Transcript for:
Genesis 2:1-14
Found the transcript but need the audio? View Episode
Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. We welcome you tonight. We're studying Genesis chapter two and gonna have a time of worship right now and gonna pray for a few folks. So, welcome. Father, we come before you lord and we lift up Mark Dinsmore and we pray you help him get healed of that E coli and any other infections, things going on in his body and help Shelly also with the pain of her back and all. Be with Shannon Goodson, be with Betty, be with Judy Bauman, and help them with their colds and all. And Eddie been wrestling with one and Lord be with Steve Wilcox with his throat and Christy with her throat and help them tonight as they watch from home. Crazy weather and Lord we just ask that you bring your healing touch upon their bodies and anybody else that's feeling sick. Lord, we pray. We lift up to you and ask you to touch their bodies and heal them. And bless this time as we study your word and as we fellowship, as we pray, and thank you for the nice meal that we had we commit this night into your hands lord in Jesus name amen Alright. Thank you, Rob. Alright, Genesis chapter two. Genesis two. Father, please teach us tonight. Lord, be our teacher. Open the scriptures to our understanding. Lord, help us to have this foundation in the book of beginnings in regard to creation as everything stems from you as our creator and the sending of your son as our redeemer and you're coming again lord completing that work that you've begun in us lord as the last Adam. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright. So, in chapter one, it says in verse 31, god saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. In the evening and the morning were the sixth day. So, if we ask the question all, how many days or how long is a day? We're going to say six twenty four hour days And Exodus twenty eleven reiterates, confirms that in six days, he made everything that is made. There's no evolution. There's no getting it started than it evolving. He's very satisfied. He's so satisfied and so contented with what he's made. It's very good that he's going to rest. He's going to rest the seventh day. The seventh day is Saturday and it's the Jewish calendar from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown is the Shabbat or the Sabbath rest and there's no implementing this rest upon the Jews yet because the Jewish nation isn't even formed. Later on in Exodus thirty one seventeen, god is by the law is going to tell the nation of Israel that it's a sign unto them and for them to observe the Sabbath rest. Jesus said, man was not made for the Sabbath but Sabbath for man. So, it's a gift of god to man as he works six days. He gets to rest the seventh day and the church incorporated the first day of the week which is Sunday as a as a day of gathering together for worship. One man esteems one day above another. Another man everyday alike. So, we as we experience Christ as our rest, we can worship the lord each and every day. We're not limited by a Sabbath, you know, Friday to Friday at sunset to, you know, Saturday at sunset nor are we limited to Sunday, the first day of the week. We can experience and enjoy the rest that Jesus makes available to us because Jesus is our Shabbat. He is our Sabbath rest. So, thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and then now he comes with a summary. So, part of the Hebrewic means of communicating and writing, they would come out with a summary statement and then they would provide further details at a at another point. So, we're going to see the further details in chapter two here of what was taking place in chapter one and especially like in regard to man. Man man and woman being created but in chapter two we'll see that Adam was created first then Eve and we're going to get far more details in regard to the summary statements. So and on the seventh day, god, Elohim, the plurality of the godhead, ended his work which he had made and he rested. Now he's not resting because he's tired. It's impossible for God to be tired, right? And yet I say that loosely, right? Because Jesus in John four in his humanity as the God man, he was tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. Jesus experienced the human frailty of being tabernacled of in the form of a man. So, in John four, he came to Jacob's well. He was weary and he was thirsty. So he's acquainted with our infirmity. He he having this human body, he knows what it is for this human body to be tired and needing sleep and to be weary from a busy schedule of ministry and physiologically you know being thirsty and fasting for forty days and being hungry and the devil trying to take advantage of that. If you be the son of God command that these stones be made bread you know. So he's appealing to his human craving for food at that point after forty days. But in this case Elohim the plurality of the Godhead not tired in regard to the six days of working of creation. And he rested on the seventh day from all of his work which he had made. So he's contented is what this means. And and basically we would say upon the cross of Calvary Jesus said it is finished. And Jesus rested from his work of redemption. So we see Elohim God the father God the son God the holy spirit resting in the work of creation it's complete we see Jesus declaring to talistai it is finished paid in full on the cross of Calvary so there's there's no more work of creation. There's no more work of redemption. Now later there's a new heaven and new earth. We've studied about that in in Revelation twenty twenty one and twenty two we saw a new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem and we see in the millennium Revelation 20 that the earth would be sort of recreated or restored after the events of the seven year tribulation period the cataclysmic events that came against it and so he's contented there. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work which he had made and god blessed the seventh day and sanctify. The word sanctify means it's set apart. It's a special day. And so separated but also lifted up. Lifted up above the other days. It because in it he had rested from all of his work which God created and made and so from verse four on we're gonna get further details of four through 25 about the creation of man now let's look at this rest because we have a lot of people debate in regard to the Sabbath. Are we as Christians instructed in the Bible that we have to keep the Sabbath? Now remember the law isn't even here yet. This is a principle of creation and god's rest on the seventh day. Later, in Exodus, somebody wanna read Exodus thirty one seventeen? The Lord gave it to the nation of Israel as a sign to the nation of Israel. Circumcision is a sign that God gave to the Jewish man, to the Jewish people. And so as the church we're not the nation of Israel and we're not obligated to keep the Sabbath and we saw over and over and over again the pharisees trying to force Jesus into observance of the Sabbath and and the religious leaders added a lot of rules and regs to the Sabbath and they were they were breaking it down. They're making man a slave to the Sabbath and Jesus said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. This is intended to be a blessing to man that he'd have a day of rest, a day out of the ordinary, a day away from the six days of working, and a time for the family to gather together and to focus upon the Lord and the whole thing. And yet you can do that every day. You should be focused upon the lord but but they made it so obligatory, so regulated that they took the sweetness out of it and Jesus was not adhering to their traditions, the traditions that the so called experts added in regard to the Sabbath. So he'd asked point blank question, is it law legal to do good on the Sabbath or evil? And which of you if you had a a donkey fall into the ditch, wouldn't you go over there and help the donkey out of the ditch, you know? And so they're angry at him because he healed somebody on the Sabbath, you know? Because he helped a blind man to see or a layman to walk and oh, you're not allowed to work on the Sabbath, you know, and they they misconstrued and looked at that as working. And so he was trying to illustrate to them as we spoke of last week that man is above. Men's above all the animals and all. And so the Sabbath, the Shabbat is a is a blessing to man. But if you put a huge burden upon man, that's why Jesus said Matthew eleven twenty eight through 30, come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me from meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So Jesus fulfilled the law. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. We're gonna look at that in in Hebrews chapter four in a minute here but Shannon should be ready with Exodus thirty one seventeen. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth. And on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed. There you go. So the assigned to the nation of Israel, the church is not Israel. Nowhere do we see Jesus nor the apostle Paul or any of the disciples commanding that the church observe the Sabbath. The church met on the first day of the week and other days of the week. Jesus raised himself from the dead the first day of the week, so that's the one adopted by the church, the church being Jewish and Gentile. Also the the sign of circumcision that God gave to the household of Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the law and which was a means of separating a Jewish people from the rest of the Gentiles, rest of the world to be a new a unique people that God will bring forth the Messiah thereof. And so the cutting away to the foreskin, the real circumcision is circumcision of the heart cutting away the foreskin of the heart where you're separated under God where you belong to the Lord and God's going to cause you to be a progenitor. He's going to cause your life to be fruitful for his kingdom and his glory. And so the true Israel of God are those who believe not those who are just a part of the natural posterity. So, we recognize that the Pharisees, a lot of the religious leaders went through the motions of keeping the Mosaic Law and Jesus said in Matthew five verse 20, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you'll know why I sent into the kingdom of god. The disciples response was, you know, well, who can be saved then? And and so Jesus was illustrating that the law deals with more of the external. It deals with heart. So Jesus was pointing out later in Matthew 23 that they were like whitewashed sepulchers they clean the outside but inside they were full of corruption full of dead men's bones. So he illustrated that the law, the intention of law was to stop every mouth and make every person guilty, not to try and find a way to be righteous by the keeping of the law, the 613 precepts of the law. So the law's intention was to point every man to Christ, that Christ is the fulfillment of the law. And and so Jesus said, if you are angry with your brother, you've already committed murder, you're already guilty. If you're lusting after a man or a woman you've already committed murder now you already committed adultery. So the intention of the law the law would judge even the heart the heart of man, the intention of man. Paul Paul saw himself as a Pharisee of Pharisees concerning the law. He saw himself as blameless until he found out the internal aspects of the law of that of coveting that he was guilty of coveting and and so he was he was busted. He was undone and that's the intention of law is to stop boasting, to stop every mouth, to bring everybody to the place where in Luke 18, the Pharisees standing, he's praying with himself. I thank you that I'm not like all these other wretches. You know, I tithe, I fast, I do all this, you know, each week and and the the publican, the tax collector wouldn't as much as even lift up his eyes to heaven but smote his breast, kept his head down, smote his breast, and said, god, be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said, this man went away justified. The one that appealed to god, cried out to god, and whereas the Pharisee only prayed with himself. His prayer didn't even leave the ceiling of the room. So a sign under the nation of Israel later on in the book of Exodus. And so at this point, there's an establishment of of creation, the pattern of creation. So, there's a rest available that we see on the seventh day that god's making available. So, there's a physical rest, a principle of resting you know, on Saturdays and for a pastor, Saturday and Sunday maybe the two busiest weeks of busiest days of the week, you know? So, it's all a matter of for us. It's a matter of deciding, finding in that principle of rest that there's at least one day a week that we go away from the norm. The norm of six days of what we do six days and on the seventh day somewhere in there. Now you may be driving truck and you may be not be able to attend church on Sundays and you might have Tuesdays off, you might have evenings off, you work in graveyard. The principle here is you just find a day each week where you can recharge your batteries. Your spiritual batteries, emotional batteries, physical batteries, and and just a caution a caution of of we're so or a lot of us we just don't have much time to work to get things done and so we go to church on Sunday and and we're just waiting to run to Costco and catch up on all the groceries we gotta buy and get everything going and run all of our errands on Sunday and all that because a lot of you are busy. You're working six days a week. And so you're trying as best you can to take set a day aside where you feel like you're doing nothing. It's hard to feel that way. But you're not doing I mean, you're that's the whole point is to rest and and set aside some time to pray, some time to read, some time to have family, to have a meal together, to maybe play around in your garden maybe. It's just basically taking you out of the stressful, mundane generating of money and responsibility responsibilities that you have and just have a day where where you can rest. And maybe resting for use running five miles in the morning and that's that takes away a lot of the stress out of your life. Headphones in, listening to God's word, take a bike ride, take a walk. It doesn't mean that you have to just stay at home and not do anything. That's what was misinterpreted by the Jews in the time of Christ and so they had all these different things. You can go 50 feet and when you go 50 feet, you can go 50 more and you know, they had all these things away so that they circumvented the law. Alright. So, let's look at Hebrews chapter four Hebrews chapter four and we're going to look at Colossians two sixteen and seventeen and Galatians four nine through 11. So first we're gonna go to let's go to Colossians two sixteen. Let no man therefore judge you. So, verse 15 says, having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them so at the cross. Let no man therefore judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a feast day or of the new moon or of a Sabbath day. You're the church. You're not the nation of Israel. You're not under the law. Which are a shadow. So watch this. God intended for all of the Old Testament. These laws, these these festivals, these feast days, the food, the drink, all of it to be a shadow of pointing to Christ. In the substance, you got a shadow and you got substance, the real deal. Once the real comes on the scene, then the shadow fades away, right? Which is a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. So, Christ is your Sabbath rest and he's the focal point, the central figure of all the feast nation of Israel that you're doing. When you do a Passover and you have a lamb that you prepare, if you don't understand that lamb is Jesus, you're just you're just religious. You don't get the meaning. You know, you know, you're it's pointing future as John the Baptist said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. When you're doing the great day of atonement of Yom Kippur and they've got two goats there and the priest takes one of the goats and cuts its throat and takes some of the the blood and and brings it into the mercy seat in the holy of holies and sprinkles that blood there. That's a picture of of the blood of Christ sanctifying and sprinkling and then the other goat is what's called a scapegoat and that goat would be sent out into the wilderness. So, it's a it's a picture of forgiveness and so the priest, high priest would confess all the sins of the people over the one goat and and sacrifice his goat and then this other goat would be sent out into the wilderness which is an illustration of taking the sin and sending it away from the sinner and so that's a picture of of forgiveness and and if you're not born again, the natural man understands not the things of god neither can he know them. Eyes not seen nor ear heard neither has it entered in the heart of man the things which god has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. So once we're born again