Genesis 2:4-25, What Are You Made For?, Dr. John Carpenter

What Human Beings Are Made For: Worship, Work, and Wedlock

In Genesis chapter 2 verses 4 to 25. Here the word of the Lord. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth When they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground and a mist was going up from The land it was watering the whole face of the ground.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and There he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God Made to spring up from every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A River flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah. Where there is gold and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

And the name of the third river is the Tigris Which flows out of Assyria and the fourth river is the Euphrates. 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 shall surely eat of every tree of the garden.

But at 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 God 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 the 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 caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up the 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. If the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well, it's important to know what things are for. Take dihydrogen monoxide, for example, and you know what it is.

You know what it's for. It's responsible. It's a chemical that's responsible for the death of nearly 4 ,000 people a year in the u .s. It's fourth leading cause of death overall and the second leading cause of death for children and for every one child killed by dihydrogen monoxide.

Eight receive emergency medical treatment for it. I saw a notice just yesterday here in Castle County. Someone received emergency treatment for it. Prolonged exposure to solid dihydrogen monoxide causes severe tissue damage.

Gaseous dihydrogen monoxide causes severe burns. It's a major component of acid rain causes metals to rust and corrode and electrical systems to fail. It's often mixed with illicit drugs and intoxicating drinks.

So it sounds really Horrible, isn't it? Of course you may ask with all these destructive effects. Why haven't you heard more about dihydrogen monoxide? Maybe the dihydrogen monoxide industry big dihydrogen monoxide is too rich and powerful.

Just one part of the industry the bottling part makes 20 billion dollars a year. Professional athletes commonly use it as a performance enhancer. The US Navy for example absolutely depends on it. But thanks to a young man from Idaho.

Finally people are calling for a ban on dihydrogen monoxide. A young man named Nathan Zoner. Found that when he explained the consequences of unrestricted access To dihydrogen monoxide that 86 of people were willing to sign a petition to ban it.

Finally there is now a website dhmo .org that publicizes the effects of dihydrogen monoxide and enables you to join an organization called the coalition to ban dihydrogen monoxide. Do you want to ban it?

Well first you may want to know what it is. And what it was made for. The common name for it Is water. Dihydrogen means two parts water. Monoxide means one part oxygen and that's what water is. It's h2o the combination of atoms makes for molecules that are extremely useful for life.

It's in the nature of water. To nourish physical life if you use it in the right way. Anyway, things have elementary natures that determine what they are and what roles they play.

What about you.

What are you for?

The idea has grown up that people can create themselves Just simply by identifying as what they want to be that your psyche not your nature determines what you're made for. We're told that our true nature is whatever we feel it is that traditional roles for men and women are just purely arbitrary.

There's just something we made up and so we can remake them. They are assigned to us by society and now we can break free and we can assign ourselves. Whatever role we want to be is if we had no nature, you know.

We're water has nature, but we don't so you are not they think bound by any inherent nature of who you are. What you're made for. What are you made for? Your psyche. Not your creation determines. Well Genesis 2 says something very different.

It tells us what we're made for here. We see God making human nature creating marriage and sexuality and even ordaining some of the roles of male and female and that these things are built into us like the Nature of water is dihydrogen monoxide is built into it.

Here in Genesis 2 we see three things that we were made for. First worship second work and with some exceptions.

Wedlock.

Worship as the First Purpose of Human Life

What are you made for? Genesis chapter 2 describes it beautifully. Genesis 2 takes us this takes a step back from chapter 1 and Focuses on the creation of of us. And first like before it sets the scene starting at verse 4.

These are the generations that basically the history the story the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. There's that word again Barra remember from last week. Created what only God can do.

God not only created out of nothing He also made there in the it says in the day. It's referring to all the time that transpired in chapter 1. In that day He made the earth and the heavens. Now here we skip all the creation of everything else that we heard about in chapter 1 and we focus in on humanity, what is Humanity.

For we're given a clue already in chapter 5 the earth was unfit because there was no man to work the ground far from being a parasite on earth. Destroying the environment as many people today think the earth was made for humans to work on.

Then in verse 7 God took some dirt or could be dust and adds water to it. Make clay like a potter shaping something He's created. He breathed into this clay and the breath that's or the spirit same word.

Made the clay come alive. First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 45 says the first man. Adam became a living being. The first man and Adams name simply means man. Lives as God inspired life into him. The Hebrew word for breath as in he breathed and the breath of life Is the same word for spirit so he became a living being.

