Let's now turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 1. And right now I'm presenting a short series of messages called Keep the Faith. It's really presenting more foundations and I intend for it to be a short series. We're probably done with it by the end of the year, but I just think it's important for us to know the basics of the Christian faith And the foundations are found in Genesis. So we're going back to Genesis to develop a few of the foundational truths and to be sure that we have them down well and we've got some rebar. You know what rebar is, children? Rebar is the steel that goes through the concrete in foundations, walls, and things like that. So when you lay foundations, you put rebar through the steel bars that go through the concrete of the foundations. Okay, so my intention is that we have this rebar shoved through the foundations of your thinking of what we understand about the Word of God. So let's read from Genesis chapter 1, and this morning I'd like to go from 26 through 31. Genesis 1 verse 26. Let's stand together and hear the Word of God. Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food, and it was so. Then God saw everything he had made, and indeed, it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. This is the very word of God. Amen. Father God in heaven, we ask for your enlightenment this day. Give us the life that comes through Jesus, by your spirit, through the word. Lord, enliven us this day. Enable us to better understand it. The word would sink into us and that we would live it out. Father, convict us of sin. Draw us nearer to Christ. Help us to better understand the redemption that Jesus brought to this sinful world and that our hearts would be full of praise and honor and worship because of your love for us today. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Well, we're back to the basics to review from last week. We started out with verse one of Genesis chapter one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So he started with God as God who created everything, including ourselves. And to be God, the definition of God is what? We speak of his name quite often, but what is it? What is this word, God? It is that he is over all. He is ruler over the world. He is the Lord and the master. He is the ultimate ruler over all things. So again, this is very basic, that God is the origination of all of the things that we see all around us, and He is over all these things, and He has no competition whatsoever. Nothing even comes close to competing with God's rule over the world. That's so basic. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves. As I say that, what are you thinking? Well, that's sort of basic. Not just sort of basic. That's real basic. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He that made you and not you yourself. That's basic. These are first propositions we say. Now if you get your first propositions wrong, everything else is wrong. Children, let me ask you another question. What happens if you build your house on marshmallows and toothpicks? Okay, we put down all these marshmallows and we connect the marshmallows with toothpicks. And we build a house on that, what happens? The house comes down, boom, everybody say boom. There we go. So you want to be sure that you're building your thinking before you pray, before you think about anything else, before you talk about anything else, before you have a conversation after church today, you have to believe in God first. You have to believe God made you first. And you have to be sure of it. If you doubt, you're damned, the Bible says. If you doubt, you're damned. Whoever doubts is damned. So we can't doubt on the fundamental proposition. Can have any, I wonder if God exists. I wonder if God made me. You cannot doubt at all. Before you pray, before you think, before you have a conversation, you have to believe this stuff first. First propositions. So be sure you know that God made you. That's first and foremost. We know that the God, the Lord, He is God, He has made us and not we ourselves. So now, we move on today to the second discussion, that is the creation of man. God made all these things, but God also made us. God made us in His image. And so be sure you know that God made you. When you look at your hands, these hands, where did they come from? These hands are impressive. I worked as an engineer in automation and it was impossible for an automation engineer to make something that could work, a robot that could work like this, that can move as smoothly and could consciously realize everything it was doing and move its hands in certain positions. Engineers have never made anything like that. in the modern age, but God made our hands. Our hands did not come from monkey claws. These hands came from God himself. Okay, so we read here in verse 26, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they say, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. So man is what? Man is made in the image of God. And there are two versions of man made in the image of God. Look at verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God made man in his image in two versions, male and female. both have equal value in the sight of God. This is very important to realize that we don't compete for ascendance in terms of honor within the context of the marriage or anywhere else. There is no debate as to whether the man is of more honor than the woman or the woman more honor than the man. They are of equal value. considered honorable in the eyes of God. The woman is created in the image of God. The man is created in the image of God. When we say the image of God, what we mean by that is that we are not God. This is quite different than other world religions. We do not become God, as the Mormons teach, but we are like God. That is, we have similarities to God. Sometimes we say that he has his father's eyes. Have you ever heard that expression? He doesn't really have his father's eyes. It's not as if his father gouged out his eyes and put them into the head of his son. We don't say anything like that, and we don't think that. Rather, we say that he looks like his father in that his eyes have something of a resemblance to his father. So that's what we mean when we say that he's the spittin' image of his father. It's like a copy. Not quite a copy, it's more so like a statue is a representation of Alexander the Great. Or think of a seal that leaves an impression into some wax. The seal itself is not the same as the impression made upon the paper. So we understand the idea of image, there is a likeness. There is an impression of a seal