the dots start connecting and we start to see Christ in the Sabbath. We see Christ in the Passover. We see Christ all through the Bible. The volume the book is written of him. He's the key to opening your understanding. So when we look at the Sabbath if we're looking at it just in the you know, the the seventh day and we don't see the further teaching that god wants to draw out of it on into the future, then we're going to miss we're gonna miss the greater the greater meaning and miss out on what God has for us. So Galatians four eight through 11. Nevertheless, then we that knew not god, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods, the idolatry. But now so in the past you were idolaters. But now after you have known God or rather are known by God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements under which ye desire again to be in bondage. So what was happening the church of Galatia was going back into the law and they were they were being coerced by the Judaizers. The Judaizers are Jews that are trying to force Christians into the law and so Paul is trying to show them how elementary that is. Your understanding needs to be greater. Why would you go back to bondage when Christ has come to set you free? You observe days and months and times and years. I'm afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. And so you know people, you know religious groups, and the trend of the young people today is to go into Catholicism because of the rituals, because of all the rules and the regs and the how it provides some sort of security that they feel religious, feel you know full and but in John four Jesus talking the woman at the well woman of Samaria you know he told her God desires a people that will worship him in spirit and in truth not just the ritual not just external but the internal circumcision of the heart He said, afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. You have not injured me at all. You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the verse. And my trial which was in my flesh, you despise not receive not but receive it as an angel of god even as Christ Jesus. So, Paul's talking about they loved on him when his eyes were oozing and he was had had infirmity of the flesh and so he says in verse two of chapter five, behold I Paul saying to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing and that notice what he says here. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that you're a debtor to the whole law. So if you're trying to go to the letter of the law to circumcision, a Gentile being circumcised for the point of, oh, I'm a Jew now, then you're gonna have to keep the whole law. All 613 precepts. James says if you fill all the law and miss at one point you're guilty of all. So he's trying to show the the freedom, the liberty that we have because Christ fulfilled the law and that we're not under the law. So, don't live. Don't say, hey, I'm saved and then now, I'm going to keep the law. A lot of people say, hey, I'm saved. I'm a Christian and now, I'm going to try and you know, gain a standing with god, gain favor with god by keeping the law. We see the 10 commandments in the the New Testament and obviously if we love God we're not gonna murder. We're not gonna lie. We're gonna cheat. Not gonna steal. Not gonna admit it, you know, fornication all that. We're living according to love not the law. The letter of the law kills but the spirit gives life. The laws of guide, the laws of guide, the law Paul told Timothy the laws for the lawless. It's for people that don't have a heart for God. We live on a higher plane, the spiritual plane of I don't want to do those things. It's not how much sinning can I do before I get in trouble? How close to the fence can I live? No, we don't want to even live near the fence. We don't want to be a fence sitter. We want to seek the lord with everything we got to love him with all of our heart, all of our mind, our soul, our strength, love our neighbor as ourself, and and these two, all the laws fulfilled and in Romans, Paul said, love is the fulfillment of the law. The power of the Holy Spirit helps us to to love and and so, you don't want to fall back into the law because you will you know, you're gonna crucify Christ afresh? You're gonna crucify him again? So Hebrews four. Hebrews chapter four k. Four verse one. Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering actually, I wanna back it up. I wanna back it up to chapter three. Wherefore as the Holy Spirit say it today if you will hear his voice, harden harden not your heart as in the provocation of the day of trial in the wilderness. When your fathers put me to the test, prove me and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always air in their heart and have not known my ways. So, I swore my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest. They didn't enter into the rest that's available because of unbelief. And the children speaking of the children of Israel. So the occasion of the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews written to Jews that have become Christians but are now going back into Judaism so as to avoid persecution. The Jews were persecuting Christians for not being circumcised, keeping the Sabbath, not keeping the law. So many of the Jews were reverting back and they had a council in Acts chapter 15 when Barnabas and and Paul you know went to Jerusalem to meet up with James the brother of our Lord and with Peter and the contention was that should the Gentiles be circumcised? Again circumcision is symbolic of keeping the law. And so Peter chimed in why should we put a burden upon the Gentiles that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? The burden is the burden of the law. And so at the council the consensus was that you know you're saved by grace through faith and so they said for the purpose of fellowship not the purpose of you know keeping the law for the purpose of fellowship with a Gentile being with a Jew because Jews were instructed not even eat with Gentiles and Gentiles the Jews were taught that Gentiles were simply created as fuel for the fires of hell and that they were dogs. Well now all kinds of Gentiles are getting saved and Jews are saved and there are one group now called the church which was a mystery once had now revealed and they didn't know what to do with them. So in Acts 15 at the council they concluded the the leadership that just tell the tell the Gentiles they don't have to be circumcised but to restrain from eating meat that's being sacrificed unto idols or hasn't been properly bled because if you're in a group of people with Jews and Gentiles and they see the Gentiles eating this real bloody meat and all, That's an offense to the Jews since can hinder fellowship and also tell them to refrain from fornication. Apparently, they were prolific fornicators and and so tell them not to stumble Jews by doing that, you know. So they they they didn't impose the law upon them. In this case here, the writers reaching back to the children of Israel that failed to enter into the promised land and spent forty years going in a circle because of unbelief. It was that unbelief not seeing Jesus that they couldn't experience the rest that god made available for those who believe. So, I swore my wrath that they would not enter my rest. Take heed, brother unless there in any of you be an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. So you start out okay trusting in Christ but now you're sliding back into the keeping of the law. And that's always tragic when we see somebody that, hey, I'm born again. They start out with us and then they kind of get sucked into the cults that knock on the door and try to bring them into a cult relationship of keeping the law. The cults like to prey upon young believers before they get grounded in the faith. So, departing from the living god but exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For you are made partakers of Christ, we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation as in the children of Israel that harden their hearts against god. For who which when they had heard and provoked did not all that came out of Egypt by Moses but with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? So the 12 spies went in, 10 came back with an unbelieving report. Caleb and Joshua, let's go. The 10 with the unbelieving report, they were lying and all. Their unbelief permeated the hearts of the other people, the rest of the people, and then the people were unwilling to walk by faith and continue to go and, you know take the