Returning to Genesis chapter two today, the book of Genesis in the chapter two, and we'll read from its opening verse, Genesis chapter two and the verse number one. The word of God says, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord made the earth and the heavens. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb Off the field before it grew, for the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden, he swore, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison, that is it. which compasseth the whole land of Helvanna, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. There is bedilam, an oinstone. And the name of the second river is Gihon, the same as that which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Heldikel. That is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. We'll end our reading at the verse 17 of this chapter. Let's stand briefly for a word of prayer together. Our loving Father, we thank Thee for the singing of Thy praise. What a blessing it has been to our souls as we have lifted our voices heavenward to our God. We have come to worship Thee in this house. And now as we continue in worship, Lord, because the preaching of the word and the hearing of it is very much part of worship, we pray, dear Father, that our hearts will be open, our ears that we may be attentive, Nothing will be distracting but grant dear father our minds now to be centered on the preaching of thy holy word Come lord draw near give me help lord fill me with thy spirit and grant lord thy blessing To be upon the ministry of the word for we pray these are petitions and prayers and through our savior's precious name Amen, and amen you may be seated immediate vacancies, workers required, employment opportunities available now. These are just some of the slogans and signs that we find on signs and posters and banners around the countryside today. I've seen such things attached to telegraph poles, to footbridges, to road junctions, such banners that are requiring workers, workers need it in various places of business. These banners and signs have been strategically placed in order to catch the attention of the passerby, in order to arrest their attention whereby Employment opportunities are presented to such they are really placed there for those who find themselves unemployed or really those who are really seeking a new challenge in their working career. According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of job opportunities from October to December 2020 run rose to nearly 1.3 million. On the 28th of January of this year, the BBC News website carried an article with the following attention-grabbing headline, where are Britain's missing million workers? The article really reported from the onset of coronavirus there has been a big rise in people who would call themselves economically inactive. That is really people who do not want to find work or those people who are not available. forward. The Office of National Statistics reckons that there are now some 400,000 people that are in that category, more than where before the virus hit. The furlough scheme that was advantageous during the time of the pandemic meant that many people within certain sectors received their wages whilst their place of employment was closed. But now such But because that scheme has now come to an end, there does seem to be a reluctance, a reluctance by some to return to the job market. One former business secretary got herself into hot water recently when she criticised those who were refusing to go back to work. While Andrea Leadsom admitted lockdown had affected some people's mental health, She went on to articulate that some workers were now saying to themselves, well, actually, being on furlough and lockdown has been great for me. I've got a garden. I've been able to go out for a walk every day. I now have great vegetables growing in the garden. And really, I don't want to go back to work. Maybe I'll go back part-time, or maybe I'll retire early. Ms. Ledsom was really articulating the facts on the ground, the unwillingness by some to return to the nine-to-five job that they had been previously involved in. And thus it has led to a shortage of workers within our nation. Another factor that has led to a shortage of workers, and this may not immediately come to your mind as a cause, but one reason why there is a shortage of workers is the murder of the unborn child. Since the Abortion Act came into effect in 1968, a staggering 9.7 million babies have lost their lives due to abortion. That is one death every three minutes, or 25 lives ended every hour. Those murdered in such a barbaric way may well have grown up to be the doctors and the nurses that the NHS are now crying out for. The lorry drivers at haulage firms are now desperately seeking for, the teachers that educational authorities are struggling to find in these days, the fruit pickers and the factory workers that are needed to keep farms and factories open. Alas, we have systematically murdered a generation of workers. And it's only going to get worse. Our nation will reap the harvest that it has sown. in the murder of the unborn child. We're going to end up that fewer people are going to be working that is supposed to be supporting a greater number of people who are living to a greater age. And this generation and this nation is going to struggle. It will rape the sin of abortion with regard even to those who find themselves that are economically active within society. In recent days, I had an employer ring me asking, did I know of a young Christian, hardworking man who could come alongside him and help him because he was struggling to find reliable, hardworking, principled workers. I was told lately that there's a business in the Macrafelt area that just opened at the weekend, no longer opens on a Saturday because the employer cannot find employees to work on a Saturday anymore. As I came to think about the shortage of workers in our nation and the aversion to work by some within our society, my thoughts were taken to the Word of God and what the Bible has to say about work. Because all of us at some point in our lives, if health permits, we will enter the work market. Believe it or not, you who are found at school or a college, your school days will come to an end, and you'll