduced to the covenantal name of God.

Some of you in your body, your Bibles may not do this, but most

Bibles do they when when you when the covenantal name of God

is used, it occurs in all caps capital L, capital O capital R,

capital D that's used to mean that's that's the covenantal

name of God. What we often translate as

Yahweh. What this tells us is that the

God who created the universe and chapter 1 is not a deistic God.

He's not a God who created everything.

And then he kind of sits back at a distance in his rocking chair

and just says, let's see how it pans out.

No, this is a God who is going to enter into a covenantal

relationship with his creation. We see that with this covenantal

name here. Look at verses 89 and the Lord

God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the

man whom he had formed, and out of the ground.

The Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to

the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the

midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

I love this statement. The Lord God planted a garden.

The narrator doesn't say God created a garden.

He says God planted a garden. He tells us where he planted

this garden. He planted in Eden.

And you're like, where is that? It says it was Eden, as though

we know where that is. Where is that?

We are not told. And we are told that it's in the

East. That's all we're told, nothing

more. Most scholars believe that Eden

is refers to a plain between the Tigris and Euphrates River in

southern Mesopotamia. That's probably the best guess

today. This will be modern day Iraq.

After planning this garden, the Lord puts the man that he formed

into this garden. Did you catch that?

Notice the man didn't find the garden.

God put him there. It wasn't as though Adam was

walking one day and he's like, oh, there's a garden, I'll live

here. No, God put him there.

After God plants this garden, the Lord God made to spring up

every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

Notice these descriptions. Every tree.

Every tree was pleasant to the sight and was good for food.

We watch our family watches several cooking shows, and they

always say it needs to look good and it needs to taste good.

God's trees were both, the narrator tells us.

He takes the time to tell us out of all the trees in this garden,

maybe there were dozens, maybe there were hundreds, maybe there

were thousands. And there it takes time to tell

us about two specific trees right in the midst of the

garden. There's a tree of life and the

tree of knowledge of good and evil.

He does not explain what these two trees are yet, so I won't

yet. The converse 10 to 14 A river

flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and they were divided

and became four rivers. The name of the first is the

Paisan. It is the one that flowed around

the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of

that land is good. Delium and Onyx stone are there.

The name of the second river is the Gehan.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush.

The name of the third river is the Tigris which flows east of

Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

So in this garden that God had planted, he created a river in

the garden and it was used to water the entire garden.

As this river flowed out of the garden, it divided and it

becomes four different rivers. The 1st is the Pichon.

It flows around the whole land of Havilah.

The scholars do not agree where this was.

Best guess is modern day Saudi Arabia or Yemen.

This is the land that's filled not only with gold, but filled

with good gold. It's also filled with dahlium

and Onyx stone. This river, as far as we know,

does not exist today. If you look for this on a map

you won't find it. Second is the Gehan.

It floated around the whole land of Cush most likely.

This is modern day southern Egypt and Sudan.

This river also most likely does not exist today.

You won't find it on a map. The third river is the Tigris.

This flows E to Assyria or past Assyria.

This river does still exist today.

It flows through Turkey, Syria and Iraq still today.

And the 4th is the Euphrates. This river also exists.

The Tigers and Euphrates are still there, and it flows

through the same three countries as the Tigris.

Look at verse 15 to 17. The Lord God took the man, put

him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat

of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good

and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of

it, you shall surely die. Now there was a purpose for God

putting the man in the garden. It wasn't to eat all day.

It wasn't a bird watch, it wasn't to build a hammock and

sleep. God put the man in the garden to

work it and to keep it. Notice God will not work and

keep the garden. Man will.

God entrusted this garden to man.

The word for work. The Hebrew word for work is

normally translated serve, which means God made Adam to be a

servant. The word for keep carries the

nuance of protection, which means God made Adam to be a

protector and the Lord God commanded the man.

This is actually the second command given to humans after be

fruitful and multiply, but this is the first time that the word

command is used. It's mentioned.

