Creation and Freedom
August 14, 2024
Pastor Gordon Cook
Genesis 2:7-9, 16, 17
This is that wonderful story of creation. It comes into sharp focus here in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Genesis 1 is the overview and Genesis 2 is more of a focused view on the sixth day, and here's what God does for our first parents. In verses 7-9 you get a wonderful sense here of God's goodness, his generosity, his kindness by this beautiful garden he made for our first parents, probably the most beautiful thing on planet Earth back then, and even compared to what we have today. The creation is under a curse, so that has damaged creation, it even lost some of its beauty.
So you have one negative, only one negative, but when it comes to all the other trees they have full liberty to eat and enjoy and no one would have accused God of being restrictive or lack generosity in any respect. Everything he made was sort of a trumpet blast into the ears of our first parents; God is good, God is generous, God is kind, look at what he made for you. And yet the devil comes along, and he sows doubts in the minds of our first parents with regard to God's goodness, and they end up disobeying God. And suddenly, suddenly, they are on the run. They're running from God, and they will never get back to that garden. They don't get back. They lose their freedom and they lose the enjoyment of that blessed garden, all those fruit trees. That explains why man by nature is enslaved to his lust. We were reminded of that last Lord’s day in the Sunday school hour by Dr. Ferguson. When Adam fell we fell, Adam died, we died, and all the curses fall upon Adam, and fall upon us. But every man is born a sinner and is born in bondage.
But here's the great news of the gospel, it's a gospel of liberation, Jesus is the great liberator. The very first sermon Jesus preached in his hometown of Nazareth in Luke's gospel, Luke 4:18, there is an emphasis on freedom. Here is what Jesus said, “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Freedom is a great gospel word, it's a Christian word. “The Son sets you free,” said Jesus, “You will be free indeed.”
And thinking of that great epistle, there's a great emphasis in Romans on freedom, freedom from guilt, condemnation. That's true of Romans 3 right through chapter 5. “We're free from the bondage of sin,” Romans 6. “We're no longer under condemnation,” Romans 8. And also in Romans 8 we walk by the Spirit, we are led by the Spirit. No longer are we led by our lust, but we are under the Spirit's control. Every Christian in Romans 8 also has this freedom of free access to God by prayer. When you think of prayer think of freedom. Think of all the freedoms you enjoy when it comes to prayer.
But going back now, why did I start with Genesis Chapter 2? Think of the freedom that Adam and Eve enjoyed. Think of the freedom that we enjoy when it comes to living the life of Christians, and even when it comes to prayer.
But there's one big restriction when it comes to prayer. What is it? “Have no other gods before me.” That's a negative. You can only pray to one God. You can only pray to Jehovah Yahweh. You can only pray to a three-person God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Again, the 1st commandment, “Have no other gods before me.” We can't pray to Buddha, he doesn't exist anyway; we can't pray to Allah; we can't pray to Mary, we can't pray to dead saints. There's a great restriction, one God! One God, the only true God, the God of the Bible. So we have a wonderful freedom, like Adam and Eve in the garden, in terms of all the fruit trees. But there is one restriction.
We come to pray to one true God who has made himself known in His word and by his Son Jesus. It's a good thing to remind ourselves of the wonderful freedom we have in Christ.
Pastor Gordon Cook
Genesis 2:7-9, 16, 17
This is that wonderful story of creation. It comes into sharp focus here in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Genesis 1 is the overview and Genesis 2 is more of a focused view on the sixth day, and here's what God does for our first parents. In verses 7-9 you get a wonderful sense here of God's goodness, his generosity, his kindness by this beautiful garden he made for our first parents, probably the most beautiful thing on planet Earth back then, and even compared to what we have today. The creation is under a curse, so that has damaged creation, it even lost some of its beauty.
Genesis 2:7-9, “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 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 to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.”
Then, if you drop down to verse 16 of Genesis 2 you find one restriction, one restriction.
Genesis 2:16, 17, “And the Lord God, commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, (there's the wonderful liberty God gave man) 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.’”