that is not the thing itself. So how are we made in the image of God? Well, Colossians 3.10, Ephesians chapter two as well, speaks of how we are created in God's image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Animals cannot know like God knows, but we do. There is a substantial difference between how an animal reacts or perceives things or cogitates concerning what's going on around him and how humans do it. Humans are made in the image of God and knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Animals have no sense of righteousness and holiness. They are never offended by the injustices of other dogs that stole a piece of meat. They're not offended in that way. Their main interest is to just be sure that they get their fair share, and even more of that, they just want to be sure that they're getting everything. It's not a justice issue. It's not a fairness issue. It's more that they just want food, and they will do everything they can to get it. So we want to be careful not to go beyond Scripture. I don't think it's appropriate to try to explain maleness and femaleness as if God has something of a male character or a female character about him. It's safer to say that both man and woman are created in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and both are created for dominion. Now, what do we mean by dominion? Now, the passage specifically calls man to dominion. One of the fundamental elements of God is that He rules. Right? We've said that last week. That's what God is. That's the very definition of God. And so God created man and woman such that they are to rule. They have the capacity to rule. Now, in Christian society, when the kings were absent from the thrones in Europe, generally the queen was responsible to rule. They called it co-regency. It was interesting, just yesterday I was studying the life of an outstanding Christian king, probably one of the most outstanding Christians, king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus. And Gustavus Adolphus would go off to war on a fairly regular basis. He pulled into the 30-year war and was pretty much the hero that salvaged Protestantism so that it wasn't utterly wiped out in Germany and most of the continent. So he was probably one of the most important Christian heroes of all time. But when he went off to battle in the 30-year war, Gustavus Adolphus made an exception for his wife because, sadly, she had severe mental problems, eventually had to be hospitalized. And so this was a big deal, that she did not share the co-regency with him, but he had to assign the co-regency to somebody else. It was an exception to the rule. In general, when a king married a queen, it was expected that the queen would be the co-regent when the king was off to war. This is very basic to Christian society. That means that the man is the ruler, and his wife is a vice-regent. The nations were expected to respect that, and that applied to every marriage as well, and should apply to every marriage even today. The man is the ruler and the wife is the co-regent or the vice-regent in her home. So that's what we mean by dominion. It's very defining of the Christian marriage. A Christian marriage is made up of a king and a queen, the regent and the vice-regent, and the woman reigns and rules. as the man reigns in rules as well. So both man and woman are created for honor and dominion. Now, why is this so? Well, because God created it to be so. Now, of course, if you don't believe in God, then everything's random. You know, like, who cares? Whatever happens. Usually it turns out to be a big food fight between man and woman, and so there isn't any sense of a a role difference and a cooperation between man and woman in the home. And we'll get to some of these definitions in later weeks. But every man and woman is to be honored. That is, they are in an honorable position. The reason for this is because God is the source of all honor and glory and dominion. He's assigned honor and dominion to his creature, man. So, in other words, think of it this way. that the President of the United States assigns an ambassador to Iran. Now, if the Iranian government killed the American ambassador in Iran, the President of the United States would probably nuke Iran. And the reason for that is because the dishonor that they showed the ambassador would be similar to the dishonor shown to the President of the United States as well. So the United States President puts a man in position, he endows him with that authority and that honor, he expects these other nations to respect that honor. And if they don't, then the President of the United States is going to be upset with those that will not receive that. and honor the person He has put in place. All right, so that's what is spoken of here, is that we are those who are not cosmic dust floating around the universe of chance, but we are those who have been created in the image of God. We've been assigned an important position. God is to be honored, ultimately honored, and He has assigned that man and woman be honored as well. And if they are dishonored, then he's not going to be pleased with that at all. Now what does the word dominion mean? Let us make man in our image, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So what does this word dominion mean? The word means to overcome, to overpower, or to dominate. Now one of the best examples I can give you is that when people move into a new area in order to take dominion over, especially Christian society, usually what happens is they have to first cut down the trees. There's usually a lot of brush and a lot of trees that are in the way and they don't allow for any fruitfulness. So they have to pull out the stumps and plant fields. And to pull out stumps takes a lot of work unless you have a bulldozer. But in order to bring that about in America for the first about 150 to 200 years of this nation's existence, they needed to use a lot of axe, axe strength and a lot of ropes and oxen and such to pull out the stumps in order that they would have enough acreage to plant the fields. And it takes a tremendous amount of work in order to do that, to pull out the stumps and plant the fields. In other words, you have to overcome the stumps, you have to overpower the stumps, you have to take dominion over the stumps, and that takes a fair amount of work. But God has assigned all of us to do this kind of thing. If you take a look at the Google Maps, and you run down the border of Texas and Mexico, What you find is something very extraordinary. You find a lot of green on the Texas side and a lot of brown on the Mexico side. Now why is