The Glory of Creation

Well, last week we looked at the glorious Creator in Genesis 1. This week we're going to be looking at Genesis 2. And well, this week is important for all of us. Because I assume if you're coming here, you are coming to worship God, but you're also coming wondering, how can I live the life I was created to live? How can I get the most out of life? You see, we want to live our best life. We want to live the life that we were created for. And whenever someone does this, when we watch someone who really seems like they have it together and they're living a life that's enjoyable, we usually call that person wise. That's what wisdom is. To know how to live life and enjoy it. And if we follow the words of Calvin, this is true wisdom. It consists of two parts. To know God and to know ourselves. If we want to live a wise life, we're going to have to know God and know ourselves. And that's why Genesis two is so important, because it declares who we were meant to be according to God's design, according to God, the architect and the orchestrator and the ruler and the creator of all this world. So the work this morning, this really should interest all of us to look back to Genesis two, because we see that in Genesis two, we're the main focus. It's about God and who he created us to be. Let us turn now and read Genesis 2. And our couch this morning begins in verse four. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. when no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature, and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made it to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havala. where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not a helper found fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib the Lord took, the rib that the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then man said, this is at last bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Friends, as we look at this chapter, one of the first things we have to ask is, how does chapter 2 of Genesis relate to chapter 1? I was very encouraged that many people had already asked this question. As many of us know, a good education doesn't mean you always have the right answers. It means you ask the right questions. So, it's encouraging that many of us are asking the right questions. Well, as we discussed last week, as we saw, I hope, that Genesis 1 is really a hymn of praise. There's such poetry in it. There's such grand declarations. There's literally tools that point that it's a genre very unique. It's not a story. It's not written in pure prose. It's a high prose or a poetic prose. It's a hymn declaring that the creator has made everything orderly. So what is chapter two? Well, a few hints point that it's a different kind of genre. It's changing. to a different kind of history. These are the generations we're going to see that phrase over and over again in Genesis. They are major transitions in Genesis. Usually it's speaking of a different person. These are the generations of Adam and these are the generations of Noah. These are the generations of Isaac. But here you see a more generic one. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth. Here we see the beginning of history. Here we see a more normal prose. God is changing the way He's telling the story now. I like that the Bible really begins with a hymn of praise to the Creator, and then we get into the history of what God has done. We see also an interesting phrase at the end of verse 4, when God made the earth and the heavens. That's an unusual way of saying it. It's usually heaven and earth. Here is the earth and heaven. I believe the point is that here is the history of all things created in this world. So, what is Genesis 2 in relation to Genesis 1? Well, if you use a computer, it would be like double-clicking on day 6. Day 6 is when God created the animals and the mammals and man and woman. And we talked about that briefly last week. Well, today is all about that day. I think Genesis 2 is an elaboration of what took place on that day. It's like taking your mouse and double-clicking on it, making it blow up, and seeing more of the details of what happened on that specific day. So, Genesis 2 is focusing on us. Genesis 2 is focusing on what God did on that specific day. Now, if you read Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, you should have some questions about that. because there have been accusations that there are apparent contradictions between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Let's look at those real quick. Genesis 2, 18 through 22 says that the order of creation on day 6 is Adam, the animals, and then woman. Genesis 1 on day 6 says that God created the mammals and then he created man and woman, and then it was really good. Well, one of the questions we have to ask is, is Genesis 1, day 6, really trying to give the chronology of how the different beings were created? Genesis 1 isn't a straightforward history. It's not Paul Johnson writing a history book. It's a poem trying to emphasize the glory and the power of God the creator. See, there's a literary tool called End Stress. I believe that's what the author of Genesis 1 is using. He's not saying that the mammals were created then, man and woman. No. I believe Genesis 2 tells us the order of how things actually happened. Genesis 1 is declaring on day 6, mammals were created, the earth-swelling animals were created, and then he emphasizes man and woman together because his point is to show that the glory of creation, the high point of creation, the climax of creation, was us. So if we actually look at the genre, it helps us understand that Well, that poem is trying to emphasize