Chapter 2, verse 15 and 17. It says, And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now we talked last week, not at length, but we talked plenty about that Adam was created in a stage of innocence. If you have the paper and you're able to look down there, you may not find it right away, but this is called the Edenic Covenant that God makes with Adam. It's the Edenic, like Eden, Edenic, Edenic Covenant. And this is the idea that, and if you follow, if you want to get into, which dispensations is a very important thing to know. When you study the Bible, we'll get into that a little bit more as we go through the lesson. But this is important to know here. Adam's gospel is not our gospel. Now, I hesitate to even call it a gospel, but I'm just throwing that out because people get the term gospel all wrong. You know, the Bible says that gospel means good tidings. Gospel does not mean the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ throughout the Bible. It does for us today. That's the good news, the good tidings for us today is that Jesus Christ came and that's why we're having this season, right? Christmas season. Jesus Christ came. He lived a life, a sinless perfect life and died for us. And because of that, we call that the gospel, the good news. But the word for Adam, the covenant that was made with Adam, and as you follow dispensations through the Bible, you'll understand that covenants are places where God changes things. He makes a covenant here with With Adam, if you eat that tree, you're going to die. So what's the opposite of that? Don't eat the tree, you won't die. You'll be fine. But Adam was in a stage of what's called innocence. He didn't really know right from wrong, just like a little baby doesn't know right from wrong. Now they do wrong, don't they? Little babies do wrong all the time. you know nobody's born an angel and so but they don't know they're doing wrong and it's up to us to tell them they're doing wrong now the school system out there and the world out there would tell you that you don't do anything wrong you take your kid to a psychiatrist when they're young and they're going to say oh there's no right or wrong all you what's right for you is right for you don't let anybody tell you that something is wrong don't ever feel guilt about what you do now i don't want to get off into that i'd like to but uh... they they give all the wrong advice And your self-esteem is the most important thing, they will tell you. Your self-esteem, you read the Bible and what great men of the Bible thought of themselves. I am a worm and no man, David said. That's what he thought about himself. Job, that God put in a competition between him and the devil just to prove the devil wrong, said, I abhor myself. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, said, I must decrease. So I don't think God's philosophy on self-esteem is the same as the world's. But having said all that, Adam was created in a state of innocence. He did not have the knowledge of good and evil. If he took of the tree, he would have it, and we all have it today. I'm not going to say much more about that. But Adam communicated directly with God, and thus he lived by sight and not by faith. Did you hear what I said? We always say we live by faith, not by sight. You know, if you believe in Santa Claus, it's because you believe in him. And if you're believing, you're seeing. You know, if you watch the Santa Claus movies. Santa Claus movies. Hold on. And believing is seeing. I mean, we have the word of God. You know, your faith is not blind faith. Hebrews 11 does tell you faith. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So don't let anybody ever put you down for being a Christian that you have blind faith, that you believe in a God that you can't see. Well, you see God all around you and you don't believe in him. There's something wrong with you, not with me. So we don't have blind faith. But Adam, Adam had a different situation. Adam walked and talked with God. Adam heard God's voice. Adam knew everything he knew from God. He was he was the son of God. The Bible tells us he was a direct creation of God. So Adam had a special dispensation. He was innocent. He had a covenant with God. Just don't eat of the tree. And he communicated with God. He walked by sight and not by faith. And so when you get all the way to the end of the world here pretty soon, and we get to a millennium, guess what we'll be doing again? We'll be walking by sight and not by faith. You say, why is that? Because Jesus Christ will be here physically on this earth, sitting on a throne, ruling and reigning, and all the world will know Him. And so you won't be walking by faith. Well, if there was a God, you know, there is a God. He's right there. So that's a difference. So just dispensationally, you understand. We'll get into that later in the chapter. Here's the question that comes up, that if God made Adam, and he made him innocent, and he made him basically sinless, not sinless, but he was innocent, and his one main command was, you know, don't eat of that tree or you'll die, then why then did God put a tree in the garden? Right? So men will try to trip you up. Just like, where did Cain get his wife? See, you don't know anything. You don't even think. You just read the Bible stupid, you know, blindly. And where did Cain even get a wife? You know, well, you better have an answer for that. You better be prepared. I'm not going to do it this morning. But the same thing, why did God put a tree in the garden? See, God is sadistic. He just likes to toy with man, and he likes that famine. There's famine and poverty everywhere in the world. Why does guys like Hitler be able to kill six million people? And why is there communist governments who put their people in concentration camps and have slave labor? And why aren't there rights for the women? And why aren't there this and that go on and on? God could stop that at any time. It's the age old argument against that there's that if you serve that kind of God, I don't want anything to do with them. Now, Pastor was dealing with slavery on Thursday night, delicate subject these days. Right. You don't want to get to, you know, the wrong crowd around you if you're going to deal with what the Bible says about it. But the thing about it is God doesn't think like us and God doesn't work like us. And we better get the mentality of God about us. And so why did God put a tree in the midst of the garden? Well, let's think together. The only possible answer to that question, and I'll explain what I mean in a minute, is true love. Now people, this is not Valentine's Day, but people like to think about, you know, true love. You know, I married my true love, or I want to have true love in my life. And, you know, God, I think, you know, we all know that God is love. We ought to know what else God is. I have a list that I've created about everything that God is. The Bible tells you what God is. He says God is holy, God is righteous, God is the judge. God is, and it goes on and on, there's plenty of things that God is, but everybody only knows God is love. But God is love, and God made man, I believe, because he liked it. Go to Revelation 4.11, don't do it right now, but go to Revelation 4.11, you see that God created all things for his pleasure. So when God made man, it pleased man. You read, you know, we read it already in Genesis