Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday September 11, 2011

Download | Duration: 00:51:47

      God’s Layered Creation - Genesis 2:4-17

Sometimes my b’fast consists of a layered masterpiece.  I take a slice of bread/toast it/spread on butter – but I’m not done.  That’s just the 1st layer.  Next: humongous quantity of peanut butter thickly spread – but I’m not done.  Top off w/ strawberry jam – but I’m not done.  I eat it.  Now I’m done.

C1 presents God as the omnipotent Creator – He speaks and, boom! it’s done.  C2 presents God as a Painter – He carefully adds color/ tone/texture.  God separates the water from the land – but He’s not done yet.  He brings forth the vegetation – but He’s not done yet.  He creates man – but He’s not done yet.  He plants the garden – not done yet.  Puts man it – not done yet.  He creates the woman/brings her to the man – now He’s gone and done it!  I mean, now He’s done.

God formed creation in layers/reforms His new creation in layers.

4  Intro. to next section – this is the record of events…

C1 – overview/C2 – details.  C1 – what/C2 – why.

5 The Condition of the Earth

No shrub/plant/rain/man to work it - the earth was incomplete.  This describes the initial, barren state of the earth after the formation of dry land, briefly recorded in 1:9-10.  Though there is water in the heavens above/earth beneath, the earth itself is still a desert.  It lacks rain/vegetation/humankind.  JPS Torah Commentary

It needed the shrubs/plants of the field to adorn it.  Shrubs: wild vegetation that grow spontaneously after a rainfall.  Plants: cultivated grains.  But even w/ shrubs/plants the earth would not be complete because the shrubs needed rain/plants needed man to cultivate them.  Then in vv18-25 Moses tells us that even the man was not complete because he needed the woman to complete him.

5a  Problem: shrubs/plants not yet present growing

5b  Reason: no rain for the shrubs/no cultivator for the grains

6-7 Solution: water for the shrubs/cultivator for the grains

Futato/Because it had not Rained/WTJ 60 (1998) 1-21

God knows at what level His work is and what needs to be done next as He continues layering His work.  Even as the earth is God’s layered creation, you are God’s layered creation.  God is not done w/ you.  Saved you – not done yet.  Sent His Spirit to dwell in you – not done yet.  Baptized you in His Spirit – not done yet.  Filled you w/ love – not done yet.  Transforming thinking/character – not done yet.  Using you – not done yet.  Changing you from glory to glory.   

6  The Provision of Water

Even though something is incomplete, God still takes care of it.  v6 - Mist – due to heavy tropical environment.  JPS Torah Commentary suggests that the waters beneath the earth would rise/irrigate the ground, allowing for the survival/growth of vegetation.  Though there was no rain, the earth was not w/o water – God had another way of taking care of things.

We think that God can only take care of us in one way -

    * Some of you want to be married and you think that marriage is the only way God can take care of you and meet the needs that He created.  Many singles have found a full emotional life in Christ and in the body of Christ.  And even though they eventually married, they allowed God to water their lives in His own way.  Some have found themselves in a desert as they have chased mirages.
    * Some of you don’t want to be married.  A life mate has come your way, but not the expected blessing of marriage.  You’ve tried to make it work… You think that only way your life can be watered is by moving on/out.  You’ve been looking to your spouse to water/refresh you – this is the Lord’s job.
    * You need so much $/have to have this position or that possession to be complete.  

You think that God needs to add/remove a layer.  Bring it to Him/ leave it with Him. God waters the life that abides in Christ.   

7 The Creation of Man

The same chemical elements that comprise dirt, comprise the body.  I found this about the elements that comprise humans.

Element Name: WOMAN  
Physical Properties: Surface usually covered with a painted film.  Boils at nothing/may freeze at any time/melts whenever treated properly/very bitter if not used well. Turns slightly green when placed next to a better specimen.    
Chemical Properties: Very active/highly unstable/may explode spontaneously without prior warning and for no known reason.  Possesses strong affinity to gold/silver/platinum/ precious stones. Violent when left alone. Able to absorb great amounts of exotic food.