He breathed a spirit into us. So we're not just dirt and water. We're not just physical. But also spiritual. We are dirt and water and spirit flesh and soul. Heaven and earth. We are made for the Lord to worship.

People think they can be happy living just on bread or rice or Internet alone and they'll spend their lives working and making money or playing. And the thing church is a waste of time. They don't know their nature what they're made for.

Some of them are even mildly religious. And so they might even go to church that you they live as if God is an added extra to garnish their lives, though. Not as though he's what they're made for. They live and they treat God as if he were on the level of purebred.

Beautiful poodle a nice pet. Disposable it's a luxury you have. After you reach a certain left you've taken care of all the physical and other kind of needs now. You can have this this luxury said they may attend religious services.

They don't have anything better to do today. We have so-called Christians putting their kids in traveling teams missing worship about half a year and so teaching by example that sports trumps worship or.

Some of them not bringing them for to worship at all. They'll just let their kids just completely skip church. They wouldn't think of letting them skip school. Because that they think that's essential education you have to have but they'll let them skip worship and they teaching by example.

That worship that God is an optional extra not something we're made. To have in our life some that not something were made for. But we see here that our spiritual need is more than just a luxury. More than just a pet more than just an added extra in our life after we've taken care of all our physical needs we are Spiritual that's who we are.

By nature as some have said we have a God-shaped vacuum inside is the great early church theologian Augustine wrote to God our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you we are made for the Lord.

Now immediately in Genesis 2 we see what a great God it is whom we are made for whom we worship. Once he has created man. Notice what he does For him in verse 8 he places him in a garden now. The garden is planted in Eden so Eden is the wider area and it kind of describes where Eden is and that doesn't seem to make much sense to us.

But to them and it's it's a nice place. It's a luxurious place the word Eden just means pleasant place. The land of Eden is a pleasant place of rivers and verses 10 to 14. There's gold there, especially good gold.

That's how the gold was good. Well, yeah, you normally expect gold to be good. But this is especially good gold had bdellium and our aromatic resin. It was an incense so it it smelled good to the garden smelled nice and Onyx kind of quartz glitters to the garden.

Sparkled when there's rocks when it's not all the plants just sparkling rocks. It is a lush rich area. In other words Eden this abundant land in it the Lord decides to make part of it an even nicer place.

Cultivated to be a garden for us in his generosity. God plants a garden within a pleasant place. On a perfect earth not as though there would be a bad place on earth. Finds the pleasant place in a perfect earth and plants a garden there for man to live in that's paradise.

God made us for himself and made paradise For us and then God plants a special tree in this garden verse 9 the tree of life. That was planted so that there would be no need to suffer death if we could eat the fruit of that tree.

We wouldn't die. Know what you're made for you were not made for death. You were made for the Lord to worship. So God Gave us the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in verse 9. We wonder what's what's up with this is it as though God is sinister.

Is he looking for a way to trip humanity up so we can have an excuse to evict them from the garden?

No.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was meant as a reminder of our limits under God that our greatest happiness comes From obeying God. Martin Luther wrote that here with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the beginning of the church.

Even before the family even before the stake it is it's the church because here is God's way of Worshiping him worshiping God of hearing his commands. You hear his command here. Don't eat of that tree.

And so you have an opportunity to obey him. That's what the church is. It's where you hear God's Word and you Submit to it. We worship by believing and Doing by trusting and obeying. And so God was blessing Adam and Eve by giving them a way to show their submission to his word.

Do they believe that promise or threat in verse 17. They can eat of any tree except that one and the day they eat of that one. They will surely die. Do they believe that do they trust God's Word if they truly trust that this Lord who placed them in a garden?

In a pleasant place on a perfect earth. If they truly trust that he is good for them. They trust him then they will not think they won't suspect That God is keeping something good from them that one tree.

We're not supposed to have that must be the good one He's keeping it from us. They won't suspect him of that. They'll trust that he's good if you trust God and He says.

Don't eat that.

You won't eat it. All they need is faith. We were made to worship the Lord and We were made not just for the weekend but to work. Tomorrow's Labor Day. We celebrate work by not working. Some kind of strange.

But whatever God gives Adam employment in verse 15 The Lord puts the man in the garden to work now. We all think of work now is a mixed blessing. We occasionally get tired of it. There are always things about it that are unpleasant.

But hopefully we also find some kind of satisfaction about doing our work. We should take some pleasure in our work. Because we were made to work. It's not just a curse. Here God gives Adam Work here.