land. And so all those that were 20 years and older would perish in the wilderness over the next forty years. The children that they accused God of bringing them out there to destroy, they would survive and they would be a generation that goes in and Caleb because he believed and Joshua because he believed would lead them in to the promised land generation later. So it grieved God's heart because of their unbelief and this is what we call quenching the Holy Spirit, grieving the Holy Spirit. We hinder the moving and working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our churches through unbelief. When we don't believe the lord, when we don't trust him. So, whom he swore that they should not enter into his rest to them that believe not. So, we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore, so take that as a lesson that therefore pointing back, let us do something better than that. Let us therefore fear, lest they promise be left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith. In them that heard it. For we who have believed do enter into rest as he said as I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So the works are all done. You got the seven day of Sabbath rest. God's illustrated and Jesus lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. And there's a couple of Hebrew Greek different words here. Katapossus is rest of sleep, refreshment for the weary, and an aspect of that rest that's available. For he who spoke a certain place of the seventh day in this way and god did rest the seventh day. So, there is a rest. There's a rest for a person who believes and that rest is Katapuo. It's a cessation of work. It's a you don't need to work anymore by keeping the law to try and gain your salvation. You can rest now in the finished work of god and the the work of creations and illustration of finished cessation of work of completion and it is finished. The taliside paid in full as Jesus said is a different type of rest. The rest of salvation. The spiritual rest that you experience by trusting in his finished work. So, in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remains that some must enter into it and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again he limits a certain day saying in David today after such a long time as it is said today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest then would he not afterwards spoken of another day. So this other day is in David when Christ comes. The rest that's coming is through the loins of David. Joshua is a type of Christ leading them into the promised land but the rest that's spoken here is the rest of of our Jesus name is Joshua in the Hebrew and so Joshua and Caleb, the Joshua of of the Exodus and who led the children of Israel in the promised land. Moses being a type of law couldn't lead the people in. Joshua being a type of Christ was able to lead the people in but a shadow again pointing future to one day the true Jesus, the true Yeshua. His name means god is salvation that he would lead them into this relationship with god. There remains therefore a rest and this is the Greek words Sabatimos. So, we had three different words. Rest of sleep. We had cessation of work, and Satamos seven times found here. And there remains therefore a rest of the people of God for he that has entered into his rest he has ceased from his own work as God did from his. So, seven times we're going to see this. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man should fall after the same example of unbelief. So, labor in the sense of pursue. Pursue the rest that god makes available be diligent if you will. For the word of god is living and powerful and sharpen any truth, the sword, piercing even the dividing in the center of soul and spirit and joint marrow and is a discern of thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open before the eyes with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into heaven. Jesus, the son of god. Let us hold fast our profession. So, there's warnings to the book of Hebrews of falling back. Chapter 10, god takes no pleasure, you know, and those that draw back and then chapter 11, the emphasis upon by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. All the examples of those who please god according to Hebrews eleven six impossible to please God if you don't have faith. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities but in all points tempted like as we are and yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under his throne of grace that we may have attained mercy, find grace to help in time of need. Now turn to Matthew eleven twenty eight. So the the religious leaders are putting a burden of the law upon the people, huge burden of the law. And the intention of the law was to drive people to Christ. And they were obscuring Christ. They weren't agreeing and embracing Jesus as the Messiah. So Jesus is looking on the people as sheep having no shepherd. And his heart was going out to them. He was grieved in in in his spirit that they were so burdened. They were not experiencing the rest that was available and so Jesus says, come on to me not a purpose driven life book or a program. Men always have programs but our god, our salvation is a person. The person Jesus Christ. Come on to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. So you're carrying a burden. You're carrying a burden of trying to keep the law and the law produces guilt. You've got a huge burden of guilt and you're being condemned by the wicked one. So come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. So yoke, the carpenter of Nazareth, he was known for fashioning out of wood, a yoke that would yoke up, you know, two ox without chafing the neck. So he's saying, you be yoked to me. You be connected to me and take my yoke upon you and learn of me. So we as Christians we need to get to know God. God wants us to know him. Experiential knowledge getting to experience his love and not just from afar not just intellectual knowledge, although we're students of God's word, we're men and women of his word. But in study of his word, we're asking God to reveal himself to us, to get to know him. And Excuse me. So, there's a rest for the save, the Shabbat, the Sabbath rest. Take my yoke and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me from meek and lowly in heart. So, he's not in a huge palace up there unapproachable. He's meek, meek, lowly in heart. He's humble. He took on the form of a man, the son of man. People have access. We all have access and he's inviting. It's invitation. Come unto me. Which king would say that to you? Come on to me, you know? I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls and so you're a servant, you're a student, you're experiencing this this rest, and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy, that word easy is kind. There's a kindness. And my burden is light, not cruel. Kind, not cruel and so Romans two verse four said, it's the goodness of god that leads us to repentance. The kindness of god that leads us and Jesus carried that burden. He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him. He took the sins of the whole world, all the sins, past, present, and future and he carried it to the cross, nailed it to the cross and when he's finished, when he finished, god finished on the sixth day and rested the seventh when Jesus finished, he said, it is finished. What's finished? The plan of redemption. The plan of redemption is complete. And so nobody needs to work. In John six, they said, what is the work? This is the work that you believe. Do you believe in John six twenty nine? You believe and that's a it's a gift. You can't work for the gift. You have to receive. The work's finished. And so so the church in Romans Revelation 110 meant the first day, John 20 verse one, the first day, Acts 20 verse seven, first Corinthians sixteen two. So, we don't observe the Sabbath as a Jew. We do observe the Sabbath as Jesus is our rest. Jesus is our Sabbath. And my way of thinking, my life is one man esteems one day above another and another man every day alike. Now, in Hebrews 10, it says, the neglect not the assembling together of yourselves as a manner of some is especially as we see the day of the lord approaching. So, sometimes you'll see me exhorting people to attend church. Attend church. It's not that hard. Make the time. And and Hebrews tells us that don't neglect the assembly. Now, if you work on Sundays, then come out on Monday night. If you can't make it Monday night, then come Sunday, you know. We used to go to church