God's Ideal_September 21, 2025 • Andrew Spradlin • Genesis 2-18–25

Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast.

We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,

builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.

Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible

and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.

So welcome and enjoy the message.

If you have your Bible, please open it with me to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Now, for the last week, as your pastors, we've been busy talking and counseling with many of you. And if I could

get a little more in my monitor, that would be helpful for me. We've been counseling with many

of you who are still very shaken from Charlie Kirk's assassination. Charlie was a political activist and a very outspoken Christian apologist,

and we're deeply grieving his murder and the evil condition that our world finds itself in.

It seems, though, for the last week or so, as we visited with many of you,

that there is a stirring of God in many of your hearts to be more bold in your faith and your witness

and to proclaim the gospel in your life.

And so I praise God for what he's doing, taking evil and turning it into good.

Many are waking up. Amen.

Many are waking up to the reality of the very dark spiritual war that we're in, and that's

actually a very good thing.

So before we jump into Genesis this morning and hear from God, let's pray, all right?

Let's go to the Lord.

Our Heavenly Father, we are so weighed down and so burdened and concerned for our world. Lord, the darkness that we see,

Lord, we grieve it, Lord, with you. We know it grieves your spirit. Lord, many of us saw things

that we cannot unsee, and for many that was very traumatic. And so I pray, Lord, that you help them.

I pray for those that are grieving, Lord, that you help them. I pray for those that are grieving,

Lord, that you would comfort them. Comfort us with your spirit, we ask. And Lord, we just pray for

the division in our country. We pray for what we've seen of hatred and anger and so many different

emotions. And we know, Lord, that our problems are complex. But Lord, you provide a very simple answer in your

son, Jesus. And so I'm asking, Lord, that you give our leadership wisdom as they navigate all of this,

Lord, that you would help your church. You would help us be a bright, shining light of your love

and your truth. Lord, help us be salt and light. Lord, we pray that this would be a time where

we're emboldened and empowered by your spirit to speak up like we've never done before about your

son, Jesus. We love you. We need your help. Now, Lord, we pray that you bless the reading of your

word and the teaching of your word and that you would use it to draw people to yourself. We ask

in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you have your Bible, hopefully you've got Genesis chapter 2 opened up

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

in front of you in a message I'm calling God's Ideal. This morning, we're going to do what we've

done at Valley Baptist Church virtually every Sunday for the past 40 years. We're going to draw

our attention to God's Word, specifically

to Genesis chapter 2. Now, we've been a little out of order for the last couple weeks,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

because I got sick a couple weeks ago, and so Pastor Matt jumped in. And by the way,

he preached an amazing sermon from the first half of this chapter focused on the creation of man

and his responsibilities. But today we get back on track

and we pick things up in verse number 18. Now, when we come to chapter 2, we're given a lot more

detail about the creation of mankind. It's as if God gives us this big picture perspective in

chapter 1, and then He zooms in for us to see more detail in chapter 2.

Pastor Matt compared it to when a movie jumps back to a previous scene and shows more of the story.

I think that's a good way to think about it. What we have in Genesis chapter 2 is God's ideal.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

We see an ideal man, Adam, who God breathed the spirit of life into him. We see an ideal

garden, the Garden of Eden. We see an ideal job. Adam was to tend to the garden while not being

burdened by weeds or fatigue. We see an ideal tree of life, which provided sustenance for continued

life. And included among the tree of life is this abundance of other fruit trees.

I imagine apple trees and cherry trees. And of course, there's got to be a lot of avocado trees,

right? I mean, surely this is paradise. So there's this, among that, there also is an ideal tree of

choice, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So placed there is Adam and Eve in this

perfect relationship with God. Now they have that tree of choice, the tree of knowledge of good and

evil, so that it was a real relationship. So it wasn't fake, but it was desire. This was absolute

paradise. We pick up the story in verse 18. It says, and the Lord God said,

it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.