something in a certain way, using the literary tool of in-stress. The point is that man is the most important creation. Well, the second contradiction, apparent contradiction. Genesis 2, 5 and 10 also gives an interesting order. It says that God created man, then the garden, then the trees, then the animals, then the wife. Now, what is the point of Genesis 2 in this order? Well, I'm not certain that this is a straightforward chronology of what's supposed to be taking place in terms of the man, the garden, the trees, and the animals. Or, the man, the garden, and the trees, rather. See, the point is to show, in Genesis 2, that everything is dependent upon man. The garden needed man to work it. Man was built and created to be God's special vice-regent, the perfect gardener. God created the animals to be dependent upon man. God created the plants to be dependent upon man. God created all of the earth to be dependent upon man. And so Genesis 2 is written in such a way that it's seeking to declare how everything is centered around the creation of man. It's pointing to our specific purpose and our special calling to be God's image bearers. Now let's move on and let's actually learn what it means. Let's look to see what God is declaring about us. The first thing we can see about us is that we were created from the land for the land. Look there, verse 7. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground." That doesn't sound real glorious, does it? God creates all the other animals, and then there is something special here. Anthropomorphically, it's declared that God took his hands, and he took the earth, and the clay, and the dust, and the dirt, and he started molding us to have a physical being. There's something beautiful in the sense that God, who put us in charge of all this earth, made us out of this earth. We're perfectly fit for the job, in other words. You see, there's a hierarchy of being we have to realize here. There's God Almighty, the spiritual being who is self-sufficient. There's the angels who are spiritual beings, but dependent upon God. And then there's us. We're God's special creatures, created in His image, who are both spirit and material. And the material, the stuffness, the material stuff we have, it's beautiful in the sense that God forms us to be His special creatures. We talked about last week how we were created to be His image bearers. We're created to have dominion. In that way, we're like maestros. We're supposed to be leading this world in worship of God. It's a great privilege and a great honor, but this morning I'll talk about what a great responsibility it is. You see, every time God blesses us, every time God gives us a great blessing. We have a great responsibility. And so if you think about what it means to be from the earth and for the earth. Let's think about what it means to be responsible stewards of this earth. I mentioned this before as well. I've always been surprised that abortion and conservation are political issues. It's frustrating that these two topics are always put in the realm of politics. They're moral issues. They're issues that scripture addresses. They're religious topics. The sanctity of life. and our purpose in preserving and keeping this world. These are religious topics. They're not political topics. It's even more frustrating that those who are typically pro-life are anti-conservationists and those who are pro-conservationists are anti-life. It doesn't make any sense. That's why we really can't attach ourselves to a party, a political party for our identity. No, we're Christians. We're committed to the Word of God. We are called to be pro-life and fight for the sanctity of life. We're called to be conservationists. We're called to be good stewards of what God has created. Now, what does that mean? What does that look like? Well, at the most basic level, we all have a sphere of influence. We all have some small sphere of influence that we get to control. Maybe it's the amount of trash that you create. Maybe it's what you do with that trash. Maybe it's how much water you use. Maybe it's your garden, your land. But we all have some sphere of influence. And you may think, what can I do with that small sphere of influence? You may not change the world. You may not change the destruction that's taking place. But that doesn't change the fact that you were called to be a steward of what God has put you in control of. So if you think about being a conservationist, as you think about what it means for you to be a steward of God's land, think about what you can control. Think about how you can be obedient to God's calling to care for this world, to care and to keep it. One of the things we look at what it means to be from this land and for this land was God's very specific command in verse 15. It tells us what man was called to do in the garden. He was called to work it and to keep it. It's in chapter 2 verse 15. He placed in the garden to work it and to keep it. And if you look ahead to What Moses writes in Numbers and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the same words, work and keep, the same commands, those are given to the priest. That's the description of the priest's calling in the temple. The temple priests were called to work in the temple and to keep the temple. Now, what's the point of that? I think it's very intentional, because if we look at the garden, It's not just a garden. If we look at the way the garden is designed, we look at the way things are happening, we look at the purpose of what God is doing. The garden is a temple and Adam and Eve were put there as priests to keep it and to work it. God is present in the garden. That's why it's a temple. God is there meeting