We have work before sin and before the curse. It was given to us by God before sin. Originally without any of the drawbacks any of the things that we don't like about it. Your gardener. The major annoyances to work are thorns and weeds.

If you run a restaurant, it's cleaning I guess unreasonable customers. If you're a teacher. You probably think of some of your students as thorns and if you're a student you probably think of them if your teachers are thorns.

But thorns came later with sin. Originally work was meant to be all reward and satisfaction. And so today the able-bodied person who does not work who is satisfied. Just laying on the couch all day watching talk shows is Failing his very nature.

Laziness is a sin because God intended for us to work.

Know.

What you're made for? This is the perfect creation. God in his great goodness designed it for us. He thought of everything here. Even the wild animals we are shown in verses 19 to 20, they're not a threat to Adam.

He's not living in fear of them that he falls asleep. The lion's gonna eat him. No, we were in paradise to worship and to work. Everything was perfect. Well, almost everything. Adam soon becomes aware of his need his natural need.

For a companion in chapter 1 7 times God says about his creation. It is good than the last the seventh time. It is very good here in chapter 2 verse 18. God says it is not good. That man should be alone.

Here's something that's not good. The animals don't quite cut it. Adam is given the right to name every animal, you know, it's not emphasizes that. Everything he names it God delegates that to him which is showing us in action.

What we're told in words in chapter 1 that we have dominion rule over the animals the right to name. Someone something shows authority over them, but they are not. These animals are not sufficient companions for people.

Sorry cat people cats not gonna do it. This is I catch God by surprise that need was built in to man. This is the way God made us. Know what you're made for. Most of us are not made to live by ourselves separate apart we were made for.

Wedlock.

Man's need for a wife and marriage itself is not somehow a result of sin again. This was all before sin. It's not a deficiency. It's not a lack of God's design of God's perfection. It's a natural nearly universal need.

It isn't just a product of society. Telling us how to live what they all their social construct something society has constructed is made. It is the way most of us who created to live. It's a God construct.

Society can arbitrarily decide that any other lifestyle is as good as a man and a woman in marriage. It cannot redefine marriage because society didn't create marriage in the first place. God did marriage is part of nature and we need to nurture it.

It's important to know what things are for. You know, we can call water Dihydrogen monoxide and scare people into banning it and they die of thirst. We can tell people that they are of the sex they feel they are and do irreparable damage.

To the people who believe that lie and we can change the definition of marriage and just destroy society. But water will still be water and man is man and woman is woman and marriage will be what God made it to be.

Know what things are for when Adam first sees his wife verse 23. Here's the first recorded words of any man. In verse 23, he exclaims at last.

Finally.

This is the companion after all those animals. After finding out that dogs really aren't man's best friend. Care what they say.

Finally.

Eureka. And a little poem in Hebrew in verse 23 in it the first recorded words of any man. It begins with the feminine this.

Talk about her.

Has in the middle of it the same feminine this and ends with the same feminine this. Adam is saying this woman this one.

This one.

Last first to last this is the one and so man's first recorded words are in praise Thanking God for woman. And the Lord Jesus said that this passage shows us that in marriage. It is God God. Not society.

It's not luck. It's not matchmakers. It's not a harmony or not family or friends. It's God who brings together a man and a woman and so it is not something that mere human beings can dissolve. So it's not as though we create it.

We can change it. We can dissolve it and Matthew chapter 19 verse 6 Jesus says what therefore God Has joined together talk about the married couple. God has joined them together. Let not man separate.

We were generally most people made for wedlock not for going from one lover to another. You don't separate go to the next one. No, we might look at our marriages or other people's marriages and think well how they came together.

It all seems so Mundane so explainable. We met maybe we hit it off right away. Maybe we didn't hit it off right away, but eventually one thing led to another and we finally got married so I can all look very.

Human.

Maybe romantic maybe not. But whether it's romantic or not, it's not the important thing for in marriage God has brought together two people a man and a woman for me. I was working in a seminary in a security job walking students.

Always women to their apartments or their cars, you know, so they didn't get attacked or anything. We were called escorts. Mary was a student. I escorted so I like to say I was a professional escort and I married one of my clients.

Know what you're made for most of us were made by the Lord for marriage and marriage was made for us. Of course, there are a few people like Jesus himself who are called to a single life and We want to help you fulfill that calling and live pure before God.

