The Scope of Glory with Tim Keller

this is a great theme for this conference work for the glory of God in some ways very simple right first Corinthians 10:31 whatever you do do all for the glory of God in the first question in the Presbyterian catechism what's the chief chief purpose of the human race what's your chief purpose to glorify God and enjoy him forever but the reason this is a good topic though it's a hard one the scope of glory if you're going to look at work in light of the glory of God that's actually a very comprehensive thing to do because the because the glory of God is not is actually one of the most complicated and comprehensive things the Bible says about God if you go into your traditional systematic theology textbook and you go to the place where talks about the attributes of God according to the Bible sometimes glories not even in the list and the reason be is because it's hard to define the glory of God you might be what is it were ego love of God we got that yeah because we we know something about love holiness we got that justice wisdom power what's the glory of God and the reason why people struggle with it is because I think Herman Bob Inc is reformed dogmatix when he gets to the place of glory I think he hits it the best of all he says the glory of God is the infinite indescribable perfection and beauty of all the other attributes it's God's not just loving he's glorious in his loving and he's glorious and holiness that's a Exodus 15 you know glorious and holiest means it means every one of his attributes is infinitely beautiful infinitely indescribable which means the glory of God in a sense is the infinite beauty of everything the Bible says about God so when you're saying well how do we see work in light of the glory of God what you're really saying is how do how does everything the Bible says about the doctrine of God bear on the way you understand work so it's actually a very comprehensive vision for work and all I'm gonna do is take a few aspects of the doctrine of God and apply them to work and what I'm here to do this is a lecture not a sermon now if I get inspirational I'm doing that I can't help myself but it wasn't it wasn't by design because I think what my job is for this conference I feel at least I decided my job is to give you a lecture that kind of covers the waterfront on what the doctrine of God what the doctrine of the glory of God means to work here's four things we learn about work for the doctrine of God I want to talk to you about the dimmed glory the pervasive glory the low-hanging glory I did say that and the false glory of work the dim glory the pervasive glory the low-hanging glory and the false glory of work and I'm not just gonna run through it I mean I'm just to give you the waterfront not going deep on any of this stuff so first of all what I mean by the dim glory well the doctrine of the doctrine of creation and sin tells us about the dimmed glory of work I'm gonna suggest three different books as we go along and one the first one would be Al Walters creation regained will tell you something about this but what I mean by the dim glory is simply this the doctor of creation and sin if you understand what the Bible says about that that tells you a lot about work let me give you two creation myths one of the cult the old creation myth was the Greek myth of Pandora's Box some of you know that the myth was that there was a golden age on the earth and the gods and human beings they lived together they walked together interesting right there's a golden age but one of the things that was golden about it was there was no work nobody worked stuff just happened food just happened I guess there was no work but Pandora who is a human woman was given a box there's many versions of this I'm not gonna go into it and we still don't open this box sometimes was avaaz base sometimes it was a something else don't open that because in it are all the ills that could happen in in the in the world but she's curious she opens it and all comes all the horrible things come out of death and suffering and work so you see in that creation idea work doesn't look very good does it works a curse well they give you another creation then it's the myth that nobody created the universe it just happened nobody really created human life we just basically came into existence through a process of the strong eating the weak there's no rhyme or reason to it there was no God who created us we're not here for any purpose but we are here through a process of dog-eat-dog survival the fittest strong eating the weak now in that creation myth that it is a myth work looks just as bad as it did in the Greek myth no there is work as brutalizing work is brutal it's basically dog-eat-dog work is just something you've got to do and it's and it's it crushes you and through your work trying to get up the ladder you crush other people that's it's a completely negative view so let me give you a true creation account it's in the book of Genesis and we're told that God created the world to be a good place everything he looks at it was good it was good it was good and here's what we read in Genesis chapter 2 verse 15 and the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it so in Paradise a golden age where everything was wonderful I think was perfect we were everything was what we were created for there was work now if there's work in paradise what that means is that work is a good thing obviously in fact it's