Now, all throughout chapter one, there's this reoccurring phrase repeated over and over again,

and it was good, and it was good, and it was good. But here God says it is not good.

It is not good that man should be alone. I'm going to make a helper comparable to him. Here's

our principle. God's ideal was not complete until he created women. At 8 a.m., my wife said,

amen. Didn't expect that. Threw me off for a moment. God creates this ideal world with an ideal garden

and an ideal man, but something was missing. So as we'll see here in just a moment, God made the

woman, which was his final act of creation. The woman was like the icing on the cake, the cherry

on top. You know, God saved his best for last, or certainly his most complex for last. Right, guys?

All seriousness, ladies, I hope you can appreciate what God is actually saying here.

He's saying, something was really missing in my creation, so I'm going to fix it, and I'm going to create a woman.

Verse number 19.

Out of the ground,

he did so with the animals as well.

But notice, he did not breathe the spirit of life into the animals like he did mankind,

because mankind is different.

We are created in the image of God.

So God brings each one of these animals.

He brings them to Adam, and Adam names them, which indicates his authority over the animal

kingdom.

Verse number 20.

So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every

beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. So God brings

all the animals to Adam, and Adam is naming them. And as he's naming them, he realizes that none of

these animals are quite like him. There's no one comparable to me. Now, I don't know

if Adam was experiencing loneliness at this point. I'm not sure I would say that because God was his

companion, but there was a sense in which Adam didn't feel like things were quite complete. He

wanted a companion to share life with who was like him and could help him. Here's our principle. God created women

because men need help. Now, I intended that to be funny, but the truth is it's true,

specifically within the confines of a marriage. You see, Adam was given a very big job to have

dominion over the earth, to rule over it. And he needed a wife, a lifelong

companion to help him with his job. Now the word helper almost sounds demeaning to us. In our minds,

we start thinking, well, does that mean that the men do all the real work and that women are only

left to, you know, clean up after us? But that's not what this word means. The Hebrew word here is ezer. In the Old Testament,

ezer was most oftenly referred to God. The Bible says, the Lord is my helper, my ezer. You see,

a helper is someone who supplies strength in an area that's lacking. So ladies, those of you who are wives, do you help supply strength

to your husband? Do you help make him a stronger Christian? Are you tearing him down or are you

building him up? God put you in his life to help him. Now, he didn't put you in his life to lead

him, but to come alongside him and help him become the man of God that God wants him to be. Verse number 21,

and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs

and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made

into a woman, and he brought her to the man. So God gave Adam some sort of spiritual anesthesia,

and he opens up Adam's side. Now, we don't know for sure what all he took out, because the Hebrew

word can mean side or rib. Now, Adam later says of her, he says, this is now one bone of my bone

and flesh of my flesh. So I tend to think he took out a rib. And so God takes the

rib out and then finishing his divine surgery, he closes and mends up the flesh. And he takes the rib

and he makes this beautiful woman out of it. Now, why did God create the woman that way? I mean,

why not just make her out of the dust like he did with Adam and the animals. Well, I think it was to make clear that women are of the same essential nature as men.

God said, I'm going to make a helper comparable to Adam, which indicates of the same essence.

Here's our principle.

God created women equal to men in essence.

I think that's what God is making clear here.

In chapter 1, we saw that both men and women

are both created in the image of Almighty God.

So women are not inferior, nor are they superior.

They're just different.

You see the fact that God made the woman from Adam's side,

it indicates they're made of the same stuff.

It's been said that God didn't take from man's head nor from his foot because the

woman is neither to rule over the man nor is the man to oppress the woman. To quote our very own

pastor Matthew, he said, the feminist says that the woman should be out in front. The chauvinist

says the woman should be behind. God says the woman should be alongside, not out in front in domination,

not following behind in denigration, but alongside. I don't think I could say it

any better than that. So God creates the woman. He brings her to Adam, and we see

Adam's response in verse 23. And Adam said, "'This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Now, in Hebrew, this is a beautiful poem.