be happy about that, and you'll commence some form of employment. Some of you will go into secular employment, becoming the employee. Others will enter into sacred employment, we could term going into full-time work for the Lord. Jesus Christ. There will be others and they'll work in the family home, whilst others they'll set up their own business and they'll become the employer rather than being the employee. With that being the case, And since we will spend a sizable chunk and part of our lives working, I believe that we need to know what the Bible has to say about work. And that's what I want to begin, and I say begin studying today, in a message that I've entitled, What God's Word Says About Work. What God's Word Says about work. Now this subject is so vast it is going to take a number of weeks to look at but I believe that our time will be profitably spent as we consider together this relevant subject matter because I believe that there needs to be a realignment in our attitude to work. A realignment that correlates to what the scriptures have to say about work and employment and labor. And so I trust that this message will be relevant. I trust that it will be topical, and I trust that it will be most of all beneficial to you as you find yourself employed in some kind of business, industry, or labor in this world. Now, as we think about what God's word has to say about work, I want us to consider just a single truth today in this meeting. I want us to think about the commencement of work, the commencement of work. When was the principle of work established? That's the question that I want to try and attempt to answer. Did humanity take it easy for a couple of decades and a couple of centuries before engaging in work? Or was work something that was established early on in human civilization and in societal development well we need to look to the scriptures to find the answer to that question and you're not long into the record of holy scripture before you find yourself confronted with this concept this principle of work but i want you to notice that it is not from humanity that this principle of work is first detected But rather, it is deity. It is from deity that the principle of work and labor is established. You know, there's something that we forget whenever we read the opening verse of Scripture. We forget when we read that verse that God is at work. Because in Genesis 1, verse 1, we read the words, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Creation was a work of God. By the word of His power, God the Son brought all things into existence. All seen and unseen things in this world and the universe beyond were created by God. The world in which we inhabit today is a world that is vast. and is amazing in its work. The great divisions between land and water, the continents and the oceans, the mountains, the plains, the forests, the deserts, the lakes, and the rivers, all populated with plants and animals and trees, put on public display the workmanship of our God. Taking the work of God in isolation from every other work of God, we certainly do we do discern that there is a diversity to the work of God, and there is a dynamism to the work of God, and there is a detail to the work of God. I was thinking quite recently about human beings, and I thought to myself, has there ever been two people exactly the same that has ever lived in this world? You know, whenever we go to make something, say someone decides to make wallpaper there's only so many designs that a person can make it's not as it were of an infinite number there comes a stage where there is a repetition of a design there's a repetition of color within but whenever it comes to human beings you think of all the human beings that have ever lived from Adam in this world and really no two human beings have ever been exactly the same It amazes me to think that God has made every human being a distinct individual. And by that work, he reveals to us the great diversity within his workmanship. Not only is there diversity, but there is dynamism in the work of God. To create out of nothing required power. of an infinite degree to be exerted by holy God. Not only is there diversity, not only is there dynamism, but there is detail in the work of God. How intricate, how detailed, how minute are the details that are found in every aspect of God's creative work. Now the psalmist David, he would speak about creation as being a work of God. Psalm 8 verse 3 he wrote, When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. Creation is a work of God. Over there In Psalm number 19, in the verse one, written again by the same inspired penman, David would write the words, the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the firmament showeth his handiwork, or the firmament showeth the work, the work of his hands. And whenever you delve into Genesis chapter one, and you read there the record of creation, you certainly find that God is at work God is giving himself to the work. creation he's not being lazy he's not being idle but rather he's being industrious he is laboring he is working he has been employed in the work of creation notice the phrases that are used throughout Genesis chapter 1 we find there in the verse number 7 we see that God made and God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the the firmament from the waters which are were above the firmament and it was so then in the verse number 16 we find again and God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser lights to rule the night he made the stars also and then in the verse 21 we find the phrase again and god this time it's the word created and god created great wheels and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind in every wing file after his kind and god saw that it was good and then in the verse 27 we see the godhead making and creating man in their own image making and creating our terms connected with work. And so God was at work when he came to make man who was the crown of his creative work on the week of creation. And so we find there, and God said, let us make man in our Verse 27, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, created he him, male and female, created he them. Three times in that verse, it speaks about creation. It is a work, it is a work of activity. And