Dr Greg Bahnsen - Interface with the World: Christianity as World Affirming (Part 2)

Doctor Bonson's books and tapes and a monthly newsletter. And I urge you to sign up for different material from there. The center also offers a master's program and I think it would be a great opportunity to be able to study under the direction of Greg Bonson. And if you have an interest in that, I encourage you to pursue it further. Everyone I know that has studied under Dr. Bonson has spoken highly of him and has testified to the power of his teaching. He has certainly left a mark on his students lives. As a student myself, I remember having my thinking shaped by Dr. Bonson. It is a great tribute to a teacher that he changes the lives of his students. But it is the greatest tribute to a teacher that his teaching affirms the abiding word of God. Dr. Bonds.

Thanks for coming back. Just can't tell you how encouraging that is as a conference speaker after first presentation, the morning break, see people return. You say. We don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with the girls that do. Anybody ever heard that? That's something of the. Yeah, that's right. Kind of a summary of the fundamentalist view of sanctification. Sadly, many of our Christian brothers and sisters, when they look at the world and how Christianists respond to the, have just about that shallow and negative an understanding of the subject. As I come to you the second time this morning, I'd like to talk to you about Christianity as a world affirming religion rather than a world retreating religion. A religion where sanctification is defined by the word of God and therefore by the laws of God and not by the cultural taboos that are made up of by the imagination of men. Now it's going to sound somewhat strange, however, to say that Christianity is world affirming. I understand very well that in our day and age we think of the world as a place that is evil and wicked, and there's plenty of evil wicked things there to be sure. But we think of the world as something that's wicked and therefore something we shouldn't have anything to do with. So I'm going to go back to the beginning of mankind's history and try to give you, I hope, a little more detailed and biblical perspective on the relationship of the Christian to the world. Very early on in the Bible we see that man has been given by God an impulse toward the development of culture, the development of a religious perspective as it interfaces with life in the world, be it agriculture or industry or education or science or art or what have you. Man's impulse toward cultural development appears to have been a God given gift. Look at your Bibles. In Genesis, the fourth chapter, verses 21 and 22, Genesis 4, 21 and 22, we're in the context of the Bible telling us how Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. So here man has been cast out of the garden. We see the immediate effect that there is a murderous relationship right within Adam's family. And Cain has the mark of God put upon him. And, and he goes out. And what happens then is you have the beginning of secular or non Christian rebellious culture in the descendants of Cain. And likewise we would infer the development of a godly culture in the line of Seth. But in verse 21 we read and his brother's name was Jubal, he was the father of all, such as handle, the harp, the pipe and Zillah, she also bear Tubal Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron. And the story goes on here at the very beginning of the Bible's account of mankind's history, we see the development within the line of Cain of well, one who has the reputation for the start of music appreciation courses go all the way back to the one who first made the harp and the pipe and then the person who we would see as the first union leader, I guess Tubal Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron. So what we would call industry and music, the beginning of the outworking of culture in terms of a person's worldview. This is something that God has given as a gift to men. In James the first chapter, verse 17, James tells us that every good gift comes down from above. That everything that mankind enjoys is a gift. God. Verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the father of lights, with whom there can be no variation, neither shadow cast by turning. We think of gifted people. Last evening there was a salute to Michael Jordan on the television. And how often people speak of Michael Jordan as being a gifted athlete. And if it weren't for the fact that he's playing against the Lakers, I'd be almost inclined to go all the way and say that's very true. No, he is, he's a gifted athlete. We think of Itzhak Perlman, a person who can just make the violin just beautiful, make you weep to listen to him play the violin. These are gifted people. The Bible says that every one of these gifts comes from God. Now if God is the one who gives these gifts. Doesn't it stand to reason that God is going to expect those gifts to be used to glorify him, to advance what we would call Christian culture? Rather than a culture of selfishness or egoism or pleasure or pride, man's impulse toward cultural development comes from the gifts of God. However, the Bible also tells us that culture can aspire to full autonomy from God. We read on in the book of Genesis, of the story the Tower of Babel. There we have the development of culture, people wanting to build something grand and glorious, but to do so that they might make a name for themselves. Not to glorify God, not to submit to him, not to subdue the earth for his purposes, but rather to usurp divine prerogatives and the glory that belongs to God. And so culture is a gift from God. And yet culture can easily aspire to rebellion against God. Culture must be restrained and directed then by godly men who understand properly the divine plan and have been redeemed by the Lord Messiah, Jesus Christ, who, as Isaac Watts said, came to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. If culture is not directed by godly men, by those who understand the lordship of Jesus Christ, then culture will go the direction of autonomy, being a law to itself and pride and self deification. As we see at the Tower of Babel, culture either takes its place in confidence and finds its guidelines in man, or it's going to find its confidence and its guidance in God. We must remember that humanism is a worldview, just like Christianity is a worldview. Last