dehumanizing not to work because human beings were made for work and work was vague made for human beings probably anybody who's been on long term unemployment or any person my age who thought hey I'm gonna retire and I won't have anything to do that finally I don't have to work you realize how dehumanizing it is not to work somebody once said that work is the only thing that human beings can take in anything but small doses why because it's good but that's a doctor of creation but then there's a doctrine of sin you got to have both of them it's not just that God created the world good and therefore work was one of his good creations but also we rebelled against God were alienated from God and because of that as soon as we rebelled against God when our relationship with God deteriorated our relationship with our work deteriorated you know the two things that that human beings are given to do in the original were childbearing and tilling the ground which by the way the man had one of those jobs and the poor woman had both those jobs I mean it's not fair but there we go okay so you know man had here's your job description Adam one thing here's your chance two things work the ground and had children and of course we're told in Genesis 3 that immediately when they sinned both childbearing and tilling the ground became painful in fact we call the childbearing thing labor but actually it also says thorns and thistles now will come up you will turn you well you know you won't you well of course we still have to work and his work is still a good thing it's not a curse but it is with everything else in you in life now cursed so you know it's not a curse but that it's cursed is absolutely critical if you think all workers got to be incredibly fulfilling I got to quit this job because I need to save the world and it has to fit my gifts and I need to pay very well for it you are very young and you're forgetting the doctrine of our alienation from God on the other hand if you say you know work is just just a job I don't care you know it's a drudgery should it's nothing more than that just a way to make a paycheck of course I cut corners of course I don't really pride in what I do it's just it's just a job you don't understand the doctor creation you don't see the dimmed glory of work it's glorious but it's dimmed and even when we don't always be some frustration in it because the the the text says in Genesis 3 that when we work now thorns and thistles will come up out of the ground so we'll soul food will always be frustrating the thorns thistles so do you see the dim the glory of work okay secondly do you see the pervasive glory of work now here's what I mean by that like I said the great thing about the glory of God is everything everything the Bible says about God is part of the glory of God and when we look at work in light of the glory of God here's here's another doctrine and that is the doctrine of common grace the doctrine of common grace now the doctor common grace is that God actually does love and work through all people what they believe in him or not whether they obey Him or not he gives a certain kind of grace to all people now here's the second book I'd like to recommend for those of you who care about the integration of faith and work and that's a book by Richard Mau a wonderful little book and kind of like nobody has ever heard of it it's a great book and it's called he shines and all that's fair which of course is a line from the hymn he shines and all that's fair and he asked this question in the beginning of the book he says is there a non saving grace and that interesting is there a non saving grace that is at work in the broader reaches of human cultural interaction a grace that expedites a desire on God's part to bestow certain blessings on all human beings blessings that provide saved and unsaved alike blessings that provide the basis for Christians to cooperate with and from everyone else an interesting question so you asked the question is God working in the work of all people is his glory to some degree visible in all work whether the person believes in God and obeys God or not now you know the answer is yes but according to the Bible so for example in Romans 1 and 2 it confirms that there's a primordial knowledge of God that all human beings have romans 2 14 15 says the law of God is written on everyone's conscience so there's all at some deep level there is a there's moral intuition it's one of the reasons why by the way even the people who in their head intellectually philosophically are absolutely committed to moral relativism they say everything is relative there are no moral absolutes all moral values are socially constructed or you know or products of our evolutionary biology the very next moment if specially if you wronged them in some way they show they don't believe that at all they do in their head but they don't believe it there's there's moral intuitions and not only that listen to this here's Isaiah 28 Isaiah 28 it says when a farmer plows for planting when he has levelled the surface does he not plant wheat in its place barley and it's plot and spelt in its field was spelled in right anyway it's in the Bible so it's okay his his God instructs him and teaches him the right way what when any farmer plants and things go well is because God has instructed him and teaches has taught him the right way all this comes from the Lord Almighty wonderful in Council and magnificent in wisdom this is