So you have one negative, only one negative, but when it comes to all the other trees they have full liberty to eat and enjoy and no one would have accused God of being restrictive or lack generosity in any respect. Everything he made was sort of a trumpet blast into the ears of our first parents; God is good, God is generous, God is kind, look at what he made for you. And yet the devil comes along, and he sows doubts in the minds of our first parents with regard to God's goodness, and they end up disobeying God. And suddenly, suddenly, they are on the run. They're running from God, and they will never get back to that garden. They don't get back. They lose their freedom and they lose the enjoyment of that blessed garden, all those fruit trees. That explains why man by nature is enslaved to his lust. We were reminded of that last Lord’s day in the Sunday school hour by Dr. Ferguson. When Adam fell we fell, Adam died, we died, and all the curses fall upon Adam, and fall upon us. But every man is born a sinner and is born in bondage.
But here's the great news of the gospel, it's a gospel of liberation, Jesus is the great liberator. The very first sermon Jesus preached in his hometown of Nazareth in Luke's gospel, Luke 4:18, there is an emphasis on freedom. Here is what Jesus said, “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Freedom is a great gospel word, it's a Christian word. “The Son sets you free,” said Jesus, “You will be free indeed.”
And thinking of that great epistle, there's a great emphasis in Romans on freedom, freedom from guilt, condemnation. That's true of Romans 3 right through chapter 5. “We're free from the bondage of sin,” Romans 6. “We're no longer under condemnation,” Romans 8. And also in Romans 8 we walk by the Spirit, we are led by the Spirit. No longer are we led by our lust, but we are under the Spirit's control. Every Christian in Romans 8 also has this freedom of free access to God by prayer. When you think of prayer think of freedom. Think of all the freedoms you enjoy when it comes to prayer.
Let me give you a little bit of a list:
- We are free in terms of the content or substance of our prayers.
- “We are free to cast all of our care upon God because He cares for us,” that's what Peter tells us.
- We can petition God for all our physical needs; that comes under that petition, “Give us our daily bread.”
- We can petition God for all of our spiritual needs or our soul needs; pardon, forgiveness of sin, protection from the evil one in all evil; that comes under that matter of asking God to forgive us our debts, and protect us from the evil one.
- We can pray for all positive spiritual needs: in terms of conversion of sinners, of loved ones, of our own sanctification, church growth, worldly revival.
- We can pray for national repentance, “Thy kingdom come,” that comes under all of that.
- We can pray individually, private prayers.
- We can pray corporate prayers.
- We can pray short prayers, arrow prayers,
- We can pray long prayers.
- We can pray all night prayers.
- We can pray early morning prayers.
- We can pray all kinds of prayers: thanksgiving prayers, intercessory prayers, penitent prayers, petition prayers, whole prayers, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”
- We are free to pray for all men; 1 Timothy 2, “I urge that supplications, prayers, thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and for those who are in high places.”
- We can pray at any time, any place, morning, day, night. Think of all the places Jesus prayed, in the garden, he prayed on the mountain; David prayed in a cave; the apostle Paul prayed in prison, Daniel prayed in the lion's den.
But going back now, why did I start with Genesis Chapter 2? Think of the freedom that Adam and Eve enjoyed. Think of the freedom that we enjoy when it comes to living the life of Christians, and even when it comes to prayer.
But there's one big restriction when it comes to prayer. What is it? “Have no other gods before me.” That's a negative. You can only pray to one God. You can only pray to Jehovah Yahweh. You can only pray to a three-person God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Again, the 1st commandment, “Have no other gods before me.” We can't pray to Buddha, he doesn't exist anyway; we can't pray to Allah; we can't pray to Mary, we can't pray to dead saints. There's a great restriction, one God! One God, the only true God, the God of the Bible. So we have a wonderful freedom, like Adam and Eve in the garden, in terms of all the fruit trees. But there is one restriction.
We come to pray to one true God who has made himself known in His word and by his Son Jesus. It's a good thing to remind ourselves of the wonderful freedom we have in Christ.
Posted in Pastor Devotional