man. They're coming face to face and talking and fellowshipping and relating to one another. That's why it's a temple. The garden has boundaries to guard and protect, to keep evil out. That's why it's a temple. It was a prototype of what the temple was going to be. So they look at the garden. It's not just a garden. This is where God and man match. And what are they supposed to guard the temple from? Evil. They're supposed to guard it from Satan, those who had already rebelled against God. As you think about that declaration, to work it and to keep it, it's very important for us to think about, to gather as Christians. Because the garden is, well, we're kept out of it now because we're evil. We've rebelled against God. We were thrown out of the garden. But he's made a new kind of temple. If you're a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ, the son as your savior, who has died on the cross and risen again, you are a temple. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. That is where God meets with you. You are a temple of God, and therefore you are supposed to work and keep, protect that temple. It's the holy place where God meets you. The Holy Spirit has come to indwell you. He indwells your heart. So what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to work. You're supposed to work on your spirituality. You're supposed to work at your dependence upon God. You're supposed to work at purging yourself of all the rebellion against God and work at listening and hearing the Holy Spirit. You're supposed to work at getting rid of that And work at hearing the Spirit who's creating new affections. Friends, you're to keep your heart that is a temple. You're to keep it and protect it. Protect it from evil. Protect it from outside influences. Protect it from those things that cause you to think less of God and to think more of yourself. That cause you to be entertained by sin. That cause you to think less of God and to think more of yourself. So we look at the garden of the temple, we now realize we're the temple. We need to work and protect ourselves, our hearts, our eyes. Well, secondly, this tells us something about work as well. Work in general, your jobs. Work is a good gift from God. Work is a blessing that God gives to you so that you can provide for yourself and your family. Work was created before the fall. Work is not a consequence of the fall. Work is a good thing. We were created to work. We are created by God to have jobs that provide. And God blesses us with jobs in his good grace. But why is work so frustrating? Whenever we work, we get frustrated because it's difficult. Friends, the thing I want to talk about this morning, the way I want to challenge you with this morning is whenever work is frustrating, don't curse your work. Don't think less about your job or your employer. No, friends, your job gets frustrating because you're under a curse. Your job is frustrating. Your job is difficult because we are all in a fallen world. And that makes the relationships we have at work. That makes work frustrating. It's the curse that causes these things to be difficult. Work is good. You cannot curse the good gift God has given you. So Fred, as you think about your job, as you think about how frustrating it can be, be careful not to curse your work. Christians, even more so, Paul declares, work as unto the Lord. You're supposed to see your job, not only as a job that you're pleasing your boss or your employer, you're supposed to be working as if you are working unto the Lord. If you're sweeping floors, you're sweeping the floor of God. I used to work at Starbucks five years, waking up at four thirty in the morning. Fairly difficult, fairly draining. And one of the things that eventually it got so tiring, it was easy to wake up in the morning and to go there with all the non-Christians and get involved in their grumbling. Everyone complains about work. That's just what we do. And it was so easy, waking up so early, standing on my feet all day, serving people who wanted real fancy lattes, to grumble. That was sin. It was a sin for me to grumble. It was a sin for me to join in the grumbling. Friends, if you're a Christian, you should stand out among all your employers or fellow employees. You should not partake in the grumble group. You should stand out as a witness of what work is supposed to be and what we were called to do, and that is to work for the glory of God. The second thing we learn about ourselves. The first was we were created from the land and for the land. The second thing is that we were created to be the special creation of God. Verse seven, again, the Lord took the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living creature. What a beautiful, intimate picture of how God created us. We're not just from the land and for the land to be working for the land. No, God takes a special care in how he declares we were created. He takes special care in breathing life into us, all the other animals. Let it be. There's a camel. Let it be. There's an elephant. No, with man he forms us. And then he gets close to us and he breathes life into us. What a beautiful, intimate picture of the God who is love, of the God who is personal, of the God who created us for an intimate relationship. The closest anyone's coming to a beautiful picture like this is Michelangelo. I'm going to play the part of Adam. I don't want to play the other part. The beautiful picture of the fingers just touching in such an intimate, small way. It shows to us that God cares for us. God did create us to be his special creation. Now, I'm a little uncomfortable talking about how special we are. I was told all growing up all my life that you're special. Not just