I find it fascinating that the command actually begins with an

indicative. Before God gives the command, he

gives him an indicative. And here it is.

You may surely eat of every tree of this garden.

You may surely eat of all of it. Notice how God words this not

You may eat, He says. You may surely eat avocados,

yes, mangoes, yes, plums. You may surely eat of it all,

but there is not a period at the end of this indicative, but a

comma. But but remember that tree of

knowledge of good and evil? You're not allowed to eat from

that. You're not allowed to eat from

this tree. Why?

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Notice this word surely again. You may surely eat of this all

these trees, but of this tree, if you eat of it, you will

surely die. Now this is interesting, because

if I was Adam, I would have two questions.

What is evil and what is death? It's a tree of knowledge of God.

I know it's good, but what is evil and die what?

What is death? What's interesting is that God

doesn't explain to Adam what evil is, nor does he explain

what death is. He simply says do not eat of

this tree. If you do, you will surely die.

Now we still have the question of what is this tree, the tree

of? Not like what actually is this

tree? God has still not explained it

to Adam nor to us. But another character in the

next chapter will sort of, and I'll wait till then.

We'll stop there. Expedition application of the

text. I have 10 indicatives for us. 10

indicatives #1 God remembers that we are dust.

God remembers that we are dust. Lord willing, this year we will

have 6 new babies in the church. 6 Do you look at like the size

of our church? That's a lot.

We're going to like like grow by like 30% or whatever.

Some, some number. Which means that six couples in

the church will be experiencing parenthood either for the first

time or the second time. One of the hardest parts of

parenting is expectations for your children.

It's one of the hardest parts of parenting is expectations for

your children. Parents always have this tension

of having high expectations for their children, but also

remembering that their children, we struggle to live in this

tension. As parents, especially as your

kids get older, you struggle to live in this tension.

You have expectations, but you also need to remember that their

children, we struggle in this tension, but God never does.

God never does. Psalm One O 313 to 14 As a

father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows

compassion to those who fear him.

For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

Do you know why God never has trouble remembering that we are

dust? Because He created us from the

dust. When God made us, He did not

make us out of iron. He made us out of dust.

He made us as weak, frail creatures.

We are the ones who get confused and believe that we are made out

of iron. But God never has a wrong

perception of us, and that is a good thing because the psalmist

says that God's compassion is rooted in his creation.

God remembers the building materials that he used to form

us, and that informs his compassion.

He says. I remember what I formed you

from, and that informs my compassion #2 complementarianism

is rooted in creation, not culture.

Complementarianism is rooted in creation, not culture.

Now, I don't want to assume that all of you know what?

That that's a big word with all that means.

Complementarianism is the doctrine which teaches that God

intends male authority and his two primary institutions, the

church and the family. God intends male authority and

his two primary institutions, the church and the family.

Now let me back up and if I may, if I may, let me ask all the

wives in this room a question. Let me take a quick survey to

make sure. OK, let me ask all the wives in

this room a question. Why don't any of you have your

head covered? Wives, why don't any of you have

your head covered? Paul writes in First Corinthians

11/5. But every wife who prays or

prophecies with her head uncovered dis colors her head

since it is the same as if her head were shaved.

Jolene, why is your head not covered?

Why did I allow my wife to come to church with her head

uncovered? Because Paul's argument for head

coverings is rooted in culture. Paul's argument for head

coverings is rooted in culture. Now here's the follow up

question. In the past 15 years that I've

been here, why has a woman never preached A sermon from this

pulpit? Why has a woman never preached A

sermon from this pulpit? We might argue because Paul said

in First Timothy 212, I do not permit a woman to teach or to

exercise authority over a man. Rather she is to remain quiet.

But then couldn't we also argue that this standard, just like

head coverings, is also rooted in culture?

Couldn't we say that Paul is just as head coverings as

rooting culture? Isn't this also rooted in

culture? And the answer is no.

