God's Design for Humanity: Manhood - Session 2

Biblical Manhood in Genesis 2

Well, good morning. It's a delight to see you back this morning. We're gonna pick up in Genesis 2. So we're moving ahead. We were in Genesis 1 last night in our first session and considered the Imago Dei in the Latin the image of God and this Morning, we're going to think first about biblical manhood.

Our second session coming up will be biblical womanhood and We'll conclude the morning with a look at paganism. Before lunch when we come back in the afternoon We'll look at four different types of men.

Deficient manhood. I'm particularly going to focus on manhood in the afternoon that session that you see there. The final one that I'm speaking in it was going to be on marriage and family and singleness.

But I'm going to make it instead about strong manhood. So in one session, I'm going to be talking about four visions of weak manhood from Scripture and then I'm going to focus in on King David and Look at the warrior king and the courage that he showed and then we'll have the Q &A and be done for the day.

So we have much to cover and we need to pick up. In Genesis 2 verse 15 the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it 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. 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 had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man To see what he would call them and whatever the man called every living creature That was its name.

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God verse 21 caused a 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.

Then the man said this at last is bone of my bones 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.

Let's pray as we begin father. Thank you so much for the privilege of opening your holy word this morning. I ask that you would bless us as we turn to it as we study it. I pray that there would be conviction from it.

We all simply are coming to you as needy sinners. None of us has this all figured out. None of us as a man is living out biblical manhood perfectly or even close. None of us as a woman is living out biblical womanhood perfectly or even close.

We need your grace to do this. So we pray that you would Help us to evaluate our lives in light of your word and we ask your blessing upon our time pray that you would Strengthen and bless and grow us through it.

You are such a kind and good God you were the God of the 14 ,000 trees before us that we may eat from and rejoice in and we thank you for that and pray that that would Characterize our faith today in Jesus name.

Amen. What we're going to do in this session is we're going to walk through nine Truths about biblical manhood from this passage and then we might cover a few others will probably dip into Genesis chapter 3 as well.

So nine truths that we learn from the early chapters of Genesis about manhood. The first of these truths is this. The man with the woman is made to rule the earth. The man with the woman is made to rule the earth in Genesis 1 26 and 28.

We saw that we saw that the man and the woman are called to rule the creatures that crawl on the earth and here in Genesis 2 the the verses I just read we get more of a picture of What initial creation looked like just after the man was made by God in verse 7?

The Lord God formed the man Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life, and so we learned that the man and the woman weren't initially together. We learned that the man was created first and Paul will tell us in first Timothy 2 9 to 15.

That creation order isn't just incidental like when your kids were born if you have kids there wasn't something moral. You know about the firstborn coming before the fourth born or whatever it may be.

They just happen to come in the order. They came that is actually not true with regard to the man. The man is not better than the woman. The man is not smarter than the woman. The man does not have more gifts than the woman from the outset.

But the man is made before the woman and so has leadership.

Responsibility.

Headship even what we call Authority in the home in the marriage now that has to be stewarded and understood carefully because sadly there are many out there who would pervert and misapply the concept of The authority of the man in the home and it can be not altogether difficult for sinful men to misuse authority and to become a kind of Paper tyrant in a home thinking that he is living according to God's design when in reality He sometimes is living in harshness and anger.

That is a that is a journey that we will talk about as we go. This morning that though from the outset is not what we're talking about. We're not talking about the man being the only one who speaks the man being the only one who would teach the kids anything from the Bible.

The man when there's a decision to be made just making it like making it there's a decision in six seconds later. The man has made the perfect decision every time he's got an unbeaten streak of 11 ,187 decisions in his marriage.

He's not trying to have that. That's not his goal to have a ticker behind him in his home of C. Like like the days without an accident in your workplace, right? It's not like days without wife being consulted in a decision days.

The guy has made the decision without any anyone else even saying a solitary syllable about it. The man has the authority so we're not here to soften that. I'm not a soft Complimentarian or an egalitarian or something like that.

The man has authority in his home the buck stops with him but a godly man as we're going to talk more about is the Kind of man as as the Spirit works in him and matures him and grows him and we're all just a work-in-progress here.

Every man is a work-in-progress here and we tend to be either too soft or too strong. Many of us in one direction. There's not only one direction to Aaron but fundamentally as God grows us in Particular we want our wife's input and we want to lead but we want sound Counsel from a godly wife.

We didn't marry her because she was ungodly at least in a lot of cases. Now if if we were converted, you know after we got married We know that this woman is given to us for our good. And so we want the wisdom of a wife in a marriage.