this? The reason for this is that Mexico has not been discipled by true Christianity. And until Mexico gets discipled, and of course many of the African nations as well, there won't be a fruitfulness yielded in these particular nations. In fact, Mexico still imports a great percentage of their food, which is very sad because they have enough ground in order to raise a fair amount of crops. They still have about 60 or 70 percent, I think it's closer to 80 percent of the ground, could be cultivated but is not yet cultivated because there is a disobedience to God in Mexico right now, especially when it comes to this particular issue. Now, the world is not supposed to be a jungle. It's supposed to be a garden, and it's supposed to be cared for by God's people. Again, this is something that a lot of our liberals don't agree with in our day-to-day, but that's what God has assigned to man. Man is assigned to take dominion over the lands of Africa, the lands of South America, and so forth. And until that is done, then we have not been obedient to God's creation command. It's also interesting that the pine beetle has taken such advantage of 3.4 million acres in the state of Colorado since the 1960s and 1970s. And the reason for this is that our governments don't submit themselves to God's law, especially in the area of the Eighth Commandment, that property is to be assigned to people and to take good stewardship over that property. It's very essential. And it has to happen by means of private enterprise. About 15 years ago, I bought 20 acres. And I've had some pine beetle kill on my 20 acres. I've taken dominion over it. Every year or two, I've got a tree or two that I have to take down and cut up. And I've been able to manage the bug kill over a period of 15 years. That's something that the state government has been incapable of doing in the state of Colorado. If the state of Colorado had taken 3.4 million acres and sold it off to 1,000 ranchers, those 1,000 ranchers working full-time, I only work part-time on my forest, if they worked full-time on their 1,000 acres, they could have kept it up and they would not have destroyed 3.4 million acres of Colorado's prime land. So, brothers and sisters, I'm saying that our governments today don't understand the dominion mandate. And so they have violated God's law and they have fallen very, very short of bringing about good dominion in our state and really all over the world today. The Amazon really needs to be divided up and there needs to be good dominion taken over the Amazon and everywhere else around the world today. But that will not happen until the discipleship of nations. And so that's why we need to get busy with the discipleship of nations in South America and everywhere else around the world. Also, here's one more application of this. We are not to allow animals to overcome human beings. Animals are not supposed to kill human beings. So if dogs want to push their teeth, or they tend to prove themselves to bite people, they should be put to death. Dogs are not to kill people. If it appears that they have already wounded people, they should be put to death according to biblical laws. It's very essential that we take proper dominion over dogs. Dogs that kill or tend to kill should be put to death. That's because dogs don't rule over us. We are supposed to rule over them. So these are very, very basic biblical principles that come from the very first chapter of God's revelation to us. Also, as we speak of mosquitoes, the most dangerous animal on earth is the mosquito. It kills more people than any other animal on earth. And we are to take dominion of the mosquito. That's why when we do God-made animals as part of our curriculum, at the end of the chapter we have an application section in which children are supposed to go outside, empty the water out of their wagons, and fill in the potholes about a hundred feet diameter around the home. in order to reduce the mosquito breeding grounds in and around the house. In other words, we're not just teaching science to our children. We want them immediately to go out and take dominion over the mosquito. They have a responsibility before God to rule over the mosquitoes and flies as well and other things that crawl into the house. So all of this is very basic to God's principles for life on earth. We are called also to rule by God's law. God's law is the standard. So when science gives way to using little babies' stem cells and such to do their science research, we find that modern science has come to a lot of dead ends. And I would say that's happened since about 1940. One of the reasons we're not finding the cure to cancer We're not going after the microbes as we should. I believe it's because we're compromising on God's law in science. And until Christians get more involved in science, as they did for a period of about 400 to 500 years, I think we're going to continue to lose the science battle and science will increasingly destroy us. Instead of providing good dominion work for man on earth So we have been given responsibility to rule over the earth the whole earth now keep in mind that man has not been held responsible to take dominion of the moon and asteroids We're not responsible for this. Now, I realize that modern humanist science has pretty much denied every aspect of God's word, and so we're going to find probably a thousand different ways that Christians can get out there and correct some of the mistakes that have been made over the last 100 years during the post-Christian age. But we are still to get out there and rule the whole earth. One of the most important elements of ruling the world is to rule, first and foremost, ourselves. So if you're looking around saying there's something that needs to be ruled, well, it needs to be ourself. We need to be self-governed first and foremost. And by the way, if you're not self-governed, you will be ruled by tyrants. That's why we had a rise of tyranny in so many nations today is because people are not self-governed. Rather, this self-government has been ruined by the fall of Adam into sin. So we're so given to our own sin and our lack of character that we can't get out of bed and take responsibility for our own families and take dominion over that area that God has given to us. God told Cain this shortly after the fall. Do you remember what he said? As Cain was contemplating, or at least at that point, very angry with his brother who had brought a proper sacrifice to God, God told Cain in Genesis chapter 4 that sin is crouching out the door. Sin is like a little tiger that's ready to pounce on you. What did I just say we should