Well, it is a pleasure to be with you all once again. I think it was back in 2016 that I spent a summer with you all, interning under Pastor Ryan, and it was a wonderful time. My wife and I look back on that time with very fond memories. And I know some of you are maybe newer to the church, and I look forward to getting to know you, Lord willing, somewhat throughout the day. Well, please do turn in your copies of God's Word to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter two, and we will read verses five to 10. I know some of you may be using different Bible translations. I will be reading from the ESV. This is God's word. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, what is man, that you are mindful of him, are the son of man, that you care for him. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. So ends the reading of God's word. Let us pray and ask the Lord to bless the preaching of his word to our souls. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy word that has come to us through your apostles, by your Holy Spirit. And we pray that your word, as it is read and proclaimed this morning, would be a blessing to our souls, that your spirit would be with the preaching of your word. And that above all things, as the author of Hebrews says, that we would see Jesus. Lord, show us Jesus through your word. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, Lord willing, this morning and this evening, I will be presenting two topical sermons on the doctrine of the two kingdoms. And let me just say a couple of things at the outset. First, just to say that my goal is somewhat of a modest one. I won't be addressing every single issue that this doctrine or this topic might raise in our minds. And so I want you to think of both of these sermons, really, as two bricks in a wall, two bricks that, Lord willing, can be built upon more and more as time goes on. The other thing I want to say to you is that some of the things I might say this morning or this evening might be new to you. It might be surprising to you, some of the things I say, maybe even shocking. But this is somewhat of a challenging and a difficult topic. And it will make us think hard. But let me encourage you, if you're left with even more questions than answers after these two sermons, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Because this is a topic that's worth thinking about. It's worth chewing on. It will pay dividends. Well, the final thing I want to say in this pre-introduction introduction is that I am deeply indebted to Dr. David van Drunen from Westminster Seminary, California, and the work he has done on two kingdoms. So that's my footnote to him for both of the sermons. Well, what is two kingdoms theology? Well, broadly speaking, it deals with the question of how we as Christians interact with culture around us. And what are the obligations we have to the church? What obligations does the church have to culture around us? And culture is a term that can have different meanings. Here, I'm applying the word culture in a very broad kind of way. Culture refers to everything from language, to sports, to music, to politics, to work, to education, commerce. So it has a very broad application. And we're asking, how does the church as an institution and we as individual Christians relate to culture? to all of these things. And maybe at first this might seem like a very abstract kind of a thing, but really it's not. Really, this is something that you wrestle with probably every day of the week, probably almost every hour of the day if you're a serious-minded Christian. You do this every time you reflect on what your faith has to do with your job. how you interact with your co-workers, how you raise your children, regarding your political views, the books you read, the movies you see. We do this when we consider what responsibilities our church has to the government and to government mandates. And this is something, I think, that has been especially brought to the forefront of our minds in the last two years, as, to be frank, we've had We've seen the government act in ways that maybe they haven't acted in the past. We've seen governors in different states seeking to limit the basic civil and religious freedoms of its citizens. And then further, we've had the election of a new president. And all of these things has made us pause and ask, what's going on? What is our duty to the culture around us? How are we to think about these things? Is the pluralization and the secularization of culture a bad thing? Is it something we need to fight against? How could it be that pluralization is something that is consistent with God's plan for a common society? Do we distinguish between what is common and what is special, what is sacred and secular? Or is there no distinction? Is everything supposed to be brought into what is sacred? And so these are the questions before us. And Christians, really throughout the ages, have wrestled with how to answer these questions. And Christians have come to different positions on these things. And not all of them are helpful. And I would say some of them are harmful. Perhaps one of the more prevalent positions today is what is known as transformationalism. Transformationalism. And this is essentially what we might say is a one kingdom view. According to this view, it is the mission of the church, not simply to transform people, to redeem people through the gospel, but it is to redeem culture. It is to transform societies. So the idea basically is that whereas Adam failed in his original mandate to subdue the earth, well God has now given us a second chance. We are now called to subdue the earth and bring everything in under Christ's redemptive kingdom. And so there must be no secular, sacred distinction. It must all be brought into what is sacred and redemptive. And then what this