Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter two. For our sermon today, we're going to be looking at verses 18 through 25. I'm going to read the passage and pray to brighten the sermon. Genesis chapter two, verse 18 through 25. Hear now the word of God. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the 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 man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. Then man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caught the 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. And the 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. Thus ends the reading of God's holy, inerrant word. May its truth be ever written on our hearts. Let's pray. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be ever pleasing and acceptable in your sight. O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. So over the last few weeks, we've been looking at God's good design for the world according to Genesis 1 and 2. And as I've been talking about God's good design, I've had some of you talk to me about flaws. I've had a few people ask about problems like overpopulation and world hunger or unemployment. And these are natural questions. If God created us to work, then why are there people who don't work? If God created us to have children, then why is it that so many scholars suggest that there's a problem with overpopulation, which I don't necessarily agree with? Similarly, why is it that some people can't have children? You see, as we've been talking through Genesis 1 and 2, we've been considering God's design, the way things are meant to be. It gives us an ideal we ought to live by. But the truth is, we live after Genesis 3. We live in a fallen world. I firmly believe that if all humanity followed God's good design, there would be no lack, we would have no problems, there would be enough food, the land would have enough for us to live by, we would not have global warming, we would not have all the problems we live by, we would live in the world God intended. But the truth is we do not live the way God intended us to live. And there are struggles and problems and brokenness that affect every part of life. I want to start here by recognizing that Genesis 1 and 2 lay out the ideal, the way God meant for things to be. Today, we're gonna talk about God's intended design for marriage, God's good design for marriage and all human relationships. But I understand that a lot of people have faced marriages that were not ideal. I understand not everyone has lived up to this and there's lots of people with broken marriages and failed marriages and even false marriages. I understand marriage and sexuality can be a rather controversial topic right now. And I understand that not everyone has lived up to this ideal that we're talking about today. Whenever you get a few people together and talk about things like marriage and sex and God's design for it all, then it's easy for some people to feel called out. And maybe that's why God brought you here. Maybe God is trying to work in your heart and trying to call you out for sin that you're living in so that you can repent. But I want you to know that's not what I'm doing. God might be working on you through the power of the Spirit, but what I want us to see is what God's good design for marriage is supposed to be. So that when we look at our own lives and look at our friends and look at the world we live in and we see all these broken relationships, all these problems, we have an idea of what the right thing is supposed to be. God has given us this passage to give us a better understanding of marriage and all human relationships. We see a sort of summary of what's going on in verse 18. The Lord God said, it is not good that a man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Here we see a summary of our first two points, the problem and the solution. The problem is found in the phrase, it is not good for man to be alone. The problem is being alone. The solution, verse 18, God says, I will make him a helper fit for him. The solution is human relationships. The problem is being alone. The solution is human relationships. First, we see the problem in verse 18. God looks at his creation and he says, it is not good that the man should be alone. If you've been following along as we've been working through Genesis, or if you just read through Genesis up to this point with no prior knowledge, this should catch you a bit off guard. It is the first place in the Bible that something is not good. In Genesis 1, God repeatedly looked at the creation and said, it is good, it is good, it is good, over and over again. We've been talking about God's good design for the last two months. And here, in Genesis 2.18, we have something that is not good. It's not evil. Sin hasn't happened yet, but it's not the way things are meant to be. It's not the best way possible. There's a problem. It is not good that man should be alone. The problem is being alone. You see, humans are social creatures. Our entire species depends upon community. A baby cannot grow to maturity without others caring for it. We cannot reproduce on our own and we live in communities to provide protection and care for one another. Every major psychological study on the subject finds loneliness to be an underlying issue for all sorts of other mental health disorders. Man is not meant to be alone. Rather, male or female, we are not supposed to live lives of isolation and independence. God designed us to need other people. And why is it part of our design to not be alone? to need other people. It's because God made us in his image. Genesis 1, 26, let us, God says, let us make man in our image. You see, the God we worship, the God of the Bible, is a triune God, one God in three distinct persons, which means God is now, always has been, and always will be in a relationship with himself. God the Father cannot exist apart from God the Son and God the Spirit. If we are created in the image of God, And if we are creating the image of a God that is always in relationship with himself, then we too are made to be in relationship with others. But when God first made Adam, he was completely alone. There was no Eve, there was no children, no one to check on him or to have a conversation with, no one to sit with and have breakfast. No one was there. He had the animals, verse 19 and 20, the animals came to him and he named them, but the animals cannot replace people. There's a lesson here for us. Pets do not replace our need to have other people. Dogs may be man's best friend, but a dog is not better than a spouse or a friend or a neighbor. Pets are a good thing. In fact, I believe it's part of God's design to have dominion over animals, Genesis 1, 26. But pets cannot replace our spouse and our friends and other important people in our life. Adam was surrounded by animals, but verse 20, but for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him. God designed us to need other people. So in all of God's good design, there was one problem. It is not good for man to be alone. The problem is loneliness, isolation, and separation. No community and no fellowship. The problem is being alone. But being alone isn't necessarily about being single, or in the case of many of you, widowed. Though marriage is the primary relationship we see here in this text, it's important to remember that Adam had nobody. There wasn't another human being to match him. The creation of woman wasn't just a marriage, which it was, but it was also a friendship. It was companionship. It was in its core, a human relationship. And if you look at this text carefully, you see two main reasons people need human relationships. Two main reasons it is not good to be alone. We see both of these in the phrase, a helper fit for him. What Adam needed was a helper and someone fit for him or opposite him. You see, all of us need help. Rather, we care to admit or not, we cannot do everything on our own. Adam was able to subdue the earth and have dominion over the animals on his own, but he could never be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with other people, which is what God made us for according to Genesis 1.28. Adam could only do part of the cultural mandate. Adam needed a helper, someone to come alongside him and serve with him. I often talk to people who are married, who have children and are surrounded by people, and yet they so easily still feel alone. And often, one of the main reasons people feel alone, even when they're surrounded by friends and family, is because they feel they have to do everything on their own. You see, we need other people to help us. And part of a Christian marriage is an agreement to help each other and to serve one another. But Adam is also needed someone fit for him. Literally someone to face him, to look at him straight in the eye, someone opposite him. You see, we don't just need people to help us, we need someone who can look us straight in the eye as our equal. maybe even someone who can challenge us a little bit. Rather, it's in a healthy marriage or a strong friendship. We need people who can challenge us and support us. One of the most meaningful moments of my own life is when one of my mentors sat down with me and told me how meeting with me was also benefiting him. At that moment, he went from being my mentor, my superior, to being my friend. Often people are lonely when they don't have someone opposite them. The number of geniuses who go AWOL because they always feel different and alone is tremendous. People need others who can be opposite them. We see the problem is being alone. But then in verses 21 through 23, It plays out the solution that we saw at the end of verse 18. The solution to being alone is human relationship. In verse 21, God causes the man, Adam, to sleep and takes a rib, a piece from his side, and he takes the rib and forms it into woman. You see, God, in his infinite wisdom, knew Adam needed a helper fit for him. So he made the woman who would be called Eve. But in so doing, he also showed that men, those of us of the male sex, need women in our lives. Rather, as wives or mothers or friends or neighbors or sisters, men need women and women need men. I know many can get a little bent out of shape here because it's easy to read this and think it makes a woman a second class citizen because it says God made women to be helpers. But this isn't just some arbitrary judgment. There are distinct differences between men and women and the differences between masculine roles and feminine roles are given by God. But the idea that being made a helper is somehow relegating women to second-class status is absurd. Do you know that the only other being in the Bible that is referred to as a helper is the Holy Spirit? Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is a helper. And the Holy Spirit is no less than God. The Holy Spirit is completely equal with God the Father and God the Son. Just like women are completely equal to men, the Spirit is equal to God. And remember, both men and women are made in the image of God, Genesis 127, which means men are neither greater nor lesser than women in equality with as image bearers of God. All of us share the image of our Creator. We have innate value and worth. We may be different, we're distinct, but we are equal. God made men men and women women on purpose. One of the greatest biblical commentators of all time, an early Congregationalist minister by the name of Matthew Henry, wrote the following famous quote. The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam, not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected and near his heart to be beloved. Let me read that one more time. Matthew Henry writes, The woman was made of a rib out of the side about him, not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. You see, Henry brings out this idea that woman is made from the side of man to show that she is equal to him. She is not of greater value nor of lesser value, but she is different. She is to be protected and loved. And so verse 22, God takes the rib taken from the man and crafted it into a woman and brought her to the man. Like a father walking his beloved daughter down the aisle, God walks the woman he created to the man she is made for. In verse 23, Adam sings a song. The very first words recorded from the mouth of man is a song. At last, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, for she was taken out a man. In the first wedding ceremony in history, God the Father gives away his beloved daughter as the groom sings over her a song of beauty and delight. The solution to people being alone is human relationship. And here we see the most significant relationship of all, marriage. But marriage isn't the only solution. We'll come back to marriage in a minute, but it's important as we focus on marriage to state that even though the Bible has a very high view of marriage, it also has a high view of singleness. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 says he thinks it is better to remain single if possible. If you're If you cannot remain single without sin, without lust, without desire, without falling behind, then get married. But if you can remain single and not sin, then you have more time and more energy to devote to the church and devote to the things of Christ. And Paul's absolutely right. But here's the amazing thing here. Paul himself was likely single. He might have been widowed, but there is no real evidence that Paul, or most of the apostles for that matter, were ever married. Paul likely knew what singleness was like. But Paul was not alone. You see, it is not good for a man to be alone, and Paul surrounded himself by other people. He went around the Roman world preaching the gospel, and he always had other people with him, helping him, challenging him, talking to him, sitting with him. Paul had deep, meaningful human relationships with others because of Jesus. When he was imprisoned in Rome, it was other Christians who brought him food and sat with him. Paul was single, but he wasn't alone. Marriage is an extremely important human relationship. The Bible has a lot to say about marriage. But rather you are married or not, you need to have human relationships. Friendships, mentors, confidants. You need people to encourage you and support you and do life with you. And quite frankly, that is what God is calling us to as a church. The New Testament calls believers to love one another, to bear one another's burdens, to encourage one another and pray for one another. Through the church, God has made a way for none of us to be alone. And so the problem is being alone. The solution is human relationships. But the text doesn't end there. Verse 24 and 25 shows us the natural implication of this text for the world today. Look at verse 24. Therefore, because of this, A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. In this passage, we see the very first man and very first woman. There is no father and mother yet. The man has no one to leave. So whatever verse 24 is talking about, it isn't talking about the man and woman we just saw. It's talking about people that come after. You see, verse 24 tells us that this passage is meant to be a model for marriage. God shows us exactly what marriage is supposed to be in this passage. Just think about it. There's a man and it's not good for him to be alone, so God creates him a woman. So there is one man and one woman and no one else. That's what marriage is supposed to be. One man and one woman and no one else. At this point, there is no possibility for adultery. There's no one to cheat with or lust after. There is really no way for abandonment. They live in a garden together, which also means there's no grounds for divorce, according to the Bible. Like, this is it. Marriage is supposed to be one man and one woman and no one else. Ever. Like that's what we talk about in our wedding vows. He's promising lifelong fidelity to her and she is promising lifelong fidelity to him. There is one man and one woman for life. You see, marriage is meant to be a lifelong committed relationship between one man and one woman. And we see this from creation. This is God's very design. I know not everyone's lived up to this. I know not everyone can live up to this. But if you know the Bible, you know the Bible's full of things like polygamy and adultery and divorce and all sorts of other relationships. But here's the thing. Every time a person in the Bible has more than one wife, it doesn't end up working well for them. Every time someone has affairs or sleeps with a prostitute or a concubine, they end up having bigger problems because of it. Whenever people in the Bible go against God's design for marriage as a committed relationship between one man and one woman for life, it doesn't work out for them. Because God's design is what's best. It doesn't mean if you remain faithful to your wife, you're necessarily going to have a good life. But it does mean if you're not, you're not going to have a good life. The Bible shows us what real life looks like. It shows us broken marriages and hurting people. But I've never met someone who has a broken marriage or who's committed adultery, who's gotten divorced, who wasn't hurt by it. There are circumstances where it might be better to be divorced, but it's never good. God designed marriage to be a particular way, and anything that goes against that ultimately isn't good for us. And all the commands about sex and marriage in the Bible commands like do not commit adultery, a man shall not lie with another man or a woman with a woman, do not divorce apart from sexual immorality, abandonment and abuse. All these commands we have in scripture tied to sex and marriage are meant to bring us back to God's good design for marriage. This is always the standard everything else is trying to get us back to. That marriage is between one man and one woman for life. But it's important for us to remember that your marriage here on earth is not the end all, be all. You see, the ultimate purpose of marriage is not just a relationship to take away loneliness, but it's a relationship meant to point us to the one who will never leave us or forsake us. You see, just like everything else in God's good design, sin has tainted marriage. but Jesus came to redeem it. And Ephesians five has one of the most beautiful and significant passages on Christian marriage. Marriage that has been renewed and redeemed by Jesus himself. I wish I had time to go through the whole thing, but there's one thing in particular that I want to point out. From Ephesians chapter five, verse 31 and 32. If you want to turn there in the large print view Bibles, it's page 1162. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 31 and 32. In Ephesians 5, 31, Paul quotes Genesis 2, 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. But then he expands on it by saying this in verse 32. This mystery is profound. And I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. You see, when Paul looks at this passage in Genesis, and when Paul looks at the institution of marriage, when he looks at marriage in the world, Paul says it's important because it refers to Christ and the church. Brothers and sisters, biblical marriage is a gospel issue. You can no more have two husbands than you can have two Christs. You can no more have divorce than Christ can divorce his church. Marriage is meant to show us something of Jesus Christ. Because marriage in this life is meant to show us something of the greater marriage yet to come. For a day is coming when we, who are His people, will be presented to Him in splendor. As beautiful as the wedding is here in Genesis, there is an even more beautiful wedding yet to come, where Christ will come and take His glorious Bride, the Church, whom He bought with His own blood. The relationship we really need is not a husband or a wife or a friend. It's Jesus. The only permanent solution to the problem of being alone is Jesus. The only one that can truly bear the burden of your shame is Jesus. The only one that will love you no matter what is Jesus. Jesus, the only one who will never leave you or forsake you, is Jesus. And Jesus is calling you out right now, preparing yourself for that glorious wedding feast to come. So beautify yourself by being washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Put on the robes of Christ's righteousness. Walk the narrow way to the place where our King awaits singing over us a song of beauty and grace. Marriage is important because it points us to Jesus, who is the new and better Adam. And just as we are to leave our parents and cleave to our spouse, let us be people who leave this world and cleave to Jesus. Amen. Amen.