do with tigers and lions that threaten mankind? What should we do to them? Well, we should remove them from that area or we could just put them to death. And that's the sort of thing that people do when lions are somehow released from the zoo and they wind up in the middle of the city. They're removed from the city. They're removed from that area or they're killed. Well, that's what we're to do with sin. We are to kill sin. But the only way to do that is by the redemption of Jesus. So the reason why there's so much sin and so much lack of dominion and lack of human responsibility to care about themselves and to take care of the sin in their own lives is because they're not redeemed. They haven't received the gospel of Jesus Christ. They don't realize that the only way they're overcoming sin is by the power of God, by faith in Jesus and relying upon the grace of God. But when men do not control themselves, as I said, what happens when they're given to drunkenness? What happens when you get a lot of people on marijuana and alcohol running around the state of Colorado? What happens when anarchy takes over? What happens when 60 or 70 percent of children are born outside of wedlock? What happens when Basically, all chaos breaks out in human society as we've seen over the last 40 years. What happens? Well, the only way to restrain mankind is to increase the power of human governments. And so that's why God has put a safety net in place. He's got to put civil magistrates in place to take dominion over the sinful tendencies that tend to get out of control. So when man fell into sin, he gave way to this rebellion against God. So I wanted to spend some time identifying the areas in which man has rebelled against God. That is, when man fell into sin, he revolted against God. He had said no to everything that God put forward, especially beginning with his creation mandates. He attempts to reverse everything that God has put in place. He's revolted against God. He's rebelled against God. He shakes his fist in the face of God. And so he does that at every single level. Now I break this rebellion down into three categories. The first of which is what I call everybody rebellion. The second is the everyday rebellion. and the third is fundamental rebellion. So very, very quickly, let me run over these forms of rebellion against God that developed after man fell into sin in the garden. The first thing is the everybody rebellion. What is this everybody rebellion? Well, this is the rebellion against God by twisting the image of God within himself. It's the distortion of the image of God. Now, I don't believe, the Reformed Church does not believe that man... completely lost the image of God within his own nature. That there is still something retained about the image of God within himself. So that's very essential, you need to understand that. That liberals, evil people, wicked people, Adolf Hitler, others, still retain something of the image of God within themselves. But the problem is that man by nature has distorted that image. He has seriously mangled it. See, unbelievers still have something of the image of God in terms of knowledge within themselves. They still know. But they've twisted that form of knowledge. They refuse to acknowledge that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of God. And so therefore, they've completely obliterated the foundation of all true knowledge. And yet they still try to know things. You ever notice they have universities, they tend to have educational establishments. In fact, they take education very seriously. In some respects, they might even take education more seriously than Christians do. In fact, sometimes they call out the messianic state of education, assuming that education is so important we need the state to fund it, and the state will save us by way of the public schools. In fact, that's been very strong in America for about 150 years, the idea that education is the salvation. means that a fallen man has taken knowledge as a very, very essential part of his existence. So I'm not saying he's lost the image of God, he's just twisted it in a very fundamental kind of way. Unbelievers also have an intense commitment to justice and righteousness. We've talked about how Man has created an image of God and righteousness, holiness, and knowledge with dominion over the creation. These are the four things that make up the image of God in man. So man twists every part of that knowledge, twists it. Righteousness, holiness, he twists those things. And yet, unbelievers are very concerned about saving the whales. You know, saving the spotted owl in Oregon. When we were in Oregon, it was all about saving the spotted owl, saving this or that, saving this little minnow, saving whatever it is. They're very concerned about this. They want to give women the choice. Very strong, they would put their lives down on such a proposition. In fact, I just read somewhere that I think it was almost 50% of Democrats say they would resort to violence on the streets. They would kill people. They would bring about revolution in America in order to bring about a woman's right to abort her child. Now, that's a commitment, wouldn't you say? That's a commitment to righteousness. These people are committed to a morality. A moralism. Man is very moral, intensely moral, full of moral outrage. Why is that? I don't see dogs with signs, down with the cats. You know, destroy all cats. They apparently like to chew on cats, but I don't see that they see it to be a very high moral stance to obliterate cats from off the earth. Why is that? Because animals are not created in the image of God with this very strong sense of morality within them. And so this is what we see in unbelievers, that they are indeed created in the image of God and yet they've twisted it. They don't define morality by the laws of God. I mean, what is their commandment? Thou shalt murder children in their mother's womb. Thou shalt steal from people and redistribute the wealth. And they commit them to that. Their entire political party platform is based upon that. Why? Because they're created in the image of God. Because man is moral. It's just that they've twisted it. They deny God's definitions of morality. They reject it. All right, so we have everybody rebellion, then everyday rebellion, and that's just a simple disobedience of God's law. Whatever God tells us to do, don't eat of that tree of knowledge of good and evil. And what does Eve do? She eats of it. She disobeys. God said, don't covet. What happens? They covet. God says, don't do that. They do it. God says, do this. They don't do it. And it's