It's poetry.

Adam sees his soon-to-be bride, and he breaks out in poetry.

And now women have been expecting poetry from men ever since.

But ladies, Adam was the perfect guy.

So give your man a break if he's not a poet and he knows it, okay?

King Matthew, as he's commentating in his commentary on the book of Genesis,

he says that this could read,

this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

So I'm going to paraphrase this to say, wow, wow.

Here's our principle.

God created women different than men in the best ways possible.

There was something different about Eve that Adam absolutely loved when he saw her.

God made us all different.

And those differences are actually a very good

thing. They should be celebrated. We see here that gender is actually assigned to us by God,

so that if we live contrary to our gender, we're fighting our created purpose, which is always

going to lead to insecurity within our life. It's going to lead to a lot of problems. We saw the distinction of

genders in chapter 1, verse 27. It says, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God,

he created him male and female. He created them. So both men and women were both created in the

image of Almighty God so that if you're a woman, you are to image God as a woman. And if

you're a man, you're to image God as a man. Collectively, we image God. Now, in verse 24,

Adam stops talking and God starts talking. We read, God says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,

and they shall become one flesh. This is speaking of marriage. Here's the principle. God created

the beautiful gift of marriage, and it's actually for our good. Marriage is a gift from God. And we

see here that marriage is actually defined not by the government,

it's defined by God. We see that it's when one man and one woman leave their mom and dad,

and they join themselves together in such a way they become one for life. Jesus said,

what God has joined together, let no man separate. So in marriage, God takes one man and one woman,

and he merges them together in such a way

they're now one entity joined together.

It's like welding.

If you take one piece of metal

and you weld it to a second piece of metal,

you now have one piece of metal.

They've been welded together.

When Kelsey and I were welded together by God,

we ceased being our own separate people, and we collectively became one. Now, it's not that we

lost our individual identity or personhood, but our identity and personhood was forever enhanced

and completed by one another. Now, I preached an entire message back in May on Genesis 2,

Genesis 2:24

verse 24. So I'd encourage you, if you want to take a listen and you didn't hear that,

you can go to our website or YouTube and you can take a listen.

But let me summarize this verse very quickly by pointing out three verbs.

Leave, be joined, and become.

Old-time preachers used to say leave, cleave, and weave.

When a young couple gets married, the very first thing they

must do is leave their mom and dad, which means that they sever that relationship as being their

primary relationship. Mom and dad now play second fiddle. You see, there must be a relational

distancing that takes place because a new family is being formed. Sometimes people will

say when their son is getting married, well, we're adding a new daughter to our family. And that's

true in one sense, and praise God for healthy extended families, but in another sense, you're

not adding a daughter, you're losing a son. He's leaving your family and joining himself to his wife to form a new family unit. Now, it also

says that he is to be joined to his wife. The old King James says to cleave to her, which means and

speaks of commitment, right? It's the idea of being all in. You're all in. All your cards on the table

to use a gambling term, which I probably shouldn't do while I'm preaching.

But, you know, you're just committed, right?

That you've got a tight grip on your spouse.

You're not going to let go.

I think we've got to have this gorilla grip of love

upon the person we're married to.

My papa used to say, you know,

son, if your mammy ever leaves you,

or leaves me rather, I'm going with her.

And that's a pretty good motto, right?

See, marriage is this lifelong commitment of unconditional love.

Now, the last verb is the word become.

It speaks of when he says the two shall become one flesh, the marriage union.

When a man and a woman, they become one.

It speaks of certainly physical union,

but not just physical. I believe a couple, married couple has to learn to be one physically,

emotionally, spiritually, and many other ways. So marriage involves leaving, cleaving, and then

weaving. Leave mom and dad behind, cleave to each other in commitment and then weave your lives together to become one.

Now, for those of you women who are not only women, but you also are wives, I want to give

you just a few truths to hold on to from our passage.

