was confident you could make that transition. I wasn't as confident, but it worked out. Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. We're going to read the verses 4 through 17. Genesis, or verse four is actually where Genesis two should begin because the first three verses really are part of the first creation week, the resting of God after his six days of creating. And then chapter two begins with what are significant words in the book of Genesis. They're used by Moses repeatedly as markers to move the story along. And those are the words, these are the generations of. And we're going to read from verse 4 to verse 17, which gets us to just before we, where we started when we started this marriage series. We started with the, it is not good that man should be alone verse, verse 18. So we're going to read everything before that. And our text is not just verse 15. That's it. I marked it in the bulletin as just verse 15, but it should be 15 and 16. But before we read these verses, let's come before the Lord in prayer. Merciful God and Heavenly Father, we come before you to thank you that we have a light that guides and a word that is solid to stand upon. It gives us security, strength, and it makes us able, O Heavenly God and Father, to survive, live, and indeed thrive within this fallen world. May that word be open to us now with clarity, may it convict and convince us, and may it equip us for service this week. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Genesis 2, then beginning at verse 4, hear the word of God. 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 and was watering the whole face of the ground. And 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 creature. 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 every tree that is pleasant to 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. Delium 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 east 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 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. And it's those last three verses, three verses, 15, 16, and 17, that serve as our text. The Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to keep it, or to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You must surely eat, or 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. Lord now add his blessing to that word. Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord as we come now to the particulars the roles of first men and then women as we come now to consider the responsibilities the tasks that God has given two husbands and two wives. We need to do so in light of what we've already heard in Genesis 2 and in Ephesians 5. And we need to keep those things in mind because there are a lot of other voices that would distract us from the orientation, the perspective that those passages give us. You'll remember that in Genesis 2, verse 18, we heard how marriage is intimately related to the advancing plan of God's kingdom, that it is a temporary blessing, and that it is a good blessing. And we heard in Ephesians 5 that those who are redeemed, they are redeemed for a new way of living, for a new orientation, for a way of service and of blessing, of seeing the other and counting the other as more worthy than yourself. We are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And so we are created to see marriage in a distinctive way. We are created to see our responsibility in a distinctive way. And with those things in mind, we can begin to tackle the question of the roles of husband and then the role of wife. And we say that we keep those things in mind precisely because our culture will tell us now that with respect to the role of husband the church has it all wrong, that in fact the church is the cause of so much of what's wrong in this world. Speaking of husbands in terms of leadership, in terms of authority, in terms of headship, words that are foreboding in our society and culture, words that are negative to our society and culture just like submission and helping with respect to women is negative and forbidden by our culture. So to the words of like authority and headship and leadership, those are wrong words, says our world. They contribute to patriarchy, they contribute to abuse, they contribute to mistakes that are made routinely and regularly when you give to broken people far more authority and power than they should have. And in fact, there is a truth there. There is a great deal of abuse that exists within the broader Christian community. There's enough statistics and social evidence to demonstrate that. Although if you actually tease out some of the evidence, what you discover is that the best marriages, the best husbands, the best fathers by a country mile are men who attend worship regularly. And the worst husbands, worst fathers, worse than even unbelieving men are men who are nominal Christians, who don't attend worship regularly, who don't make a study of God's Word or the things of God's Word a serious aspect to their life. The social studies of our world demonstrate that, in fact, the Word of God is true. But our society doesn't want to hear it. Our society doesn't want to hear that men can be an agent for good in their home. Instead, they want to hear about how bad they are. And as a