there where God saw that it was good. He saw that it was good. He liked it. He liked man. But true love, you say, what does that mean? Well, Matthew 22, and I'll just read it for you. Matthew 22, verse 36 and 37. A man came to Jesus and he said, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. That's the greatest commandment in God's eyes. You ought to love me with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Love. We ought to love God like that. He loves us. You know how much He loved you? He died for you. By His stripes, you are healed. He took a beating for us. He came down and let His own creation do that to Him to save that very creation. And that's how He loved us. So I believe that God loved man that much when He made him. And so He put that tree in the garden, and this is where it comes to. God wants to enjoy a loving relationship with His creation. God made man with the freedom of choice. We call that free will. In fact, the Bible calls it free will. Calvinism is a terrible heresy. It'll take you off in the directions you don't want to go. It'll turn you into something you don't want to be. if you follow that idea. But God says that He made man with the freedom of choice. It's called free will in the Bible. So this could be possible. Because this, love is a choice. Or else it's not love. Right? Now, the pastor talked about arranged marriages the other day too. And if you have arranged marriages, do you have true love? Do you have true choice there? Hey, you know, you know, so and so, you're going to marry this person and you're going to love them. Well, I'll try. But is that true love? Is that choice? No. God wants to have choice because God says, how do you love me with all your heart, your soul, your mind? You choose it. And so he put a he put a tree in the midst of the garden that could cause them to fall because he wanted them. He wanted them to have a free will and he wanted them to choose him. because they loved Him with all their heart, with all their mind and with all their soul. And so you can't have free love without it. Without free will, true love does not exist. But granting free will also brings out the inevitable possibility for sin. All that true love stuff sounds wonderful. Yeah, I want to choose God and I did choose God. If you're saved this morning, you chose God, right? And so that's wonderful. But when you have free will, you have the possibility for sin, don't you? So do we really have the right to blame God for man's choices? You see, we're indicting ourself when we have that argument about Hitler and about communism and about starvation and famine and how evil man is. Yeah, man is evil when he does not choose God, when he does not serve Him with all his heart, his soul and his mind, when his mind is not stayed on Him, when he does not read the Bible, when he does not follow the commandments of the God, which of the Ten Commandments of the Bible, because which God said that He wrote those things for your good always. And so that's the idea of following God. And so God is not to blame. Well, God lets it go on. Well, what do you want him to do? Think about it. What do you want him to do? Do you want him to take that guy out? Because if he takes that guy out, he's got to take you out. You say, well, I'm good. Ah, see, see where you're at. There is none good. No, not one. You have all fall short of the glory of God. You are all as an unclean thing. Together, you become unprofitable. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. You see? We'll stop him. We'll stop you. Right? Now this is God. This is the mercy and longsuffering of God. The longsuffering of God, according to Peter, is your salvation. Well, how long is this world gonna go on, this wicked world? Another baby, you know, my wife's mamaw, they called her mamaw, when her grandma, for you northerners, I'm northern, but anyway, they would say, whenever a baby is born, oh, another baby born in this wicked world. And, you know, as they would lament the idea, but yes, it is a wicked world, it always has been a wicked world ever since they ate of that tree. there was a murderer right out the gate, their own children. And so, yes, but aren't you glad you're here? So the question is, should God have withheld from making Adam because of the potential for him to sin? No, no. Because the question then goes on, well, should he have allowed you and I to be born because we might choose sin? Are you glad you're born? Now, maybe you're not. Maybe you wish you were dead. I don't know. If you think that way, we'll see you afterwards, OK? We'll talk to you. But should God allowed you to be born? You see, the fact is that we're all here. And the fact is that God made man knowing this ahead of time. He knew it already. And the fact is, if we turn over in our Bibles, now I want you to do this. Turn to this place. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. I think you know this verse, but look at it. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. And look at verse 4. Well, let's back up and go to verse 3. Blessed Ephesians 1 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. When did you do that Lord? Is that an afterthought, afterwards, after Adam's sin? Verse four, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. We could read on, but we'll stop there. That is what God knew before He ever made Adam. He loved what He was creating. He wanted that relationship. That's why He talked with Adam in the cool of the day. That's why He did everything He did for Adam and gave man the image of God. He did that because He loved him. Now, and we're supposed to return that favor with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind, and we have a choice. You have a choice today. You can choose God or you can reject Him. You can be saved and be on your way to heaven and have the confidence that Jesus Christ took care of your, became your sacrifice, took care of your sins. Or you can choose not to and you can go out there and live a wicked life. You can commit crimes against people and then people will turn around and blame God for what you chose to do. Because that's how wicked we are. We don't take the blame. Now as we get to chapter three, you're gonna see that man started off. One of the first things man did when he got into sin was he did not want the blame. He shifted the blame off to the serpent, shifted the blame off to the woman, shifted the blame off to God. And it wasn't, I didn't do it. It's not my fault. You made me this way. I was born this way, right? No. We have a choice. God is a God of free will. We'll leave it there, but we could go on about free will. It's all through the Bible. And the Calvinists, you recognize a Calvinist when they say this to you. The sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. They say God. Show me the word sovereign in the Bible. It's not there one time. You know what they mean by sovereign? God controls everything like they're puppets. He pulls the strings, He makes all the decisions, and so He is responsible for good and He is responsible for evil. He is responsible for who goes to heaven, who goes to hell. You don't have a choice. Now, if you're a living, breathing person of any simplistic intelligence, you know that's not true. You know you make choices. And the Bible shows you throughout that man has a free will. All right, now on to the sheet for today. Verse 18.