several times a week at Costa Mesa. They had all every night of the week, they had something going on, bible studies, whatever. And we made ourselves we enjoyed. That was our favorite place to be. It wasn't a burden. It wasn't working, and we benefited greatly in growing that way. When we had the Roxy, we tried to do a lot of events, a lot of times open, a lot of everything going on, doors open during the day, people come pray, the whole thing, gathering and all that. And it seems we're living in a time where churches don't have Sunday night services like we used to. And so for us it's Sunday morning, Monday night. That's not like outrageous. But with Facebook and the internet and all a lot of people can still participate be a part of what's going on you know online and stuff then get the tape but it's for our nourishment is for cultivating a walking relationship with the Lord, it's for our growth. As a shepherd I know that when people start missing I know they start drifting and it's just a matter of time. And so it's very important to stay connected and but you're not under the law. Christ is your rest. So here's the verse I wanna give you. One man esteems one day above another, another man every day alike. Again, if your work schedule hinders you and keeps you from Sunday and Monday then you take your family and have a nice bible study, listen to a bible study, pick a day, whatever day you want and spend some time with the Lord and his people. Plenty of Bible studies to sit around the television and put one up on YouTube and watch a good Bible teaching and spend some time in worship and you know, have church this is an exception. This isn't the rule. Neglect not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. Especially as you see the day of the lord approaching. There's an urgency because we're living in the last days. So don't put it in cruise control. Occupy till he comes and avail yourself of gathering together the assembly, the church, the ecclesia, or those that have been called out from the world. Right? And so we're an assembly of believers. And we don't do it solo. We are an assembly. We're a church. We're the body of Christ. And the devil likes to isolate people and pick people off when they're isolated. So we need each other. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. We all have different gifts. We exercise those gifts in the body of Christ to build up the body of Christ and to know glorify the Lord. Alright, so that's it there. And I'm not I'm not keeping track of who attends church and who doesn't. That's totally up to you, you know. It's I don't have a book or something I'm gonna hand into the Lord. You know, Lord, they only came fifty two weeks a week, Lord. Fifty two weeks a year, and, you know, that's not asking much. Sunday morning, two hours, and, you know, they only came 20 times this year. But so you're not under the law. But as a pastor, I I I'll say one thing kind of Rick Baudry ish. Don't dare. Don't you dare tell me your excuse. I don't wanna hear any excuses. Everybody has twenty four hours in a day, and I'll use the word priority. If it's a priority, you husbands will get your wives and your family to church. It's your job. And you start on Saturday. You get the clothes washed. You get the baths. You get everything laid out, and all that socialization that you do on Saturdays hinders your ability to get up on Sunday and get your family to church. So don't you dare tell me your excuse. You're better off with me walking away. Just walk away because I don't want to hear it. Is that okay? Is that lovey? Is that lovey? Because you have time for football. You have time for golf. You have time for everything else under the sun. Why can't there be a priority in your life for the spiritual needs of your family? Blows my mind. It's so important for the young people today, maybe older people too, I don't know. You got casino time. You got the drunks down at the ferry terminal on a snowy day making it to a ballgame but nobody wants to go to church when there's snow or rain or you know it's so bizarre to me it's just bizarre and how important is gathering together and learning about Jesus and worshiping with the saints? And so I the a lot of the churches today are gathering centers. They call them gathering. And and they wanna gather for some good food. And and so everybody's got time to gather for food, you know, and go to the park or do an activity or entertainment or whatever. But for some reason, you can hit all the stuff that's there on your schedule all week long including Saturday, but Sunday morning is sorta like, I'm gonna sleep in now. It's my Sabbath rest. I'm gonna rest. I'm just gonna sleep in. We were too busy this week. We we slept in. So that's what one guy called bedside Baptist, you know. I I attend bedside Baptist. Alright. Did I insult everybody? No. And you know what's funny is people that do attend church and Jesus is a priority, they don't get offended of what I just said. Do you realize that? It's only people that are good at making excuses. They get offended. They get defensive. So I'm a I'm a crazy man, but that's okay. Alright. So God bless the seventh day, verse three. Elohim blessed and sanctified. Two things, blessed and sanctified. So he's lifted it up. He's set it apart because that in it, he had rested from all of his works which God created and made. So it stands as a as an example, as a as a pattern, and Christ is our Sabbath rest. He's our rest. And then verse four is there's gonna be further detail from four through 25 about the creation of man. So in the Hebrewic form of writing this is what we're gonna have here. So chapter one we got the general overview and now we're gonna get more of the details as we go back over over these things. And so these are the generations, the family history if you will, the reviewing, the Hebrew word is Toldot of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And so now he's gonna give greater detail what we already saw in the six days so every plant in the field before it was in the earth and every herb so you got plant this would be a Hebrew it's the shrub and then the herb more of a of what you can eat every herb of the field before it grew for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground. So the food source the plant life for the Garden of Eden it's gonna be it's taking place but there's no man to till it yet and there's no rain but the water, the irrigation is gonna be a mist like a dew that comes up from the ground. We're not going to see rain till the time of Noah, right? The Noahic flood. And so so two distinctions there. So he's going to make Eden and Eden the name means well watered. God's going to well water cause a great irrigation for the plant life there. Remember, they're not eating meat. They're eating we saw in chapter one that they eat the the plants, the vegans. So there's no rain and there's no Adam yet but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground so do tell the flood a misting and plenty of plenty of water for the plant life. And then it says, god forms man and prepares Eden for man. And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So earlier we saw the God made man and woman now we have a greater detail of of the chronological order First man was made then woman and how did God make man, what materials. And Rob's got a joke he's gonna tell us again. There's a scientist who has concluded that he can create life and he said it's not that difficult. So he challenged God to a test and he said I can create life. You said you can create life so let's have a test. He said okay. So he laid all his stuff out on the table before God and said alright, I'm ready to create life. And he said, let me get this get this jar of dirt. And Donnie goes, ho ho ho ho. You you make your own dirt. Yeah. Can't start with my building materials. So the lord god formed man, energized, Yat Sar from the dust. Now, how expensive do you think dust is? I don't know. Not very much. What what are you made of? I'm made of dust. I'm made of dirt. What value do we place upon dirt? Pennies. Right? It's just pennies. Nothing. Nothing. Right? What value is a clay pot? What what's what's the cons it's clay. It's mud. It's a little bit of water. Right? Yeah. Now, dust or clay in the hands of a great artisan, craftsperson, can become very valuable. Right? You be you can become a vessel of honor. A jar of clay. Right? A clay pot. He's the potter. We're the clay. And when when that clay pot is filled with God, when he's dwelling in that clay pot in us right we're the clay