result, we tend as church to either lean too much into the society's perversion or lean against it. Maybe during the election of the United States recently, you heard some people or you saw some people on social media advocating for the repealing of the 19th Amendment, usually young men advocating for this, that gave the right to vote to women. they were saying you got to get it away from the right you should take it away from women that in fact it is more godly it is more biblical for a wife not to vote because she has to submit to her husband anyway which means she can't vote any other way than her husband does which of course is foolishness and it's not at all biblical but nonetheless you hear people saying these things and you hear that because they're they're wanting to say to the world No, men are good. Strong men are good. And I don't want you to dismiss strong men. We hear people like Jordan Peterson saying that, too. He's speaking to a certain segment of our society that's been downtrodden, and he's giving them courage to stand fast. And you can have that reaction in the church, too. And then you can have the opposite, which is the more predominant one, which is to turn everything feminine. We live in a feminist world. We live in a feminist church. We believe feminist doctrines. Someone took a list of qualifications describing men and then a list of qualifications describing women, and he didn't indicate where they were from or who they were about, and he asked people which one of these qualifications or list of qualifications most likely or most clearly describes Jesus. And 90% of people the world over picked the female one. The ones that are describing women are more likely to describe Jesus in their mind because that's how deeply entrenched the feminization of Christianity has become. Even the modern hymns and some of the ways in which the church worships contributes to this notion that the gospel is really a woman's gospel. And the church has done this in order to avoid saying, we're for strength, we're for leadership, we're for authority. Instead of saying those things, the church says, no, no, no, no, we're for tenderness, we're for servant leadership. And they say these things to try to avoid the difficulties that the world presents to it. Both responses are wrong. Because both responses are not a response to the Word of God. They're a response to some straw man that the world has created. Our world has defined men in a certain way and said, this is wicked. And most people would go, you're right. And all Christians would go, definitely. But that's not what the Bible teaches. That's not what Christianity represents. That's not true. And when the world says this has got to be condemned some people say no it doesn't and they embrace it. And other people say okay we'll prove that we're not that. But we shouldn't do either. We should just listen to what the word of God says and the role of men given by God at the very beginning. And that role begins in verse 4 and verse 5 when the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden. The story of the creation of men begins with an absence of man again, not unlike verse 18. You remember, it's not good that man is alone here. There was no man to work the ground. There's a problem because there's not a man. What is that problem? To answer that we need to at least hear verse 5 against the backdrop of all of chapter 1 essentially. We have to hear it against the backdrop certainly of chapter 1 verse 11 where the Lord creates lots of plants to grow. But here, says God, there is no bush, there is no plant of the field. That is, there are none of those plants that it takes human ingenuity to cultivate. There's lots of maple trees, there's lots of oak trees, there's lots of the other plants, the plants that grow on the side of the road without any help, the plants that grow and you don't need to do a thing for them. But a nursery, and nurserymen, they cultivate plants, they create plants, they create plants that otherwise either wouldn't exist or wouldn't survive. And those kinds of plants didn't yet exist. There had been no cultivated creation. because there was no man to cultivate them. Indeed, humanity, both men and women, had been called to do that very thing when they were created in the verses 28 and 29 of chapter 1, the Lord gave to man the dominion mandate. And one part of that dominion mandate was to rule over all of creation, to rule over all of the stuff, the animals, the plants, the trees, everything. To exercise the rule of God in all of life. And to do so in a manner consistent with their Heavenly Father. In chapter 1, in verse 1 and 2, we find God ruling over this mass of of indifferentiated, undifferentiated stuff. The Spirit of Christ, or the Spirit of God rather, is hovering over this out-of-nothing created substance from which then God pulls out light, and then He pulls out all the rest. Let there be light, He says, and it becomes light. And He uses all of this material to create the organized and ordered world that we live in. And now God says to man, this is why I've created you. You are my son. Be like your father. I'm a gardener. Be a gardener. I'm an architect. Be an architect. I'm a creator. You, man, create too. Humanity was to take the stuff that