Number one is this.

As a wife, you are comparable to your husband.

That's what God said.

I'm going to make a helper comparable to you. You're not less than your husband. That's what God said. I'm going to make a helper comparable to you.

You're not less than your husband. Together, you form a team. Now, you play different positions

on the team. Scripture teaches that the husband is to be the head of the home. He's to provide

spiritual leadership. Now, that's for the sake of the team, for the family, for the good of it.

There can only be one quarterback on the team, one quarterback on the field at a time, one leader.

But you're comparable in such a way that you both play critical positions on the team vital for success.

We're both created in the image of God.

Now, secondly, as a wife, you're compatible with your husband. You and your husband were made for each other,

meaning you're compatible. Now, a lot of people will get divorced and they'll blame it on what

is called irreconcilable differences. And what they're really saying is we're no longer compatible.

But that's not true. You are compatible in the way that God made you. Now, whenever you're tempted

to believe that, you just reject that lie. The devil would love for you to think that there's

just nothing you could possibly do to fix your marriage problems because you're incompatible.

Listen, the only thing that makes you incompatible is sin. That's the only thing, because sin causes division. In chapter 2,

Adam breaks out here in poetry about his wife, but we're going to see in Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

when sin enters the world, he immediately throws her under the bus. That woman that you gave me,

she made me do it, right? Now, let me say very quickly, and we need to move on. Whatever

problems that you may have in your marriage, I can guarantee you sin is at the root of that problem.

Because that's what sin does. It divides. It drives a wedge between people so that when we're

supposed to be selfless, we're selfish. When we're supposed to be focused on giving, we're focused on receiving. When we're supposed to be focused on encouraging, we sometimes are demeaning. But if you have

problems within your marriage, I'm not saying you don't need counseling. You might need that.

But I'm saying that at the core of your problem lies sin. So if you're listening today and you feel like you're not compatible with your spouse,

here's what you do. You reject that as a lie because it's not true. Then you start looking

and identifying sin. Not in your spouse, right? Don't point out their sin. You start with yourself.

Where's the sin of my own heart? Where am I being selfish? Where am I focused on

me rather than focused on their good and what they need? You can't control your spouse. You can only

control you. You build up that relationship and then you see God work. Now, here's another thing

that we learn. As a wife, you're a compliment to your husband. Now, that is not a demeaning thing. That's a beautiful, beautiful

truth. The New Testament says the wife is the glory of her husband. And if you're a husband

and you have a wife, you know she has this wonderful potential to be your glory. That's a

beautiful, beautiful thing within God's created order. Ladies, did you know that God wants you to

be a perfect complement to your husband? And most of the time, that results in you being different

from your husband. And that's okay. That's a good thing. We know that opposites tend to attract,

but the differences that often attract us to each other before we get married later can irritate us after we get married.

My dad used to say that marriage is like God's heavenly sandpaper.

You know, if you take two pieces of sandpaper and you rub them together,

eventually the rough edges are smoothed out.

So as a married couple, you just need to pursue the Lord together.

If you remain married and you pursue

him together, all those rough edges over time, God's going to use your marriage as a tool in his

hands to rub off those rough edges of our life so we're smoothed out and we look more like Jesus.

Now here's the last thing for you ladies. As a wife, you are a lifelong companion with your husband.

Jesus said, what God's joined together, let no man separate.

So our marriage is to be for a lifetime.

But a lifetime of what?

A lifetime of companionship.

Kelsey's my best friend in all the world.

And I praise God that I've got some other really good friends,

but none of them take a close second to her.

She is my best friend.

God said it's not good for man to be alone.

And guys, I found that to be true.

I don't do very well when Kelsey's out of town.

It's not good for man to be alone.