Usage: Highly ornamental. An extremely good catalyst for dispersion of wealth - probably the most powerful income reducing agent known to Man.   Very effective cleaning agent.

Caution: Highly explosive in inexperienced hands.

Element Name: MAN  
Physical Properties: Fairly dense/sometimes flaky/difficult to find pure sample.  Large

quantities in all populated areas - highly concentrated deposits at all sporting events . Extremely low quantities can be found in any location where cleaning is required.
Chemical Properties: Requires copious quantities of substances known as attention/ reassurance/stroking.  Boils when inconvenienced/freezes when faced with Logic and Common Sense/melts if treated like God. May explode spontaneously if wallet is opened.  Specimens can be found in various states ranging from deeply sensitive to extremely thick.  Becomes stubborn and unyielding when pressure is applied; yields only when subtlety/ subterfuge/flattery are applied

Usage: None known. A possible good methane source. Good samples are able to produce large quantities on command. Is neutral to common courtesy/fairness.  Is impervious to embarrassment.  Most powerful embittering/aggravating agent known to Woman.

Caution: In the absence of Woman, this element rapidly decomposes/begins to smell.

You can see the layering dynamic at work in the creation of Adam.  Man was formed of the dust of the earth – but he’s not complete until the breath of God gives him life.  When Adam sinned, he lost a layer – his spirit died and he was banished from the garden/ presence of God.  Through Adam, man has lost something of the breath of God.  Being born again is to have God breathe into your life w/ His Spirit and give life to your dead spirit – add a layer.  Adam was just a lump of clay until God’s Spirit gave him life.  You/I are a lump of clay until God breathes into us again.

8-14  The Garden

Eden was an actual place planted for man’s provision/probation.  Moses’ original audience was the generation going into Canaan.  Canaan was not a land of rivers/mists – it needed rain.  Where would the rain come from?  They were not to pray to Baal, but to God.  Whatever they had need of, God would add layer to layer – bread/meat/water… God will give you what is necessary for the journey you are on.

15-17  Man put in the Garden

Provision: Adam was to work the garden/keep it

Two things to notice:

    * There was work b4 sin
    * Adam was to protect the garden he was working.
    * Two implications here:

          o Keep from losing the work he had done
          o Guard it from intruders

He hasn’t placed you into a garden, He has placed you in Christ. God has given to you all you need to make your life fruitful.  URNA place where you need to cultivate your life in Christ/keep it.  You are to guard your life, for even as Satan drew Eve away from God, he will seek to draw you away from God.

Probation: Adam was to walk in obedience to God.  (B4 Adam was given a wife, he worked for his provision and he walked w/ God.  This is necessary for marriage.  Some don’t work/don’t walk with God and it is rough going.)  Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good/evil would open their souls to that which would ruin/drag them down.

Probation = test.  God made knowledge available and told them to steer clear of it.  “There is something to know that I don’t want you to know.”  Can you live w/o knowing a secret?  Atlantic City – friends kept me from mainlining heroin.  They didn’t want me to ‘know’ the feeling.

Why put Adam/Eve on probation?

What is most obvious is this: Adam/Eve were given a free will to choose.  Love for God must be voluntary on their part; involuntary love is a contradiction!  The man God created was moral, not mechanical/responsible, not a robot. But to be moral/to be held responsible implies having a real choice.  God graciously provided that choice so that Adam/Eve could be confirmed as moral/responsible beings in their voluntary love for God. Gene P.

Fran and I just celebrated 35 years of marriage.  I told her that I would do it all again.  What if she told me she would, too, because my father had told her that if she didn’t marry me he would kidnap her mother and kill her?  “So you haven’t really loved me all these years?” “I’m just keepin’ mama alive.”

God really loves you/wants you to really love Him.  Love for God happens in a place where there is the very real possibility that you won’t love God – that you might love things other than God.  Though you are not in the garden of Eden, you are still on probation.  We love because He first loved us. The love of God in Christ is the greatest manifestation of love in human history.  Today is 911 and we honor those who died and those who went up the stairs of the Towers when everyone else was going down.  Jesus has come to rescue you.  The twin towers of human sin came crashing down on Him so that you might be saved.