the Lord had given him and make it better, make it cultivated, make it organized. Now the Lord gives man a help in that. Between the statement of creation's need for man and then man's being placed in the Garden of Eden, quite a bit happens. There is the creation of man, the bringing forth of food for man, the creation of that world in which man would live, the Garden of Eden, and the provisions of creation outside of that garden. The creation of man is wonderful and tender and unique. God intimately makes man, makes him from the stuff of the earth, which makes him a creature, but breathes into him the life that he gives him, giving him a spiritual dynamic, you might say a foot both on the earth and a foot in heaven itself. And He gives to man a very good start. He provides man a cultivated, organized, and ordered environment. That is, He gives to man an example of what He wants to do, a starting place. He gives to man a small example of how He has to now take the world and cultivate it. He builds man a house, the Garden of Eden, and then He fills the cupboards with food, with trees that bear fruit. And then He says to man, now go out into this world and make it great. The rivers and their wealth that are described for us in chapter 2 remind us that man was never to stay at home. He was always to work, always to develop, always to grow and use God's good creation. Thus, between the verses 5 and 15, the Lord displays the goodness of his grace towards humanity and the responsibility man has within his creation. So that before we think too much about authority or the purpose or goal of man's leadership in marriage, we need to stop and set the proper context, which is the role of man in all of life. So much about these verses are about who we are as human beings generally. What it means to be stewards of God's good creation and of the Lord's liberality, his abundant provision for us. But our concern is more focused. Our concern is what this means for the role of men in marriage. Yet there is a strong link between man's responsibility broadly within all of creation and man's responsibility more narrowly within the home. We need to see that what man does in the home has a connection with what he's supposed to do in all of the world. And the first thing we must note is the context in which the leadership of man is provided. Yes, man is the leader. He's the first to be created. He is given authority. But leadership in this instance is not a description of man's particularly impressive abilities. That's how we tend to focus on leadership. That's what kind of leadership we tend to aspire to, a charismatic, gifted leadership. And in that context, leaders only come in one form, alpha males. Leaders are self-starters, are driven, are men of a particular sort. And the reason we think that is because we start with the gifts and then assume the responsibility. This is often the case when we vote for men in offices of the church, in offices of society, and in life generally. We want men who are independent, driven, strong, able to do great things. But that's not the way it is in the Bible at all, is it? In fact, it's exactly the other way around. First, the Lord gives to man a task, an authority, a responsibility. Then he gifts man to fulfill that task. That is to say, it is not the gifts or abilities that are of first importance, but the responsibility God gives to man that has to dominate our vision. This avoids the tendency in our church and traditional culture of thinking that all men should be the same, that men should be tough and physical and driven, and that there is a real man that we should aspire to be. That is neither the experience we have as human beings, nor in any way the teaching of Scripture. That is what our culture says. That is not what the Bible says. Leadership in the Bible is first and foremost a task, an office, a responsibility we hold before anything else. We can talk about good leaders. We can talk about bad leaders. But when we talk about leadership, we're speaking about office, a distinctive role with specific tasks that God has appointed for his creation. And while all of humanity, as image bearers of God, are given the task of serving in his kingdom and using their authority to advance his plan and purpose, it is men who are called, narrowly considered, to be leaders setting the example and standard for all of life. And instead of first seeing how ability enables us to do that, We ought to ask, first of all, what does it mean to be a leader under the Lord's call? Instead of saying, what makes a great leader? Ask, what does it mean to be a leader under the Lord's call? Being a leader is not an office to make our lives better. It is not an office given to us so that we can grab blessings. It is not an office given to us so that we can advance our agenda in all of life. To be a leader in the kingdom of God is not to be first and foremost a visionary, a dynamic character, or someone who can press and push others in the right direction. It is this instead, an office given us by God to bless the world by fulfilling his plan for all of life. That's what it means to be a leader as a man. It is an office used to bless the world by fulfilling God's sovereign plan. And for this great task, the Lord provides his appointed