the everyday rebellion. And then there's what I would call a more fundamental rebellion against the creative order. So I wanna spend time with this because this is exactly what this passage is bringing out to us today, is that man has taken whatever is in this passage and he said, nuh-uh, nuh-uh, nuh-uh, no, no, no, and no, and no to God on these particular issues. If God said it in Genesis 1, they say no way Why? Because man by nature is in rebellion against God. He's revolting against the Creator himself. Now, I hope most of us understand the utter insanity of that. If I was to revolt against the President of the United States and put a contract out on his life, what do you think would happen to me? The FBI would be at my door inside about 22 minutes. That's what would happen. You revolt against the President of the United States? No, man is revolting against God, the Creator. That's the problem. That's the barn door problem of the human race, and it's affecting everybody by nature. But there is this fundamental rebellion that's going on against the created order, especially in our day. It's a rebellion against God at the most fundamental level Now, everyone by nature has it in for God, but what they do here is more fundamental. It's rebellion against the fundamental created ordinances. It's a massive assault against God. It's the most demonstrative and outward radical revolt against God at the most fundamental level. And it's usually, at least in the present day, the last hundred years or so, it is an institutionalized assault upon God in His created order. It's the kings of the earth setting themselves against the Lord and His anointed. It's the conspiracy. It's the great powers, the institutions, saying, if we just gang up against God, maybe we'll win. That's what they're thinking. That's why this coordinated, institutionalized attack on God. And it's happening in our country today. Unlike any other time, in fact, the last five years, it's heated up quite a bit. It's an attack against the Creator. Now, the other thing you need to understand about this fundamental attack on the created order is that the consequences of this kind of attack on the created order is always immediately destructive, socially destructive, extremely suicidal. My reading of the pagan tribes prior, say, to the Incas or the Aztecs or way out in Ireland or out into the Slavic countries over the last 4,000 years, I studied these pagan tribes. One thing they knew is you don't do this. They did a lot of bad stuff, but one thing the pagan tribes always understood is you don't go there. You don't go there. But that's where we are today. We've gone there. We're there today. So I wanna give you five ways in which we've engaged. Modern man has engaged in the war with God. First is this. God said, my material creation is very good. And man steps up and said, no it's not. Man says, not good. Now this not so much today, but throughout history you have some instances of this, in which people say the material creation is not good, the human body is not very good. I hate my body. We actually hear some of that today. But it's this gnosticism or dualism that denies the beauty and the wisdom and the amazing characteristics that God has put into the human body. That's number one. Number two, God says, be fruitful and multiply. And man says, no, uh-uh, nope. Roughly since Malthus, who said that the world could not possibly provide for a billion people. Well, I'm here to tell ya, that the overall increase of food per the average person in the world has increased almost triple since 1940. Amazing. Oh, the world has plenty of food, plenty of food to provide for 100 billion people. Why? Because God is that smart. God is able to provide it, absolutely. and the birth rate has fallen from 4.0 to 1.7 since 1950. At least in this country, around the world, it's gone from about 6 to 2.4, which means what we're dealing with today is the largest demographic shift since the worldwide flood. That was the influence of Margaret Sanger. She, I believe, was the most powerful person on Earth in the 20th century, at least in terms of the world. If you want to identify somebody extremely powerful, she brought about a demographic shift larger than anything we've seen since the worldwide flood. Incredible. But this, of course, is the zeitgeist. This is huge. This is the ultimate commitment. I think it's the first commandment. If you were to, basically all of this aligns with the zeitgeist, where we are today, but if there was one commandment, you'd say, okay, to turn into a university president or, you know, somebody who's a mover and shaker in our society today, give me the most important commandment. Just one. Thou shalt have no other children before you. I'm telling you, that's it. That's the commitment. That's the commitment of Bill Gates and I'm gonna say 95% of our population today. If they're committed to one thing, if they're unified around one thing, you know that's why Ohio lost the pro-life vote. You know that's why Kentucky, the second most pro-life state in America, lost it. You know that's why Ohio, the 14th most pro-life state in America, lost the pro-life vote. Because they get their commandment down straight. This is the commandment of the modern zeitgeist. You shall have no other children before you. That's it, that's the commandment. Somebody in our church said just, she went to a church somewhere, I don't remember who said this, but she said, if your church ain't crying, it's dying. Does that sound good? Now, initially when my wife told me that, I thought, crying, that's good, like blessed are those who mourn. So I think a little mourning over our sins, you know, that's what I was thinking. And then she said, no, no, if the babies aren't crying, it's dying. And so, so much of this ideology has crept into the churches. And I don't know how many, but I would guess the majority of evangelical churches in America believe this commandment. And they live it out with the abortifacients and other things. This is so much part of the Zygotes. I don't think anybody would argue with me on that point. That this is the fundamental commandment. Thou shalt have no other children. But what does God's word tell us? Be fruitful and multiply. Number three, in the image of God, created he them, male and female, created he them. And the world says, uh-uh, nope, nope, nope, that's not the way we're gonna do it. The world opposes it. The world revolts against it. Massive rebellion on this point, absolutely, especially over the last six years. rejecting God's created order of gender roles and gender. Now remember, gender role confusion