We want her to speak into things. We want to talk through a lot of stuff and then yes, God is going to hold us to account. So it's not that the man as the head to use the Ephesians 5 term kephalé in the Greek it's not that the man gets all the good stuff because he's the head and the woman has to do all the Underling stuff and just sort of mutely follow him.

It's that actually the man is the one in the hard position. The man is the one Who who is held to account for the good of the home? The man is the one who is who is called to try and create an environment where his wife Flourishes where she's doing well and where his children Flourish and where they're doing well, and there's a lot to say of course about how that kind of culture is created.

It doesn't happen in two and a half hours. It doesn't happen by reading a single book and you got it doesn't happen by going to Bible College and you know Just all downloaded and now you got the perfect home.

These things take the gospel these things take the spirit these things take a lot of sanctifying work. There's ups and downs and fits and starts through this process. With all that said we still stubbornly from the Word of God affirmed that the man is the one Who is made first and he has headship.

And so what this means is this as Go men, so go the home as Go men, so go the church as Go men, so go a society. It's not because men are better, but it is because men have leadership responsibility as made by God.

It's not that men get to do all the cool stuff and and mom and wife is stuck doing the grunt stuff. It's actually the opposite. It's that men put themselves in the hard spot. Men are going to be called in Ephesians 5 22 to 33 To honor and own the role of Christ.

That's what the husband is ultimately supposed to look like. He's supposed to look like Christ and men want we naturally want in our flesh. This is a weird thing to say about a spiritual reality. We want to be the the Christ on the throne post ascension but the Christ.

That we are supposed to emulate in a small way by the power of the Spirit is the dying Christ. The atoning Christ not that we atone for a wife's sin, but we lay our lives down For our bride and by extension for the good of our family that is the form of Jesus we emulate not the Jesus who returns with his eyes a flame of fire and Wreaks havoc on the earth the Jesus who humbly graciously Willingly lovingly lays down his life for his bride.

Those are the kind of men we are called to be. Second truth the man is called to protect. We see that in Genesis 2 15 the Lord God took the man put him in the Garden of Eden to Work and keep it. I'll talk about work in just a minute focus on the second part of that.

Keep it when when a lot of us read in our Bibles and our devotions. That word pair work and keep it probably kind of can bounce off of us at 630 in the morning or whatever time it is. But that shouldn't bounce off of us.

This verse is one of the most important verses in the Bible. And it's a verse that helps us understand the nature and calling of men. Men are made to work and men are made to keep and the word keep can also be translated Guard, it can be translated protect and so men are made as Protectors, that's why men have a protective instinct in them.

It's not a toxic instinct as we hear today it's not in any way toxic for a man to try to protect a woman or Men to protect innocence or when there's a crowd for a man to to step up and put his life on the line.

It's not at all a bad thing for men to want to be policemen or firemen or warriors Soldiers or in the military some of these institutions sadly tragically have been corrupted in our time by wokeness and other Ideologies and a lot of people now are saying we give up on the military or you know.

A lot of sadly good policemen are leaving the police force because they've been targeted and those are complex Matters to talk about how much you get involved in corrupted American institutions today to whatever degree they are versus Withdrawing from them hard hard call hard situation.

But let me just affirm this for you. The Bible doesn't say you need to serve in the military or the police or the firefighters. My brother-in-law is a fireman in South Carolina. But it does mean that you and I in some form are Protectors as men and we want to affirm that in our boys.

Not all of our boys are gonna win a weightlifting competition. Don't misunderstand me I've never won one myself just to clear that up. But what we do I know you were you you thought maybe I had but what?

What we do want is we want to train our sons in these realities. We're not just talking talking together. Let's have a talk together at 920 on a Saturday morning. No, these are the things we have to train our boys fathers.

These are the things grandfathers uncles. These are the things you have to pull a boy aside and teach him and you don't have to harangue him. You don't have to yell at him. You don't have to go protect your protect your your sisters.

Just do it. You need to actually do the harder thing as a father. Don't you we have a we have a voice for when things are off the rails as a father, but most of the time The voice we need as a father is a teaching voice.

Yes. It's a calm steady patient persevering voice. Hey, son. Listen, daddy's going on a trip. I'm going on a trip out to the northwest to where Your your grandfather is from my grandpa. My my father-in-law is from Spokane.

Bruce wears from Spokane. So I'm out in family territory here and what I need you to do. I said this yesterday two days ago. Because I got up really early yesterday. So I'd sit the night before what I need you to do is I need you to make sure the doors are locked at night and I need you to make Sure that if you're out in the driveway with your sisters and you're doing scooters and all this sort of thing in the neighborhood.