God was involved in that work. And then, having worked, then God sabbathed. God rested from his labors. Turn there to the chapter two, and the verse number two, and on the seventh day, God ended his work. So Moses calls it work, which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that he had rested from all his work, which God created and made. As you read through the scriptures, you'll come across statements like this, the work of God, or the works of God. And they remind us again that work is something that God involves Himself with. Yes, God worked in creation. We know that. We have established that from Genesis chapter 1. But God also works in other works. We think of the work of redemption. What a work that is. We think of the work of preservation, preserving all things. We think about the work of providence, ordering all things according to the counsel of His will. All things that happen in this world happen by His providence, by His wise decrees. We think about God's work in judgment. That is a work of God. And so God has worked. God is working and God continues to work. That is the teaching of Holy Scripture. And this continuation of God working is something that is drawn to our attention by none other than the Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you turn there to John and the chapter 5, John's Gospel, the chapter number 5, and the verse 17. John 5. And the verse number 17, but Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. My father worketh hitherto and I work. And therefore, brethren and sisters, therefore, the principle of work can be traced back to the Godhead. To God himself, this is a God-ordained principle, the principle of work, the principle of labor, the principle of employment. God, by working, stamped his seal of approval on work and on labor. J.R. Miller said, God works. And if we are to be like God, we must work too. Idleness is most undivine. The unhappiest people in the world are those who do nothing. They have lost the balance of life. They are out of harmony with God and the universe. Work is the law of life and the prime secret of happiness and of health. Because work is divinely, a divinely ordained way of life, then it should come as no surprise to us that sinful man recoils from work and does all that he can to be idle. Is that not the case? Do we not, whenever we set about doing something about the house, we try to what? Cut the corners. We try to do as little work as we can. This is our nature. This principle, this is a God-ordained principle, work. And therefore sinful man in his fallen state, he is going to recall from that which God has ordained. The same way as marriage is ordained by God, sinful man will corrupt that, sinful man will go against that, and thereby sinful man will pervert it. And so sinful man has perverted this principle of work that God has ordained. Therefore we do all that we can to not work. In actual fact what we do now is we work simply so that we can rest or we can have recreation. But that is not God's order. Now there's nothing wrong with rest and there's nothing wrong with recreation and we'll be thinking about that in coming weeks. But the principle of life is that man who is well and healthy and fit is to be employed, is to be a worker. You see, all that God has established and all that God has commanded men hate, and they try to reverse. And so today there is a movement away from work. There is a movement away from labor to a more leisurely way of life. Sure, the government will support me. The government will support me. That's the attitude of some who are healthy and able to work. And I am putting these caveats in. But there are individuals within our society, and that's their attitude. Sure, the government will support me. Well, that attitude finds no basis in Scripture. Well, having established the fact that God works, God or man who has been made in the image of God, and we have read that, reflects God's image best when he gives himself in labor and in industry. Our work in whatever sphere we operate, whether it's in the home, whether it's in the church, whether it's in the workplace, is to reflect the character of God whose image we bear. God created man with the faculties and the abilities to work. Why did God give you hands? Why did God give you feet? Why did God give you a body? It was that you would be able to work to be employed, to be industrious, to labor. And so we find that God expected man to labor and not loaf about when he first made man in the Garden of Eden. I want you to notice those words there in the verse number seven. We read there chapter two of Genesis, and the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. And God having done that, God then planted a garden in Eden. Again, that's another indication that God worked. God planted the garden. Notice there, and God planted. God did it. There's a work again of God. He planted a garden eastward in Eden. And having done that, he then placed man into the garden. And there he put man whom he had formed. But what was Adam to do in that garden? Sunbathe. Is that what he was to do? Was he to kick back and enjoy the fruits of the garden? Was he to smell the roses and admire the trees? No, we're told in Genesis 2 verse 15, what God expected man, Adam, and remember Adam was the representative head of the human race. He was man's representative. So what God expected of Adam, he expects of every man. And what did God ask Adam to do? What did God require Adam to do? What did God expect Adam to do in the Garden of Eden? It says, and God took, verse 15, chapter 2, Genesis, and God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Now that term, to dress, it doesn't mean that Adam put on. clothes onto the garden to dress something that's not what has been spoken of the hebrew word is the word abad abad and it were it means to work or to tell to work or to tell the second free is to keep it it means to hedge about to protect to attend to and so in these details in genesis chapter 2 we see that work was a requirement placed on Adam by God when he resided in Eden's paradise. Work. He was to dress it. He was to tell it. He was to work it. And also, he was to keep it. He was to hedge it about. He was to protect it. He was to attend to the garden. He was not to take, as it were, a life of ease. God had something for Adam to do in the Garden of Eden. Now, in the first creation, let's think about it like this, in the first creation, God created man, and then God placed that man, having created him, in a specific place, and God placing that man in that specific place, then had a work for that man to do in that place. That's what God did in the first creation. But in the second creation, As in the new creation, we're now speaking about God's people. God recreates us. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. And so we are made a new creature. And having remade us, and having given to us his spirit and the divine nature, he then places us into the body of Christ and into the church of Christ. And what does he place us there for? To take retirement? to do nothing, to be lazy. He places us into the body of Christ that we might work, labor, be employed, do something for God where God has placed us. So I ask you today, are you doing anything for God? Are you employed? Or as it were, are you just looking for the Lord just to support your slothful way of living. Child of God, God made you His child in order that you would labor and serve for Him in some way, whether that's in the home, whether that be in the ministry of the work of God, to labor and to work for God. That was in the new creation. Now, it's important to note, brethren and sisters, when this requirement for work was placed on Adam, this requirement came into force prior to the fall. prior to the fall. Some people think that well Adam only began to work after the fall and really that the fall work was a byproduct or a punishment placed upon Adam because he had fallen into sin, but that is simply not the case. Work in the form of dressing and keeping the garden was part of life in Eden before Adam fell from his innocent state into sin. Even in the pristine, pre-fallen world, man was to be a worker. He was to be a worker. If you look back there to Genesis chapter 1, the verses 28 through to 30, you'll find that Adam was given the responsibility to care for the creation by subduing it, ruling over it, and increasing upon it. We read there, and God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that move upon the face of the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed to you and it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every living thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat and it was so. And so we have in the verse 28 specifically the command be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and to subdue it. One preacher said, some people have the impression that work is part of the curse. which sin brought into the world. They imagined that if our first parents had not fallen into sin, that they would never have had anything to do, that they would have walked about forever among the trees of paradise and by the rivers, having a good time. They supposed that they were doomed to work as part of the penalty of their sin. But this, he said, is a mistaken impression. Work was part of the unfallen life in paradise. It was never meant that man should have nothing to do. Idleness was not part of the Edenic happiness. And so this principle of work predates the fall. Work is not part of man's punishment for his disobedience because as I've said, work preceded the moment that Adam and Eve partook of the work or was before the fall of man whenever they committed that act of disobedience. You see, the punishment connected with the fall was not that man had to work. The punishment connected to the fall was that work, which man had previously engaged in, was now going to be much more tedious, troublesome, and tiresome for mankind. Look there at the curse that God put on the ground, the chapter 3 this time. Let's read from the verse number 17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou wast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I command thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow. Shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life? Thorns, also, and thistles, shall it bring forth unto thee? and thou shalt eat the herb of the tree, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, for thus thou art, and on to thus thou shalt return. I want you to notice, the tree is at the end of verse 17. Sorrow, in sorrow shalt thou eat it all the days of thy life. Verse 19, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Sorrow and sweat were now to mark the labors of Adam, and his descendants. God's purpose for humanity to fill the world through work would now be accompanied with pain, frustration, sweat, and sorrow. We need to be clear in our minds that the curse didn't establish the concept of work, but rather it brought about a change in the character or in the nature of work. You see, before the fall, work was sweet. Work was delightsome. Work was pleasant to Adam. He performed work without burden, without care, without complaining, without murmuring. But now with sin having entered, work became burdensome. It became arduous, became vexing, became sorrowful for mankind. It didn't change the concept of work. It changed the character of it, the fall. brought about the sorrow and the sweat that did not exist prior to mankind's fall in the Garden of Eden. I wonder if you ever thought, well, why did God place such a curse on the ground and thereby he would make work so difficult for us and so unpleasant for us at times because we would have to admit that sometimes work is troublesome. Sometimes work is unpleasant for us. Why did God do that? Well, let me suggest to you one reason. I'm sure there are many more, but let me suggest to you one reason why God did that. You see, the curse of sin keeps us from finding satisfaction in our work. It keeps us from finding satisfaction in our work. You know, brethren and sisters, God never made us that we would find our identity and our delight in the achievements of our own hands. He designed us to find our purpose and our satisfaction in Him. And thus He made work difficult. And He made even the successes of work empty, to show us that it really is only in Him that we find our ultimate satisfaction and joy. Ever come home from work and think, that was a bad day at work. You see, God doesn't want you to find your satisfaction in your work. He wants you to