leader with everything he needs to fulfill it. He gives him material gifts. He gives him tools and raw material to turn this creation into a glorious temple of praise. He gives him the necessary sustenance and provision that will allow man to serve with strength and vigor. From the very beginning, man never did not work to eat. That's so often how it is for us. We have to go to work or we don't eat. For man, that wasn't the case in the beginning. He ate and then went to work. He was blessed by the Lord so that he could serve. And most vitally of all, the Lord poured out upon his man the spirit His Spirit of Life. Remember how man was made and how he had the Spirit of Life breathed into him. A reminder of how the Lord would bless and provide for prophets, priests, and kings in the Old Testament. How Jesus Himself would receive the Spirit at the Jordan River. And how after Pentecost, the Spirit indwells all of humanity to equip us to fulfill with the required gifts and strength, wisdom, and ability. the calling that God places upon us, thus called to lead within his creation Our God provides his chosen servant with the necessary gifts for fulfilling his task. We see an echo of this, incidentally, in 1 Samuel 10. You remember when Saul became king, then the Lord poured blessing after blessing after blessing upon Saul in order to indicate that it wouldn't be his fault that Saul failed. The Lord would provide all the blessing Saul needed. God provides men humanity, all of the blessing that they need in order to fulfill the work of his kingdom, the work that he had planned and purposed for him to do. This gives you understand leadership, a unique orientation and character. It means it's not at all like worldly leadership. Most leadership, or at least dynamic and appealing leadership in our culture, is that that blazes a trail and reaches for the brass ring, that climbs to the mountain and plants a flag on top and says, I have done this. That's why politicians like Justin Trudeau, like Donald Trump, are appealing to people. That's why business leaders like Elon Musk are appealing to people. That's why we value athletes over nerds. Because their charisma, their attractiveness, their strength makes us think that we can do it too. It inspires us, suggesting that we are able to accomplish what these leaders accomplished. And it inspires us because we think that if they do it, we'll be blessed. It's the trickle down effect. They'll reach for blessing and we will benefit. No part of human history demonstrates the truth of those thoughts ever, but that is human nature. That is what we believe and what we pursue. Godly leadership is radically different. Godly leadership is oriented in a totally different way. It sees itself as obligated, first of all, to its creator. And it's Redeemer, certainly now. We serve the Father, and now having been purchased by Christ, the Son. And this leadership does not ask, what can I get out of this? But what does the King want me to do? It seeks the King's favor and says, how do you want me to order and organize this glorious world and these blessed gifts that you've provided? What do you want me to do today, Jesus? And it rejoices at the provisions that the Lord gives to fulfill that work. Regardless of how our world defines male personality types, there are alphas and betas and all the rest. The gospel, the Word of God says, all men in all of their unique gifts and talents are equipped by an all-sufficient Savior for the work that he places upon them. We often see the blessings of the Lord that he's bestowed upon his creature, his servant, his man. And we hear about the authority, leadership, and strength that he's given. And we focus only on those things. But we often miss the obligation or responsibility that God's creation placed upon man, giving him not first of all gifts, but an office. An office given to accomplish a task. And that task is not set by us, not defined by us, not determined by us. We're given marching orders, which we are called to fulfill. And those marching orders are entirely God-centered, God-defined, and God-praising. Which is to say that when God created man, he created a choir director. who leads all voices in praise of God. He created a site manager, making sure that the architect's plans are brought to completion. He created a coach, who organizes and orders the players so that they all work together and accomplish their goal. Yes, there's authority, undoubtedly. But it's always derived authority, not based on who we are, but on what God asks of us. and it is always to be used for his purposes. Indeed, that is what the Lord says to man when he commands him to work the garden and keep it." There's been much ink spilled on these two words alone, work and keep. Their basic meaning is simple enough. Work has the idea of developing, of growing and tending. Keep has the idea of protecting, of guarding and preserving. But then we need to expand our vision of these words and their application to all of life. For work, then, receives something good and makes it better. That's what man was to do, says God. I've given you something good. Now, says God, make it better. Here is the history of humanity and finds illustration in almost everything we have. I mean, just think of anything you