The answer is no. Why?

Because of what Paul says next. For Adam was formed first, then

Eve. That's what he says in first

Timothy 213. For Adam was formed first, then

Eve. We see in verse 7 in Genesis 2

that God made man first. We see in verse 15 that God put

man in the garden first by himself.

We see in verse 16 that God gives the command to not eat of

the tree first to him by himself.

Complementarianism is rooted in creation, not culture.

Many of you will end up leaving this church.

That's just the nature of our church over the next 5-10 years.

And you'll go somewhere. Don't let any pastor or church

or author tell you otherwise. Complementarianism is rooted in

creation, not culture #3 In the same way that Adam was dependent

on God to breathe physical life into his dead body, so we too

are dependent on God to breathe spiritual life and to our dead

souls. What good is an electric vehicle

without a battery? If you imagine you bought an

electric vehicle but it didn't have a battery in it, what good

is that? What good is a gas vehicle

without an engine? What good is a well without

water? What good is a lamp without a

light bulb? What good is a compass without a

needle? What good is a sailboat without

a sail? What good is a physical body

without life? When God made man, he did not

make a physical body, you know, like like made a corpse.

He didn't make a physical body and then say to it, all right,

let's see if science will take care of the rest.

Let's see if Mother Nature will cause this heart to start

beating. Maybe after millions of years

it'll start beating. No, God made this physical body

and the only way it was ever going to live is if God breathed

the breath of life into his body.

I love how this is beautifully depicted in Ezekiel 37.

God takes Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones.

God asked him a question. He says, Son of man, can these

bones live? I love the answer that is equal

gives. You could take it one of two

ways, but I love the answer he gives.

He says, Oh, Lord God, you know, you know, God tells Ezekiel to

prophecy to the bones, and the bones come together and sinews

and flesh and tendons and skin, they all come together.

And then here's the line. But there was no breath in them,

not until God breathed into them.

This physical picture in Genesis 2 and Ezekiel 37, it points us

to a greater spiritual truth that just as Adam was a dead

corpse apart from the breath of God, so we too were spiritually

dead apart from the Spirit of God.

God does not say to us, here's the gospel, now let's see if you

can find your way to salvation. That's like looking at a dead

corpse and saying, let's see if you can rise up.

They say the odds of filling out a perfect March Madness bracket

is 1 in 9.2 quintillion. There's it's so great that if

you do it, you get a billion dollars.

That's how confidence they are. You won't do this.

And those odds are better than us finding our way to salvation.

Brothers and sisters, God breathe life into our dead

souls. If you don't see your salvation

like that, it'll always be Yeah, yeah.

I was saved when I was 16. I grew up in church.

I got saved when I was like 12. That's how you'll view your

salvation. It won't blow your mind that you

were dead and God breathe life into your soul.

It'll just be ho hum. 4 God may not have placed you in a

beautiful garden, but he did place you.

God may not have placed you in a beautiful garden, but he did

place you. Do you ever existentially wonder

why you are who you are? I've thought about this as I was

like seven or eight. I don't know.

I've always been like an existential kind of guy.

Do you ever existentially wonder, like, why you are who

you are? Like, why am I male and not

female? Why am I-65 and not 5-6?

Why was I born in Alabama, not Colorado?

Why am I white and not black or Latino or Asian?

Why was I born in America and not Brazil?

Why was I born to a Christian family and not a Muslim family

or Hindu family? When Adam came to life, when God

breathed into his soul and he awoke for the first time, right?

And he didn't have a, he wasn't a baby, right?

He was a grown man. When he, when he first had

existence, he was a grown man. When he came to life, he, he

looked around, he discovered he was in a beautiful garden.

How did he get there? Did he stumble upon it?

No. Did he build it for himself?

No. Did he buy his garden

citizenship? No.