Now, God did give some within his

church the gift of celibacy. So God's plan is not for everyone to get married. But I have also found

that gift seems to be limited. So for most men, it's not good to be alone. We need this companion

to share our life with. And guys, did you know that your wife, she desperately needs you to be her companion

as well? Now, here's what many people don't realize when they get married. The dynamics of

your companionship are actually going to change a lot over time. The person that Kelsey married

over 21 years ago is not the person that she's married to today and vice versa. We change, don't we? We grow.

Sometimes we grow stronger in areas. Sometimes we grow weaker in areas. And so we've got to adapt,

right, with our companions so that we remain one through all the transitions of life, all the ups

and all of the downs. Now, there's one more point I want to make about verse 24,

and it's that God gave us the gift of marriage as part of our mandate to multiply and have dominion

over the earth. When God says, and the two shall become one flesh, many believe this is talking

about having a baby, that God uses the husband and the wife and their sexual union to make another flesh and blood person, another eternal soul

made in the image of God. Now, do you realize what the very first command in the Bible is?

We skimmed over in chapter one, it's be fruitful and multiply. That's the first command, be fruitful

and multiply. Did you know that kids are a wonderful blessing from the Lord? As Christians,

we're pro-kids and we're pro-life because God is pro-kids and pro-life. Now, let me be clear. Here's

the order because you might be a new believer and our coaster has it all out of whack. The order is

get married, move in together, make love, then have kids, train them up in the way that they should go, and then you

send them out of your house, out into the world to have dominion over it as well, and if they're

Christians, to be witnesses to it. That's the order God gives. That's the order God blesses

most. Now, the chapter ends in verse 25. It says, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

And that's very significant because that changes in the very next chapter.

After Adam and Eve sinned against God, they run and they hide and they cover themselves up with leaves.

Why? Because now they were ashamed.

They were guilty, and they stood

insecure before the Lord. I think that shame came upon them from a deep sense of feeling inadequate

before God, feeling unworthy to be in God's presence, but that is not how God created them.

God created them to be perfectly secure before them and each other,

naked and exposed, but at peace with God and each other.

You see, before sin, Adam and Eve were fully known and fully loved,

and they knew it.

But whenever they sinned, they were still fully known by God,

and they were still fully loved by God, but they didn't know it.

And so they ran, and they tried to hide from God. I wonder if some of you find yourself in that same condition today.

You've sinned, and you know it. You've sinned, and now you feel shame. Maybe you tried to hide

your sin from God and others by either blowing it off as no big deal or not speaking of it,

but it's eating you up inside. You know about about it you know the darkness of your own heart and your own thoughts and now you

feel inadequate to be in the presence of God you feel unworthy to be in the presence of God you

feel shame and because of that you're trying to hide from the Lord and run from him, ignoring him. But today, maybe something is a little bit different.

Today, just maybe you're hearing the still, small voice

of your maker, of God, speaking to your heart,

letting you know that he sees you, yes, in all of your sin,

but he still loves you.

He still loves you.

Now, if that's the case and you sense that and you hear

that still small voice in your heart, I've got some wonderful news for you because Jesus came

and he died on the cross to pay for our sins and to take away our shame and our guilt. And instead,

we're given peace and eternal life. You see, God told Adam and Eve, in the day that you

sin and rebel against me, you shall surely die. That's exactly what happened. They died physically,

but they also died spiritually. Now, death fundamentally is separation. When we die

physically, our body dies. Our spirit is separated from our body. We're no longer connected. When our

spirit dies, though, our spirit is separated from the spirit of God.

We are dead spiritually, no longer connected in a relationship.

And that's what happened to Adam and Eve.

That's why they felt shame.

They knew something was wrong between them and God.

And that happens to all of us in our sin.

But the story of the Bible is how God is going to fix our death problem

and our shame problem and give us life. But in order to do that, God had to deal with the root

problem. And the root problem was not death. The root problem was not shame. The root problem was sin. The Bible says that there is no remission

of sins without the shedding of blood. Now, we're going to see in the next chapter

that the first blood that was shed was actually shed by God. After Adam and Eve sinned, God sacrificed the first animal, which

was the first death. He sacrificed the animal, perhaps a bull, perhaps a goat, maybe a little

lamb. And God made tunic skins and covered Adam and Eve's nakedness and covered their shame.

A foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus would make once and for all for our sins

to be a covering for us as well. Hebrews chapter 10 verse number 4 says,

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. You see, all the

sacrifices of the Old Testament were pointing forward to one final sacrifice, God's Son, Jesus.

So today, if you have never received Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, and John said in chapter 1,

as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God.

If you have not become a child of God through receiving Jesus and you feel shame instead,

you don't feel like you're worthy in God's presence, that's because you are.

We all are without Jesus.

Jesus came into this world to make us worthy again to be in God's presence

so that we now could have a living, vibrant relationship with God.

Just like Adam and Eve will see that they're walking with God in the garden with perfect communion.

We now can walk with God because of what Jesus did.

The New Testament says that Jesus accomplished this by enduring the shame of the cross. And it says that anyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, but instead will be given everlasting life.

So please know, you don't have to run from God anymore.

You don't have to try to hide.

By the way, you can't hide from God.

We try.

You don't have to try to hide from God.

You just need to own it. Here I am. Here's my sin, Lord. Would you take it away from me?

Would you pay for it? Would you take away my guilt and my shame so I can draw close to you?

I want to end with Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14.

Hebrews 4:14

It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest, that's Jesus,

who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,

but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us, and listen closely,

let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,

that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Amen?

Let's bow together in an attitude of prayer,

both here and at Olive Drive.

This is a holy moment in the life of a church.

It's not necessarily a formal moment, though. In just a moment, I'm going to pray. And after I pray,

we're going to stand to our feet. There's going to be some pastors and other leaders

scattered here at the front, and we're going to ask you to give your heart and your life to Jesus Jesus today. The truth is that God loves you. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he

gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

I want to invite you to experience that everlasting life. It can start today.

Jesus said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly. He wants you to experience that everlasting life. It can start today. Jesus said, I came to give you life and life more abundantly.

He wants you to experience life like you've never experienced it before.

And it's only through a connection to God.

And that connection to God is only made through Jesus, His Son.

So I want to invite you to place your faith and trust in Him

as we stand in just a moment after I pray.

We're going to ask that you move as God moves.

Only as God moves.

Maybe you need to walk down one of these aisles or walk down one of these staircases and take one of these leaders by the hand and say, it's time.

It's time.

I heard the still, small voice of God.

I need to be forgiven.

I need a real, vibrant relationship with God.

I want to trust Jesus as my Savior.

They'll know exactly how to help you.

When you say, I'd like to be baptized and go public with my faith like others today,

or I'd like to join this church family and become an official family

member here at Valley Baptist, we'd love to have you just come, and we'd like to visit with you.

Maybe you don't really need to talk with a pastor at all. You just need to talk with a master.

These steps are open at both of our campuses for you just to come and do business with God. Maybe

you want to pray something for yourself. Maybe you want to pray as a family. Maybe you want to pray for

our country. However God leads in just a moment, let's do business with him. Let's say yes

to God. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in a great time of need. Lord, collectively for our country, we recognize that we seem to be at such a critical tipping

point.

There's so much division and so many points of conflict and disagreement.

We see things differently.

Lord, would you unite us through your son, Jesus?

You, Lord, are the way to bring us back together again.

So we're asking, Lord, that you would do that.

Lord, I thank you for the great privilege it is to know you.

To know you is to love you.

Father, I pray that others would get to experience that today,

that they would not be so distracted by all of the evil in our world, but Lord, that among it, among the darkness, there would be this bright shining light that is Jesus.

Draw them, please, Lord, to that light. Draw them to your son, Jesus, today.

Please do that which no one else can do but your spirit.

Do a work in us, we ask in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen.

Thanks for listening today.

We hope you enjoyed this message.

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