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[0:00] Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18.

[0:14] We're going to finish up chapter 2 tonight.! What I've entitled Man in a Perfect World.! And it was a perfect world in those days.

[0:28] It's a bit of a change when we get on into chapter 3. But we need to finish up some things here. So I'm going to go ahead and read verses 18 through 25 through to the end of the chapter.

[0:43] The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

[1:03] Whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

[1:18] And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. And he slept and he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman.

[1:33] And he brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.

[1:45] Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, and the man and his wife, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

[1:58] All right, so there it is. That's the passage we're going to look into. And there's a lot of good stuff here. And probably we could delve into some things, some issues that would take up more time than we have tonight.

[2:14] I'm determined to go ahead and finish this chapter, so we can go ahead and get into chapter 3. First thing I want you to notice here is, I think, interesting.

[2:25] And though, you know, maybe, in fact, several things I'm going to kind of glean from this passage you might think are a stretch. I don't think they are.

[2:38] This first one I don't think is at all. And it's this. It's interesting to note that if you look at chapter 1 and verse 31, you see that the Bible there says that God saw everything that he made, and indeed it was, and then what does he say?

[2:57] You remember, you don't even have to look at the Bibles. You know it, don't you? It was good. It was very good, as a matter of fact. Did you say wonderful? Is that what you're... All right, okay. Is that translation according to John?

[3:09] Okay. All right. And that's a good one. John, John, wonderful. Okay. I'll go with that one. But that's what he said.

[3:20] He says, very good or wonderful. But now, you look at chapter 2, verse 18, the passage that we're in, and the first part of it, which, again, by the way, is a more detailed description of God's creative activity on day 6.

[3:38] It's not further creative activity. It's kind of, now we're done here in chapter 1, and now in chapter 2 we're going to go back and kind of describe this, kind of flesh this out a little bit more. Flesh it out, literally.

[3:49] But anyway, I don't know if you caught that pun. Anyway, there it says, And the Lord God said it is... And then what does he say?

[4:00] Not good. It's not good. It's not good. And that's the first time you find that. Really, in the Bible, that something's not good. He said it is not good for man, or that man should be alone.

[4:17] Now, I want you to think about this a moment. And perhaps you have before. I mean, you've studied Scripture before. But over and over and over, when God completes each element of His creation, and we have it detailed for us, and over and over we read that God says it is good.

[4:39] And on day 6, after God creates living creatures, livestock, creatures that crawl, and creatures that have wildlife and such, He says it's good.

[4:50] It's good. And then He creates Adam, man in his own image, and we have God saying for the first time in the Bible that something's not good. It's the first time.

[5:01] And so, in verse 18, it says, The Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. That's what's not good. And I will make him a helper comparable to him.

[5:16] Now, sometime on that sixth day, it doesn't tell us so much in chapter 1, it doesn't tell us all, but sometime on that sixth day, God creates woman out of man.

[5:31] On that sixth day. He creates Eve. On the sixth day. Sometime in that day. But now, before He creates Eve, it is as if God has to convince Adam, and here you might think this is kind of a stretch, it is as if God is trying to convince Adam of His need for Eve.

[5:54] Before He even creates her, He is leading Adam to make a conclusion that He has a need for her. But really, God is showing Adam something here that we need to remember.

[6:14] We need to know. God is about to teach Adam here about a certain need he has. And He's going to do it, really, by way of a particular job that He gives him to do.

[6:29] And what is that job? To name all the animals. That, I guess we could say, was the first job God gave him.

[6:40] And it's kind of interesting that God gave him that job in the first place. I mean, you know, that's quite a task. Name all the animals. And gave him quite an authority in that area too, didn't he?

[6:52] Whatever the Bible says, whatever he named them, that was their name. You know. So he could just, what a crazy name he wanted to come up with. You know. And so, He gives him that job. And then, verse 19, out of the ground, it says, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought.

[7:13] Now, why don't you pay attention, or at least keep in your mind there this word brought. We're going to come back to that again because we'll see it again here in a moment. But He brought, the Lord God brought them, all the animals, that is each one of them, brought them to Adam to see what He would call them, whatever Adam called each living creature.

[7:34] That was His name. In verse 20, so Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But, now here's where we need to pay attention.

[7:46] For Adam, there was not found a helper comparable, or who was like him. Now, that's important to see here.

[7:56] This is what God is showing at. It's like He said, Adam, go out there and name all the animals so that he would discover something. Again, I don't think, I'm reading into the text, here, something that's not there when I say that I think a light bulb came on in Adam's mind at that point, at some point.

[8:18] Or maybe after he was finished with the job. I think Adam said to himself, wait a minute here. There's something missing here. I mean, can you, in your creative imagination, I don't know if I'd say sanctified imagination, God, I don't know if I'd go that far, but, it's just dog on Adam, maybe, you know.

[8:41] And he's thinking, you know, there's he beaver and she beaver over there. Kind of bring up C.S. Lewis. There's he beaver and she beaver over there and he horse and she horse over here.

[8:57] Huh. There's a pattern here. Something going on here. For every male animal, there's a female. You know, it takes us guys a little while to, you know, figure things out sometimes and he's saying, there's no one here like me.

[9:15] You know. There's no, no she-Adam here. I don't know if he said that. There's no one here just like me. You see, what God says is not good for man to be alone.

[9:30] It is not the result of God learning something at that point. It didn't dawn on God at some point. You see, I've left something out here.