hour I talked to you about Christians seeing all things and doing all things in light of the teaching of God's Word. Humanism is just the opposite. It sees all things and does all things as though there is no God and we need not consult His Word, even if there is a God. Humanism would regain man's lost paradise even as we proclaim a gospel that would see paradise restored. But humanism would regain man's lost paradise according to its own wisdom and its own strength. The Church sees paradise regained by the recovery plan and the power of the triune God. Indeed, the Christian understands that our present culture in this world is only allowed to remain and allowed to expand by the grace of God. It's God who with, excuse me, It's God who withholds his judgment at present for the sake of the elect. According to the Bible, it's God who will see to it that the Great Commission is fulfilled, that the promises of Scripture come to pass. It's God who will not surrender history, will not surrender the world to Satan. And so humanism develops a particular kind of culture, an antagonism to God, the Christian world and life. You would develop culture for the glory of God. And thus there's going to be an inevitable clash between the city of God and the earthly city of man. What is it that is going to be the key factor in the development of culture? Which religious faith, which religious commitment, which ethic and which goal for life is going to determine the course of events in the United States of America or anywhere else in the world? Christianity, I told you last hour, is a complete world and life view and so is idolatrous unbelief. Will Christianity take the lead in cultural development or will any number of anti Christian faith? The most, I think, frightening of which you should be thinking about today is Islam. I got a letter a number of years ago from a young man who was laboring as a missionary in Egypt among the Muslims. And he was working for a dispensational mission board and had come across some of the literature that I have written in others and was convinced by these things. And that affected his preaching, which I'm glad to say I think it should affect your preaching and the kind of Christianity you present. Well, very soon thereafter, the dispensationalist board that was overseeing his work wasn't real happy with his understanding of Christianity as a whole world and life view that changes cultures and brings absolute moral standards like the law of God and that sort of thing. And he wrote to me to tell me one thanks a lot. He got me into a lot of trouble. No, he meant it very seriously. He was grateful, even though it wasn't being well received by his dispensationalist overseers. But he mentioned to me this fact that I would like to now share with you, that Muslims find Christians in the narrow mold of dispensational presentation very strange people. It says they cannot understand why you come proclaiming a religion and then you say, but it doesn't have anything to do with politics, doesn't have anything to do with education, doesn't have anything to do with economics and so forth. They find that just kind of like how very strange, how very weird. And I think if we read the Bible, we should find it strange and weird too. How can it be that the Lord God Almighty, the eternal creator of heaven and earth, sends his own divine son into this world to take care of men who have rebelled against him and messed up everything in this world and all he's interested in is plucking a few brands from the fire, making sure a few souls go to heaven after they die. What kind of religion is that? Muslims are not challenged by that. You know, in our day and age, we have people who think nothing could be worse than a theocracy. Now they also, I think, are very misled as to what the meaning of the word theocracy is. But however you take the word, we have people who are in the Christian church who would say that is just horrible, this idea of a theocracy. Well, try evangelizing the most Muslims in saying that. Try telling them, oh, God doesn't want to rule in the affairs of men. Oh, no, no. He's much more interested in faraway, distant things. You know, a transcendent realm or a kingdom that is coming way, way, way, way, way, way down the line in history. At the end, what kind of God is that? The Muslim is going to tell you the Muslim faith is a world and like you, and it's a wretched one at that. We don't have time this morning to go into Muslim apologetics. Read the Quran for yourself sometime. You want to find a wretched piece of religious literature. I'm not talking about its literary merits now. I'm talking about what it teaches about man and light and paradise and so forth, and what it teaches about God. It's just a horrible piece. Nevertheless, those who believe it as wrong as it is are willing to see it carried out in every aspect of life. Christianity is a complete world and life view as well. And it will either be the key factor in the development of culture or idolatrous unbelief will be. It will either be humanism or Marxism. Glad to see that that's having a tough time these days. It's going to be Islam or something like that, or a combination of them. We as Christians are taught by the Lord Jesus to pray. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I've maintained for a long time that the way in which the Lord's Prayer is recited in most churches has left us with a false impression. I don't know if you ever thought about this because of the requirements of saying something in unison in cadence with other people. When you pray the Lord's Prayer in church, have you ever noticed how it tends to get broken up? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Isn't that the way you say it in church? Notice how we break thy will be done from on earth as it is in heaven. You see, that all runs together and it makes a big difference. What we're praying is thy will be done on earth. We know it's being done in heaven. And may earth reflect the same kind of submission to your will that we know permeates heaven. Culture is either going to be developed by the coming of God's kingdom on earth, or it's going to be developed by secular forces of humanism or anti God forces like Islam, Hinduism, Marxism, or what have you. The beginning of the Bible God tells us what man's purpose is in life. Genesis, the first chapter, verse 28, shows us God blessing Adam and Eve. And God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And then turn to chapter two, verse 19 and out of the ground, Jehovah. God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them. And whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. In this particular account, we have to remember that when Adam names the creatures he is characterizing them. It demonstrates a knowledge of what they are like and what they're function is. To name them was an act of sovereignty over them. So Genesis shows us at the very beginning of mankind's history why God made man. Man was put on this earth to subdue the earth, to exercise sovereignty over it, to bring glory to God, to name the animals, to be over them as the deputies of God on earth. And so man's purpose is to develop everything, every ability he has, every aspect of life to the glory of God. It's what we call the cultural mandate, the mandate to develop this world and subdue this world, that it might serve God. In our day and age. We have Christians who will tell us there's no such thing as the cultural mandate. Or they'll tell us that the cultural mandate was for a different dispensation and doesn't apply to us today. We have Christians who will tell you the only mandate that's important in our day and age is the Great Commission to take the gospel to people and to make sure that their souls go to heaven when they die. And of course the gospel must be proclaimed to people. But let me point out in the first place that the cultural mandate historically antedates the evangelistic mandate that even before man fell into sin. God required the development of culture to his glory. Therefore, when man is recovered from the fall into sin, one would naturally expect that he's recovered to his original purpose in this world, to glorify God in all things. The cultural mandate is historically prior to the evangelistic mandate. And an interesting thing is found if you read through the Bible. When God promises redemption, he gives the promise of redemption in terms of the cultural mandate. The cultural mandate says you are to bear seed, you're to have children replenish the earth and you are to subdue the earth. That is to say, you're to have sovereignty over the land, if you will. We have this emphasis upon seed and upon land. Then in the cultural romantic, when God appears to Adam and Eve, fallen now into rebellion against him and in need of a Savior, he makes the first promise of the Savior in those same terms, the seed of the woman, you see is going to come. And in the meantime, Adam is to labor over the land and the sweat of his brow. When Abraham is told by God that he will be given a son of promise, Abraham is told that he's going to become the father of many nations seed, and that he is going to have a land of promise, Palestine. And so throughout the Old Testament we see the same image of redemption coming in terms of the promise of seed and the promise of land. And Jesus is born as the seed of the woman. He's born of a woman under the law at just the right time. And the Bible tells us that Jesus brought a kingdom and this kingdom is to subdue all the world. Now where do we read of this kingdom subduing all the world? We read of it in the Great Commission. You're going to be hearing more about the Great Commission at this conference and so come back to hear hear about that. But obviously the Great Commission to disciple the nations, to make them followers of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to restore man to his original purpose. He's now going to carry out the Great Commission as he was originally intended to do. The ultimate goal of redemption is then going to be paradise regained. It's going to be a return to the garden and doing what God wanted us to do all along. If you turn in your Bibles to the second Psalm, you'll see how the author of second psalm, pardon me, Hebrews chapter two. Turn to Hebrews two and you'll see how the author of Hebrews presents the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer. In verse 5 of Hebrews 2 we read, for not unto angels did he subject the World to come whereof we speak but one hath somewhere testified, saying, and Here now Psalm 8 is quoted, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. Hebrews 2, referring to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is superior to angels. God has not subjected the world to come to angels, but to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8. It turns out that Psalm 8 is alluding to the cultural mandate, man's task. At the very beginning man was made that he would be over the works of God's hands. Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. Now we know that that is God's original plan for man. We know that man fell into sin and rebellion. He's been cut off from God. Hebrews tells us, as the entire Bible tells us, of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews says, Jesus has become the Redeemer. Jesus is above angels. And you remember what was originally said about man, that he was to be set over the works of God's hands. Now follow this. For in that he subjected all things unto him. He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels. Even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man. We don't see the cultural mandate having been fulfilled. It isn't accomplished, it isn't completed yet. But God has sent one who is a second Adam. God has sent one to restore the original plan. God has sent a Redeemer who is now ruling over all things because they've been subjected to him. No, we don't see the cultural mandate fulfilled as yet. But we behold him, the second Adam, the Messiah himself, who has come for what purpose? To make sure that this cultural mandate is completed, to bring it to pass through his own redemptive work. In the tenth chapter of Hebrews, the author of this book tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, thenceforth expecting all his enemies to be made the footstool of his feet. The Lord Jesus came into this world as the second Adam. He came to this world to regain paradise to redeem fallen man, to be set over all of the works of God's hands, so that the Great Commission as it's carried out will in the same way bring about the fulfillment of the cultural mandate that all the enemies of the Lord Jesus will be subjected under his feet. We don't see all that yet, but we do see the one who's been established to reign. We do see Jesus. Now the question is, how should we as Christians relate to the world? Then? Often enough in the