me, but you know, in a preschool, everyone would say everyone's special. Everyone somehow is special. It's this kind of self-esteem boost that we all hear over and over again in America. We're all special. And the problem with the way it's typically said is that it declares that you are special and that all of creation is supposed to bow down and worship you. You keep thinking how special you are and you begin to walk around thinking, I'm special, everyone else needs to recognize it. That's the wrong kind of thinking about how special we are. Now we need to look at and see that we were created to be special. We were created for a special purpose. For a special role that is unique and a great blessing. It's not about building up our self-esteem, it's about properly seeing who God created us to be. We're not supposed to walk around and hoping that the world will bow down to us. No, we're supposed to work. So that all of creation will glorify and bow down to God. The thing about how sweet. And wonderful that declaration is that God breathes life into us. We have to realize that scripture together as a whole must be understood. And it's very intentional that Jesus, after His resurrection, He goes up to the disciples and He breathes the Holy Spirit into them. You see, the life that God intended us to have by breathing His breath, His Spirit, the same Spirit that's hovering around the world, by breathing that breath into us, He gave us life. and a life that can be lived in abundance. But after we rebelled against God, we lost the blessing of life. We gained the curse of death. And I believe that Jesus intentionally, it's recorded intentionally to show that when Jesus Christ breathed the life, breathed the Spirit onto the disciples, He's giving a renewal. He's beginning the new creation. taking the curse and the death and the destruction that we had gained in our rebellion and in its place, he's giving us new life. You see, in our rebellion, we lose life. And kicking against God, we lose the blessing that he gave us. And only God can give us that blessing back. And it's in Jesus Christ we receive that blessing back. You see, friends, we have all rebelled against God. We have all decided we're going to live the way we want to live, and we don't care what God says. And we've not functioned properly as His image bears. Instead of reflecting God, we reflect ourselves and our sinfulness and our rebellion. And God and His holiness should pour out upon His wrath upon all of us for our rebellion. But instead of His wrath, the Father sent His Son. Instead of His wrath, the Father sent love in Jesus Christ, the Son who is perfectly man and perfectly God. He lived a perfect human life, complete obedience, so that when He died on the cross, He could suffer for our sin and not His own. He lived a perfect life so that when God looked at Him, He poured His wrath upon an innocent man in the place of all of us. who rebelled against Him. And what we receive then is His perfect righteous life. It's the sweet exchange that takes place when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. We receive His perfect obedience because we believe He received our wrath. We are guilty before God. We cannot work enough to remove this guilt. We must believe in Jesus Christ, the only Savior, the only one who can provide perfect forgiveness, the only one who can remove the wrath of God. And then we will enjoy the life the Spirit gives, the new life, the new creation that we receive when the Spirit come and dwells our hearts and gives us new affections and gives us new life. We were created to be special, the special creation of God. We were created for an intimate personal relationship. We rebelled against God. We forsook that special relationship, but praise God, He has acted on our behalf in Jesus Christ to renew it. The third thing we see in Genesis 2 is that we were created to be dependent upon God. We were created to be dependent upon God. It's interesting here that the trees that are mentioned, verses nine, he calls all these things to spring up and they were pleasant to the sight and good for food. That'll be important for next week. God provided a number of trees that were pleasant to the eye and good for food. In the midst of the garden, he planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Now, these are kind of obscure. And their definition, I believe it's hard to really understand what the tree of life was, it was not prohibited, but it obviously apparently wasn't eaten of yet either. It has to be removed because somehow, even though I don't think it's a magical tree, it is a real tree. Somehow it symbolizes. Healing life, the celebration of life and eternal life. But really, you need to focus on this morning is. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Look at verse 16, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden because I've made a lot that are pleasant to the sight and good for food. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. What is this tree of the knowledge of good and evil? But first, I think if we look at it generally, it's interesting. God gave man dominion over so many things. If you look in the garden, God gave man dominion over the plants, the rivers, the animals. Man has almost absolute dominion on the earth. And I think it's interesting that in the midst of the garden, in the middle of the garden that man has almost absolute sovereignty over, God plants a tree. And I believe he planted this tree and said you can't eat of it so that man never fooled himself into believing a lie that he was self-sufficient. That he was the one who had absolute sovereignty. That he had absolute control. See, I believe God limits man from this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to give him a reminder that he's not autonomous. He's not self-sufficient. There's a ruler of the world. He is autonomous and self-sufficient. And this tree was a symbol of that. If we look at the actual name, the knowledge of good and evil, I believe that also points to this. You see, when you have the knowledge of good and evil, you're able to determine what is right and wrong. When you have the knowledge of good and evil, you have the ability and the capacity to determine what the moral and ethical code should be. When you have the knowledge of good and evil, you get to declare what is right and wrong for you. See, Adam and Eve, they're supposed to be dependent upon God for their declaration of what right and wrong are supposed to be. God alone can determine what the good life is. And by forsaking God and His warning and His command not to eat of this tree, well, man received spiritual death. All of us did there. And we all face physical death. That's the thing about this principle here. Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a reminder that they are not autonomous, and they are not supposed to have the ability to determine their own moral code, because they do not have the capacity, and they should not try to determine what the good life is. No, they're supposed to look to God to determine what the good life is. I'm a fan of philosophy. And I finally figured out why, and that's because if you study true philosophy, you're studying the pursuit of happiness. The classical philosophers, that's what they're after. The true pursuit of philosophy is trying to pursue, what is the best possible life that I can live? Now, when I say I like philosophy, most of you are like, oh great, this is going to be fantastic. That's because the philosophy you're thinking of is the philosophy of the sophist. These are the guys Plato didn't like. The sophists are the ones that use all the tools of philosophy, but they use them to deconstruct and to destroy and to trick you. That's the bad philosophers. We call them sophists to make sure we're clear on this. True philosophers. They're the ones that are pursuing life and life the most abundantly. If you've been reading our evangel, Jonathan Edwards is an example of someone who was a true philosopher. You hear it over and over again in his resolutions. I determine, I resolve to live a life that I will not regret when I die. He wants to live the most. He wants to get the most out of life possible. Well, friends, I'm here to tell you that if you want to get the life that you were created for, If you want to get the most out of life, if you want to be a true philosopher, stop looking at your own wisdom. Stop trying to determine on your own what is good and what is right and what is evil. You must look to God. God created you. Our world is full of lies because we continue to lie to ourselves. We love the lies. We'll look more at the lies, obviously, next week. We love the lies. They're like a nice warm blanket as we go to bed at night. Friends, if we want to live the best life, we're going to have to stop looking into our own lives, our own wisdom. We must look to God. If you're not a Christian here and you're frustrated with life, the reason is you haven't trusted Christ to forgive you for your sins. You haven't trusted God in what He has declared life to be. We talked about last week, a great quote from Augustine, our hearts are restless until they find our rest in you. We were created for you, God. Our hearts are restless until they find our rest in you. We long for true philosophy. We long for the true meaning of life and the pursuit of happiness. And we try to find in everything but God. And that will give you nothing but more frustration. The last thing we'll see this morning is that we were created to be dependent upon one another. We were created to be dependent upon one another. This comes from verses 18 through the end. Let me read this again. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now to the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not. Now it's interesting, Mark Twain has a commentary on the creating of the animals. He said, Adam came in from work one day and asked, Eve said, why did you call that an elephant? Adam said, it looks like an elephant. Interesting commentary. It's supposed to be a joke. We look at Adam. There he is. He's a single man. God said it's not good yet. He couldn't give the Genesis 1, day 6, very good declaration until Eve was made. It's not good for man to be alone. He needed a helper. That's a good reminder for us, husbands. It isn't good for us to be alone. We need the helper. Paul looks at this order. And he declares that since man was made first, he is the head of the household. And since woman creates or gives birth to man, man is dependent upon him. There's an interdependent relationship that God creates. This doesn't mean that one is superior in being. It simply means that God established world relationships so that one has authority and one does not, in terms of the ultimate sense. We see man's authority over woman in the sense that he was created first, as Paul says. We also see man having authority over woman in the fact that he names her. That's one of the great ways that God gives man authority over all the animals. He names them all. That's a great action of authority. That's the way you express authority over your children, by naming them. If we look at what this authority means, though, again, God gives you a blessing as a responsibility. If you look at the authority you have as a husband, the authority you're supposed to be exercising for your wife, it's not a superiority. Rather, it's a greater