[9:44] It's not God that is coming to a certain conclusion about his creation sometime after the fact. God is not learning anything. God never has to learn anything.

[9:58] He knows all things. And, you know, so, the point is, it's not God learning, it's Adam. It's Adam that's learning and Adam is learning something here.

[10:09] And as readers of God's word, we are also learning something very important. And what is it? What are we to learn? That it's not good for man to dwell alone or man to be alone.

[10:23] I'm discovering that the last several days. I do have Jonathan, but, and by the way, Jonathan texted me earlier this afternoon. He said, he said, fettuccine tonight for supper.

[10:36] What time are you coming home? I got home. Well, actually, I went home a little early because Sherry texted me a little bit later and said, your son is trying to cook dinner.

[10:47] You better go home and make sure everything is okay. So, I got home. But he's not, he can't replace Sherry. Not just in the cooking area, but in every other area.

[10:58] It's not good for a guy to dwell alone. Now, so, let's look at verses 21 and 22. 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.

[11:15] Then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman. All right, now, the woman was not created from the dust of the earth.

[11:28] She's not a clot like we guys are. And the woman was created, the Bible says, from the rib of Adam. And I think the point of that distinction, that distinction being made here, it was to establish the oneness, the unity, the inseparability of a man and woman in marriage.

[11:53] I think that's the idea here. You say marriage. Is there marriage? Is this a marriage here? And the answer to that is yes. This is a marriage.

[12:05] In fact, the first marriage in the history of mankind is about to take place. Right here in the Garden of Eden. So look at verse 22. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman and he brought her to the man that were brought again.

[12:23] And God directed all this. And so he brought this woman to the man and Adam takes one look at her and says, poor man.

[12:34] That's what he said. He did. Adam said, this is now bone of my bones. Verse 23. And flesh of my flesh she shall be called world man.

[12:47] Woman. Because she was taken out of man. And God said to Adam and Eve, hold hands, you love birds. And he married them. God officiated the very first marriage.

[13:00] I know I've said this before and I never will forget. This isn't funny, but I had a man call me and say, you know, he wanted me to marry him and his living girlfriend.

[13:11] And we talked a little bit about that on the phone and I mentioned something about I wouldn't even consider marrying them until he was willing to move out of that house and to be independent of her and she, him and we would go through some counseling.

[13:28] And he said, I don't see anything wrong with us living together. He said, Adam and Eve lived together and they weren't married. And I said, well, I beg to differ but they weren't married. And God officiated that first marriage.

[13:41] He did that and God also gave the bride away. The first bride away because the Bible says he brought her to the man. And then God said what has, of course, become a staple in wedding ceremonies today in verses 24 and 25, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh and they were both naked and the man, the man and his wife and were not ashamed.

[14:13] And that's how the chapter ends. We're going to end pretty early here tonight. But in these two verses and I'll give this to you and I think I gave this to you in your notes.

[14:24] In these two verses we find the four essential components of a successful Christian marriage. Now, of course, obviously, there's more to marriage.

[14:37] We need to expand quite a bit on these things. But here's the foundation components for an essential marriage and it's right out of the passage. And you sum it up in those four words.

[14:48] Leaving, cleaving, intimacy, and transparency. Openness, honesty. That kind of oneness. Leaving, very clear from the text, a man shall leave his parents.

[15:03] So there's a leaving and then there's a cleaving. A cleaving and they shall be joined and he will be joined or united to his wife.

[15:16] And I'm sure that you've heard many, many preachers speak on that word cleaving. It's also quoted in the New Testament. And the word carries over into the Greek.

[15:29] And the cleaving is a permanent, it suggests a permanent bonding or unity. In fact, so permanent that to pull it apart, it's impossible to pull the two apart without doing damage to both.

[15:50] It's that kind of bond. You know, kind of like when you get super glue between two fingers. You ever have that happen? And you pull that apart and the skin's going to come off.

[16:06] It's that kind of bonding. And that's what God intended from the very beginning. And so leaving, cleaving, and into the sea they shall become one flesh.

[16:17] One flesh. And that includes not just the physical intimacy of marriage in the bonds of marriage, but intimacy in every way.

[16:31] In the area of honesty and love and being together on all things. And so there's intimacy.

[16:42] And then transparency. And that's very much like the intimacy. They were both naked and not ashamed. maybe we could joke about that. But the idea there is there was no guilt.

[16:56] Of course that carries over into their perfection at the time in relation to God. There was no guilt because there was no sin. But within the context of marriage and that's what we have here where God has brought the woman together and then he gives this pronouncement that involves the leaving and the cleaving and the intimacy.

[17:18] being one flesh and being naked and not ashamed that there's a transparency in this relationship and honesty. There are no secrets in this kind of relationship.

[17:32] when I've messed up I'm honest with my wife and she with me though she never ever makes any mistakes. I just don't understand it. I'm just kidding.

[17:44] No I'm not kidding. Just in case I get back there. No you know we all blow it from time to time but we're honest with one another.

[17:56] It's an openness and intimacy. There's no shame in the relationship. No shame. You know anytime you feel ashamed in the presence of another person it's always because there's some sin that's taking place or some broken fellowship or something that's being hidden something that's not honest and then when you open up and you're transparent with one another then there's no shame.

[18:24] There may be a process to go through to mend wounds but all the cards are on the table. We use a gambling term.

[18:34] I guess we shouldn't do that here tonight. But you understand the metaphor alright? Okay. And so there are the four essentials essential components good building blocks great foundation for a successful Christian marriage.