Christian church, we have presented to us what might be called an ascetic approach to Christianity. Asceticism is the view that we should not enjoy the pleasures of the body or the pleasures of this life. Asceticism says it is wrong to enjoy sleep or to enjoy money or to enjoy sex, to enjoy food, to enjoy good clothing. The ascetic says we should deny ourselves those pleasures and those privileges that we might be truly spiritual, holy people. And throughout the history of the Church, the Christian ethic has been distorted as something of an ascetic ethic. The idea that Christianity renounces the world, renounces the pleasures of this life, renounces physical things so that we can draw closer to God and be more spiritual. This notion of Christian sanctification is. I'm going to say two things about it. The one is not nearly as bad as the second. But the first thing, which is bad enough, is really Platonic rather than biblical. The Platonic outlook on life teaches that there's a great difference between those things which are spiritual or mental or immaterial, those things that participate in the realm of ideas or ideals, and then those things that are part of the physical world of time and space. The ideal reality is unchanging and is perfect and is the pattern for everything else. The world of time and space, the world of matter, is always changing and is unreliable. And so for Plato, there was a scale of the value that placed spirit or immaterial things above material things. This is later developed in the neo Platonic approach to life. A number of years later, Plotinus and others taught that this scale of value was not just the immaterial world of ideas in the material world, but there are a number of levels of reality going from the high to the low. The highest being pure spirit, the lowest being pure matter. And along the way, you see, not only do you gain reality by going up the chain of being, you gain ethical goodness or value by going up the chain of being. Amazingly, Christians have adopted that same outlook. How many times you say, well, yeah, maybe in The Middle Ages, they did. You know, the idea that monks should not be married, that they shouldn't enjoy a lot to eat, they shouldn't sleep a lot, they should punish their bodies and so forth. Yeah, but we don't have that with us today. I mean, we've kind of gotten rid of that, right, Dr. Bahamson? No, we haven't gotten rid of that. We have people in good reformed evangelical churches who still believe today that those things which are immaterial are somehow closer to God than those things which are material. We still have people today. I hear this from people who should know better, that when you look at a nun or something, even though you don't agree with the theology of the Roman Catholic Church, you say, well, there's a very holy person because she denies herself the pleasures of this world. She's dedicated to these spiritual things. Well, the first thing I'm saying about that outlook, that idea that somehow there's spiritual value in fleeing from the world or not being involved in the material realm. The first thing I'm saying is that that is Platonic, not biblical. In First Corinthians 6, verse 12, I want to remind you how the Apostle Paul said, all things are lawful to me, all things are lawful. It's true. Not everything is expedient. Not everything edifies. So sometimes I will refrain from engaging in what is my lawful privilege in this world, lest I become a stumbling block to a weaker brother. Nevertheless, Paul is not siding with the weaker brother. You know how often in our churches we get into these discussions about doing this or doing that, whether it has to do with drinking alcohol or whatever it may be. And the argument, you eventually hear it. The argument comes up, we have to watch out for the weaker brother, and we do out of love. We should. We should not compel people to violate their consciences when they think something is wrong. However, the thing that goes along with that plea for the weaker brother is, and we should see things theologically the way the weaker brother does. Well, why do you think he's called the weaker brother by Paul? Because Paul doesn't agree with him. We are supposed to agree with the stronger brother and out of love have regard for the weaker brother. We're not to agree with his outlook. And we have in fundamentalist churches the theology of the weaker brother. Paul doesn't say we should flee from this world or automatically deny ourselves the privileges of this world. He says everything is one awful. There's nothing wrong with using this world and enjoying this world. He doesn't want to flee from it. He says, however, in the use of it, I have other ethical matters to take into account as well, including the effect of my lifestyle on someone else who may stumble into sin. Plato taught essentially there was a difference between the realm that is sacred, supernatural and the realm that is secular, that which is natural. Paul had no such understanding as though life is divided up into things which are sacred and secular. He said everything is lawful. He said that everything belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. In First Corinthians, chapter 3, he says that we have the benefit of having everything belong to us, including everything in this world. He says it's yours for the using. So the first problem with the ascetic world denying ethic of so many Christians is that it really comes from Plato, from false philosophy, rather than from the holy teaching of God's word. But then I've got something much worse to say, and that's that this view of sanctification is not just Platonic, it's demonic. Turn in your Bibles to first Timothy, chapter four, where Paul tells us of a very subtle, insidious, misleading view of sanctification that he says is demonic. I want you to understand that if you teach these sorts of things as I have and others have been doing, you're going to have many Christians tell you that you just, you know, you really messed up. You don't know the Lord, you know, you really got to get this worked out. You're going to be controversial, you're not going to be well liked. But then if you're going to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to be willing to bear that cross. I think the Christian church, even the Christian church, often teaches demonic versions of sanctification. Can you imagine how happy the evil one is if he can actually get preachers from the pulpit to teach