incredible you know what he's saying it's saying that all terrific music all skillful farming all new advances in technology all great political leadership in fact I'll give you some examples of this these things are all no matter who does them are inspired by God God is teaching them where they committed or not where they believe in God or not and he's bringing great things into the world through them so James chapter 1 verse 17 says every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights that means every act of goodness every every every bit of wisdom and justice and beauty you see in the world is from God Exodus 31 is an interesting place where when they're building the tabernacle it says bezzle Oh was quote filled with the Spirit of God with skill ability and knowledge and all kinds of craftsmanship to make artistic designs now when you and I think of the way the Holy Spirit we've talked about spiritual gifts in the New Testament it talks about preaching and counseling and there's all sorts of things that what we call ministry but here it tells us that artistic skill and design is actually something that that God gives to people not to do ministry but simply to bring artistic ministry is a ministry but it's a common grace ministry I say a45 one talks about Syrus free controversial but I can tell you this Cyrus was a pagan King and we're told here that God anoints Cyrus for important political leadership but he was a good king he was a wise King and he was a pagan and yet the Bible says God's anointed him and he's using him and he's making him a great leader you see the point now here's the S but the S buck is when you take a look at Romans 1 and 2 it says all human beings have a conscience all human beings God has some certain primordial knowledge and the God uses them but they hold it down and unrighteousness which means that all people let's just say all non-christian people that when they work they are if they do it well God is helping them do it and therefore in all work no matter who's doing it if it's really well done what you actually see there is witness to God gifts from God and yet it's always mixed in with what we could call idolatrous discourse I mean that's kind of a fancy word my thoughtlessness discourse means if you don't live for God you live in for something you know you if politically you either make the state or the market the absolute you may make your career the absolute or beauty absolute other words if you're not looking for God you wouldn't for something else and that's an aisle and that's gonna actually distort your work now here's what I want you to see Christians ought to be the most nuanced of all people when we look at work or any kind of cultural product I have to admit most Christians and actually most non-christians are ridiculously reductionistic they look at something and if they if you they don't like the person's politics they don't like the person's religious beliefs they don't like part of what the person says you just write the whole thing on man but now look look here class let's quit all these doctrines together now the doctrine of common grace means that non-believers will always be better than their wrong beliefs ought to make them but the doctrine of sin is that you believers will always be worse than your rightful beliefs ought to make you okay non-believers are never as bad as their wrong beliefs ought to make them and believers are never ever as good as their rightfully so to make them because of sin which means that when you do something you those of you who are devout Christians and you're trying to do everything for the glory of God oh do you perfectly worship God you have no idols in your heart you see if you if you don't have video idols in your heart if there's if you're if your career or if you're you know if sex money and power don't tug on you and sort of pull you away from God if you have no idols in your heart you'd be perfect I would like to meet you right after you've got idols in your heart - which would means that your work will always be marked by both a testimony to God's beauty and truth and idolatrous discourse it will both be distorted and also wonderful and a non-believer a person who doesn't believe now listen we'll also have work that is marked by idolatrous discourse and at the same time witness to the glory goodness of God why is this so important and here I'm talking to Christians number one if you don't understand this doctrine of grace common grace the world's gonna be an extremely extremely hard place to understand you're gonna wonder why it is that right for example Christian Christians so often are not nearly as good in their fields as people who aren't Christians you're forgetting the generosity of God or are you gonna be like Salieri in the movie Amadeus salary is this devout you know you know religious person and Mozart according to the movie of course was a schnook and yet Mozart it was clear to Salieri God was actually gifting most art to bring Beauty into the world and he couldn't possibly get near that he was nowhere near it didn't seem fair because Salieri had this reductionistic understanding is I'm a good person my work ought to be better he's a bad person his we're gonna be worse sorry if you understand the Bible gonna send a glory of God you understand how God interacts with his creation you understand that those simplistic kinds of approaches those moralistic simplistic reductionistic kinds of approaches they really