Sermon Tone Analysis

*A God-Centered View of Work: What to Do on Monday ~~ Genesis 3:21-24*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on December 2, 2007/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

 

Genesis 3:21-24 (NASB95) \\ 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

\\ 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— \\ 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.

\\ 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

\\ \\

Last week we began to look at the provision God made for sinful man in verse 21, a gracious act in providing them sufficient coverings and garments as a gift to replace their insufficient man-made fig-leaf undergarments.

I want to come back to that image and develop it a little further in a moment, but for now notice that He provides for and protects them /before/ sending them out into the world.

God’s act of grace precedes His act of expelling them, and even though He declares in verse 22 that man must not live forever in his sinful flesh, this passage also has a wonderful picture of salvation and foundation of gospel truth for believers then and now

 

In verse 22 God apparently speaks within the Trinity using the plural “us” – “man has become like one of Us” – not in every sense but in the sense of knowing good and evil.

Ironically, Satan’s promise came partially true but not with the results man desired.

Our text says that God would not allow man to take from the tree of life so God drives them out of the garden.

Was this a real tree actually giving life?

Apparently, but by chapter 6 the whole land of Eden was destroyed by a worldwide flood so you won’t be able to find it today.

For however long the garden was around there were cherubim and rotating flaming swords like divine light sabers keeping man out from the intimate presence of the Lord in His garden.

If your view of angels is based on popular cards or cartoons or figurines, you might think angels are cute cuddly chubby babies with harps or bows and arrows.

But in scripture they are warriors of deadly force engaged in spiritual warfare.

A single angel can kill thousands of men, as the O.T. records.

These flaming swords portray the fact that there is no returning to Eden and the pre-fall world in this life, this is a permanent consequence of sin.

God doesn’t need protection - the angels are protecting /man/ from the presence of a God whose holiness is lethal to sinful man.

The original readers of Genesis may have also noticed a parallel here with the ark of the covenant where God’s Shekinah glory dwelt.

The ark was similarly protected from the people and even had sculpted golden cherubim on the top of it.

The tabernacle and temple curtains for the Holy of Holies also had embroidered cherubim.

In a similar way, these represented guardian angels – guardians and protectors of God’s glory /from /sinful man.

To come close and touch the ark meant death (Uzzah learned this the hard way in 2 Samuel 6).

Even the high priest had to be on a rope with bells so they could hear him and pull him out if he died for his irreverence or sin.

These cherubim in Genesis 3 similarly represent the consequences of sin in paradise lost.

Verse 23 says man was sent out “to cultivate the ground from which he was taken” – other translations have “to work the ground.”

That word “work” is a key word in this section.

Verses 17-19 primarily are about man’s work; his labor in relation to sin.

In verse 24, God puts angels to work here on earth to keep man out of Eden.

In verse 21 we also see God’s work, His first work since day six.

This theme of work is where we want to turn our attention today.

Having a God-driven understanding of work was important not only for O.T. Israelites, this is an important subject for every man, woman, and child in this room today.

*Definition*: When I use the word “work,” many of you might be thinking only of occupations, or some job you have, something you do that you get paid for.

But I want to use the word in the biblical sense which is much broader, including the work of stay-at-home moms, chores or tasks done by children, really any labor or serving any do anywhere.

According to Webster (Collegiate 10th Edition), the 1st meaning of the English noun /work /refers to ‘activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something:

*a* *: *sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result

*b* *: *the labor, task, or duty that is one’s accustomed means of livelihood [Phil’s note: this is just one aspect of the word]

*c* *: *a specific task, duty, function, or assignment often being a part or phase of some larger activity’

/ /

/For everyone in this room, there are relevant truths and applications from Genesis 3 in whatever work we do everyday (outside the home or inside or in-between).

My prayer this morning is that this message would extend beyond this Sunday and would have an effect on what you do on Monday.

These principles apply to both weekends and weekdays – we don’t want to divorce work and worship, or doctrine and duty, or belief and behavior, or how you live today versus how you live tomorrow.

Being truly God-centered in your theology impacts what happens on Monday./

Adult Americans typically spend a majority of their waking hours in work or work-related activities.

Sadly for Christians, there tends to be a big dichotomy between biblical truth and biblical application, and a particular lack in truly God-centered Bible-driven views of life and work.

Part of the blame lies with Christians who uncritically imbibe worldly ways of thinking about work, but part of the blame also falls on us who teach the scripture where we have failed to declare what God has to say on this subject

 

One organization called Career Impact Ministries reportedly polled 2,000 professing Christians who regularly attend a church, asking the question, “Have you ever in your life heard a sermon, read a book, listened to a tape, or been to a seminar that applied biblical principles to everyday work issues?”