and Christ dwells within us right being born again that's the value that's where the value comes is Christ in us the unsearchable riches of Christ so in Ephesians two ten Paul says we are his workmanship his poema his work of art created in Christ Jesus unto good works the imagery of the potter and the clay in Isaiah twenty nine sixteen and Jeremiah eighteen one through 17 and Isaiah forty nine five and Psalm thirty three fifteen and Psalm ninety four nine and Psalm one nineteen seventy three. You guys got that? Okay. And we'll go over that in a minute. And so the dust of the ground and now breathe the breath of God, the breath of life. God breathes the breath of life into Adam. He's fashioning Adam out of the dust. Now, do you think Elon Musk would like to learn how to do this? Do you think Jared Kushner would like to know the secret of living forever? Never dying? That's what they say. Do you think they're engineering their software engineering, their AI are gonna be able to come up with some sort of a operating system that can compete with the God of creation? Now what is the lie that the people are gonna believe in second Thessalonians two in the last days? They're gonna they're gonna we're they're gonna believe that they can live forever. The same lie that the devil in chapter three here in Genesis is gonna say to Adam and Eve, you won't die. So Elon's looking for a Neuralink to put in your brain. They're looking for a way to to harvest your your brain, what's in your brain, your soul, and put it into a computer database so then they have to get another body, another host for you, your soul. They can take that host, they can take you that's in that computer program and put it in a transhuman kind of an effort machine and human. We watched Arnold Schwarzenegger with the Terminator, some kind of imagery there through Hollywood. But that's their dream. That's their desire. That's their false gospel, demonic false gospel that they present a different way, a different way for people. Even postulating that there's water on Mars and we're gonna populate colonized Mars and rocket ships and aliens and all these different things. Even the COVID vaccines, the mRNA vaccines to change your DNA, to provide that your body would become an operating system where they can download software and be able to influence your behavior, so so to speak, with six g and different different technologies that they're testing. Again, they're testing, they're postulating, they're boasting this is what they're gonna be able to do. Can't do it yet but that's the direction they're going. So people are gonna see the image of the beast, Revelation 13, and the Antichrist and the false prophet are going to be able to do deceiving. They're gonna be able to save the world with sorcery and lines, signs, and wonders, and people are gonna bow down and worship the image of the beast. So what is that image of the beast? Will it be like like a a robot that that is able to talk, communicate? Is it gonna be the leader of a religious system? This image of the beast, this this statue, this robot, this whatever it's gonna be. And and so you see Satan is a counterfeit and he's trying to counterfeit. He's trying to be a counterfeit deity where Satan wants to be he's a counterfeit god the father, the unholy trinity, the antichrist place of Jesus Christ and the false prophet in place of the holy spirit. So men are being drawn into this all cult relationship, the spirit of antichrist and they're and what's interesting to me is how many of them presently claim to be Christians? All these guys planning this stuff, they're all jumping on board. Everybody and their brothers are Christian now. And I think that's interesting because it lends itself toward the one world religious system. It's just not going be based upon Jesus Christ, right? The Antichrist is in place of Jesus Christ is what that means and and so in John five, Jesus said, I come my father's name, you receive me not. Another shall come in his own name and him you will receive. So, he's from the dust of the ground, from dust to dust. When we die, we're gonna go back to the dust. Right? And cremation just speeds up the process. Right? And so he form man formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. So in first Corinthians fifteen forty seven, Verse 44, to sow in a natural body is raised to spiritual body. There's a natural body and there's a spiritual body. So the natural bodies can go back to the ground. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a life giving spirit. So the first Adam, the first federal head failed. He sinned. God breathed in him, brought him to life. The last Adam, speaking of Jesus, is gonna give us a new glorified body and life giving spirit. However, that was not first which was spiritual or that which was natural and afterward that which was spiritual. So you got to be born of the water and the blood. The water is the natural birth. The blood is the spiritual birth. In Nicodemus you must be born again. The first man is of the earth earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. So there you go. Paul talking in first Corinthians 15 about the resurrection and the first Adam if you're just the natural you're just gonna go back to the dust But if you're spiritual and you you follow after the last Adam, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, then if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, the old things are passed away, all things are become new. You're a new creation. So, god breathed of life and and became a living soul. So, life imparted to man, imparted to man by god and the lord god planted a garden eastward in Eden. So, there's on the East Side and then he's gonna send man over to the West Side and Adam is gonna be a gardener. He's going to be a gardener. So the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. He became a living soul we saw which is the seat of the mind, will, the emotions, the soul. We believe that man is a three part being a trinity body, soul, and spirit. The spiritual part Adam's body, soul, and spirit is finitely perfect. When you die he died spiritually which means he's separated from God. His soul is still there. Eventually, his soul will leave the body which is the description of physical death and so, so the lord god planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put man whom he had formed. So God's the engineer. He's the the designer. He designed this body. He designed the environment that we're in that we have x amount of oxygen, x amount of nitrogen. We're just at the right space from the Sun. If we get too close we'll burn up. We get too far away the planet will freeze up. Know he's no such thing as climate change or global warming or all these other things they postulate to try and enslave humanity. There's cycles that the earth goes through but your carbon footprint you don't need they're not talking about that anymore although they're going to impose restrictions when you live in the stack and pack smart cities. But they need all the energy they can get and the solar technology isn't working. They're going to need some sort of a cold fusion or something that creates an enormous amount of energy for their data centers. Our God's omniscient. He knows all things. He's omnipotent in that he's all powerful and he's omnipresent and that he's everywhere. But the Antichrist, the Luciferian global elites, they need technology in their technocracy and so they have to use algorithms and software and chips and data centers to have microphones and cameras and six gs and everything that they can to try and play god. And so he's in in the eastward of Eden and there he put man whom he had formed and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree. So, he's got a I'd like to look at it as tropical but you might like fir trees and cedar trees and and all that but it's in the area of Iraq. So the topography and the planet's greatly changed since the flood. But before the flood, before the fall of man, a paradise type garden. And remember, well watered. And so verses nine through 14 are description of verse eight, the completed action. So Lord God planted a garden in Eden and there he put man whom he had formed. Now we get greater definition. And out of the ground, God formed which is the Hebrew word Yatzar to shape by design. So he's the we're the he's the potter. We're the clay. We're his workmanship and he's forming us. Lord god, to grow every tree that is pleasant to the eye, pleasant to the sight. So, god's into making beautiful things. Cathy, Cathy and I went up