own and see how it is a gift from God made better. I mean, what is medicine? Medicine is taking those aspects of God's good creation, aspects that give us healing and health, and making it better. Penicillin was a discovery of what is already in creation, and yet a development of it to purify and strengthen it so that we might be blessed. It takes something from God and makes it better, more useful, more helpful, and a blessing. Just think of all of the technology we have in our pockets, in our cell phones. What is a cell phone really? You know that a cell phone is really nothing else than what has been taken out of the ground. It has been mined in many, many different places and in many different ways. It is made up of sand, gold, copper, oil. Man has dug these things out of the ground and combined them, reconstituted them in a way that makes them better. And indeed, what is art? Art, in some simplistic way, is just taking the materials we have in this earth, colors, different paints, and smearing them across some kind of canvas, taking a piece of marble and carving it in an image after our imagination. But excellent art not only reconstitutes the objects in a way that is pleasing, but it also, or ought to, reflect something of our perception of life, of how we understand the world, commenting on who we are as human beings and how we're supposed to be. Which is only to say that good art inspires and encourages and challenges by taking the things of this creation and reflecting them back to us. In every aspect of what we do as human beings, this is the command we're to follow, to work rather, to take what God has given and make it better. And this is the requirement of men and women alike. It would be wrong to limit this work to men only, as though women cannot or do not contribute to this work. This is not only contrary to fact, Indeed, so many wonderful developments in our world have come through the insight of women. It is also contrary to the very Word of God. Genesis 1.28 says, "...to women have dominion over the face of the earth." And Proverbs 31, if you took out the female references, you'd think almost at times that it was a man given all the things that that woman does. No, all people, all human beings, men and women alike, are to work the creation. But we might say that it is the unique responsibility of men to ensure that this happens, to order and organize it. They don't have to do it all themselves. They can't do it all themselves, but they certainly have to make sure it's done, harnessing the gifts of those around them for this glorious work. That is what we are called to do as men, as we work creation. We are to make sure that the kingdom of God advances according to his plan and purpose. And we are to keep it. Keeping it means recognizing that there are threats to this work of God and that we must remain vigilant against such threats. It may seem strange to us that in the Garden of Eden at the very beginning, in paradise itself, there would be a threat that man had to guard creation from. But you only need to read a chapter further to discover there was a cunning serpent waiting to take center stage. There was already a threat. The responsibility of humanity was to sit by the door of this new home that God had created and make sure that only good things and good people entered in. Think about how often, in fact, in Scripture we read about men doing this very thing, sitting at gates, sitting, deciding, and judging, protecting, and preserving. Indeed, this was the unique responsibility of priests in the Old Testament. They were literally gatekeepers. Read 1 Samuel and especially the opening chapters again and see how often you don't read about gates and doors and how either well or poorly the priests, Samuel, Eli, and the rest, sat by them, abused them, used them, in some way were involved in them. Men, humanity is called to protect and preserve what God has given and is good. This is not limited to men, as though women have no role in this. They do. Think of Deborah. Think of jail. They participated in this work just as much as any man. But it is the responsibility of men to ensure that the work is done. They can't leave off this obligation and assume others will take up the task. In fact, isn't that exactly what happens in the fall into sin? Man fails to keep creation. Men are called by God to ensure that the kingdom of God is protected and preserved from those that threaten it and those threats that surround it. Now, if this is the broadest responsibility of men, then this is also the marital responsibility of men. That's the key that we need to see now. God gives to humanity a task and men a particular responsibility to ensure that task is fulfilled. The same is true not only broadly, but narrowly in the home. If we are called to lead in the developing of all creation, then men are also called to lead in the developing of families. There's a material aspect to that work, of course, not just ensuring that our families are provided for, but developing the gifts and talents of those under our care, wives and children alike. And there's a deeper aspect, too. The gifts that our spouse have been given need to be by us cultivated. Just as the Lord placed gifts within creation that man was to use in advancing his