That you're keeping an eye out for your sisters and I need you to be strong for your mom if there's packages She needs brought in or something like that. I need you to step up and do those kind of things.

All right, son. Can you do that for me? I know you can you're a good you're a good young man Gavin. You can get this done. Yes, sir. He says he looks me in the eye. He's like ready to go, right? He's all of you know, 13 years old, but but he's taking this on.

He's actually just started mowing lawns in the neighborhood. I'll save that for the next point. But anyway, it's a beautiful thing To see a young man Respond to these kind of realities and a bunch of you in this room are way ahead of me and you've done these kind Of things and we all have our own style.

There's not one perfect way to do what we're talking about. But the key is that as fathers we bring our boys before us and we lovingly engage them and there. There's a thing that we have to correct today because I grew up in the 80s and 90s and I have a lot of basketball analogies because I love basketball and In terms of coaching who here remembers Bobby Knight the coach Bobby Knight.

Yes, Bobby Knight was an example I think he won three NCAA championships coached Olympic gold, you know coached MJ Jordan back in the 80s. Just a kind of iconic coach, right? But the style of Bobby Knight fit kind of the general spirit of the age with men because his he was a Basically kind of an iron ruler of his team.

You did not say anything to him. There weren't Conversations even that you had with him as a player. He screamed at you. He told you what to do. You made a turnover. He dressed you down in front of 25 ,000 people in Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana on national TV.

I mean he just he went after you he was the unquestioned iron authority of his team and He had a lot of results. He won a ton of games. What an incredible coach. What an incredible basketball mind. He also broke a lot of his players.

He broke them he pushed them very hard some guys need to be pushed not every guy does and I think there was a sense even in pastoral ministry in the last 20 to 30 years that that's what pastoral ministry to men looks like you break men and There's a there's a place for challenging a man and going after him.

There's a place for challenging a boy a young man and you know firing him up. We need that. Trust me We need that today. We need some of that fatherly voice. There's but I'll just repeat myself and then I'll move on.

We so need men who actually I would argue Aren't like Bobby Knight men who have authority men who are unquestionably the coach of their team, but they work with players. They try to help players. They do this really weird thing called encouragement.

You can actually encourage a young man, you know, you could do that. You have permission to do that and they try to you know, strengthen the team. And of course, there's gonna be games where they're upset and they try to rally the team and all that sort of thing.

Yes, I love all of that in sports, but in general the normative voice. Isn't you know break this kid down the normative voice of a father a godly father. It's patient steady.

Loving kind.

The man is Given the charge in Eden to keep the garden which signals to us by the way That Eden is not perfect people talk about Eden as if it is perfect in our theology. It is it is not perfect. It's unspoiled.

It's unfallen. There's no sin. Adam and Eve have no sin nature in them in Genesis 2. But there are threats that can enter Eden and ruin it and they're going to do so in just one chapter. So men are called to protection.

The first form of protection men are called to is physical protection. Men on average You'll never hear this in our gender-neutral age have 60 more upper-body strength than women. Men and women aren't even remotely the same.

In general terms men on average are way stronger than than women and We could just state that straightforwardly. Men are made by God for the role God has called them to. That's what we're saying here.

And that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. That strength is not made to be used against your wife. That strength is not to be used in an abusive way against your children. That strength is to be used for your wife and for the good of your family.

And if there are men if there is a man who's experienced The bad form of what I'm talking about if there are people in here who grew up in a home that was too strong and wasn't Loving enough or if there's somebody who has sin in their past along these lines of being too strong.

Let me just say a quick gospel word. There is forgiveness for that. You understand that there's no category of sin. Where the gospel does not secure forgiveness.

In all.

Categories of sin. All types of sinners. There's total forgiveness of sin doesn't excuse sin. Men should be held to account if They fail in these ways just as women should be held to account if they fail in their own ways.

But fundamentally there is grace That will grow a man and take him from a harsh man and make him over time a steady Godly kind man and that is real needed growth for many men. Third the man is called to work.

It's our third truth about biblical manhood. From this these opening chapters of Genesis put him in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2 15 to.

Work it.

To work the garden pre-fall. So work is not an effect of the fall. We don't work now it now in our lives because sin happened we need to work. We were made to work and the man is the one the man and the woman alike are made to work.

We're made for a purposeful existence as we said at the end last night. We're called to take dominion together of the earth. So we're not called to sit around right but men are fundamentally called to lead in Working and we call this of course in the church provision.