More than 90 percent of those who responded said no.

The article goes on to ask:

 

“Is there a connection between Sunday and Monday?”

The Reformers would have answered this question, “Yes!”

They differed from Rome by doing away with the secular~/ religious dichotomy.

In teaching that every believer is a full-time priest in the service of God, the Reformers emphasized that “the layman has a calling in Christ no less than the minister, and the daily labor of both, performed as consecrated sacrifice, is equally accepted as spiritual service.”

In our day, however, by (largely) neglecting our Reformation and Puritan heritage on this issue, the evangelical church has implied by default that the answer is “No, there is little connection between Sunday and Monday.”

Some have sought to “sanctify” the workweek by exhorting Christians to give verbal testimony in their places of work.

While testifying at work of Jesus Christ may be a very worthwhile endeavor, it is not what “sanctifies” the Christian’s workweek.

The Bible gives a much fuller meaning to work than is typically understood by modern evangelicals.[1]

* *

*Principles of A God-Centered View of Work*

You can buy bestselling “Christian” books on how to /Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Everyday/ or how to have /Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential/ – but when the word “you” is in the title (in the second book “Best Life” is lowercase and “YOUR” is in all caps!) and you are the focus and it’s about you and how you can get ahead or how you can get promoted or how God can help you to succeed in your workplace and meet your needs and your purpose, etc. – that is utterly bankrupt.

We don’t want to slap a few Christian slogans and verses onto our self-fulfillment and self-improvement and self-help – we need GOD to dominate and drive it all.

We need a GOD-centered understanding of life and work.

When I speak of being God-centered, it’s in contrast to being self-centered or man-centered where almost all of our world is focused and too much of the church is focused.

Having a high view of God means God is absolutely sovereign and supreme over all and that His glory is the end and aim of everything He does and everything we do.

It’s all about Him, it’s not about us – that’s easy to say but on Monday to Friday are you working and living as a man-pleaser, man-centered, self-centered, self-seeking, after self-indulgence?

/What does being God-centered have to do with our everyday work?

/

1 Timothy 6:1 (NASB95) \\ 1 All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that *the name of God *and our doctrine will not be spoken against.

\\ \\

Ephesians 3:20-4:1 (NASB95) \\ 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, \\ 21 *to Him be the glory* in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Amen.

\\ 1 *Therefore* I, the prisoner of the Lord, *implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling* with which you have been called, \\ \\

And one of his applications later was: \\ Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, *as to Christ*; \\ 6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves *of Christ*, doing the *will of God* from the heart.

\\ 7 With good will render service, *as to the Lord*, and not to men, \\ 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back *from the Lord*, whether slave or free.

\\ 9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with *Him*.

\\ \\

Romans 11:36 (NASB95) \\ 36 *For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever.

Amen.

\\ *Do “all things” include our work?

Yes!

I can’t think of a better outline for a God-Centered View of Work:

1. Work is From Him

2. Work is Through Him

3. Work is to Him

 

*1.

WORK IS FROM GOD*

We’re not going to start with us, we’re going to start with God.

The NKJV has the words “of him” – same idea: God is the source of work and the model of work.

Work is from God. He’s a worker.

The first chapter of the Bible reveals a God who works, who builds, who directs, who gives orders, who is creative, who plans and designs and discusses amongst the other persons in the Godhead, who even stoops to get involved in breathing into man of the dust the breath of life through His nostrils.

God creates man in His own image and delegates work to man to reflect God’s image

 

Work is of God, it’s from God – work is not evil, it is good.

So many people have the wrong idea that work is bad, it’s a curse, a necessary evil I must endure to fund my lifestyle.

But work is inherently a good thing because God Himself works, so let’s look at His work in this text before we consider ours.

*Gen.

3:21 **The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.*

\\ \\

*MADE *- Note: Same Hebrew word was used earlier of making the skies, the stars, the trees bearing fruit, making the animals, making man, and creation as a whole (Gen 1:7, 11-12, 16, 25, 26, 31)

 

Genesis 2:2-3 (NASB95) \\ /2 //By the seventh day God completed His work which He had *done*, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had *done*.3

//Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and *made*/.

\\              God’s work of making and creating was done, but it wasn’t too long before He had to go back to work, this time a different work.

* *

*GARMENTS – *This is the word for tunic, a long shirtlike garment, usually of linen (Gen 37:3 [Joseph’s multicolored tunic] -/TWOT/, 459), an everyday garment that was typically a long covering with long skirts and sleeves (/BDB/, 509), it can be translated as dress or coat or robe.

It would cover at least down to the knees (Gesenius Lexicon, 420), virtually whole body garments.

Notably, it was also used of the tunics priests would wear.