to swim last month when the cherry trees were all blossoming and we like to catch em before it that's finished, you know, and so you catch em just right and they're all not blossoming and they haven't been blown away by the wind yet and all that. And it's just so gorgeous, so pretty. And then we like in the fall, all the leaves change and you're driving around and they're all the different colors of gold and yellow and and red and things like that and so we live in a very very beautiful place that God has made and he purposely wanted it to be beautiful, pleasant to the sight and good for the good for food. So we talked last week about fruit trees, fruit bearing trees, fig trees, all different types of we've been eating cherries every night now, so the cherries are in season here in Washington And a lot of melatonin in them. We're sleeping really good, you know. So a lot of benefits of eating the berries when they're in season. And apples, god, we got such great apples in the state of Washington. So pleasant deciding, good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge and good and evil. So you have a myriad of different trees. Tons of trees there. Tons of trees. And there's two trees that stand out. One is the tree of life which again we'll see in Revelation chapter 22, right? The tree of life in the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem and we see trees there in the new Jerusalem for the healing of the nations, right? And for food in in the book of Revelation. So we start out with a paradise here. In this area is in the area of Mesopotamia, Revelation two verse seven or Revelation 22 verse two Jesus said in Revelation two verse seven they that overcome will have right to the tree of life in Revelation 20 two:two, also the tree of life in the paradise of God in heaven. So in the midst of the garden of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now tree of knowledge of good and evil as you know is the one tree of all the trees that are in there that they're not to partake of. Now how many opportunities, how many trees do you have every day the opportunity to partake of that leads to sin? Adam had just one tree, one thing to not do. How many things in your day are you tempted with? Is it just one thing each day? Just one tree? Is this one thing? You know? Seemed pretty simple. Right? And we've got a myriad of different temptations and things going on. And it's so interesting to me that, you know, Eve was beguiled. She was tricked and Adam transgressed. He stepped over the line in rebellion to god. But they had a paradise. They had all these trees, all these opportunities. And we'd like to emphasize the positive that Christianity is not a relationship of, oh, can't do this. I can't do that. I can't do this. I can't do that. Instead, it's a relationship with God. I get to do this. I get to do that. I get to get to work. And interesting, Adam's gonna be working in this garden that God creates even before the curse, before the fall. So work is a means of a calling upon a person's life and he's going to be prolific. It's going to be real easy to produce food and to cultivate and do whatever he does before the fall. But there's a dignity and there's an honoring of God. God did not make us to be lazy. And so we we're we're most contented. We're have a greater sense of fulfillment when we're productive and do something that glorifies God and that able to bless us and to bless others. And so he's a tree of knowledge tree of life, tree of knowledge of good and evil. And this tree of knowledge of good and evil is to test his free will. So God breathed life into Adam. He became a living soul. Now he also breathed life into the animals so that's not unique just to man. But what's unique to man is that Adam is made in the image and likeness of God. The animals are not. So we have the ability to think and to reason and to the power of choice. And so in this power of choice God did not make Adam a robot that Elon Musk envisioned. He's not pre engineered to lift his hands up when the lord does a certain kind of whistle and, you know, shout out I love you, You know which would be mechanical right? Robotic. So in order for love this relationship to be a love relationship the Lord needed to give Adam the power of choice to choose whether he would love God or not love God. And that demonstration of our love for God is a life of obedience, a desire to obey God, to do what he tells us to do, and to serve him in obedient fashion. To be unfaithful, to lie, to cheat, to steal, to not obey God is a demonstration that that we don't love God like we should love God. So love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the whole intention of of of the law. So there's a test here. There's a test of love, a free will. We've been given free will. And you're not going to lose your salvation if you don't go to church on Sunday. You have free will. Nobody's going to knock on your door or call you or say where you've been. And at Calvary Bremerton we take it even a step further. If you want to exercise your free will and go attend another church, another place, you're free to go, you're free to come back, and you will not receive a phone call from me or Kathy wanting to know why. That's your business. That's between you and God. We don't own you. We you you have no obligation unto us. And freely we receive, freely we give. Now the only reason you would receive a call from Kathy is if we thought that something happened to you, if maybe you're sick because you don't wanna get sick and say, hey, the pastor's wife never called me. Right? So she'll call and she'll see if you're okay. And if you're kinda curt with her, like, I'm I'm fine. Then we know that that you don't like us anymore and you've chose to go somewhere else. But we're not we're not gonna harangue you or call or send you a letter or knock on your door and say, you owe me an explanation because we respect your free will. And we expect you to respect our free will. Right? And if we want to move back to California, we're gonna move back to California. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just but you see what I mean? It's it goes two ways. Right? It goes two ways. You have free will. We have free will. So why are we here? Because we surrender our will unto God to obey him because I told Cathy I love serving the Lord more than I love the beach and I love the beach but I love serving the Lord even more and underneath that I love my grandkids even more than me go on the beach so you're stuck with me because the number one thing I love the one number one thing I love at this point my life and it's been this way for quite a while is I love studying and teaching the Bible and I love serving the Lord and I love the the excitement of you never know what God might do in any given day. You know, there's that anticipation that he could return, that somebody might get saved, you know, anything can happen. And so I want to be in the game. I want to be in the fight. I want to be about my father's business. And so that's how I exercise my free will. Rob was talking earlier about the book of Jonah and Jonah had free will, right? And we talk about free will and God told Jonah you know, to go to Nineveh and Jonah exercised and tell him that forty days and you're gonna perish, right? And Jonah the prophet, the Ninevites were a people that Jonah hated, the Israelites hated of Assyria and god says, go give him a message. Forty days and you're going to perish. Well, Jonah knew that god was merciful and gracious and kind and he thought, nope. God's up to something. I know he's gonna save these people, and I hate these people. And if I go if I go to Nineveh, all my friends, my patriot friends, they're gonna say, why'd you go visit with those democrats? They're so bad. You know? And and so, you know, I'm I'm of the mega tribe and we we don't do that. We don't go over there to those those bad Democrats and all that. And and so Jonah got on a ship heading the opposite direction of Nineveh. So, he's exercising his free will, right? God gave him a direct command and now, we talk about free will and we also have to talk about god make us willing. Right? So sometimes the way the Lord makes us willing is he prepares a great fish, right? And we wind up in the ocean drowning and a great fish swallows us and we got a ride in that fish for a time and the Lord gets our attention and we think we're in hell, we're going down to the bottom of the sea, there's seaweed all over our head, the gastric juices are bleaching us out, we're albino now and then we have a