Providing men are therefore made we can say to be a provider of their family. A Man is only going to flourish then at least as he is able-bodied. In physical terms, of course, there's different types of work.

There's mental work. So you don't even have to have a body that can get outside and work and that sort of thing. We're all made as men to work. We're made to be a provider. Men will only thrive then when they are trained to be a Provider and a worker and then when they are given opportunity to enter that and that is part of why we are in such dire Straits today because lots of men one reason one reason lots of men are not working.

Now you might think I'm about to attack men for that. Stupid idiots. Why aren't you working that sort of thing? Well, there are definitely lazy men out there who aren't working and that is not good. There are definitely many young men who are on video games and have not been trained, you know to get out there and work and Are frittering their life away on devices and screens and that is a bad.

Situation.

But there also is a climate that does not value men working and does not help men find good work and When men do hard work doesn't think much good about it. Do you understand how dependent we are on men doing hard dirty jobs in all corners of our society?

People today seem to think that you can just magically be on devices and lead a very nice life and get your door dash and have all your food and take all your fun Vacations and the world will just magically stay Stable and good and roads will work and telephone lines will be up and if a fire happens there will be somebody who comes for that and there will be a police force protecting you and overseas.

There are men who are Ostensibly at least helping to keep us safe in these sorts of realities. People what I'm trying to say is this people take men.

For granted.

We take.

Honest hard-working men so much for granted today and we even dare as a society to teach our kids that such men who have assertiveness and aggressive. Aggressiveness embedded in them. Excuse me. Those kind of men we hear to repeat.

This term are toxic men. Those are toxic men. Those instincts are not at all Toxic the instinct to provide the instinct to do hard work. The instinct to do dirty jobs to use Mike Rose term. Those are good and God glorifying Instincts we need our boys to know what it is to work and work.

Hard not again in a shouting you stupid young man. Get out there and work what we need to do again is arm around the shoulder. With a young man with a grandson with a nephew with a boy at church and we need to say hey.

Have you ever tried this? I don't know what you know. The forms of lower level work are for like teenage boys in this area, but I can tell you in Maine. It started with lawn mowing. I mowed lawns when I was 12 and 13 and then in Maine I think we can connect northeast and northwest here.

We're kind of we're a little bit apart from each other. We respect each other. We have a little bit of a rivalry as to which region is best. Okay, but it's New England best is the Pacific Northwest best.

Frankly, we're both in beautiful country. Okay, we both we know this but we're a little standoffish with each other. I'm not going to try to reconcile all that you have beautiful country. You have natural resources.

So do we in New England? This is all a joke. My wife and I are from opposite coasts and we have a rivalry in our marriage. It's never been it's never been completely reconciled, but that's okay. That's okay.

That's what the Gospels for and so being being from from from Maine you rake blueberries you rake blueberries. It's very hard work people laugh when I say this because it sounds it sounds very simple like you know.

Just pluck the blueberries and put them in a cup. Any of you out here who harvest fruit though, right? No, I guess now it's more mechanized but especially growing up you would get a rake. With a handle and a bunch of tines like this and you would get low to the ground like this.

These are blueberry bushes low bush blueberry bushes and you would sweep your rake like this and you would sweep over and over and over. And over again in the Sun typically in July and August and if you think I'm making it sound harder than it was.

No, it was very hard work and some of you know that in all seriousness from farms and agricultural work and fruit harvesting work and those. Kind of realities. It's not easy work and that is so good for boys.

So helpful for young men to go do something hard. They don't want to do. But it shapes them in it and it builds character in them and boys need that way more than they need six more hours on screens. Men are made to work if you have a young man in the home.

It takes time, you know, you've got to be able to trust him in those sorts of things. But try to find an outlet for him to start working. So that he can have the that which is wired into him as part of his nature.

Develop and grow it takes time. But you want him to be working more and more and more and eventually you want him to be earning some money. Ideally, right so that he can have the satisfaction of being a provider in a small form and you're training him to take on more Responsibility and eventually he's ready to launch and so you're not looking at an 18 19 or 20 year old really frustrated because he's not working because he doesn't like work because he never developed a taste for work and.

Because he has no work ethic. If if sadly if a lot of parents are in that situation you have to start asking. Was he trained? Did anyone train him to do this. Because he's got to be trained to work. But the good news is if boys are trained to work a lot of them at least.

We'll get a growing capacity for that and we'll have a real satisfaction and happiness even joy and Hard work well done whether that is in a field whether that is in a service industry whether that is in a trade or whether that is in front of a computer doing digital design or whether that is Being a chef or whether that is being a musician there's all kinds of ways to work.