We want our church to be a family for such people. Some have experienced instead of the promise of wedlock the pain of its failure. It is sin that damaged marriage and brought us damaging marriages. And so Some are stung by the pain of broken marriages and we hope For the grace of God to bear that God didn't just create marriage.

He also designed the basic Structure of marriage what it is how it works. Roles of men and women husbands and wives are also natural. They are in built by God himself. They're part of the chemistry of marriage that God made.

They're not just old-fashioned traditions that we can just throw off. Make marriage as we want it to be and still be happy. It'll still work. We can make it our way. It's our marriage. We'll do it our way.

Know what you're made for as male and female in chapter 1. We are told that God created both male and female in the image of God. The men and women are made equally in God's image. But one can't take that verse in chapter 1 and then ignore what the very next chapter chapter 2 is.

Saying about the different roles for men and women in marriage first notice that the man was made first and he comes first for a reason he has Primacy. The Apostle Paul makes a point of that himself inspired by the Holy Spirit and first Timothy chapter 2 woman is not to have authority over men in the church because Quote Adam was formed first then Eve so application of that a woman being a senior pastor of a church Is contrary.

Now it's in Scripture. It's contrary to nature. Second notice that the woman was made out of the man. The word here in Hebrew says literally that she was formed. Or she was built.

By God.

So if you men. If you like the way women are built.

Like the form.

Well.

That's because she was God's work. She was made of Adam's ribs. Matthew Henry aptly wrote quote. Eve was made by God not out of Adam's head to rule over him Nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him but out of a side to be equal with him under his arm to be protected and near his heart to be loved.

That's what women are for.

Third.

She is built for a specific purpose to be a helper fit for him a counterpart an associate for life a.

Supportive partner.

Now feminism teaches that women's roles are just totally independent of men. Sometimes it goes so far. They don't really need men at all. When saying they like to say women need men like fish needs a bicycle.

I think that's cute. Well, sorry that you're denying nature. In first Corinthians chapter 11 the Word of God says man is the head of woman.

For because.

Man was not made from woman but woman from man. The roles are different and they're universal. They're not just cultural. They're not just social constructs. They're divine constructs because they come from creation.

The headship of man in marriage and the church is not a result of sin. It's not it was something society did not just ancient cultures and now we've got to risen above that. Something God made. It's part of who he made us to be so different roles.

What are known as gender are? Not just the products of sin or the oppressive patriarchal cultures or social constructs. Now maybe there are some roles that society and put on men or women. There are not from God but others as it here in chapter 2.

Go back to our very creation. To who we are by nature and we see the evidence of that in the world now we here in Scripture. You just look at the world if the roles that we normally think of Is given to a husband say those are leading and protecting providing if those were just the ideas of our culture just tradition.

Just society oppressive culture. Implementing it on us and the role of wives were just those of our culture. We can just change it. We can dissolve it and forget all about it. If that's the case, then one would expect when you Define some major cultures around the world.

There's a lot of cultures all around the world. With some major ones. I'm not about some remote tribe somewhere in the jungle. Major cultures around the world you think some of them would have working examples of different kinds of marital arrangements major Functional societies in which women are the lead.

Of the head, you know where there's matriarchs matriarchal cultures but while there are some slight differences in styles around the world among the major cultures different cultures have generally the same expectations of Husbands and wives.

I mean the similarities are Remarkable if it's just something, you know compared to eating some societies eat with chopsticks some with forks. Very different you would think the roles in marriage between men and women would be like that.

If it's just something society made up if you see the recent documentary What is a woman my Matt Walsh, which I recommend at one point he goes to a tribe in Kenya. I Think it was the Maasai and asked what are the differences between men and women and The point of that exercise is that they are the same roles as in our culture.

Until people thought that they could deny nature that's because the same God made us all unlike water. You know, we can deny who we are and we could try to live differently than what we were made for we can try.

But like water We have a nature. That we can't get away from the nature of man is to be a worshiper and A worker and The nature of woman is to help him in that to join him as a partner in that to be a helper fit for him.

Sexuality, Shame, and the Fall

Now in our day, the pressure is especially on women I think and The pressure is for many of them to be men. They basically have the same nature to have the same roles do the same things as men do. It's all commercial ESPN Women in sports and one of them was football helmet and the I black under and you got this woman's gonna play football.

It's not gonna work. You can you can pretend like it is you can make it look good on TV, but in real life It's not gonna work but that's why many victims of the social contagion of Transgenderism or something Ted people cats because it's being suggested of the culture many of the victims most of the victims now of the social contagion of transgenderism are Adolescent girls are trying to figure out what it means to be a woman.