change of heart. We have a change of heart all of a sudden. And then this fish burps us out onto the shore. The Ninevites take one look at us at us and repent immediately because we don't look normal. We've been bleached. We've been wiped out, and he goes through there angrily angrily forty days and you're gonna perish. Now do you present the gospel in that way angrily? Do do you present the gospel to a people you hate? You know? And but Jonah's willing now. He's willing. He became willing. So the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time and and you know the story from the king all the way down they repented. The greatest revival until we see Revelation six and seven innumerable multitude of people there. We talk about free will Adam has free will, you have free will, I have free will, But I'm so thankful that the Lord has ways as my father of making me willing. Whom the Lord loves he chastens and he spanks every Hebrews 12. Right? So we can get a little spanking from our Lord when we get smart mouth and say no I'm going my own way. And then you got the story of the prodigal, right? The father of the prodigal had to let his son exercise his free will and it's really hard as a parent to watch your kids go into the foreign land and go into a situation that's harmful them. But we can't fly down to New Orleans and kidnap them and drive them back to Washington and put them in a room with bars on the windows and, you know, hold them there against their will, that'd be kidnapping. So we we have to wait. And so the father looks out the window, the mother keeps looking out the window, they look at the phone, they look at their text, they look at everything they can to see if the kid's still alive, if they're gonna call, if they're gonna whatever. And when that kid repents, which means to turn, and that kid turns toward home that's when God runs. God runs toward that prodigal and in that they've exercised their free will and that they rejected the father they wanted their own way. He gave in to them. They experienced leanness in their heart. They didn't experience god's best. They had god's permissive will going on and not till they turn back home and submitted themselves under their father. Do they experience god's best for their life where he puts a robe of righteous on him, gives him a ring, and kills the fatted calf and celebrates that he was dead. Now, he's alive and so, there's rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents when we exercise our free will in repentance and turning from our sin and crying out to God God be merciful to me a sinner God God embraces us, restores us, and loves on us. And that's that's a beautiful beautiful picture of love of us coming into a right relationship with God and submission unto him. And and I never I never saw the 10 commandments at Calvary Costa Mesa. I never saw 20 things you can't do listed on the wall like a religion of do's and don'ts. As you study God's word and you just focus on Jesus the Holy Spirit teaches you what's right and what's wrong And God doesn't contradict his written word but what I mean is we were so taught in the word that as the word of God was taught we learned what was right what was wrong. And then it's a matter of the will. Will I do what I know God's just communicated to me? And there's a lot of areas of our free will that are unique just to us. It might be okay for you to do something but not okay for me. So, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god. It says, and a river went out of Eden, a river, a river. Now, this river is gonna shift into four directions before the flood. Four heads are gonna come off this one river here in Eden. What's interesting up at Forks is there's several different rivers up there. The Bulgasheil, Soldak, and I forget the other ones but so there's so a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became four heads The name of the first is Pishon and we don't know if this is the Nile or not some some say it might be in the area of Arabia that is which compass the whole land of Havilah. Some say Havilah this is India so they really don't know. Where there is gold. Well, there's gold there. There's stories of the Rockefellers and some of these globalists when they heard that there was pitch, when there's pitch when there was tar in the Middle East that's what prompted them Standard Oil to send geologists to the area of Iraq and the Middle East to test the soil to see if there's oil and there was and it was a biblical a biblical verse of tar and pitch that Noah used to put on the ark that prompted them to send their geologists to the region. That's a funny story So a river went out of Eden to the garden and from thence it was parted and became four heads. The name of the first is Pishon that is that which compass the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. And the and the gold that the land is good and the gold of that land is good. And there is dellium. A dellium is a resin. It's a gum of a sweet aroma kind of a gum of a resin. And it comes from a camphor plant, but interesting, this is and then you go to onyx stone. So you've got minerals, but then you got the sweet smelling trees. You got trees you can eat, and now you've got there's this purposeful bedellium. And what's the point? What are you gonna chew this gum? What are you gonna do with this gum? Is it gonna help you smell good? I mean you know you haven't even sinned yet so you can't be smelling yet, right? The onyx stone. And the name of the second river the Gihon the same as that which compass the whole land of Kush. And so Kush is Ethiopia. Don't know what the Gihon is. Now again, after the flood, this whole region was wiped out. The whole the whole topography was changed and this area is that of Mesopotamia which is in present day Iraq is this region. This is the region of the Garden Of Eden Of Babylon where Babylon is. And the name of the third river is Hedikkah, which we know which this river is. This is the Tigris River. That is that which goes toward the East of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates which is by Babylon. So the location of of the Garden Of Eden is in the area of present day Iraq in the Middle East in the area of Mesopotamia and this is the area that the three wise men came out three white not three the wise men this is the area that Abraham was from the area of Mesopotamia this is the of civilization, the the origin of of civilization. And so I think we'll stop there. We'll come back next week, and we'll pick it back up with man. He's gonna go in the in the God took the man and put him into the garden. You'll see that that Adam is a is a gardener. And first Corinthians three, our heavenly father is a gardener. He cultivates your life and my life. In John 15, he's he prunes, he cuts cultivates the husbandmen, the branches. He cuts away so that we'll have more. And then we're also reminded that Jesus was in the Garden Of Gethsemane and that he wound up in a tomb which we call the Garden Tomb. And and we're also reminded that Mary Magdalene in John chapter 20 when she saw Jesus at the tomb she thought that he was the gardener. Alright. Let's pray. Father, thank you. And Lord, we just ask that that we could hide these truths away in our heart and meditate upon free will, meditate upon the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the paradise of God and just the wonder of creation that you've created us and that man as a following that of a counterfeit, that of Satan, that of the occult today, Lord. Men are trying to play God with technology. And Lord we're just so incredibly thankful for the wonder of creation which you're able to do what you do and that you've given us life the gift of life that you breathe life into us And Lord we pray that as we live and as we exercise the life of the spirit that we'd experience the abundant life of the spirit. And Lord as we look to the future Lord you're gonna complete this work that you've begun in us that we're gonna have a new glorified body, one closer to what Adam started out with and and what you, Lord Jesus, what you demonstrated when you raised yourself from the dead. And so we're thankful, Lord, that this demonstrates that work that you begin in us that Lord you complete it. You rested on the seventh day. The work was complete. You don't stop halfway. So Lord we pray evermore that you'll continue this work you've begun in us and Lord, you would complete it. That one day when we see you face to face, we'll know, Lord, even as we are known. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