kingdom, God gives gifts to our spouse that we are to bring forth in service to the King. That's also true for our children. The abilities of our children need to be cultivated, developed, and directed in service to the King. And the spouse and the children that we've been given are given to us so that we might help them serve the Lord. We do this work in fellowship with our family, but also ensuring that it happens. Oh yes, we don't do this alone. As men, we rely on fellow kingdom citizens, teachers, mentors, parents, and the like. We even rely on our own spouse to help us make sure that we're doing this work. They have different gifts and are sometimes better suited to a task and to seeing things than we are. But we are the ones called to be responsible for this work. We are called to do in the home what we are called to do within the world, to take what God has given and make it better. And if we are called in that sense to also protect the creation then we are also called to protect our marriages and our homes. Does not the devil today make a profound and concerted attack on our homes, our homes which are within the darkness of our culture, islands of peace and of prosperity. And the devil knows that he sees these lights shining in the darkness and he comes at our children, at our spouses, at our hearts and our minds with great zeal. And who then is the doorkeeper to make sure that our homes stay safe? That's the man. That's the responsibility, not of the man alone, but of making sure it happens, the man who passes through our doors. Sometimes quite literally, a daughter comes home with a young man. We ought to make sure that we're preserving and protecting her. A young man, a son comes home with a daughter, a son comes home with a girl. We ought to make sure that we're protecting and preserving him undoubtedly. Literally, who's coming through our doors is a question we should ask and answer. But more often than not, we ought to be aware that it may not be the literal door, it may be the emotional, mental, spiritual door that is being accessed on our phones, on our computers, in our everyday life. Men are to be the doorman of their house, doing battle with the enemies that would harm them. Again, not on their own, relying on fellow kingdom citizens, relying on our spouses, undoubtedly. But in this job site, we get to wear the white hard hat. And wearing that hat, we own the responsibility for what goes on. Indeed, too often, marriage has been seen in a very different way and continues to be seen in a radically different way for men. Men are taught and trained to see marriage as a way for them to achieve their happiness, to achieve sexual happiness, to achieve physical happiness. instead of a way of saying, this is how you can serve your king who sits on the throne and reigns and rules over all of life, who has purchased you by his blood. Here's how you can serve his kingdom. Too often we prioritize our desires and demands and expect others to fulfill them. And what happens then? But we get frustrated when those with whom the Lord has placed us no longer prioritize us or say to us that we're great. And the solution to that problem is not, by the way, to prioritize our spouses and children. That's what our spouses and children want. And it's just as sinful in them as it is in us. No, the calling we have in our homes as men is to prioritize Jesus. We need to ask ourselves some very difficult question then as men, as husbands in our homes, as those that desire to be married, as those that are serving and leading in our homes. First, we need to ask ourselves, are we leading our homes in advancing the kingdom of Christ or are we advancing our own kingdom? Are you leading your home in service to Christ? We need to think hard about that question. Some of us will immediately imagine that that means we need to enter full-time ministry. That's what it means to participate in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. But it's not. Oh, not at all. The advancement of God's kingdom takes place in our jobs, in our teaching, in our working, in our relationships, in all manner of ways. All of life belongs to the Lord. Some of us are given gifts for full-time ministry. Some of us are given gifts for working and developing, for building and designing. Where the Lord has placed us is not the issue. Why we're there is the question, not what we're doing, but who we're doing it for. Who are you working for tomorrow morning? Who are you working for as you save your money, as you pay your mortgage, as you pay your rent? The answer too often is far more horizontal than vertical, far more this life than the life to come. But hasn't Jesus taught us to store up treasures in heaven? so that our homes, like our jobs, like our classrooms, like our cars, our trucks, like everything we do, is to advance the kingdom of Christ, where we are to plant his flag and say, this belongs to Jesus. Do our homes belong to Jesus? Second, are we working to protect and preserve those homes? This requires at least spending time with our spouse and our children, knowing their strengths and their weaknesses, knowing what it is that they're facing and what they're struggling with. And it requires that we know what threats exist in our world that will require on