a view of holiness that the Bible says is really contrary to God and comes from the great opponent of God, Satan. First Timothy, chapter four. But the Spirit says expressly, in latter times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron. And what is it that is demonic in the teaching of these men? What is that particular outlook that Paul says watch out for? It comes from the devil, it comes from below, not from God himself forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. That is to say, here's an approach to holiness that says you can become holy by denying the things of the physical world. Don't marry, don't eat certain meats, avoid the things God has created or that God has given in this created order for your physical pleasure. And if you avoid those things, then you can be holy. And Paul says that is demonic teaching. That is not Christian sanctification. Let me see if I can make this very plain for you. Christian sanctification is not a doctrine of avoiding the things of this world world. Christian sanctification is rather the doctrine that we consecrate everything in this world to God's glory, for every creation of God is good. And listen to this. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer. Sanctified by the Word of God in prayer. When things are used in accordance with the Word of God prayerfully and with thanksgiving, nothing is to be rejected. Marijuana is not to be rejected. That isn't to say it's to be used the way people use it for recreational purposes. It's to be used according to the word of God and under the influence of prayer, the thankful spirit. But you have to understand the things of the this world are not evil in themselves. The physical world was created by God. He made it very good. He expects us to receive everything there and to use it for his glory. There's a vague reflection, I think, of the cultural mandate there. As long as it's set apart by the word of God, as long as everything's being subdued to the glory of God, you can use anything in this world. Sanctification is not retreat from the physical world, is not retreat from the affairs of life. Sanctification is the full engagement of everything God has given in the created realm to his glory and according to his word. I'm afraid that those who proclaim demonic versions of sanctification don't really understand the flow of power in this world. What you have, I think, in people who teach this idea that we don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with the girls that do, and therefore we're holy people. This avoid the things of life. Their approach to sanctification suggests that if we touch the world, if we get, you know, we really like the pleasures of the physical world too much, then the physical world will pollute us. Isn't that right? If you go out and get involved in the affairs of life, if you touch this world, this ugly, dirty, mucky world, then the muck's going to get on you. But you see, the Bible doesn't present that view that if we go out there and we engage the world, the world's going to somehow pollute us. The Bible's approach is just the opposite. Power doesn't flow, you know, from the world dominating us. It's the other way around. By our touching the world, we sanctify it. You know, the Bible says we are salt, we are light. And the darkness cannot comprehend the light, it cannot extinguish it. As we go into the world, it's not the world that pollutes us, it's we who purify the world. This version of Christian ethics that says we should flee from the world, then we should avoid the things of this life. We should just live for Jesus to rapture us or to go to heaven when we die and to really be, you know, good Christians, because then we're completely spiritual. We won't have the drag of the human body on us. That is a demonic view of sanctification. When you say Dr. Bonson. The Bible does talk about worldliness as something we should avoid, though. And so we need to take a moment here in the exposition to explain that. The Bible uses the word world in a variety of ways. And when the Bible uses the word world in the sense that we are to avoid the things of this world, it is speaking of an ethical concept, not a geographical concept. I think a lot of of Christians have the idea that the world is a place or where certain things happen. And when the Bible says we shouldn't be worldly, it means we shouldn't have anything to do with that place. We shouldn't have anything to do with those things that are happening when as a matter of fact, the Bible is speaking of the world as an attitude, as an outlook, as a kind of conduct which is in rebellion against God. And what we are to have nothing to do with is that attitude, that worldliness that is in rebellion against God. Let me just show you how the Bible often uses worldliness or the world as an ethical concept. Turn to First John, chapter 2 and the 15th verse. First John 2. At the 15th verse. Here, John says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world. He now defines what he has meant by world. This is the whole package, the complete set for all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life. Is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof. But he that does the will of God abides forever. Here John is setting apart the lust of the world, the desires of the world, and those who do the will of God. The world. Here is a concept that deals with ethics and attitudes which are in rebellion against God. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life. Now try to read that sentence in God's holy word and apply it to the world, meaning a geographical region, everything that's on this core load, everything for all that is. This settles it. It covers the whole ground. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh. And so now, tomorrow, when you go hear your preacher proclaiming God's word from the pulpit, which he is doing in this world, just remember that's just the lust of the flesh that you're hearing about. That's all that is out there in the world. The next time you see a picture parent loving his or her child, you just remembered that's just the vainglory of life. That's all it is. That's absurd, isn't it? John is not telling us that there's nothing in this world that pleases God, meaning nothing in this geographical realm, nothing on this cosmos. He is telling us that those who have a worldly outlook cannot please God, those who approach life in a worldly way. He does say, after all, at the end of this paragraph, the world is passing away and its lust. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Apparently, in this world, understood geographically, there are those who have the lust of the world, understood ethically. And there are those who try to follow the will of God. Both of those things are to be found on planet Earth. Here on planet Earth, there are those who try to follow God's will. But then there are also those who know nothing but lust, the desires of the flesh and the vainglory of life. Worldliness, thus is an ethical concept which makes sense. Then, out of James 1:27, turn back to James chapter one and read the 27th verse. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Obviously, you are involved in the world. You're visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. You are engaged, you are involved, and yet you do it in such a way that you are unspotted by the world. The world meaning that realm that is in rebellion against God, that is ethically opposed to everything that is godly, that stands over against the will of God. Likewise, the word flesh in the New Testament. To take our technical study a step further here, not only does the word world sometimes mean ethical rebellion against God, not the cosmos itself, the geography of this world, but the word flesh often refers to that which is in rebellion against God and does not refer to the physical body as such. The word flesh in Paul's theology often refers to the natural condition of man. Sometimes it is the natural condition of man as he is in his physical body. But sometimes the natural condition of man is understood by Paul in the ethical sense that we are born into this world as fallen individuals and therefore we are unable to please God. A good example of how the word flesh is used in this moral sense is found In Romans chapter 8, Romans 8, 4, 9. Paul says that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. How often has that been misunderstood by Christians to mean who walk not after the physical body, but by those invisible spiritual realities that are inside us. Paul is not contrasting, you know, the external body of man to the internal soul of man. In this verse, he is contrasting those who walk after the flesh with those who walk after the Holy Spirit of God. For they that are after the flesh, which is the same man in his natural fallen condition. For they that are after the flesh, mind, the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit, mind. Now just take that verse and interpret it in the other way. Take it to mean that spirit here has to do with the internal soul of man. Flesh has to do with the body of man. Paul is then saying, according to this hypothesis, they who are after the flesh, the body, mind, the things of the body, but they that are after the soul, the internal immaterial part of man, pay attention to the things of the soul. They don't take care of their bodies. They don't mind those things at all. Now, what Paul is saying is there are two impelling impulses, ethical principles that are out there in this world. In some who are after the Holy Spirit, the impulse is the Holy Spirit. For those who are after the flesh, it is the fallen nature of man. Verse 6. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Verse 7 gives us our definition then of flesh for Paul. But the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh, flesh cannot please God. If Paul means those who are in their physical bodies cannot please God, then we're all without hope. By the way, so is the Lord Jesus Christ because he came in human flesh. Paul is not saying those who are in the body, the physical body, cannot please God. He's saying those who follow this ethical principle of enmity against God. God cannot submit to the law of God, so they cannot please him. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Boy, wouldn't that be strange if what Paul is saying is you're not in the physical body? No, what he's saying is the flesh, the fallen nature, is not what governs you. You are not in the flesh, you are in the Holy Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. And so we have to understand the Bible according to its own definitions, its own presentation, and not bring extraneous extra scriptural ideas to the Bible. When the Bible says we shouldn't be worldly, we shouldn't follow the flesh, the Bible is not telling us, don't be involved in the affairs of this life, avoid the physical world and the body. What the Bible is telling us is we must not become friends of the world, that realm which is in rebellion against God, which knows nothing except the vainglory of life and the pleasures of sin. And we should not live according to the principle of man's fallen nature, his flesh, the way he came into the world, but rather be redeemed and regenerated people who live by the Holy Spirit of the God. Jesus tells us what our attitude toward the world should be. In his high priestly prayer of John 17 John 17, we'll look just at verses 15 and 16. John 17, verse 15. Jesus says, I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Here you see Jesus using the world in both senses. He says, I am not praying that you would take them from the world in passing. Could I just comment that makes the desire of some Christians to be raptured from this world rather strange because their desire to escape from this wicked world where we really have no hope of reform and so forth, contrary to the prayer of the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus said, I do not pray that you would take them out of the world. He does pray, however, that God would keep us from the evil one. We are not of the world. And yet we are in the world. In fact, we are sent into the world by the Lord Jesus in this very chapter in John's gospel. We are to go into the world, we are to live in the midst of the world, and yet to live as those who are not following the evil one, but rather following the Lord Jesus Christ. Is Christianity a worldly religion? Well, that all depends then on how you're using the word world. Christianity is not a worldly religion if you mean it stems from the imagination of men like the other world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, what have you. Christianity is not a worldly religion if you mean it's a licentious religion that it just lives for worldly pleasure, the lust of the flesh, the vainglory of life. But Christianity is certainly a worldly religion if you