don't explain things do they no they don't and you're not going to feel like if Christians have this idea that well I'm working out of a Christian I can't learn anything from people who are you know understand the glory of God you'd understand the pervasive glory in all work number three okay the low-hanging I won't take long on this but what do you mean low-hanging glory well here I'm talking about the Christian doctrine of vocation and here I'm going to talk to you about Martin Luther and I hate this to tell you here's the third book the third book is the is every good endeavor that Katharine Larry also that I together if it was just my book I wouldn't really want to to recommend I feel weird about that but in that book you'll read about this Martin Luther when he expounded Psalm 145 of 147 he finds these places where it says God feeds all living things and then he finds another place in Psalm 147 where it says God strengthens the bars of your gates and of course you know you know back then you had walled cities in order to keep out raiding armies and it says God strengthens the parts of your gates and Luther starts to say wait a minute how does God strengthen the bars of your gates and he says isn't he doing it through and he puts down here human intelligence good leadership how does God feed every living thing isn't he doing through farmers isn't he doing it through Baker's isn't he doing it through grocers and then he comes up and he says you know what what God is actually doing is he's doing what you do now here's here's this sort of kind of an illustration he says let's say you go off into a cabin and you work there with your son and it's very cold and you say to your son son I want you to chop wood and you teach them how to chocolate and what if the next day son it doesn't she hasn't chopped the wood and and you say son why haven't you chopped the wood any his answer is well I know you're not gonna let me freeze you're my father I'm your little boy you're not gonna let me freeze and so I know you're gonna be able to do it anyway so I don't want to do it and of course the son will be of course as Martin Luther says he will be very disciplined why because of course the father doesn't mean that boy if you don't work you know it's not gonna happen but I said I want you to become this way he says what do we want from our children is simply we want them to become diligent we want them to be conscientious and here's what he says all good work even the simplest work even cleaning a home even pushing the broom all good work he says what else is our work to God whether in the fields or in the garden in the city in the house and or in government but but such a child's performance by which he wants to give us his gifts so what he's saying is that the simplest farm girl who's milking the cow that's God's hands he actually calls him that thing he says workers are the masks of God it's reason why it's low-hanging fruit is just to think about this Luther says God is feeding his people through the simplest act the simplest work God is if somebody doesn't clean your house but if you don't do the work to clean your apartment or if you don't pay somebody to clean your apartment or your home you're gonna die yeah it's simple it's low-skilled you don't have to go to college to do it but it's really important God is keeping you alive through that work he's keeping you away through that work so if you do any work well if you built that car well if you push that firm well you're doing the work of God in other words you're participating in the glory of God all work even as simple as raising such dignity that's fruit do you not see it and it's the doctrine of vocation what Luther calls the berutooth of the doctrine of vocation and what he means by that is simply this vocation is something you do for somebody else right if somebody calls you to do something it means you're not doing it for yourself you're doing for the person who's called you to do it right somebody calls you please do this then you do it and Christians know that all work is a calling even as simplest workers are calling pushing that broom can be a colon maybe it's not the thing that you're gifted to you maybe want to do something else the fact is as you're doing it you are the fingers of God you are doing God's work and therefore you mustn't denigrate it even if right now all I'm doing is waiting tables and I'm trying to get some other kind of job but do it well so you do it people are out there that night and they're wonder they want to have a good I don't have a good time people need to eat bring him something to eat do you understand the dignity of that you understand the glory of that you see the low-hanging fruit last last thing and that is the false glory now here's what I mean this is actually the doctrine of the Sabbath day look at my time okay I'll just talk until I'm done because I could go on a long time about this you know work is actually in the Ten Commandments the Ten Commandments is God's laws for all of life and of course work would be there it does say six days shalt thou labor okay but it's there as part of the kick of the command and remember the Sabbath day in other words God never they go together now why well you know what was radical in those days I mean radical back in ancient times was not so much that the if you were if you owned a farm or if you owned an estate and you had people working on your state it wasn't unusual for you to take off you know but you always kept your laborers going because of course that maximize products profits but when God came along and says nobody is gonna lift a finger on the Sabbath day not not the management not the Union not the slaves nobody nobody what he was actually saying is I command you to limit your profit taking I command you to limit how much work dominates your life and there's an interesting place where it actually says you were slaves in Egypt therefore keep the Sabbath well now historically what that means of course is you were a slave in Egypt back and back then you just they just worked you all the time but it's going beyond that here's what it's saying is if you work all the time if you don't take time off if you overwork if you kill yourself in order to make as much money and again and you're a slave if you can't take the time off you're a slave you're slave now you must be now why are you a slave now I don't want to take I don't want to take the Thunderer away from David Bowie and other people who are having to preach on Sunday on the Tower of Babel Genesis 11 I could just tell you this Genesis 11 says that there's a something in our heart that says we want we don't want to work for God's glory we don't want to work to serve people you want to work to make a name for ourselves and if you do that here's what you need to know most most sleep experts say that there's this kind of sleep and there's what they call REM rapid eye movement sleep and you it's the deep sleep and it's if you don't get some of that every night even if you slept all night but you'd ever get down into deep sleep you're gonna be exhausted there's a whole lot of people who take time off they take a month off they take a year off but they're they're still always exhausted why because according to Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 to 10 there's a rest underneath the rest there's a resting of the soul that you've got to have otherwise resting the body for a day a week a month won't work and Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1 to 10 it says the writer says there remains then a rest for the people of God for anyone who enters God's rest also rest from his own work just as God rested from his now what does it mean when it says there's a rest it's it's not about spiritual rest resting for you what's the work the work is trying to get a name make a name for yourself trying to get an identity trying to convince yourself that you're okay trying to prove to yourself and everybody else that you're a successful great good person that's self justification that's self salvation and no matter how much you knock off physically from work if you haven't knocked off from that kind of work if you haven't let the gospel give you the deep rest from coming that comes from knowing that in Christ you are accepted by God then you don't have the rapid I move into the soul you don't have the deep rest of the soul and you are stuck on the false glory of work and the false glory of work saying it but you can just be successful then you can feel then you'll be glory so you feel good about yourself that's that's that's false glory it's false glory now here's what you got to remember those thorns those thistles that make work so frustrating it's part of the curse of sin right it's our punishment but it was Jesus Christ who on the cross got those thorns he got him right into his skull it's Jesus Christ of course who was crushed you know we all those theologians talk about the work of Christ for our salvation so Jesus Christ's work did crush him he took the punishment first and he took the curse that was levelled on us and on work in Genesis 3 so that we can know we're forgiven we know we're accepted and we go to God and we say Oh Lord accept me because of what Jesus Christ has done that brings you that deep rest of the soul that helps you escape the pursuit of the false glory that you work offers but it really can't it seems to offer but it can only God can give you that inner blessing that inner glory the inner sense of your worth without which you can't rest this vision for work from the glory of God is remarkable I mean I just gave you four doctrines four aspects of the doctrine of God but this vision of the gospel on how it transforms work we need to take it out into our lives and into the world's lives NT Wright says this he says the gospel of Jesus points us and indeed urges us to be at the leading edge of the whole culture articulating in story and music and art and philosophy and education and poetry and politics and theology a worldview that will mount the historically rooted Christian challenge to both modernity and postmodernity leading the way into postmodern world with joy and humor and gentleness and good judgment and true wisdom I believe we face the question if not now when if we are grasped by this vision we may also hear the question if not us who and if the gospel of Jesus is not the key to this task what is let me pray thank you Father that the gospel of the glory of God transforms our understanding of work transforms our practice our experience of it in so many ways we pray that you would help us digest how we can apply these things to our lives during the rest of this this time we're going to spend together this conference so we pray this

Channel: Center for Faith & Work

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Length: 30min 41sec (1841 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 23 2019