our part some reading, some listening, maybe conferences and Bible studies. It will definitely require worship and devotions. We need to be equipped and we need to be armed by the armor of God in order to fight the good fight. Indeed how can we protect and preserve our homes, our wives, and our children if we are not devoted first and foremost to walking with the Lord. Are we making sure that we're equipped spiritually for the good fight that we're called to wage? Or are we suddenly surprised when everything in our home goes sideways and we can't figure out why things aren't working the way they ought? Never saw it coming, we say, which is probably an indictment on us as men. To the young men looking to be married, this is your task to receive the Lord's provision and return it to him better than you've received it. That should shape the kind of woman you're looking for. Do you want to marry someone who doesn't want to be led in service to Christ, who doesn't make Christ a priority, doesn't want to serve the Lord? Or do you want to marry a woman who desires to do just that, who desires to live with you in service to the King? To the young men looking to be married, this is what you should be looking for. You should be looking for a man who does not love you more, but loves Jesus more, who doesn't prioritize you as much as your soul and spirit may want that, but who prioritizes the kingdom of Christ and works to keep and protect it. You want a husband who submits first to Jesus. Isn't that exactly what the Lord called man to do in the beginning? After saying he must work and keep it, the Lord adds, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, You may not eat, for the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. There's a lot that can be said about this passage, but the basics will have to do, because we're concerned about how this relates to marriage. It relates to a lot more than marriage, obviously, but it also relates to marriage. The provision of the Lord is to be remembered. The Lord gives to man every tree in the garden, except one. The Lord says there are thousands, millions, Just this one not. We might ask why did the Lord plant that tree then that one tree that man wasn't to eat. Well it served as a way to teach man and to test him. It taught man that he must submit everything to the Lord that he may never assert or dominate but must always depend and trust. And it tested man's commitment to that. It asked of man are you really willing to serve the Lord. Are you willing to trust the Lord and his word? So that every time man walked by that tree, every time it came to his heart or his mind, he was being taught that he should depend upon the Lord and he was being tested as to whether or not he was willing to do that. It was a daily and constant reminder that he was to be a man of service and obedience to his creator and his God. Now that's the basics. My interest for you this afternoon is only this that it's only man who was told this. Notice that it is only the Adam. That's literally how it's written in Genesis 2. The man is the Adam. It is only the Adam who is told you may not eat of that tree. Woman has not yet been created. No child obviously has been yet provided. So that there was only one person in the world and this is the only person who knew that the tree of light or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather was a testing and a teaching. In very short order a woman's going to be created and in very short order that man, that Adam, is going to have to do some speaking, some leading. He's going to have to exercise his authority. He's going to have to say to his wife, you can eat of all the trees, but that one not. It was the husband, it was the father's responsibility to teach his wife and children that first the Lord had blessed them abundantly. Look at the enormity of God's goodness to us. But now you must answer that goodness with joy and thanksgiving. Don't eat from that tree. He had to explain the claim of God upon them. He had to speak to them of spiritual things in spiritual terms. It was man's responsibility to lead his family in submission to God and in trust in the Lord. To show the glory of God and to warn his family against defying him. The leadership quality in matters spiritual is here like all of the other areas of life. On matters spiritual, man, like in matters material and emotional and all the rest, was the one who was to ensure this happened. He didn't always have to do it himself. You can imagine that his wife would have also encouraged their children at times when the father, the husband was at work. Then at one point, the son or daughter might say, why can't we eat of that tree? And mom would have to do some teaching and training. Indeed as husbands we can have wives who are very good at that, very able to teach the things of the faith to our children even better than we can. But we need to ensure it happens. That doesn't mean sitting down with our wife and say, have you taught the children today? It means first of all to ourselves submitting to Jesus Christ. If we have a lifestyle that does not in any way testify to a devotion to God then we have failed in our leadership. We are to show that living for the Lord is vital to us. And we do that in a number