responsibility. The authority that man is given over his wife is not a superiority, it's a responsibility. It means you are responsible for your wife's well-being physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It means you don't act like a bonehead and make decisions for your own selfishness. It means you make decisions with her in mind. How can you serve her? How can you love her? How can you make sure her well-being is always at the forefront of your decisions? You are called to have the responsibility of making decisions for your family according to what God has called you to. Too often, this authority is used for selfishness rather than thinking about the larger family unit and their well-being. It just goes to show we abuse God's gifts. We abuse God's order. We pervert and corrupt and take everything God created We use it for our own well-being. Our authority as men is to love our wives. To love our wives as Christ loved the church. To think of her needs as more important than our own. To think of her as more important than yourself. To lay down your life for her. Using your authority for your selfishness. That's not godliness. That's sin. As one great commentator wrote a poem on the creation of woman. Woman was created from the rib of man. She was not made from his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon, but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, near his heart to be loved. We must realize that the woman is created equally in the image of God. She has dignity. She has purpose. She has honor. There are role differences. We must be careful to guard them from becoming sinful. As we look at the metaphor of marriage as it's used throughout scripture, sometimes we take things in this world and we use them as metaphors for God. So we look at a rock and we see the stability and the power of a rock and we'll say God is our rock. He's our strong foundation. So, it's taking something from this world and applying it to God to give us an idea of how secure a foundation God is. He's a rock. I think this metaphor is actually taken from the heavens and applied to us. See, none of us are the perfect bridegroom. None of us are the perfect husband. Christ alone, He is the archetype. The perfect husband. And we, the church, are the bride. See, marriage is used as a gospel instrument. Marriage is used and prescribed early on so that God would be able to use it for the great declaration, the great truth that Christ alone is the bridegroom. He is the perfect husband. And we are in need of Him to lead us. So, if you're a man today, your authority should scare you. not puff you up. Your authority should scare you because it says you've got a great responsibility. A responsibility to love your wife as Christ loved the church. I do want to talk to those who are single this morning. If you're single, a widow, a widower, you've been divorced, We are created to be dependent upon one another. That's why we are a church. We are in relation with one another. Man was not meant to live alone, period. We need relationships. And if you're single, the first thing I want to say, young and single especially, singleness isn't a curse. Singleness could be God's great blessing to you right now for you to be a blessing to others. Singleness is not a curse. Use your singleness to glorify God. Use the freedom you have as a single person now to glorify God. And I'm very thankful that all of our singles I see doing this. There are great models of those who are single who have used their lives to glorify God. Let's make one small example. The three children who have been raised in this church or the three of the four people that I baptized this year. Three of them mention the same young man who's a single man. Three of them mention a young man who has used his life to love others, to serve others, to model the gospel. That is using your singleness well. If you're single, you must realize that you aren't alone. You have the church. You're not alone in the sense that you have other brothers and sisters to come alongside of you and to love you and to care for you and Especially if you're a widow or a widower. Remember, your spouse died because of the fall. Your spouse has passed away because of the fall, because of the curse, because of our rebellion. But in God's grace, you can see them again if they believe and if you believe in Jesus Christ. Friends, as we finish this section. I want to point out the beauty of the section and that it ends with a poem itself. This is the last bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. There's a glorious ending here that declares the beauty of marriage, the sanctity of marriage for all mankind. But as we think about marriage, we must realize that in marriage, we fail. In our marriages, we fail. That's why we long for the bridegroom who doesn't fail. That's why we long for the perfect husband who loves us and cares for us, who heals us, who provides forgiveness. Let us long for his return to bring us in as the perfect bride, purified by his blood. Let's pray. God, you are so great. We sing your praises. We look around. We sing your greatness. You are beautiful. You are wise. You are worthy of our worship and praise. We think about ourselves this morning. Let us not be built up in pride, but let us see the humility we're supposed to have in the sense of we were created for such a special purpose. Let us be recommitted to that purpose in Christ. Let us see that in Christ you renewed us to that purpose. In Christ, in the power of your Spirit, we can live and pursue true happiness again. Let us be morphed by the grace and the mercy and the love that you have shown us. Let us show it to others. In your name we pray. Amen.