How did he get in this garden? The Lord God planted a garden in

Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Verse 15. The Lord God took the man and

put him in the garden. Adam got to the garden because

God put him there, and you and I got to where we are because God

put us there. Your life is not the byproduct

of thousands of choices. Do not look to your parents or

your grandparents or your great grandparents or your country or

your society or the government and say I am who I am because I

am the byproduct of thousands of choices.

No, you are who you are. You are where you are because

God placed you there. You are exactly who you are.

You are exactly where you are because God placed you there. 5

God did not give us leftovers, He gave us his very best.

God did not. He does not give us his

leftovers. He gave us his very best One of

the strangest miracles by Jesus is his is him turning water into

wine. I've always been perplexed by

this miracle. It's unlike any other, right?

I mean, just it. The other miracles all kind of

go together for the most part, but this one is just kind of an

outlier to me. I'm like, what was the purpose

of this miracle? Why did Jesus do this?

I think there are several, but one of them is this God never

gives us leftovers. He gives us his very best.

Typically at a wedding in those days, the host will serve the

best of the wine first, right? When people are completely sober

and they, they drink and it's like, oh, this wine's good.

And then after people had a lot to drink, they'll serve the

cheaper wine last, right? Not only will it be cheaper

wine, they often will cut it with water.

But when Jesus turned the water into wine, he turned it into the

very best kind of wine, the guest said.

You have saved the best for last.

You see, so often we could be tempted to think that God is

serving us cheap wine, that we're getting God's leftovers.

But look at what God gave Adam out of the ground.

The Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to

the sight and good for food. Every tree was pleasant to the

sight. It was a delight to look at.

Every tree was good for food. It tasted good.

Church family, God does not serve us leftovers.

He gives us His very best. He's given you his very best. 6

God saw our need for access to water and dry places.

God saw our need for access to water and dry places.

Why did God create rivers? When God created bodies of

water, He made oceans. He made seas, He made lakes, He

made ponds, He made lagoons, gulfs, rivers, streams, bays,

straits. If God made the oceans to speak

to his greatness, what do the rivers speak to?

Why did God spend 5 verses describing these four rivers?

Everything about that, Like what?

Why'd you spend 5 verses of the creation account to describe

these four rivers? I think it is this.

I think that God saw our need for access to water and dry

places. Today we can live almost

anywhere because of artificial irrigation.

But for thousands of years, all of life revolved around water.

Travel revolved around water, right?

If you want to travel to the desert, you, you, you follow the

even if it was a long way, you follow the river.

Villages revolved around water, commerce revolved around water,

all of life revolved around water.

It's as if God was using rivers to remind us.

Just as you cannot live in the desert apart from water, so you

cannot live apart from me. Just as they needed to stay

close to the river to live, so we need to stay close to God to

live. So often we venture off and

think, I'll be all right. I don't need that much water.

God created the very desert that he leads us into, but he also

leads us besides still waters. 7 work was not a result of the

fall. It was part of God's good and

perfect design work was not a result of the fall.

It was part of God's good and perfect design.

You ever play those games like word association?

Like if I say food draw, the first thing that comes to your

mind? All right?

If I were to say right now, food draw right, what what would you

draw? I I did this to myself.

I was a banana. I was like, I only eat bananas.

I wonder if we were to do that with heaven, what images would

we draw? Clouds, gold light, A hammock?

I wonder if it would cross any of our minds to draw a rake or a

shovel. When God made Adam, the Lord God

took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and

keep it. God was perfectly capable of

caring for this garden. He does not need Adam for it,

but he created Adam to care for it, which means work was not a

result of the fall. It was part of God's good and

perfect design. First family, the work that we

do now, it's not a necessary evil.

If you are thinking that heaven is a rescue from Amazon and

Google and Microsoft and Boeing, think again.

Work is part of God's good design.

When we get to heaven, we will primarily be doing two things,

worshipping and working. Work is part of God's design #8

God is not holding out on us. God is not holding out on us.