means is that our cultural labor is, in fact, kingdom work. So when you go to work tomorrow morning, when you engage in the arts, when you study, when engage in sports or politics or commerce or government. It's all labor for the one kingdom of Christ, is what they'd say. Well, in contrast to this position, I will be presenting the doctrine of two kingdoms. The basic idea is this. Adam failed in his original cultural or dominion mandate to bring the whole world under the dominion of Eden into that one kingdom. And because of his sin, he brought about the curse on the earth. But God does not wipe out humanity as a result of Adam's sin. Instead, he preserves the world through the covenant of common grace with Noah in Genesis chapter 9. And therefore, it is God's intention for the world to exist in such a way that there is a common society in which both believer and unbeliever might live together in cooperation. And this common kingdom, this common society, includes all of the things I've just described, our culture, cultural institutions like marriage and the family, government, commerce, the economy, and every cultural pursuit. And it is not the mission of the church to redeem all of these things. It's not the mission of the Church to Christianize everything in this common kingdom. No, the special kingdom is a kingdom of redemptive grace. It is a kingdom that is spiritual and eternal and is presently manifest in the Church. And this kingdom does not advance through cultural endeavors, but it advances through the very things we are doing this morning, through baptism, through the Lord's Supper, through the preaching of the word. Those are the means by which Christ builds his church, his kingdom. Well, that's a very brief and broad introduction to this topic of the two kingdoms, and Lord willing, this morning and this evening, I'll expand on all of this. But in order to get to that place of understanding, we need to go back to the very beginning of creation itself, back to the garden and God's cultural mandate to Adam. So the three points we will consider this morning are as follows. First, we'll consider the cultural mandate given to Adam. Second, the cultural mandate frustrated by the fall. And then third, the cultural mandate fulfilled by Christ. So first we'll consider how God created Adam and commissioned him with this task, this cultural mandate to subdue the earth. And as we begin this point, please turn to Genesis chapter one. It will help you to have your Bibles open to that place. Well, scripture opens with these simple words that are pregnant with meaning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Just in these few simple words is contained the glorious truth that all that exists, whether in heaven or in earth, owes its existence to God. God has absolute dominion and authority over all of his creation, and nothing is difficult for him. He simply speaks. and it comes to pass, as Psalm 33 declares, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all the hosts. So God sets about and he creates all things, he makes the spaces to be filled, and then he makes the creatures that will fill those spaces. But something that we spoke about over the breakfast table, actually, about God's creation, God then creates creatures. And there's something very different about the creation of one creature in particular. There's something different when it comes to God creating man. We read that the beasts of the earth are made according to their kind. The creeping things are made according to their kind. But with man, God says, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. What does it mean that man is made in the image of God? Well, in times past, theologians tended to stress the moral attributes. So how we image God analogically in knowledge, truth, justice, and so forth. And while that certainly is true, it may be more helpful to recognize that man primarily images God in what we do. and what we do. The very next thing we read in verse 26 is, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Dr. David van Drunen suggests that in Genesis chapter one, verse 26, what we just read, that there's a purpose loss. So we might translate it like this. Let us make man in our image after our likeness, purpose, so that they might have dominion. What this means is that an essential aspect of Adam's image bearing is that he would exercise dominion over the earth. Think about it. Just as God is the creator who creates all things, then now Adam is given the task of naming all things. Just as God created the Earth, now Adam and Eve are tasked with procreating and populating the Earth. So Adam is a kind of creator in his own right, or a right given to him by God. Adam is created in God's image and tasked with subduing the Earth. Well, how specifically is Adam supposed to subdue the earth? How is he to exercise dominion over the whole earth and image God that way? Well, in Genesis chapter two now, verses 15 to 17, we read that God places Adam in the Garden of Eden. And then he gives him the specific instructions to work it and guard it. What's interesting about these two words, to work it and guard it, avad and shamar in the Hebrew, is that this pair of words is specifically given to the Levites, who will later work in the temple. They are to work and keep or work and guard the temple. And so from this and from other evidence within the text itself, we see then that Eden, the Garden of Eden, is a kind of temple. And Adam is a kind of priest who, like the Levites, is to work and to keep this holy place. He's to prevent any defiling thing from entering into Eden, just as the priests were to protect the temple and remove and prevent any defiling thing from entering. And so when you take all of these commands together, the command to multiply and fill the earth and the command to guard and keep the temple, We see