With a society around them that it telling them that it means basically to be a man. Do the things that men do? Now others Don't fall for that dream reality of denying ideology. But they still fail to understand and accept their God-given role as women and so they end up seeking husbands who are essentially wives who they look for helpers who are fit for them and They have none of the submissiveness and helpfulness that they should cultivate With all the verbosity of their nature.

We now have an epidemic of Angry young men who are frustrated because their nature is called toxic and also frustrated because they're having a hard time finding helpers fit for them and Miserable young women who find it hard to believe that they'll be happiest if they live the way God made them.

Know what you're made for most of us. Is here are made for sex. The Apostle Paul quotes the last phrase of chapter of reverse for 24 They shall become one flesh in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 16 with specific reference to sex.

I was he's saying it's about sex. Verse 25 also implies something about a natural sexuality in its proper context, which is marriage. So we see that sex is also part of God's abundant creation for us.

It is good. It's not a product of sin again. This is all before there's any sin. Now Western culture because of Platonism, that's not a difficult time with us. Platonism the material world is all fallen and the spiritual is all is what is perfect.

What is good and in the Middle Ages? It was believed that any truly spiritual person would not want to do have anything to do with sex that Celibacy was the mark of true spirituality and the only good thing about sex.

What is it was the only way to produce more virgins? Okay now however, there are some people who want us to believe that any Sexual expression is legitimate. We've got to go on to the other stream now Anything you do sexually is is fine and we're all supposed to approve of it Yet the only bad thing is to repress others or yourself.

But know what you're made for. 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 13 says the body is not meant It's not made for sexual immorality.

But for the Lord.

Yes, most of us were made for sex. But only as here in marriage other sex is sexual immorality and we weren't made for that. So sex is God's good gift here made before there was sin. But since we chose to serve the creature as we'll see in the next Chapter which since we chose to serve the creature that the created thing.

The things that we think could be good make to serve us rather than the creator sex now dramatically shows the impact of sin. Think how unusual that last verse of the chapter seems to us verse 25 that if people could be comfortable and unashamed walking around naked that seems so incredible because We've fallen so far and we've lost so much.

It was not God's original design. We weren't made for to have to have him give us laws that repress us. So there's a little truth to that we should be repressing some desires and some things is not ideal.

It's true. It's not ideal. But for now, it's the best we can do. It's not God's original plan to have to cover up parts of our nature, but now we have to be restrained. Sometimes to do what is right. We have to cover up restrict parts of our natural selves.

We have to discipline even repress Ourselves sometimes not to deny ourselves what is good for us. But to keep us from what is bad for us. Therefore in verse 24. Because God has made wedlock a wife for a man.

Then the man has a role. Leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the relationship with the wife takes Priority over the relationship with the parents you can still be close to the parents.

But the wife has to come first if a man isn't able to keep the wife closer Than his parents if he's just too weak allows his parent to interfere with his marriage. He's breaking God's design and the result will be Unhappiness.

God's original design makes us happiest it is paradise. And the man also holds fast to the wife he left his parents for which means he doesn't let go of her. For the parents or for another woman he holds fast to the original one.

Until death do us part God intended for there to be a wonderful perfectly Complementary dance of husband and wife loving and union submissive and self-sacrificing all under a happy Trust in the Lord and this is the original Righteousness.

Not only was man right with God. But all of creation was right with God and with each other. Adam and Eve lived among the other creatures in peace. Even his body was obedient without any evil inclinations or temptations that require us to cover up or restrict ourselves.

Everything was right. It's paradise. That's what you're made for. Paradise is what God can remake us for. There is a restoration. There's a return to what we were made for a paradise. Redained and that remaking a paradise has already started.

It started when Jesus rose from the dead and it can start in your life now. You can be remade first most importantly. We have to become right. With God we have to regain that righteousness and that was the greatest thing about the paradise that we see here.

The most tragic loss and it's the one thing about that paradise. You can have.

Right now.

How can you have it the same way that Adam and Eve? Could have kept paradise. All they had to do Was trust God. Trust that what he said was good and Good for them. That's all you have to do. Trust God.

Only trust him. Trust the Lord God who made paradise for us. Trust the provision He's made to restore us to paradise.

The first man Adam.

Became a living being the last Adam a life-giving spirit. Trust him now for life.