When my boys were really young, like, you know, two to five

years old or something, when they were really young, when

somebody would give us a really nice dessert like homemade

cookies, homemade pie, homemade cake or a fancy dessert that

they bought. I will hold out on them.

I didn't want to share with them.

I didn't. The reason is because they

didn't know the difference between good dessert and bad

dessert. Two young kids store bought

cookies taste exactly the same as homemade cookies.

They can't tell the difference. But as they got older, they

began to catch on to my ways. They knew Dad is holding out on

us. They would go to mom and be

like, why can't we have the Miss Priscilla's cookies?

And so, yes, I share with them now.

They're old enough to discern. I think sometimes we feel this

way towards God. We feel that God is holding out

on us. God has so much more that he

could share with us, but he's not.

He could make me taller, smarter, prettier, richer,

funnier. He could make me more handsome,

more athletic, more creative, more confident, more talented.

But it seems like God is holding out on me.

God said to Adam, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden

except one. Isn't it always the one?

Isn't it always the one thing that we don't have that causes

us to feel like God is holding out on us?

We don't see the other 99 trees. We only see the one that we

can't have. Brothers and sisters, God is not

holding out on us. He has shared all good things

with us #9 God clearly tells us in His Word what sin will cost

us. There's a phrase called hidden

cost. You may have heard that phrase

before. When you buy a vehicle, the

sticker says 25,000 or $24,999. But that doesn't include hidden

costs like fees, title, taxes, gas, tires, insurance,

maintenance, repairs. This vehicle is going to cost a

lot more than $24,999. When you start a small business,

the business loan is for $100,000.

But there's always added cost to this business such as legal

fees, taxes, software, operations, insurance, payroll,

utilities, inventory. Even with marriage or parenting,

so many people get married without considering the cost of

marriage, not the wedding. People think about the cost of

the wedding, but I'm saying if you consider the cost of

marriage, there is a cost to marriage.

So people have a child without considering the cost of a child,

and not just money, but the time and the energy of raising a

child. But there are no hidden costs

with God. God didn't say to Adam, don't

eat of this tree, OK, have a nice day.

God said, But if the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you

shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall

surely die. God always tells us up front,

this is what sin will cost you. If you go down this path of sin,

this is what it will cost you. I pray, church family, that

before you click on your phone or your computer, you consider

this is what it will cost you. Before you enter a relationship,

you consider this is what it will cost you.

Before you take a drink, another drink of alcohol, this is what

it will cost you. Before you buy another toy or

pillow or vacation that you don't need, this is what it will

cost you. Because God has told us what it

will cost. There are no hidden costs, He's

told us. #10 last point, God had a purpose for creating this

tree. God had a purpose for creating

this tree. If God didn't want Adam to eat

of this tree, why create it? Another question, if you didn't

want him to eat it, why create it?

Wouldn't that just solve the problem?

This is a really good question. It's a complex question and it

is beyond the scope of the sermon, but I came across 2

quotes that I want to share with you.

These are really good quotes. I'm going to share them with

you. Number 11 is by Dietrich

Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer rightly observed that

symbolically, the middle of Adam's world was not himself,

but life, the very presence of God.

The Tree of Knowledge as a prohibition signifies that man's

limitation as a creature is in the middle of his existence, not

on the edge. Here's another one.

The prohibition against eating the fruit of the Tree of

Knowledge gave Adam opportunity to worship God through loyal

devotion. Martin Luther likened the tree

to Adam's church, altar and pulpit.

Here he was to yield to God the obedience he owed, give

recognition to the word and will of God, give thanks to God, and

call upon God for aid against temptation.

In other words, this tree was to be a reminder to Adam that Adam

was not God. It was further a way for Adam to

worship God because every time he saw this tree, he would have

to make a choice and he could choose God or the tree.

And it was a way in which Adam could worship God by saying, I

choose you God, over this tree. Let's pray.