that Adam's task was to work in this Garden of Eden and slowly expand the garden until it filled and consumed the whole planet. The whole world was to turn into Eden, essentially, when scholar G.K. Beale puts it this way. As Adam was to begin to rule over and subdue the Earth, he was to extend the geographical boundaries of the Garden of Eden. until Eden extended throughout and covered the whole earth. Likewise, Meredith Klein comments that Adam's role would begin in Eden, but the goal of his kingdom commission was not just some local, minimal life support system. It was rather maximal, global mastery. The cultural mandate put all the capacity of human brain and brawn to work in in a challenging and rewarding world to develop the original paradise into a universal city. So in essence, Adam was to image God by bringing the whole world under the dominion of Eden. This is what is referred to as the dominion mandate or the cultural mandate. And Adam would accomplish this through ordinary cultural pursuits. All of his ordinary cultural labors would bring about this expansion of Eden into the whole world. The boundaries of Eden would expand through agriculture, through industry, through infrastructure, through trade, and science, and building towns, and irrigation, and procreation. Everything that was needed to sustain a global society of image bearers. was to be Adam's work. But Adam was not tasked with working indefinitely or working infinitely at this task. Rather, his work had an end. It had a goal. It had a telos. The ultimate goal was to finish his work in the original creation and bring about the rest of the new creation. You see, God entered into a covenant with Adam called covenant of works. And in this covenant, God promised Adam eternal life in glory, if he was faithful, if he was obedient to the terms of the covenant. And God gave Adam different signs and symbols of this promised glory, this promised rest. The tree of life was a symbol of this. God also gave Adam the weekly Sabbath. as a sign that when he completed his work week, he would enter into that eternal rest of God. So to put things very simply then and very concretely, when Adam got out of bed in the morning, when his alarm went off Monday morning, so to speak, and he didn't hit the snooze button, he turned it off, he got out of bed, he went to work, all that he did that day was kingdom work. There he was working in the field, tilling the soil, gathering crops, raising animals, all of those kinds of things. It was all kingdom work. All that he did contributed to the coming glory of the new creation. And what that meant is that nothing was trivial. Nothing was insignificant. There was no vanity or vexation or frustration in his work. It all served to bring about the glory of the new creation. Well sadly, we know that that's not what happened. We know that Adam failed. He did not bring about this promised glory. And so secondly then, we'll consider the cultural mandate frustrated by the fall. It's only a chapter in and Adam fails to guard the temple. He fails to keep out the defiling thing, that serpent. He allows the serpent to slither in to deceive his wife and then he's deceived. He disobeys God, he eats of the forbidden fruit, and because Adam fails, well then God unleashes upon him and upon the world all of the threatened curses of the covenant of works. And I know that we're probably all familiar with these curses of the covenant of works, the curses of the fall. But what's interesting is when you think about it this way, what's very startling about the curses when you consider them in light of the cultural mandate is that they all strike at the very heart of Adam's commission. Think about it. Under the cultural mandate, women were to bear children and thus fill the earth with image bearers. And so, literally, the kingdom would expand by having babies. That was one of the ways the kingdom grew. Now, God says to women, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Further, Adam was to work the earth and be fruitful to feed his family, but now God pronounces Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread. Further, through cultural activities, they were to expand the boundaries of Eden until Eden filled the whole earth. But now, in the curse, they're expelled from Eden. God places the cherub and these warrior angels with flaming swords to bar Adam and Eve's entry back into the garden. And so how can they now fulfill the cultural mandate if they can't even get back inside Eden? The way is blocked. Well, finally, Adam was to work and then receive eternal rest, eternal life. But now, instead, God pronounces the final curse, which is death. till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So instead of bringing about that eternal rest, Adam has brought about eternal death. And so we see then that the cultural mandate is now impossible for man to fulfill. What this means is that we are not now new Adams placed in the garden once again. No, we don't get to hit the reset button. It's game over. It's finished. We are now all under this curse. And this is the teaching of the New Testament. This is what Paul means in Romans 5 when he speaks of that first Adam. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. Paul's point is that because of Adam's sin, we're under Adam and we're under the results and effects of his sin, which is death. Further, Paul makes very clear in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What is this glory of God? Well, it isn't his righteous standard that we've fallen short of. This is the glory that was held out to Adam. If he was obedient, this glory would have been Adam's. But because of Adam's sin, it's lost, it's fallen, it's gone, and none of us can go back and try to do it over again. Please turn with me now back to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 2, and there we see this truth with just such clarity. Hebrews 2, and beginning in verse 5, the author says, For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking, and then he quotes Psalm 8, What is man that you were mindful of him? Are the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You've crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. And then he comments, now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. Psalm 8 teaches that God subjected creation And even the world to come, not to angels, but to human beings. You see, from the very beginning, it was God's intention, God's plan, God's desire for the world to come, to be granted to human beings. God destined human beings to be rulers of this new creation. And this was the promise that was held out to Adam. But then the author goes on to say at the verse, at the end of verse eight. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. In other words, the author of Hebrews is saying that Psalm 8 has not been realized. Adam has failed. Mankind has failed. We have not fulfilled the cultural mandate, nor can we. This is the world we inhabit, isn't it? One that has fallen. One that is frustrating. One that is marred and polluted and perverted by sin. And we know this to be true, don't we? Generally speaking, women will still bear children. But ladies, you know that it's not without great pain. And sometimes there's complications. Sometimes there's difficulties in the birth of a child. Sometimes there's miscarriages. Some ladies are barren. And when we have children, our children don't automatically become members of the new covenant or of the kingdom. Instead, as parents, we struggle with that relationship with our children. We struggle to discipline them in the ways of the world, in the ways of life, not to mention raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The marital relationship has also been disordered. We're told that her desire will be to usurp her husband's authority. He will rule over her in an oppressive manner. Every time you have a dispute with your spouse, it's a reminder of the fall of Adam's failure, of our failure. So marriage and childbearing, which ought to have been a delight to humanity and a way in which we would attain the goal of the new creation, is now marred by the painful effects of sin. We continue to work, don't we? We continue to work the ground. But now our labor is a hard toil. And the earth will, yes, it will produce fruit, but with the fruit will come thorns and thistles. And at the end of it all, we will return to the dust of the ground from which we came. But again, that's not how it all began. Adam and his offspring before the fall could work ordinary jobs and know that their labor was meaningful, that it was bringing about the kingdom and its consummation. But now, post-fall, our work often feels vain, often feels futile, meaningless. Ecclesiastes is a book all about how we are to live in light of the frustration of the fall. In one place, the preacher wrestles with this vanity of work. He writes, what has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night, his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. Do you ever feel frustrated by work? Do you ever feel unfulfilled in your job? You give yourself to it week after week, day after day, hour after hour, and you still just feel like a hamster in a hamster wheel, going round and round and round endlessly. Well, if you have, this is why. It's because, in a real sense, your work is not ultimate, and it will not bring about the new creation. Now as Christians, our work does matter, it has a purpose, and we have a new motivation, as Paul tells us in Colossians, it's to the glory of God. But that's another sermon. For now, know that there's a sense in which we're not supposed to feel ultimately fulfilled in our work. There's a sense in which work is not ultimate because of the fall. Before the fall, man's labor was ultimate and eternal. Everything he did in the arts and sciences and culture would bring about that consummation of the kingdom, but not anymore. Now, we go to work, we work hard, we get taxed, we spend our money, we save a little, and then we die, and we leave the fruit of our labor to another. Well, thankfully, that's not the end of the sermon. It's not the end of where the Lord leaves us in scripture. and revelation. Thirdly, let's consider the cultural mandate as fulfilled by Christ. It's quite remarkable that ever before God announces the curse on his creation, he proclaims to the serpent this curse. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Here, God gloriously proclaims that what Adam failed to do, this son of Adam, one of Eve's own offspring, would do perfectly. Where Adam failed to drive out the serpent, this offspring would exercise dominion by inflicting a mortal head wound to the serpent. Where Adam failed, the son of Adam would prevail. And the rest of the Old Testament unfolds this, what Paul calls the mystery of Christ, until finally the New Testament proclaims the grand arrival of the second Adam. Romans 5, we read a portion of it earlier, Paul explicitly speaks of Adam as a type of the one to come. And then in verse 17 he writes, for if because of one man's trespass, death reigns through that one man, Adam, Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. So Paul is saying, whereas Adam's disobedience brought about a reign of death, Christ's obedience has brought about life and righteousness. Christ is the seed of Eve and the second Adam. Well, how does this, how does Christ's work specifically relate to the cultural mandate. Well again, look with me to Hebrews chapter 2. So the author of Hebrews has quoted Psalm 8 and how man was destined to have dominion over the world and the world to come, but then he comments that we do not see all things subject to man. But then look at what