Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
Speaker 2All right , welcome back to day three , as we do a deep dive on God's intention for man in the garden , chapter 2 , verse 16, . 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 . The second thing that God gave the man was a will to obey . The first thing that God gave him was work to enjoy . Now , one of the things I want you to see here is that there's technically , in the Garden of Eden , there was no like worship service . But the way in which a man was going to worship God , two of the three things was one in his will to obey or in work to enjoy . Secondly , is in his will to obey .
Speaker 2Now , what's going to happen in chapter three of Genesis is the enemy is going to show up on the scene , and every single time that lying serpent shows up he always tries to get us to question the word of God , the work of God and the worth of God . And the first thing that he's going to say to Eve in Genesis , chapter three , is this did God actually say you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ? And the answer is that is not what God said . God said you may surely eat of every tree in the garden , but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat . You see , the NIV translates it this way you are free to eat of every tree . You see , the NIV translates it this way you are free to eat of every tree . You see , the enemy constantly wants us to try to put our own wants and desires above the precepts of God , and the reason is because he wants to kill , steal and destroy everything that God wants to give us . You see , if you look at God's posture before the fall of man in Genesis 1 , 2 , and 3 , what you're going to see here is God is not into rules .
Speaker 2God is into relationship . That God creates Adam . He breathes the rule of life into his nostrils . He is in a face-to-face relationship with Adam . That God walks through the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve . He was into relationship , not rules .
Speaker 2In fact , in Genesis 1 , 2 , and 3 , what you're going to find is there's a whole bunch of thou shouts . There's only one thou shalt not . The only thou shalt not is don't eat of that one tree , because if you do , it will kill you , and I love you enough to give you that warning . But there's a bunch of thou shouts that God is going to tell Adam , like we talked about yesterday , subdue and cultivate . Later he's going to tell Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply . That was a command of God , that God came up with the idea of sex for procreation and recreation .
Speaker 2In the covenant of marriage we serve a good , good God . But what happens is the enemy comes along and he wants us to believe that God's not for us , he's against us . And but what happens is the enemy comes along and he wants us to believe that God's not for us , he's against us . And so what happens is we have this will to obey God . That's what he gave to Adam and yet when sin enters , it gets corrupted . And here's the thing about obedience to God . It's not simply about right and wrong . Right and wrong will never sustain you .
Speaker 2In John , chapter 10 , jesus says that the thief comes only to steal , kill and destroy . And then Jesus says I'm the good shepherd and I have come , that you may have life and have it abundantly . So let me explain this when it comes to your obedience to what God says is right or wrong , it's so much deeper than right and wrong . You see , every single time we hear the voice of the good shepherd and we do what he says , especially when we don't understand it or don't like it , it always leads to life , and life abundantly . And whenever we listen to the voice of a stranger , what we're doing is we're listening to a thief who only wants to steal , kill and destroy .
Speaker 2So this world says there's a certain way to do money and sex and power . And then the Bible says no , no , no , no , no . There's God's way of doing money , sex and power . The world says more is mine . The Bible says it's all God , so bring your first and best to him . And when we obey Jesus , there is life here . And when we listen to the ways of this world , it baits us down a path and then laughs at us when we go there . Take sex , for example . The Bible says that sex is for married people and marriage , according to the scripture , is one man , one woman , one lifetime .
Speaker 2And then we have the audacity to look at God and say God , what do you even know about this ? I know better than you do . We stiff arm God , we reject him and we do what we want , and it burns our world down . It leads to death every single time . So the thing that God gives to man in the garden , before sin ever enters the world , is this a will to obey . And when we obey god , it leads not only to glorifying god , it leads to life , and life abundantly , and it leads to our own flourishing . So god gave adam three things in the garden , all under the banner of worshiping him . He gave him work to enjoy Talked about it yesterday . He gave him a will to obey . That's what we covered today . Come back tomorrow to hear the third thing that he gives to man .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you want to help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .