Let's pray together. Father in heaven, it is our prayer that your church would arise, that our lives would be built on the truth of your word, that we would be jealous and desirous, and even, Lord, may we say, greedy for your glory to fill your earth, that your will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven, by the angels who worship and serve you. May that same fervor and zeal be found in us, belong to Christ, and may we spread it across this land. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Satan loves lazy Christians, especially men, especially fathers. Consider Eli. and his two sons. Look at the culture that was produced by his laziness as a father, his refusal to discipline his sons, and the corruption that spread throughout the whole nation of Israel because of one man's failure. Satan loves energetic, misplaced priority Christians. You find this all over the place. Women wanting to be pastors, but especially also in fathers. Again, we see in scripture. Consider Samuel the prophet, right after Eli. He was going all over the place, doing the Lord's work, and he neglected his family. And look at his sons. His sons were like Eli's sons. And so what happened? The people said, we don't want this over us. We want a king. When God wants to judge a nation, he gives them wicked rulers and wicked leaders are the result of sinful citizens. Lest we think we're out of this. We're not. We're not in the free and clear. The people fail to live uprightly before God, either by sins of blatant commission, doing what God forbids, or by sins of omission, not being or doing what God requires. Or, oftentimes, it's a combination of both. And then when leaders are wicked, it's harder for the nation as a whole to repent. But repentance is still required. If that nation doesn't repent, We've seen what's happened throughout history and we see what happens in scripture. Its women will be raped. Its children will be slaughtered. Its men will be enslaved. Look at what happened over in Israel recently. All of this will happen by a foreign nation. How does God judge one nation? When their time is up? By bringing another nation against them. with a different religion, a different God, a different morality, different wicked theology. And we're not immune from this. Last week, we learned that the mantra, religion has nothing to do with politics, is not biblical, but is demonic. It's not American. It's socialist. Every person and every nation, because it's comprised of people, has a religion. And the least tolerant religion is the one that we live under now, secular humanism. And as you recall, responsible for the death of over 750 million people just in the last 150 years. But religion has nothing to do with politics. This is why politics is so important. And it's not so much that it's important as it is unavoidable. It's unavoidable. Remember, politics is the science and exercise of civil rights and civil duties. So, its importance is grounded in the fact that unless you live 100% off the grid, all by yourself, in the middle of nowhere, which you don't because you're here, you will live in the civil sphere. And you will be living a certain way in that sphere. So the question becomes, who do you represent when you are in the civil sphere? Who do you represent when you're in public? I'm not asking who we are supposed to represent. Functionally, who is actually being glorified by us in this civil sphere in which we live? And the answer to that question is going to depend on a few different factors. The object of the individual's worship, the practical religion of the individual, not the expressed verbal religion, and the morals that that individual holds. Remember, all men are worshipers. God created us to worship, and everybody worships. Who do they worship? What do they worship? Who are they called to worship? And remember, all of us, as humans, are moral agents. And so what system of ethics and morality does our practical religion promote? These are questions that we need to examine ourselves in light of, and we need to look at the culture around us so that we can know how best to reach this culture. Our obligation as creatures is to serve Yahweh, who created man according to his own rightful authority and for his own glory. This extends to every single person across the face of the earth, and this also extends to every single relationship. And to understand this better, we need to go back to the beginning, to creation. So turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. You'll find that over the weeks, we'll be spending a good deal of time grounding ourselves back in the creation account, highlighting different aspects. But for now, let's just look at 1 and 2. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It begins with God's sovereignty over all. He made it, it belongs to Him. And the earth was formless, and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Look at verse 3, then God said, let there be light, and there was light. This shows the ease and intelligibility of God in creation. Verse 4, God saw that the light was Good. This shows us the benevolence, the goodness of God in creation. He's saying this is good. Verse 5, God called the light day and the darkness he called night. This shows the authority of God. He gets to call reality what it is. It comes from him. Just like Adam had authority and he names the animals. God is naming day and night. And then when you look at from 6 all the way down, then God said, and it was so. Then God said, and it was so. Then God said, it was so. Speaking everything into existence. But I want us to look at verse 16. So God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day. and the lesser light to rule the night and also the stars. This is interesting because rule is a peculiarly political term, especially when you use this kind of language with inanimate objects, to rule for the sun and the moon. And if we study this passage a little more carefully, we will find out that God created not only realms, but rulers in those realms. Day one, what was the realm? Light and darkness. And that corresponds with day four, who are the rulers? We just saw them, the sun and the moon. Day two, God creates a realm, the waters and the sky. Day five, Who are the rulers? The fish and the birds. Day three, the realm, dry land. Day six, who are the rulers? The living creatures. And the capstone over all of this is man. So, in six literal 24-hour days, God has established a structured domain, a kingdom, with realms and a hierarchy for ruling in these realms. There's a governmental structure, from the beginning, over all creation. God is the absolute sovereign over all, and then man, under God, is God's vice-regent. And this helps us understand the framework for what we're going to be studying today and in the weeks to come. It goes by different names. One is called creation mandate, or dominion mandate, or cultural mandate. And all of them are basically seeking to get at the same thing. Let's look at verse 26 of Genesis 1. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Why was man made in the image of God? It tells us in this passage, so that they will have dominion in this kingdom. The purpose of being made in God's image is to represent God and to represent His authority materially and spiritually in creation for His glory and for the good of His creation. Now, while we could spend a lot of weeks just studying the doctrine of the image of God, this doctrine includes God's communicable attributes. And if you were with us last Wednesday night, we went over those and transformed by truth, so the timing couldn't have been better. It's the Lord's providence. But it includes intellect, if we were just to give some up main level categories. Intellect, affections, morality. But it also extends by good and necessary consequence, our relationship with God as a son to a father. Because we find very similar language to what we just read in Genesis 5.3, when Adam lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness according to his own image and named him Seth. So it's not equal, but there is a correlation there. So what we're seeing as we're building this picture from the Bible, from the beginning, is that man, being as a son to God, having the image of God, having a right relationship with God, is now furnished to represent God in creation. And this just made me think of Matthew 22. Turn with me really quickly. We'll go back to Genesis. Matthew 22. Fifteen, a very, very familiar passage. The Pharisees went and took counsel together about how they might trap Jesus and what he said. They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you're truthful and teach the way of God and truth and defer to no one, for you are not partial to any. Matthew 22, 17. Therefore, tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tax to Caesar or not? But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said, Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? He's always making friends. Show me the coin used for the tax. And they brought him a denarius. And he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is on this? They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. We can go back to Genesis. What's Jesus getting at there? In whose likeness and in whose image are you made? That coin was made by Caesar with his image on it, so give it to him. You were made by God with his image on you, so give yourself to him. Genesis 1, 28. We'll do 27 and 28, but we're gonna focus on 28. And God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that creeps on the earth. After a blessing, there is a five-fold command here that is given to man. Do you see it in the text? These are all commands. Be fruitful. Multiply, rule over the earth, subdue the earth, have dominion over the whole kingdom. And it is interesting that this fivefold mandate is the first communication we have recorded between God and man. Notice also the link between Genesis 1 verse 2 and verse 28. The earth was formless and void. Formless and void. It was formless. It was a wasteland. But man is to rule over it. He's to create. Not ex nihilo, not from nothing like God did. but with all the elements that God has supplied. So we would say, to shape and to fashion, to mix together. What does this plant do? What happens if I mix this with that? What happens if I add heat to this? What happens if I cool this down? The earth was formless. It was also void. It was empty. But man is to fill it with his seed, to cover the surface of the earth with families. If we look over at Genesis 2.15, it says, then Yahweh took the man and set him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it. Cultivate, that's where we get our word culture from. If you notice, different cultures are tied to the land in which they live. different colored clothing from what's natural around them, different smells that people will have, different foods, different spices. From the ground up comes culture. God takes man here from the world and places him in this garden to cultivate it, to keep it, So the garden is a prototype, a pattern of what God had in mind. And note also, work is pre-fall. Work isn't part of the fall. Work is a good thing. In the new heavens and the new earth, we will be working. And he's supposed to expand it, right? Because it's supposed to be over the earth. And he even tells him in 224, he says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So they're in the garden, they've got this mandate, so you're starting out in the garden and you're supposed to have a family and a family and a family, which means you're going to need what? More space. So as you're cultivating within this garden, expand the borders of the garden knowing that you're going to have more of your seed, more generations, more offspring coming from you, and they're going to also need space, and then those families are also going to need space. So the goal is, within the garden, in this right relationship with God, where God is present, spread. Spread. Spread. Well, we know what happens next. The serpent comes, tempts Eve. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. How does God know good and evil? He determines it. He determines it. And what happens? We, our moral relativists, we determine what is good and evil, like God does. but we're not God. They fail, and they eat, and they're cursed. Look at verse 14 of chapter three, the curse to the serpent. Yahweh God said to the serpent, because you've done this, cursed are you more than any of the cattle, more than every beast of the field. On your belly you will go, dust you will eat all the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. So now we've got, okay, there's going to be two different groups of people. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Now we have redemption. There's going to be a redeeming aspect here. There's one to come. This is what theologians call the Proto-Ewangelion, the gospel beforehand. And then to the woman, verse 16, I will greatly multiply your pain and conception. In pain you will bear children, and your desire will be for your husband. That's not a good thing. but he will rule over you. So there's going to be pain and there's going to be conflict in this sphere that the woman is to operate. Okay, verse 17, then to Adam he said, because you've listened to the voice of your wife, not to me, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you. And you will eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face. You will eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken. For you are dust and to dust you shall return. So again, for the man in his sphere, pain and conflict. And then for both of them, ultimately, death. And we know from this and from other passages like Romans 5 that explain this, Adam plunges the whole human race into iniquity. And do we ever stop to think about the generational effects of our own sin? Or do we follow Adam in that too? I'm just gonna do this sin because I want to. Not thinking about all the people around me that will be affected and the people that I don't even know. Maybe my children now, but their children. How far is this effect going to be? Look at verse 23. Therefore, Yahweh God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken." So the fall does not alleviate mankind of the cultural mandate. It makes it harder. It makes it harder. Sin never alleviates us of responsibilities. It just makes them harder to fulfill. Have you noticed that? It's not like, well, I sin, now I don't have to do this. Now it's harder. But what about these two seeds? And that's what we start to see in these next chapters. Chapter 4, verse 1. Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I've gotten a man with the help of Yahweh. Cain means acquired. God said there's going to be a seed that's going to crush the serpent. It's going to be the seed of the woman. She's putting two and two together. And so she names her son, acquired, got him. I've got him. God's given him to me. Adam, grab your stuff. We're going back to the garden. But we know that doesn't happen, does it? Cain shows which side he's on. when he kills his brother. And 1 John 3 tells us that he's wicked and Abel is righteous. And so even from just that one family, the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, it's already working out. Look at verse 19. As we're tracing through this line of Cain, one of his descendants is called Lamech. Lamech took for himself two wives, and we remember that It's not the same language when it's a man and a woman where Adam knew Eve, where there's that intimacy. The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zillah. And Ada gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock, and his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the lyre and the pipe. As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-Kain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron, and the sister of Tubal-Kain was Naama." So why are we going over this? Because the serpent seed is fulfilling the cultural mandate with respect to the physical aspect of it. They're going out, they're ruling over the earth, they're subduing it, and they're advancing culture. This is one of the, just as a side note, I do find it interesting because there's some Christian rap that is really good when it's giving you doctrine. And people go, you can't take that, that music is evil and you can't take it and redeem it and use it. You can't do that at all as a Christian. If you're gonna be consistent in that, you can't use music at all. Because it comes from the seed of the serpent. And depending on how you understand what Ezekiel says, Satan could have been the one leading music in heaven before he fell. So music, all of it, if you're gonna be consistent, would be off limits for you. And this, just as a precursor to Weeks to Come, does give us a little bit of insight into redeeming aspects of the culture around us. We'll get into some more particulars of that. Look at verse 25 and 26 of Genesis 4. Then Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, God has set for me another seed in the place of Abel, for Cain killed him. And Seth to him also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of Yahweh." So the serpent seed is pursuing physical cultural mandate. The seed of the woman is pursuing spiritual cultural mandate. Isn't that interesting? They're separated. And we find these same kinds of things going on today in the day that we live. But where does it go from here? You know what comes next. Genesis chapter 6, verse 5. Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Look at verse 11. Now the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. This is the first time we see that word fill since the creation account, the cultural mandate. Fill the earth. And Cain's line is doing a great job at filling the earth. But what are they filling it with? Violence. We see it in 13 again. So they're actually doing part of what they're supposed to be doing. But something crucial and fundamental is lacking. Again, man was to be a vice-regent, a representative of God. God is his king. And we see functionally, the seat of the serpent did do this, but not all the way. John 8, 44, you are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. The problem, was that man had the wrong God. Physically, cultural mandate, going, spreading, multiplying, ruling, subduing, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But wrong God. David is very helpful in this. If we look at Psalm 8. Psalm 8. Have you ever wondered in Psalm 8, verse 2, what he's talking about? Psalm 8, for the choir director, according to the Giddeth, a Psalm of David. O Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who displays your splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have established strength. And we go, okay, maybe he's talking about like 1 Corinthians 1, the weak and the strong and the wise and the foolish. You have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. But he's talking about the cultural mandate being fruitful and multiplying. And then he'll get into the rest of the cultural mandate in these next verses. When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've established, what is man that you remember him and the son of man that you care for him? Correcting Job, as you recall. Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, also the animals of the field, the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Do you see how much distinct language is being used to catapult our mind back to Genesis 1 here? He's talking about the cultural mandate. Notice what's permeating and interwoven in all of this that David tells us. Worship. The glory of Yahweh. Seeking and beholding his majesty. You see, the cultural mandate is the means by which God has ordained to accomplish his ultimate goal. What is His goal? If you were with us when we studied the Old Testament, it's all over the place. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as waters cover the sea. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Let the whole earth, or the whole earth will be filled with His glory. That's the goal. That's the goal. We see this refrain throughout the scriptures. And the Apostle Paul sums up the history very well in Romans chapter one. Romans 1.18, how is man doing at this cultural mandate? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Why? Because that which is known about God is evident within them. You mean they know God? Well, who told them? For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being also understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. And now we're starting to get to the problem here. For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts. It starts inside, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and crawling creatures. It's interesting that it starts with man. That's where their idolatry starts with. Yeah, they branch out, different religions will have different kinds of animals and then a mixture of them. And so God gave them over in the lusts of their heart to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. Why? Verse 25, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who was blessed forever. And then from there it goes into all kinds of immorality and sexual deviancy. But what Paul tells us is that scripture is clear. Although it may look like there are many different roads and many different paths, there's only two paths, two directions of culture. Worshipping God or worshipping the creature. Glorifying God or glorifying creation. There's no neutrality. This is binary. So even though men may advance many aspects of physical culture as Cain's descendants did, and there's some areas that we can be thankful for in some regards, this is not an adequate expression of obedience before God, since those men's goal is not ultimately the glory of Yahweh. So it all amounts to idolatry. And this kind of idolatry always promotes moral decay in a culture, Cultural decline is a result of that moral decay, and then it consummates with national destruction. Every time. So, with what we've gathered, we can start to systematize and formulize some things. We can derive a necessary distinction with regard to the cultural mandate. We can distinguish between, one, the genre, or the form, or the structure of this aspect of cultural mandate. Is it agricultural? Is it natural science? Is it music? Is it homemaking? Is it plumbing? Is it carpentry? Is it driving? The genre, form, or structure of the cultural mandate, and then the orientation. or the goal, the aim, the direction of this cultural mandate as expressed in the heart of the individual. And this is binary again. It's either for God in Christ, or it's against Him. Those are the only two options. For example, two musical composers seek to advance culture in their field. And we can take a famous one. One does it like Bach. And at the bottom of all of his music signs what? Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory. Because my desire in the field that I labor in is for God to be glorified throughout the whole earth. And so I'm going to advance the field of my vocation for the glory of God. The other doesn't. He may do it for a whole swath of different reasons. Emotional expression, whatever it might be, but it's idolatry. And that's all it ends up being. So how do we bring this closer to home? What about the culture where you and I live? Well, what's the religion of our nation? And what's the culture? Secular humanism. And just by way of recap, essentially, secular humanism is man is. There's no God, no divinity, no supernatural. Man is the measure of man. Man is the apex, material things. That's it. only what's material. And this really gets propagated a lot by Darwinian evolution. And the interesting thing is a lot of people propagating Darwinian evolution have not read Darwin's works. Because if you read Darwin's works, you know what you'll find? The apex of man is the white man. And the darker your skin, the less of a person you are. Now, they let that slide because it's in line with what they believe and what they want and what they're pushing. But if somebody against them said that, they would call it what it is, racism. But they keep pushing it. Material things, that's all that there is. And the irony is that self-refuting. Because that statement isn't even a material thing. There are things that are immaterial. And what was the church's response throughout these past centuries? Adopting a pietistic form of platonic dualism. I know that's a mouthful or an earful. It's a mouthful too. But you remember we talked about pietism, this privatized Christianity, just in my heart and in my devotions, just me. It's different than being pious. Being pious is a good thing. Being godly is a good thing. Pietism and pietistic tendencies are not. What is platonic dualism? Very simply, dualism, so two, platonic from Plato, material things are good, or material things are bad, spiritual things are good. So anything material is bad, because Plato would teach, oh, okay, trying to make sense of natural revelation. For every physical thing that we see, there is a spiritual counterpart to it. So if you see a horse, there is somewhere a spiritual horse to correspond with that physical horse. And it's the perfect horse for that horse. The spiritual is good, the material is bad. So you see what's going to happen. When you have a religion that's saying all there is is material, so then material by default is going to be good, because there's nothing else that we have. Coming in contact with a religion that says, no, all material stuff is bad, it's only the spiritual things that are good. You've just left a whole category wide open to be raped. There's no engaging with the cultural mandate, at least not on a widespread scale. It's very limited within the church. And there was a mass retreating from the public square. And so how do we respond to this? How do we fight Greek philosophy within the church? Well, the first thing we have to do is let's see if you've been corrupted by this villainous disease. Because if you've been corrupted by it, you're in no position to help anyone. Let me ask you some questions. Is it more important to be a Christian pastor or a Christian politician? Which one's more important? Is it more important to be a Christian business owner or a Christian missionary? Which one is it? Essentially, what we're asking is, what's more important, subduing the earth or evangelism? What's more important, the cultural mandate or the Great Commission mandate, the evangelistic mandate? You have been infected. Because when you hear politician and then pastor, you say pastor. It's pietism, platonic dualism that has infected your thinking. There's a reciprocal relationship between the cultural mandate and the evangelistic or Great Commission mandate. And there's a priority to each mandate. There's a priority to the cultural mandate in that God wanted his kingdom to come to a proper expression before he even spoke of redemption. There was the cultural mandate, given historically and chronologically priority. And note this also, that the redemption aspect of the evangelistic mandate is to take place through the cultural mandate. Remember Genesis 3.15? There's going to be two different seeds. There's going to be a seed that's going to come from the woman. How's that seed going to come from the woman that's going to bring redemption? Through the cultural mandate. Because if people are not being fruitful and multiplying, there will be no seed. The Abrahamic covenant. Seed and land. The Davidic covenant. Seed, land, and a throne. Christ born of a woman. He is the seed of the woman and he's given land. And a throne and authority over heaven and earth. And Christians are the seed of Abraham. And all things are ours in Christ. Now, there's also a priority to the evangelistic or Great Commission mandate. So the cultural mandate can't properly take place in a sinful world without redeemed people. Otherwise, you're just going to be like Cain and his descendants. The evangelistic mandate, therefore, is a necessary means to the ultimate goal of the cultural mandate, that the earth will be filled with the glory of Yahweh. So there's an urgency in this evangelistic mandate. Because we can't start building cultures unless we have the right materials. And the right materials has to be those that are redeemed. But note this very carefully. These mandates cannot, as they have been for decades and centuries in our land, these mandates cannot be separated. But they must be distinguished. I trust you know the difference between distinguishing and separating. There's no separation between them. So you can't pit them against each other, which is what we see on Christian Q&A stages and from sermons and everything. Why do that? What's more important? You have a wrong framework. You've been infected if you're thinking that way. The urgency is redemption of persons. The goal is redemption of cultures. The purpose is so that Christ is recognized as king over not just every single individual, but every single sphere. Family. Civil. Church. Every vocation. Christ is king. Every recreational activity. Every relationship. Because the ultimate purpose is that God's glory would fill the earth as the water does the seas. So this is not an either-or decision. Every single one of us is commanded to be involved in both. Whether you're a homemaker, white collar, blue collar, no collar. And granted, it's going to look different in different degrees. If you're a homemaker, the expectation is not that you come out to Esther Short Park and do street preaching. It's going to look different. This isn't cookie cutter. It's not everybody has to do everything equally. The politician that's a Christian isn't going to use his political platform to try and push evangelism. Because evangelism is a ministry of the church. But the political Christian We'll be evangelistic because he is a Christian. And so you see, there's a lot to this that we need to think through, wade through, and start getting to practical levels because we're drowning here. It doesn't matter if you're single or you're married, if you're young or you're old. Here's what I don't want you to do. and pitting these things against each other. Don't be heartless and just focus on the cultural mandate and have no regard for the souls of men. But at the same time, do not be blind and fail to see that the goal of the evangelistic mandate is for the glory of God to fill the earth, which is the cultural mandate. And unfortunately, this is the posture that the church in America has taken for decades. Summed up, heartless and blind. They say, oh, it's just about preaching the gospel. It's just about preaching, and you don't even preach the gospel. We've got to get culture. We've got to get culture. No, we shouldn't go after culture. And pitting them against each other as if they're separate. Now, you can place the wrong emphasis on things, but you cannot Separate these as they have been. We don't have that authority to separate them. And I would say the problem in our culture goes back to pastors. And you've heard me say this before. Pastors failing to be pastors, failing to represent God from their pulpits and to teach scripture. concerned far too much about what people think, and how many people are going to come to their church, and what's this going to be, and what's that, or if I say this, people will be upset, or I'll drive people away, or this or that. All of that is irrelevant. The pastor is to stand in the pulpit and proclaim the Word of God. That's what he's supposed to do. Churches have not stood on scripture with regard to Christian living in every sphere, in the family. How many churches have you been to that emphasize loving male servant leadership in the home? Or family worship in the home led by the father and by the mother? Discipling your children. in the home, educating your children in the home, training your children in the home, disciplining your children with the rod in the home. Not many. Why is that? Are these things not commanded in Scripture? Is this just part of some statement of faith for some denomination? No. Aren't these unavoidable ways that Scripture says we are to love our family? And are these not the means by which God has said, this is how I am glorified? So why is it not being taught? Colossians 2, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world and not according to Christ. That's why they've been taken captive. Churches have not stood on scripture with regard to the civil sphere. Voting, not voting, whatever. And as we saw last week, that's unbiblical, and that's sinful, and will all be held to account for the authority that we've been given. Not seeing This is one thing I want to help you guys understand. We've talked about it before when we've talked about the Christian's vocation. Not seeing your job as a ministry, as a God-ordained means for the cultural and evangelistic mandate. Well, I'm not a pastor and I'm not a missionary. You're not Roman Catholic either. That's where that comes from. Clergy laity. Maybe one day, When you grow up and you want to get serious about God, then you'll be a leader in the church like me. That's not in the Bible. What's in the Bible is to fill, to spread every vocation, all vocations. The vocation that you're in is the one that God has ordained for you to be in. And what you are supposed to do there is to work hardly as unto the Lord in that vocation for the glory of Christ, looking for opportunities to evangelize and to show your Christian work ethic, Not just for men, but primarily because your father is looking down and he's pleased seeing you work. When you're going and you're going to somebody's house on a call to fix a sink, your father is pleased with you when you do it well. When you're in the home, As a wife and a mother laboring with the kids, and you're battling all these different sinful tendencies, and instructing them, giving them a good example, and fighting the good fight in the home, your father is pleased with you. You don't have to become a pastor. That's not found in the Bible. You need to see your job as a God-ordained means for the cultural and evangelical mandate that God has given to every one of his children. And then in third, the church, we've forgotten we're at war. For some reason, we've gotten lazy. We have a captain, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the church militant, militant, And we haven't been what we're called to be, which is the pillar and support of the truth. And so the truth has not been going out. So when you think about this, brothers and sisters, we have failed in every sphere of life. Not just our personal lives with our personal sins. But we failed in the church, we failed in the family, and we failed in the public sphere. And we, like Adam, have sinned. We've abrogated God's commands. And like Adam, now we have an uphill battle. Because our responsibilities, the mandates that we've been given, are still there. But now it's going to be harder. Yes, some of this is from our forefathers. You can sit and whine about that all day long, and it's not going to help. Or you can look at where you failed, repent, seek the Lord's face, and say, okay, Lord, help me. I want to move forward in faith and I want to be honoring and glorifying to you. Because here's the thing, how has the serpent's seed fared in our land during this time while we've been asleep at the wheel? I'm going to give you some of their goals from the 19th and 20th century. Goal number 11, promote the United Nations as the only hope for mankind. Demand that it be set up as a one world government with its own independent armed forces. Goal number 15, capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. Goal number 16, use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. This was written decades ago. Goal 17, get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of the teachers' associations. Put the current political ideas and policies of communism in the children's textbooks. Goal 19, use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under communist attack. Goal 20, infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, and policy-making positions. Goal 21, gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22, continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. Replace them with shapeless, meaningless forms. You wonder why that art you see all around that doesn't look like art is out there? There's a purpose behind it. There's a culture behind it. 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press. Goal number 25, break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography in books, magazines, motion pictures, and TV. So I hope you men hear this. If you do look at pornography, realize that you're taking sides with the enemy, not just against Christ, but against God's glory and against your brothers and sisters in the church. Goal number 26, present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal, natural, and healthy. Goal number 27, infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible. Goal number 28, eliminate prayer in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of separation in church and state. Goal number 29, discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide scale. Goal number 33, eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the communist apparatus. Goal number 38, transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders, which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat. Goal number 39, dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose communist goals. Goal number 40, discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. Goal number 41, emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks, and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. Goal number 42, create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition, that students and special interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political, or social problems. This is from a book called The Naked Communist. It was written in the 50s, summarizing communist agendas. Some of these have already been accomplished. And it was out there. But religion has nothing to do with politics. So I don't care what happens to our culture and to our nation. Do you like going to work, being able to work at your job? Pick a job that you'd like to do within reason and come home knowing that your wife and kids will be there and will be safe Or do you want to be forced into a job you have no control over, leave going to work knowing that when you're gone, they will be raped, and that's what you'll come home to? This is where things have been and are heading. I don't know where the precipice is, but I think it's really close. but religion has nothing to do with politics. Listen to this quote. This is a dedication of Saul Alinsky's book. If you know who Saul Alinsky is, you should know. He's the mentor of the Clintons and the Obamas and others. Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical, from all our legends, mythology and history, And who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins, or which is which? The first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom, to Lucifer. Religion has nothing to do with politics. This is just what the communists are doing. This is the ideology that President Obama cut his teeth on and taught this. as a community organizer and agitator for four years, motivating troops. But religion has nothing to do with politics. Now, ultimately, unless you get your foolish, childish thinking again, We know that human government will always fail us, so we're not going to place our hope and our faith in politics, since it has humans in it, and humans will sin and will fail you. We've seen this from the garden onward. Adam and Eve commanded to rule over the earth, yet without considering anyone but themselves, they used their authority to usurp God's authority and to plague the generations of their children, of which we are. They did not consider the impact that this would have on their own children. We, on the other hand, have an opportunity not to fail in the same ways Adam failed in. We need to love our children and our grandchildren, and we need to think generationally about great-grandchildren and others. Yeah, we might, some of us in this room might, be dead before the gulag comes, but what about our children? Are we so selfish that we don't even care? Just as long as we make our life for them to deal with. More importantly, we're breaking the Lord's command and we're teaching them to break the third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. Isn't it interesting that most of you have that reductionistic view of, well, that means saying, God damn. That's not what it means. It means calling yourself a Christian and not living in every sphere of your life like a Christian. You're taking up the name of God and you're living it out empty. That's what it means. Imagine if somebody was publicly engaging, if you're a business owner, and somebody's publicly engaging in a crime with his work uniform on of your company, and he's out there in society dressed up with company clothes on of your company, and he's committing crimes. How would you feel about that? How would you handle that? Do you think God has a lesser standard than you do? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. Yeah, but Joey, it's all gonna burn anyway, so why does it even matter? When I hear that, I just think, give me your wallet, you hypocrite. It's just gonna burn anyway. Why does it even matter? Why do you live in a home, you hypocrite? It's just gonna burn anyway. Why do you have a car, hypocrite? Give me your car, give me all that stuff. Since it doesn't matter, it's all just gonna burn anyway. You don't live like that. What's the difference? What you love. And it ties into taking the Lord's name in vain. I want the benefits of being called a Christian, but none of the responsibilities. We can't bring about the kingdom, though. Well, think about this. We're commanded to pursue sanctification, to be holy as God is holy. 1 Peter 1. Can we as humans, even as redeemed humans, be holy like God, the infinitely majestic, thrice holy God is holy, who dwells in unapproachable light? Can we be holy like that? No! So why even try? We are commanded to pursue this cultural mandate so that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, so that his glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. Now, can we as humans, even redeemed humans, bring about this kingdom of God over the face of the earth? No. We can't. So why even try? Because the love of Christ controls us. That's why. Because our Master and our Savior and our Lord, who loved us and gave Himself up for us, has told us what to do. Because our heartbeat comes from His heart. His love motivates us. And we desire His glory on this earth. Because we know Him and we've seen Him. And He is beautiful and He is precious. And he's true, and he's right, he's good. And that is the life that we want everybody to have. Now notice that both of these arguments, these ridiculous objections, are logically the same. And if you hold them, I want to challenge you right now, you need to repent of the sin of antinomianism. And it is running rampant through your mind and through your affections. You've got to find out what affections are tied to that, that you're hiding out. Antinomianism is a dangerous and wicked doctrine that, under the guise of advancing free grace and Christian liberty, it rejects God's moral law as the rule of life for believers. Antinomianism falsely claims that because Christians are justified by faith and under grace, we're no longer obligated to obey God's law. This heresy separates the law of God from the gospel of God, leading believers away from holiness, away from conformity to Christ, and ultimately turns grace into a license for conscience-searing, sinful living. Look at Romans 5. Chapter 20, verse 20, Romans 5 20. Now, the law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. There's no stronger way to put that in Greek. This is as strong as it gets. May it never be. He's exploding here. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? How could your mind even go in that direction? Or do you not know that all of us who were immersed into Christ were immersed into his death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through immersion into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, that our life would be different. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, Certainly, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, our old man was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Look at the call, the command he gives to us in verse 11. Consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey its lusts. Notice the church militant language in this next verse. And do not go on presenting your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as weapons of righteousness to God. Look over at 2 Corinthians 4, or 5, 14. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, why? So that they who live would no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we've known Christ according to the flesh, yet we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. All these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their transgressions against them. And he has committed to us this word of reconciliation. So then, we are ambassadors for Christ. ambassadors. That means we go places and we represent him. The church is not a hospital. I think that's one of the dumbest illustrations ever. That's so passive. We just stay here and somebody needs us. Here we are. We are ambassadors. For Christ, as God is pleading through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And if you're here today and you have not yet surrendered to Christ and cast your burden of your sin upon Him, Why? What are you waiting for? You can't do any of the cultural mandate. You can't do anything that we've been talking about. You are not yet on the team. You have not yet surrendered your life to Christ. You're not one of his ambassadors. It's his ambassadors. The ones that are going about the cultural command and going to seek God's glory in every single thing. But if you can't desire God's glory here and now in your own life. What are you playing at? You need to repent. Christ is coming back. He's going to separate the sheep and the goats. He's going to reign and rule over all. And for those of us that love him, this will be the happiest, most joyful time ever. We will be so thankful. But for his enemies, they will begrudgingly bow the knee and say, what? Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father. So Christians, where do we go from here? Well, think about some parallels. Adam and Eve were brought from the world to a place of beauty where God dwells in the garden. And we as Christians were brought out of the world to a place of beauty where God dwells, the church. Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and multiply, extending the garden outward, knowing that they would have children and a man is to leave his father and his mother and there's going to be these new families. So there must be something cultivated, there must be something prepared for those people. The garden was to be a military garrison for the kingdom, a fortified stronghold in enemy territory to take over everything else that was formless and void. Similarly, look at Titus chapter 1. The church is a garrison. The church is a garrison. When Paul writes to Titus, in verse 5 of chapter 1, he says, This is the reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city. He's not saying, go plant one church. He's saying, appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Then he explains what the elders should look like. Why does an elder have to be like this? Why do we need these elders in every city? Look at verse 12. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. That's culture. That's culture. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith. Look at chapter 2. The pastor should speak things which are proper for sound doctrine, and there's a goal in that doctrine, and it's zealous for good works. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in the faith, in love, and in perseverance. Older women, now this is not something I have ever seen in any church before. It's not even in our church. Every church I've been to, I've seen that they have Titus 2 ministries, but I've never seen a biblical Titus 2 ministry being lived out. Not one time. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good. Why? So that they may instruct the young women in sensibility, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the word of God will not be blasphemed. I have yet to see a church where the older women take it upon themselves to disciple the younger women and to help them through that stage of life. Likewise, urge the younger men to be sensible. In all things, show yourself a model of good works with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in word, which is irreproachable, so that the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us. Slaves, be subject to their own masters in everything, to be pleasing, not contradicting, not pilfering, but demonstrating all good faith, so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in everything, in all of life, all of life to the glory of God, civil sphere, vocations, everything. Why? For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. Look at 3.8. He says, this is a trustworthy saying concerning these things. I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God will be intent to lead in good works. Intent to lead against who? Lead against whom? The world, those that do not believe in God. You see, this isn't just about planting a church so that the church can stay in its lane. This is about planting a church so that individual Christians will go out, pursuing the cultural mandate, and by their word and their life, they will be transforming the cultures in which they live. Yes, the gospel just requires repentance and faith. But all these other things come after. as fruit of the gospel. He even says at the end in verse 14, our people must also learn to lead in good works to meet pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful. And this all starts in our personal life, in our families, and in our churches. If we're not going to be faithful there, then we're not going to be faithful when we go out pressing the right culture outward into the civil sphere. That's not going to happen. But we will be doing this. We will be creating a culture around us, no matter what. Just like every one of you men who has children, you are a leader in your home. The question is not whether or not you are a leader. The question is, what kind of leader are you? And for all of us, the question is not, are you or aren't you influencing the culture as a Christian? It is, how are you influencing the culture as a Christian? What are you teaching people about who Christ is, and what redemption looks like, and the authority of God by the way that you already live? Christ has to be preeminent. In all of our lives, in every area of our lives, both in the cultural mandate and the evangelistic mandate. Because remember, Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. Is he not worthy? Shall he not have the full reward? Not just in the souls of men. But with their lives and the way they live their lives, the testimony of their life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that your word has much to say, and we ask your forgiveness, Lord, for we have failed you in so many ways. Through our ignorance and through our weak mindedness, we have been deceived. But Lord, you have shown the light, this glorious doctrine into our minds and into our hearts, and we ask, Lord, that you would cause us to examine ourselves, to search and to see the areas that we must repent before you, and that you would forgive us and that you would grant grace so that we might be faithful and put your glory on display. Help us, we pray, Father, for your glory, that your glory would fill the earth as the water covers the seas. In Christ's name, amen.