find your satisfaction in Him. Work is always going to be arduous in a fallen world. Just from the opening two chapters of Genesis, we really then find that the work of principle is a work or a principle that God establishes at the commencement of human civilization. You know, as pleasurable as leisure time is, and as pleasing as time off work is, you know, God never intended life to be a perpetual, to be a never-ending holiday. He intended that his creatures worked. That's how God made us. He made us to work, if at all possible. And so whenever you read through the book of Genesis, what do you find? You find men and women working. You find Abel working as a shepherd. You find Cain working as a tiller of the ground. You find Noah working as a builder of an ark. You find Sarah working as a wife and a mother within the family home. You find Joseph working as a government official. You'll find a butler. You'll find a baker. You'll find a builder of towers. You'll find hunter men, you'll find people who are making instruments, individuals who are working with precious metals. You'll find industry, you'll find labor, you'll find workers. You'll find people employed in tasks so that they may provide for themselves and also provide for their dependents. One Christian writer wrote the following when he considered the real teaching of scripture regarding work, and this is what he penned. He said, Since labor is the common lot of mankind, it is important that men should accept it without complaining and thus fulfill with cheerful obedience the intention of the Creator for human existence. The basic assumption of the biblical viewpoint is that work is a divine ordinance for the life of man. And that is how we ought to think about work, that God has ordained it. for the benefit of mankind, and thereby we should engage ourselves in some form of it as our health and our age permits. Work is what God created us to do. Work has a divine purpose to it. It is a divine calling. Sitting about day after day, playing computer games, watching television, surfing the World Wide Web for the latest conspiracy theory, are not activities that a healthy man or woman ought to be doing with their time. The Christian is to redeem the time. And one way that we can redeem our time is through work, through work. The reformer John Calvin, he said this, We know that men were created to busy themselves with labor, and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when each one attends to his calling and studies to live well for the common good. Whatever work God has called you to, whether that be sacred, whether that be secular work, don't be idle in that work. but give yourself wholeheartedly to it, while at the same time, do not make an idol of your work. Those are the two dangers that need to be avoided when we speak about work. Making an idol of work or becoming idol at work. Two different idols. Making an idol of work For God has said, thou shalt have no other gods before me, or being idle at work. Well, that's where we need to end for today anyway. This thought of the commencement of work, God worked, a man being created in the image of God, thereby, if health and age permit, A man or woman ought to be busy in some industry. A lady at home, a lady at work, a man at work, individuals fulfilling the roles that God has for husband, wife, father, and mother, working, laboring. Look at that dear woman over there in Proverbs chapter 31, the virtuous woman. She labors. She makes clothes for her family. She provides food for the family. It's work. It's work. To be idle, to be slothful, to be lazy is certainly not the teaching of Holy Scripture. Work for the night is coming. No, thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't avoid work. when he gave himself wholeheartedly to the work assigned to him, the work of redemption. It was a work that he finished. He said, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. And he finished the work. The task assigned to him, he finished it. I wonder, have you ever rested upon that finished work? If you ever rested your soul upon the finished work of Christ for salvation, if not then do so today. And for those of us who have rested our souls upon the finished work, let us gather around the table of remembrance and thank God for the work that he did for us upon the cross of Calvary. What a work it was. May our souls go out in love to him. May God help as we make our way through this study, as we consider the matters that are before us, as we consider what type of worker we're to be, what type of employer we are to be, and all the various aspects that the word of God teaches us with regard to this important subject of work, labor, and employment. May God give us wisdom as we study the Word together. Let's bow our heads in prayer together. Our loving Father, we come before Thee. Lord, we freely confess at times our aversion to work. We try to do as little as possible, personally speaking, and yet, dear Father, We realize what the scripture said, what they say, that their works do follow them. Those who go on to heaven and home, their works follow them. We are to give ourselves to good works. Are we not reminded of that in scripture, in the book of Ephesians, the chapter number two? Though we're not saved by our works, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus onto good works. There's work for us to do, the good works of the Master. Oh, gracious Father, give us help with regard to our employment, our labors, our work. May we give ourselves to the task assigned to us. May our lives and our places of employment be an example to others who are not guided by the teaching of Scripture, but they're guided by secular thinking. How little I can do, how I can evade work. Oh, save us from this, Lord. May we be the best workers in our places of employment, not for the sake that glory is brought to us, but for the glory of Christ Jesus. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. glorify your father which is in heaven and therefore grant help Lord in these days and all for dear God great wisdom as we study the word grant dear father to be guided by the word and help Lord we pray and every word spoken in this place give us help Lord And now bless us as we meet around the table. We pray this in our Savior's precious name.