mean the Christian. Christianity is to affect this world, that Christians are engaged in the affairs of this life and that we are interested in seeing all of the world subdued to the glory of God, even as the cultural mandate originally required. Christianity is a world affirming religion. Let's just kind of go through a few things real quickly here to point that out. Christianity affirms this world because in the first place, we teach the doctrine of creation. Plato thought that the material world was evil or bad. It was not a thing of the spirit. How could Christians have that kind of outlook when they say this physical world was made by God? And at the end of Genesis chapter one, at the 31st verse, we read that God looked at everything that he had made and being very Platonic in his outlook, said, oh, that was a mistake. No, he didn't at all. The Bible says God saw this physical world he had made and everything in it and pronounced the benediction it is good. In Psalm 24:1, the Psalmist says, the earth is the Lord's and the full thereof. Everything in this physical world, everything created by God is good. Moreover, God was not ashamed of the physical world. Even after the fall. God was not ashamed of the realm of matter. The Bible tells us that in this world, Enoch walked with God. Obviously, God was eminent to this world. He didn't flee back to some transcendent heaven and say, oh, what a mess that is. I want nothing to do with it. God dwells with his people. He walks with Enoch. He meets Moses at the burning bush. He gives directions finally for the tabernacle, ultimately the temple where he will dwell in the midst of his people. He won't simply dwell in the heaven of heavens, far away, far from them, but he will be with them. He guides them through the wilderness. He is with them in adversity and blesses them, and dwells above the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies in the very middle of Israel's camp. God is with his people in this world. And the highest expression of God's willingness to be part of this world is not only did he create it and govern it and be with his people in the Old Testament through it and all of their wanderings and in the midst of their dwelling, but he sent his own Son into this world. And not with a fake body, not with just the appearance of flesh, but truly a human being. The Incarnation is God's stamp of approval, you see, upon this world in the physical domain, for he himself took on a physical body. And not only do we see God's affirmation of this world in the Incarnation, we see it as well in the resurrection. You know, how many cults, how many world religions would be perfectly happy to have a Savior who gives up his body but then lives on as a spirit? You know, the are cults who say that the resurrection somehow stands opposed to their notion of salvation. How can you have a realm of salvation with a physical body? And so they shun that sort of idea, but the Bible doesn't. Jesus gave up his physical life for the sins of his people and then rose in that same body, glorified. Now the resurrection, Resurrection shows that the physical world is not evil. The things of this world are somehow to be avoided. What do we know about the resurrection? Because Jesus was raised from the dead in Matthew 28:18, he says, all authority, all power in heaven and on earth is mine. The resurrection, you see, is the vindication of God's Son, and also the stole upon him a dominion over all things. He came into this world to redeem this world, to bring it back to God. He now owns it all, all power and authority in heaven and earth because he is the resurrected savior. Or in First Corinthians 15, where Paul goes through a lengthy theological discussion of the implications of the resurrection, says it's crucial. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then our faith is nothing. It's vain. In the very last verse of that chapter, verse 58, you notice that Paul says, because of the resurrection, we must always abound in the work of the Lord. Jesus has all authority in heaven, on earth, and his people are always abounding in his work because he was raised from the dead. Think of the day of Pentecost. Jesus does ascend to the right hand of God, he goes back to rule over all of creation. But he says, I won't leave you alone. I won't leave you as orphans. He sends his own Holy Spirit into the church. There again, God is not renouncing time and space. God is not renouncing the created order. But the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in the midst of God's people. And finally think of Revelation 21 that tells us of a new heavens and a new earth that is coming. God doesn't renounce creation, he redeems creation. Behold, I make all things new. God renews this created order and brings it finally to the consummation that was intended at the very beginning, when the cultural mandate was given to Adam and Eve so many years ago. The Bible is a world affirming religion. When Isaac Watts penned the words the Joy to the World, he demonstrated that he understood that Christianity affirmed this world. He wrote that Christ comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Did Jesus come into this world just to take care of our inward piety in some kind of private, narrow sense of religion? Did he come just so that we could have church services on Sunday or that when we die our souls would go to heaven? He came to reverse the curse. Everywhere the curse is found, and we know that the curse affects all of life. We read in the Bible that even the plowing of the wicked is displeasing to God. Christ came to to redeem our plowing in this world. As far as the curse is found, as First John 3. 8 says, he came into this world to destroy the works of the devil. In Colossians 2. 