yields gender confusion. Feminism and transgenderism are sisters. If you're confused on gender roles, you're gonna wind up in the gender blender and confused on gender. Gender role confusion yields gender confusion. It's obvious. Feminism will go to transgenderism. So it was surprising to me as I studied the first wave of feminism in the 1800s. I was really surprised by this. I just identified this recently over the last six months. Louisa May Alcott, a somewhat mild feminist, but in the first wave of feminism, what you find is Louisa May Alcott writing in her journal, I long to be a man. She described herself as, quote, a gentleman at large and a man of all work in her 1859 letter to her close friend Alfie. Toward the end of her life, she told a literary critic, I am more than half persuaded I am some freak of nature, a man's soul put into a woman's body. The beginning of transgenderism is in the 1800s. I think you need to understand that. It takes a long time to make it to where we are today, transgendering bathrooms for seven-year-olds. You've just got to understand it takes momentum, it takes 150 years. And so there is a fair amount of transgenderism in the feminist ideologies of the 1800s. You've got to gain the momentum, you can't just do this in 10 years. And so the zeitgeist has brought this thing in over the last 100 years. And just last summer, of course, the U.S. passport applications added gender X as an option. But that doesn't happen in the 1800s. It takes the 1800s to get to 2022 in which the passport, the institutions of the world are aligned. They're joining forces. They're saying, let us set ourselves against God, against the Lord and his anointed. Let's get a conspiracy going. Let's be sure that all the major institutions of the Western world are set against God. Let's war against the creator himself. That's where we are today. So this is an all-out assault on the creation order. Men want to look like women. Women want to look like men. Actually, two forms of this. The first is the rejection of gender in the form of just switching gender. Males turn into females, females turn into males. And the second is just coming up with your own gender. There's that other thing now. I think there's 60, 70 genders. I suppose there could be thousands. I don't know. But again, this is an assault against God's created order. God has equipped men to look like men, and that was intentional. He gave them facial hair, he gave them sideburns. It should be really, really, really obvious. Like nature itself informs us of this. We don't actually have to look up 1 Corinthians 11 to figure this out. That's what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 11. You don't have to look up 1 Corinthians 11 to figure this out. This is so obvious to every pagan tribe on earth. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. It's why God gave men facial hair and sideburns. God also intends clothing to be gender specific as well. And the world's been chipping away at that. Deuteronomy 22 in verse five, the woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man. Literally, the woman should not wear a soldier's garb. It's the way that's rendered in the Hebrew. The woman should not wear a soldier's garb. Ties into women involved in combat as well. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, it says. For all that do so are abomination to the Lord your God. Now Paul also brings this out in the New Testament. Let me read it, 1 Corinthians 11, 13. Judge among yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it's a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. Every translation, by the way, renders this long hair. Long hair is a glory and a covering for a woman. Now, why is it that women want to cut up their hair to the point where there's hardly any hair left? And men oftentimes will grow their hair extremely long in our society today. Nature itself should tell you there's something wrong with that. It's what it says here. Paul also refers to this same word, physes. It's the word for nature. 1 Corinthians 11 is brought out again in Romans 1. It's crimes against nature, sins against nature, men having long hair. But what about Romans 1 26, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions for even their women exchanged the natural use, there's that word again, for what is against nature. Likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving themselves the penalty of their error which was due them. In my study of history, I found the Aztecs, the Calusa tribe of Florida, the Canaanites, the Greeks, the Roman Caesars, and a few others, not very many others, gave way to some institutional approval of homosexuality. But every one of these, the Calusa tribe, the Aztecs, The Canaanites, certain of the Incas, didn't last very long. The Incas got rid of it right away. But a couple of the tribes will try it, but it's all over within 100 years. So keep that in mind. It's all over within 100 years. Immediately destructive, absolutely. The pagan tribes understand this. It's just post-Christian nations have a hard time understanding this kind of stuff. So what do you say to somebody who concludes, I'm in the wrong body? What do you say to that person? Well, I think what you say to that person is there is something very wrong with the world, and there is something very wrong with me, and there's something very wrong with you. But the problem is you've misdiagnosed the problem. The problem is far more fundamental. The problem actually is far worse than you think it is. The problem is not fundamentally with your body. The problem is with your soul. And the problem is with your relationship with God. that by nature all of us are in rebellion against God. That's the problem. We can't be misdiagnosing the problem. We diagnose the problem by the way the word of God diagnoses it. We don't self-diagnose. We try to self-diagnose our little diseases from time to time on WebMD or whatever it is. That's a risk, I hear that's a risk. I've tried it, I've missed two or three times. But misdiagnosing the fundamental problem with man, that somehow it might be that I was misgendered or something like that, guys, that's worse than WebMD. That's gonna yield a total disaster. Let's move on to number four. Okay. God says, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish, over all the earth, et cetera. Okay, this is not taking dominion. God says, take dominion. They say, uh-uh, nope, we're not going to take dominion. And why is this? Well, it's because man has redefined himself using evolution. Evolution aligns us with the animals, but God has put us above the