of different ways, and sometimes very simple ways, by saying to the family, it's time to go to church. We're worshiping the Lord today. By sitting them down around the table at dinner and opening scripture and reading it with them. By having those spiritual conversations with the family, with the children, with our spouse. We don't have to be the minister that leads worship. But we do have to make sure our family worships. And we don't have to be the one that has all the answers. We can buy a lovely reformed study Bible and use it and its notes to explain to our family what the Word of God means. But we need to make sure that they're learning. And we show that living for the Lord is our priority when we pray with our family and when we call them to genuine repentance and faith. We show that we desire that they join us in serving Christ when we speak to them about the blessings of the Lord, when we speak to them about what it means to be a Christian. Language, lifestyle, and even the way that we love our wife. are all testimonies of our devotion to the Lord and to his Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is in that way that in our home, as spiritual heads, we are to shepherd our children to the throne of grace, that they, like us, might drink deeply of its life-giving water. The bottom line is we need to lead our world, our communities, our countries, but first and foremost, our families in the way of serving the Lord, showing them his goodness and warning them against disobeying him. We need to be the ones that say thus far and no further, that say to our son or our daughter, you must repent. For this is sin and you must seek the Lord's favor, leading them in prayer as we call them to find the grace of God. Spiritual leadership in our homes must be our priority. We may not be professional theologians with every answer that we might think we need, but we can at least lead by example. And we can send off an email or a text to someone we know who answers these questions better than we. Saying, I've been asked by my son or my daughter what this passage means or what this situation requires or how we should deal with this reality. What do I say? We can rely on our spouse and have conversations with them about how best to do these things. But we remain the ones responsible for them. Leadership across all areas is our responsibility as men in this world. And that's not about asserting ourselves. That's not about demanding people acknowledge us. It is entirely about making sure everyone sees God in Jesus Christ. that we lead people to see the Lord. Really, that's in the end what we're being called to do here. Let the world see what it means to be a son of the Heavenly Father, redeemed by the power of Christ and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let the world see what it means to walk in the footsteps of our Father, to walk with Him in the way of life. The Lord says at the beginning, be like me. He says it again in Ephesians 5, we read that last time. Therefore, as beloved children be imitators of God, Paul says. Fathers, men, we're to set the standard for that. We're to be the leaders walking out front with the flag saying, follow me, for I know the way that the Lord calls us to serve. That's what it means to be a husband. That's what it means to be a father. The world doesn't understand that at all. That's why the world creates its straw man and says this is terrible. Yes, it is. But that's not what the Lord teaches. Let's thank him for that in prayer. Merciful God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of men, we thank you for the role that you've given to them, the role of ensuring that your good creation is developed and kept. Lord, we did not do that well in the beginning, we fell into sin, we did not work or keep it. That you have sent the greater man, Jesus Christ, the man who by his love, sacrifice, his leadership and authority, all things have been renewed and are being renewed. And we are grateful that we also as men are being renewed in Jesus Christ. And that we again have been given by your spirit the strength to lead our homes, to lead our homes in ways that can sometimes be somewhat embarrassing to us. Humbling, certainly. We might have to say we're sorry to our children or to our spouse. We might have to acknowledge mistakes. We might have to show that we, too, know the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. We might need to ask for help. In so many ways, this is what our human nature revolts against. Lord, when we recognize that your plan for our lives and for our homes is good, And you want to lead our homes so that they develop and grow and flourish and thrive. That our children become stalwart pillars and cornices within your house. That our wives, Lord, are used by you mightily within the advancement of your kingdom. And Heavenly God and Father, we see that your way is good and we pray that you would give us the heart to follow. Help us to be men, to be good men, to be men, Lord, that are first in your word and that call then others to follow. Men that drink deeply of your grace, that taste and see that you are good, and then teach our children to do the same. Help us, Lord, to be sons of you, for we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.