he says next in verse 9. We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Let's observe a few things from this passage. First, he says that Jesus became lower than the angels for a little while. That is, through Jesus' incarnation, through taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, by becoming man, Jesus became one of us. In particular, he stepped into that place as the second Adam. Next, we're told he suffered death. This of course speaks to Christ's cross work, where he died on the cross, he bore our sins, he took upon himself the wrath our sins deserve. Third, he is now crowned with glory and honor. And so as a result of Christ's obedient life and his obedient death, he has attained that glory of the world to come. And finally, we read that he did not do this simply for himself, but for us, as it says, in order to bring many sons to glory. The author of Hebrews says, but we see Jesus. When we look at the first Adam, we see failure. When we look at the darkness of our own hearts, even as believers, we see that indwelling sin. As we look at the world around us, we see disaster, we see tyranny, we see injustice. But when we look at Jesus, when we look at the last Adam, we see his glorious victory over all of those things. We see his victory over his and our enemies' Satan, sin, and death. By his perfect obedience, Jesus became that Psalm 8 man. Jesus became the second Adam. He perfectly fulfilled the cultural mandate. And through faith in him, we freely enter into his kingdom of everlasting life. Let me close by making these three points of application from what we've just considered. The first point is that because Christ fulfills the cultural mandate, we do not work to bring about the world to come. As David Van Drunen states, God does not call us to engage in cultural labors so as to earn our place in the world to come. We are not little atoms. Instead, God gives us a share in the world to come as a gift of free grace in Christ. And then he calls us to live obediently in this world as a grateful response. So your life In this world, your work, when you go to work tomorrow, the time you spend with your colleagues, with your family, you're not earning or working to bring about the new creation. Christ has already earned that. Instead, he's placed you here to be a faithful witness to him, to live obediently as a grateful response to the gospel, to be salt and light. Well, secondly, because Christ has fulfilled the cultural mandate, our work in culture is important, but not ultimate. I've said this several times, but it's worth repeating. For Adam, cultural advancement and kingdom work were one and the same, but not so for us. We do not engage in the arts and in science in order to expand the kingdom. That's not how the kingdom expands. I hope this will be liberating for some of you. Some of you may feel a very zealous and honorable desire, but a misplaced desire to kind of Christianize everything, to Christianize your workplace, or even to find Christian ways of doing very ordinary tasks. But the kingdom of Christ doesn't expand that way. The kingdom of Christ expands by the preaching of the gospel. And therefore, we work for different motives. We work to support our families. We work to be a good witness to Christ. Our work is important, but not ultimate. Well, third and finally, because Christ has fulfilled the cultural mandate, we know where to rightly place our trust. Loved ones, does your hope ebb and flow with each new cycle? Does your hope and life soar with a conservative president? Does it fall to the pits of despair with a Joe Biden, a leftist president? Do you find your hope ebbing and flowing with the rise and fall of culture? Not that we shouldn't be concerned about these things, but too many Christians confuse the common kingdom with the redemptive kingdom. And thus they place their hope and trust in cultural and political advancements. What if I told you that the advance of the Kingdom of Christ does not depend on conservative politics? What if I told you that the Kingdom of Christ doesn't depend upon us transforming our Christianizing culture? Or even that the very notion of a Christian nation runs counter to the interests of the kingdom of Christ. Right now we look around us, we see the fallenness of the world. We do not see all things brought into subjection. But as the author of Hebrews tells us, but we see Jesus. We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the sufferings of death. so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Friends, look to Jesus. Look to the world to come. Place your hope there. For Christ has told us, my kingdom is not of this world. And he has promised us, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You see, Jesus is king, he is Lord. He is presently reigning, he is presently ruling over all that is his. Christ is building his temple, the church, and he's calling in his elect. And he's not doing it through culture wars. He's not doing it through great awakenings in our culture. He's doing it through his ordinary means of grace. Word and sacrament ministry, the preached word, the word made visible through baptism in the Lord's Supper. He's doing it through your ordinary witness. the ways in which He has promised to do so by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, loved ones, look to Jesus. Place your hope in Him and the glory of the world to come. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word that reminds us our place in the world, that speaks to the frustration and folly we experience in this world. It also comforts us with the hope and glory of the world to come, earned for us by Christ. Forgive us for misplacing our hope so often in the things of this world. Cause us instead, as the author of Hebrews says, to see Jesus, to look to Him, to hope in Him, to love Him. In Jesus' name, amen.