if you have your bibles with you open them to genesis chapter 2. genesis chapter 2. speaking of the issue of cultural apologetics and specifically in the area of marriage i want us to focus on that today there there is a war raging right now in the marketplace of ideas and it's a war that's raging on many fronts but one of those fronts is on the front of not just marriage but the idea of biblical manhood and womanhood and marriage really a biblical understanding of humanity what it means to be a man or a woman made in the image of god more fundamentally there's an argument about what it means to be a man or a woman just let that sink in for a moment we we went from having an argument about you know what were acceptable sexual practices to to to then going to an argument about who are acceptable marriage partners and now to an argument about what is a male and what is a female what is a man and what is a woman and all of that goes to the heart of a simple singular question hath god said because if he hasn't then we are free to have those arguments and those debates and to move the goalposts from time to time but if god hath said and we're in trouble and i believe we are and i believe that because i believe all of the bible and particularly the passage that we're about to read genesis chapter 2 beginning at verse 15.
in genesis chapter 1 we get this beautiful overview of the creation week and of what god did by genesis chapter 3 we already get to the fall but there in genesis chapter 2 we we get a sort of of of retelling of the creation narrative from a different perspective and we hone in really on that last day verse 15. in those first 14 verses we see men created and brought and put into the garden and now we get more specifics about that the lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden to work it and 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 it's interesting that before we get to this instruction about marriage beginning in verse 18 we have the instruction about the tree in the midst of the garden from which the man is commanded not to eat god has given adam a law a law that is written on his heart and then he's given him this specific precept about the tree in the midst of the garden from which he must not eat and he binds him to perfect and perpetual obedience to this command and he gives him a warning as to what will happen if he breaks this command that if he breaks this command and if he eats of the tree from which you've been commanded not to eat that death will be the consequence and it is incredibly important for us to understand that right before god gives us instructions about manhood and womanhood and marriage god lays out his law so that we understand the way things work and that is that god is the sovereign creator of the world and everything in it and as the sovereign creator of the world and everything in it god tells us what things are and how things are to be god is the one who creates and defines humanity god is the one who creates and defines manhood and womanhood god is the one who tells us what is a man and what is a woman he doesn't ask us that question [Music] nor does he give us leeway in that area but god hath said and the consequences here are significant because god says in in the day that you eat of this you will surely die in the day that you eat of this you will bring death as a consequence of your eating and there is a reality to this in the sense that physical death comes to adam because of the eating but there is another kind of death that is brought [Music] the spiritual death this death that separates man from god and it is this death this spiritual death that actually makes man ignore the command it is this spiritual death that makes man ignore the fact that god has spoken that god has given us a law and that we are bound by that law it is this spiritual death that causes man to rebel against god in the very definition of what it means to be man made in the image of god there was no mistake that these passages are connected and in our day we are seeing this play out there was a bill in australia that in the last couple of weeks i think has become law it's bill c4 it's a bill on conversion therapy you may think well that that's that's canada what does canada have to do with us um you need to understand that this bill c4 in canada is based on an ideology that is rampant in the united states and you need to also understand that there are similar bills in the united states but i just want to give you a portion of this not the whole bill the bill outlaws conversion therapy but i want you to understand the theological premise behind the bill and yes i said theological premise all laws have theological premises and i quote the bill would discourage and denounce harmful practices and treatments that are based on myths and stereotypes about lgbtq2 people these include myths and stereotypes that the sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression of lgbtq2 people are undesirable conditions that can or should be changed myths and stereotypes to what myths to the creation law or the the canadian law i may have said australian earlier if i did i was i misspoke i just realized that it was canadian law uh to what myths does this canadian law refer well the myth of heteronormativity for example specifically the myth of heteronormativity now if you haven't been in a gender studies class in the last few years you may be asking what is what is heteronormativity it's the idea that people are normally supposed to be heterosexual that is now considered a myth or the myth of cisgender the myth that people born in male bodies are men and people born in female bodies are women and that no matter what you think about those bodies or do to those bodies you cannot change what god hath wrought these are now considered myths but not just myths dangerous myths dangerous myths that have been replaced by scientific truths that should now govern us as we've become more enlightened so genesis 2 15 16 and 17 give us the groundwork and the framework and then we get to verse 18 and we specifically get into the issue and the question about men and women and marriage verse 18 then the lord god said it is not good that the man should be alone i will make him a helper fit for him this is a very important statement because god says here that something is not good but he says so before the fall now what that means is that either there is sin before the fall or that the statement here it is not good is not a reference to something that is sinful and there is no sin before the fall amen romans chapter 5 makes that very clear through this one man's sin came into the world and then death through sin so there's no sin before the fall so when god says it is not good that the man should be alone he doesn't mean that it is not good in the moral or ethical sense that it is not righteous but that somehow this is not the most beneficial situation and i will make him a helper fit for him now this is interesting and anyone who is reading this especially any reader of the hebrew bible who sees in genesis chapter 1 this pattern over and over again god says let there be then there was it was good let there be then there was it was good let there be then there was it was good let there be then there was it was good let there be then there was but very good so in chapter one we see that rhythm and that pattern over and over and over again so that now in chapter two when god says something is not good our ears are supposed to perk up why is it not good it's not good because the man is alone we learned in chapter one that the man is made in the image of god who said let us make man in our image let us father son holy spirit make man in our image the triune god who has always for all eternity existed in perfect unity in harmony within the godhead this one god in three persons god the father the son and god the spirit god the son eternally begotten of the father and god the spirit eternally proceeding from the father and the son makes man in his image this triune god makes man in his image and now all of a sudden the man is alone and it's not good so god the father son the holy spirit who makes man in his image takes from the man's side the woman who proceeds from the man and then proceeding from the union of the man and the woman come children so that the triune god makes man in his triumphant image this is a theological statement it's not good for the man to be alone and so i'll make him a helper fit for him now there the animals were there so man wasn't alone in that sense as though he was the only living thing that was created there were other living things that were created but here's the problem verse 19.