5, Paul tells us that he triumphed openly over the principalities and powers. Jesus came into this world to reverse the rebellion, to reverse the effects of the curse curse and to bring redemption in every area of life. Now, Christianity is not a religion of retreat from the world, as though Christ is somehow against culture. Nor is Christianity a religion of compromise with the world. As though what Christians should say about this world or what kind of Christ or version of Christ, our vision of Christ that we present should be defined by this world. I want to tell you that I believe that there's something of a very insidious, secret alliance between Roman Catholicism, theological liberalism and evangelical fundamentalism. A secret alliance that is terrible and insidious because it presents to us all three of them a Christ of compromise, a Christ that has compromised with the world. And you know how you see that. First of all in Roman Catholicism, you have the idea that God shows himself not only in the natural world, but also in the world of grace. Now, if we want to know what God is like and what he says when it comes to grace, matters of salvation and the Church, then we turn to the Bible. However, if you want to know what God's will is for worldly things, the things of nature, then you don't turn to the Bible. But even the natural man is able to tell you what God would want because man can study nature and can discover God's will there. And so Thomas Aquinas felt you could prove some kind of God just from nature. Even the natural man knows that there is a God. And even the natural man has a natural morality for the things that pertain to this life. You don't get the counsels of perfection from nature. You don't get the highest version of ethics, which then the Roman Church sees as fleeing from things of the body. They get that wrong too. But the suggestion is the natural man, when it comes comes to politics or economics or education or other things, is perfectly all right as far as he goes. Isn't that incredible? The natural man studying the natural order, comes up with his natural theology and his natural ethic. Paul tells us in First Corinthians 2, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. There's no natural theology out there. There's only a natural atheology out there. The natural man, given his natural inability to know the things of God, will very naturally come to the conclusion that the living and true God is not someone he has to deal with. He will suppress the truth in unrighteousness. He will develop idolatry and sexual perversion. According to Romans 1, he will not come to a decent ethic based on natural considerations. And so here you have Christians, professed Christians in the Roman Church, who say with respect to some areas of life, what Jesus would have us say is this kind of natural morality, an ethic of compromise with the world. Liberals do the same thing, whether they're Roman Catholics or Protestants. Liberals will tell us that you can't expect the Bible to govern every area of life. You can't even believe every everything the Bible has to say. Liberals don't even like what the Bible says about Jesus. They have their own preconceived ideas of what Jesus is like. And so they go through the Bible and they cut out certain portions. And when it comes to worldly living, they believe they're on their own. They have to define their own way as Christians in this world. Doesn't it just make your flesh crawl when one of these liberal theologians is proclaiming to the world what the Christian position is on abortion or the Christian position on homosexuality, or the Christian position on international relations or war or peace or anything else. They have no idea what Christian is in these regards. These are just the pale reflections of their own socio political humanistic views. Baptized with the name of Christ. Secret alliance between Roman Catholicism and liberalism then, because they think the affairs of this world are to be. If you're going to have any religious or Christian approach, the affairs of this world are governed by the thinking of this world. But you know, the worst part of the secret alliance is our fundamentalist brothers. They buy into that same compromise, don't they? Now they don't come at it from the perspective of Roman Catholicism. They would tell you Roman Catholics aren't Christians. They would take a strong stand against the Pope and so forth. And they would certainly say they are not liberals. They believe in the full inspiration, the verbal plenary inspiration of scripture. They're against liberalism. But you know, when it comes to this question of how you should live in the world, there is a secret alliance between the Romanists, the liberals and the fundamentalists. And that's because fundamentalists don't think we can go to the law of God to govern politics. Oh, that would be horrible. That would be Biblicism. We don't go to the law of God for political or economic instruction. We go to nature itself so that we can have the laws of nature. Or we go to, if you will, the direction of the common consensus of men in our culture. We don't look to the Bible for our instruction. And so fundamentalists end up giving a version of Christianity in terms of worldly affairs. That's really a compromise with the world. What I've been trying to explain to you in the second lecture today is that we don't have a Christ who is against culture and we don't have a Christ who is defined by culture. We have a Christ who is the Lord over culture and calls on his people therefore to transform every area of life to his glory. The alternative to being transformed in the renewing of our minds According to Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 is to be conformed to this world. We are either going to fall into worldly thinking when it comes to the affairs of this world, be it entertainment, recreation, creations, industry, education, science, art, whatever you are going to think about, you're either going to be conformed to this world in the affairs of this world, or transformed by the renewing of your mind. I would suggest that what we should say about Christianity is not just that it is a world affirming religion, but that it produces what Leland Wrighton has called worldly saints. I like that combination. Worldly saints not worldly in the sense that we follow the desires of our fallen nature and the vainglory of life. Worldly in the sense that the Puritans were worldly saints involved in the affairs of this life from one end to the other. Worldly and yet saints those who were set apart by the teaching of God's Word and the redemptive work and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew the fifth chapter, Jesus calls on his people to be salt in this earth and light in this world. He doesn't say flee from the world. He says rather we should be approaching this world with his crown rights. We should be approaching this world knowing that it is affirmed by God and that he has every intention of bringing it back to his glory and seeing the cultural mandate fulfilled. We need to approach this world then, even as the Puritans did, as worldly saints. Thank you.