That's one of the most amazing realities of this created world. Is that work isn't only raking the blueberries or mowing the lawns, right? Because we are such Multidimensional human beings there's so much that we can do to the glory of God that helps others and that improves our surroundings and so a Father and a mother working together.

Want to we want to push our boys into different experiences that will shape them and develop them. We also though want to be learning who they are and Trying to figure out how they can grow and what will bless them and help them.

Adam Under God's Command

Okay, number four. I'm gonna have to hasten on Adam is subject to God's command. Fourth reality of manhood. Adam is subject to God's command. Genesis 2 16. This is what we were talking about last night.

You're free to eat from any tree of the garden.

The Lord says.

But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for on the day you eat from it. You will certainly die. So we've talked about this principle already, but here's the point for us. Men do not flourish when they think that they are free.

So the kind of bumper sticker manhood where you have no rules and you just do whatever you want. That's that's actually not what men are made for. Men are made to live under the rule of God. Men are not made to be free agents doing whatever we want living it up with no accountability to anyone.

Men are made to be soldiers under orders. That's what we're made for and specifically the orders of God and so we will flourish and we'll find joy and peace in life. Not when we live it up according to our own desires, but when we follow God's plan.

That is what God was signaling to Adam. Adam. I am generous Adam. I have this whole forest for you to walk this garden paradise that you're in. I have tons of fruit for you to eat. It's delicious. I want you to eat it because I'm a good and generous God in my core.

But there's one tree you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is mine. Don't touch it. And so boys need Moral training. They need spiritual training to know right from wrong and they need to be pointed Of course ultimately to the reality that they need a savior.

No man is his own Lord. No man is his own master. We all need a Lord and a master and a king over us as men. This is what we're learning in this text. Fifth. The man is called the lead in the home. The man is called the lead in the home.

Just moving quickly through these last realities. We saw in verse 24 that it is the man who leaves father and mother and holds fast to his wife and Then they become one flesh. It's not the woman who holds fast to the man.

Which goes against the emotional trajectory of a good number of homes even in the church where the man's kind of checked out and thinks He's not really emotional and the woman is the one trying to hold the family together furiously, and that's not that's not the design of God for our Homes the design of God for our homes.

Is that the father the man the husband the head is. The one who is not ruling like a king as if every edict he wants, you know immediately gets performed. But he is the one who is planning the family's life with the woman's input and wisdom very much in the mix.

He's the one who is held responsibility. Who is held responsible by God, excuse me for shepherding his wife and shepherding his children. He protects them physically. Yes, but he also offers spiritual protection.

He's the one who knows what his kids at least in conversation with his wife. That is what they're watching what they're reading what's on their devices. He's the one who is making sure that friends and friends situations aren't getting compromised.

He doesn't know everything. He's not omniscient. Don't misunderstand me, but he is the head of his home. He is the one who is holding fast to his wife. He is the one first Peter 3 is going to say in the New Testament who lives with her in an understanding way.

So he's marked by tenderness listening kindness gentleness, that's not being.

Unmanly.

Jesus is the true man and Jesus is the kindest man who ever lived. That doesn't mean Jesus was only kindness. We know that Jesus made a whip of cords and Scourged the temple and drove out the money changers.

So a godly man is a blend of Toughness. Yes real toughness, but also Tenderness. He's a blend of the two. A godly man is gentle. But a godly man is also strong and these aren't realities that are easy to arrive at in our flesh.

This is what you need Jesus for her. You need Jesus to save you and you need Jesus to give you his spirit and you need Jesus and End the spirit to change you over time and remake you and grow you and kill your sin.

You're not who you should be. None of us are man or woman alike. None of us has this figured out. We have to grow in all these realities. The good news is that that is what God is here to do.

So.

So God will do this work. God will help us men. Who don't lead some men in the right way. Some men are passive and checked out. They don't provide any real leadership in the home. They don't disciple the kids.

They don't ever gather the family to pray sing songs to God read scripture. They don't teach anything. They've never even thought of you know, trying to read a book with their kids or something like this about Christianity.

They they in a lot of cases I think men haven't been discipled themselves and They don't know how to disciple others and so I don't. I don't come at them and you know. Punch them in the jaw. I come at them in compassion.

Nobody trained them. How would they know how to train others? But then as I'm at pains to say. Some men are way too much on the other side and they're cranked up and they're overseeing every single. You know click of the mouse or something like this their wife makes and they're too strong.

We need to be balanced men. We need to be men of grace and truth. We need to be tough and tender men who lead in our homes. And we need to be the ones who hold fast to our wife all of this by the grace of our God.