animals. Evolution decimated the honor of man. But God has crowned man with glory and honor. That's Psalm 8, right? What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. That's not evolution. Evolution says you're just an animal, just like all the other animals, just a little bit more advanced than all these other animals. No, no, no. No, no, we are at a different category. We have been created in the image of God. We have been given the responsibility of dominion. Kids, you leave your house to your husky dogs for two weeks. Just take care of everything. You know, the food's in the fridge. We'll see you in two weeks. What do you think the dog's going to do? You come home after two weeks, it's totally trashed. We left our house to a dog for 10 minutes and wound up the couch was all torn up. But evolution, environmentalism, not taking dominion. Don't do it. It's the destruction of science in the modern world. Instead, environmentalism has man worshiping trees and animals, attempting to turn himself into an animal or associating himself with animals, environmental science, evolutionary science, turning the created order upside down. And what is that? That's a revolution against God. Again, picking a fight with God. That's what they're doing. This is a revolt. This is a revolution against God the creator. If God said take them in and they say no. If God said he's the creator, it's all good, they say no. This is a violation of God's created order. Science has so terribly perverted itself As I said, experimenting with baby stem cells, using computer modeling to determine long-term cause-and-effect relationships, almost exactly what the humanist Renaissance did with astrology, coming back in the 21st century. This computer modeling is almost precisely like astrology, at least when we look at long-term cause-and-effect relationships, not weather patterns and what's going to happen in the next 24 hours. I'm not talking about that. So man is using science now to destroy himself. It's what he's doing. He's not taking dominion. Science is not done in the fear of God or humility. Very basic. Should happen. Science is not taking dominion over God's creation, but worshiping and serving the creation, including himself, man himself, all part of the problem. What will men do with weapons of mass destruction? I wonder, given that man is depraved, his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What will he do with biological weaponry? What is he doing in the Wuhan lab? By the way, it's a three kilometer squared lab. That's a one mile by one mile. That lab is so huge, it goes one mile that way and one mile that way. What are they doing in that lab? Biological warfare. You really trust man that he will use science to a good end? You explicitly trust man with weapons of mass destruction? I don't. That's why it's so crucial for us to bring back science in the fear of God. in our home schools, in our Christian schools, so essential. I don't know, I think man has what it takes to destroy at least half the world. And it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't, within the next 20 to 30 years. Because he won't fear God. Because he won't submit himself to God's created order. We are in some of the most dangerous times ever in all of human history. Why? Because scientists are not fearing God in those laboratories. This is so essential, brothers and sisters. So what is the message for us? We are shocked by this, aren't we? Man wants to recreate man, redeeming man by genetic engineering. This is the highest form of rebellion against God, typically institutionalized. Man wants to assign science, government, universities, everything to the task of shaking the fist in the face of Almighty God. And we are so shocked by this. Now, some people step in and say, why are you so shocked? Well, when somebody moons the president or draws a weapon on the president, people are shocked by that, why? Is this some kind of homophobia? Why are you responding with such, you know, animus? Why do you respond to these violations of God's created order at the most basic level with such shock? Why? It's all homophobia. Well, when somebody pulls a gun on the President of the United States, I think people generally are kind of shocked. I mean, is that true? Would you be shocked if you saw that? I would be. Absolutely. So when there's this shaking the fist in the face of Almighty God and we're shocked by it, that's an appropriate response, I believe. I think we should be concerned. But what's the message for us? What is God teaching all of us? Well, the fundamental principle is this. Children, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. What does this mean? Children, You belong to God. All of us belong to Him. He is the Lord, He's the Master. He made all of this, and He owns it all. And when people say, forget you, I'm gonna do my own thing with it. No, you're to steward it according to His laws. When they set Him aside like that, that's rebellion against Him. But we belong to God. All of this belongs to Him. He's assigned us to be stewards of all of this. This is my Father's world. And to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres. This is my father's world. I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, skies and seas, his hands, the wonders wrought. This is my father's world, oh, let me never forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world, the battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven shall be one. So what this means for us, brothers and sisters, I mean, we can point our fingers at the world all day long. We can say the world's all messed up. But to what extent has this affected us? And let's be humbled here ourselves. Let's receive what God has to give to us. The first thing you do if you're in rebellion or you got a bad attitude towards God is to surrender. Surrender, that's application number one, surrender. Lay down your weapons. All that pride and all that rebellion's just gotta go. Let God be God. You humble yourself before Him. Any resistance to Him has gotta go. Just surrender, give up. Stop fighting Him. Remember the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. That comes to my mind. Again, this is the problem with all of us. We get this resistance against God. We don't love Him very much. We're kind of cold to Him or we're resisting His word or whatever it is. I don't know what it is this morning. Anybody feel any coldness at all, or you feel a little resistance to God or His Word? Do you feel any of that? Well, the answer is really what Paul did on the road to Damascus, right? God says, Jesus says to him there, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? And then Paul's first response was what? Lord, what would you have me to do? That's it. That's it for every person in here. As you hear the Word of God taught to you this morning, you say with Paul, Lord, Master, what would you have me to do? I give up. I'm tired of fighting you. I'm tired of standing against you. I'm tired of shaking my fist in your face. I'm tired of running away from you. I'm tired of the bad attitude against you. I'm tired of being bitter against you, God. I'm not gonna strike you with my fist anymore. I'm not gonna shake my fist in your face, but fall down on my face and really and truly cry out for mercy and worship you and serve you. Every one of us must do this. Is there any discontentment in your life with what God has brought to you? Are you upset with something? Are you agitated? Are you disturbed? Are you discontented? full of internal consternation, things aren't going, you're not at peace. What do I have to say to you? To me, to any of us? Just surrender. I give up. God, whatever you ordain is right. Whatever you command is right. I'm just tired of fighting you. I'm just gonna submit to you and let you be God, and I'm gonna be your servant. from here on out. That's what Paul said on that road. Secondly, let's take proper dominion of the world. Let's realize our roles and responsibilities to rule ourselves and to steward the things that God has given to each of us. Ah, be faithful in stewardship. And then thirdly, let's restore biblical manhood and womanhood as well. Always more to say on that as well. Don't have time right now. You know, we aren't transgendering our bathrooms here. Are we okay? I think, to some extent, the world has crept into the church. There is some level of discontentment in us. There is some pushback against what God has done for you and to you and in your life. Let's receive this admonition this morning, brothers and sisters. Are you willing to be transformed this morning by the Word of God? according to the will of God, by the renewing of your mind. Is your mind being renewed right now? That's what I'm talking about. Instead of rebelling, it's, God, tell me what I've been thinking wrongly, and I want to start thinking rightly about these things. Straighten me out on these things. But in conclusion, you know, as I said about the person who's not content with their body, There's something wrong, there's something very wrong, extremely wrong. Yes, there's something wrong with us. But there's something wrong, not just with the human soul, I mentioned that. There is something wrong with the physical creation. There is something wrong with us. Sin has done a job on our souls, but sin has affected our bodies as well. And so what did God do for that? Now, what we want to do is try to fix it, like three-year-olds attempting to fix a broken toy. He just mangles it further. But the good news is that God loved His creation, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Creator Himself, came to redeem the material creation. But He came to redeem the material creation. He came to redeem us, our souls, yes, but our bodies as well. He came to give us everlasting life. He came to redeem our bodies so that we'll live forever and ever. He came to fix the problem of death for us. But how did He do it? By incarnating Himself into human flesh. By becoming a human being like you and me. So in other words, not only did he not despise the material creation that he had created, but he said, the material creation I created is so very good that I want to redeem it and I will become, I will take upon myself material creation in order that I will save material creation. So beautiful. I hope you can see the beauty of it. And so Jesus died and was resurrected. in a perfected body. And the most interesting thing is that, you know, in His perfected body, there were still the imprints of the nails in His hands and His feet and on His side, meaning that there was continuity. This wasn't just a brand new body, but this was fixing the old body and turning it into the resurrected body. And I don't have time to read this again, but 2 Corinthians chapter 5 bears that out. There is a connection between the seed planted and the final body, the resurrected body in heaven. And so this is a very encouraging thing that all the things that are wrong with us, my congenital lymphedema, my psychological problems, as some of you know about, all of these things are gonna be resurrected and made better in the final resurrection. Hallelujah, amen. And so Jesus came into this world, the Creator said, I gotta fix this, but the only way I can fix it is to become the material creation itself, to add that to. the divine, and then save it by my own death and by my own resurrection. Hallelujah. And by this, brothers and sisters, he is the first fruits of the recreation of God. He restores our dignity. He restores our body in the resurrection. He enables us to rule over the creation again. He restores our marriages in that we can function now in unity once more. He has come to restore everything about us. Amen and amen. Let's pray. Our Father, God, we love the end of the story. We read about how we have messed things up, but God, you came to fix it. Man cannot fix it. He defines the problem wrongly, and he brings about the wrong salvation. But God, you define it rightly. You go right to the heart of it. You define it as sin and rebellion. And then you fix it all through Jesus, through his death and resurrection. And by His blood we are cleansed, we are forgiven, we are set free, we are redeemed from the power of sin, and we are able, we are set free to rule and to regain the honor that we lost at the fall of man in that garden. Thank you, Father, for this good news this day. We celebrate it in Jesus' name, amen. Praise be to Jesus. He came, He conquered, now He rules, amen? We come to the Lord's table, and those of you visiting, take a look at the back of our bulletin. We have a little instruction on how we practice the Lord's table here at the church. But what is this? What is this here? What is this? This is material. This is the physical creation of God. This is signifying the incarnated body and blood of Jesus. Now, why do we celebrate this? Partially so that we can touch and feel and know, and taste as well, and know that this is material and so is Jesus. We need to realize that Jesus is more than some ethereal spiritual force out there. Jesus Christ is a human being, a man who lived 2,000 years ago, died on the cross, rose again from the dead. He is our Lord and Savior, and one day you can walk up to Jesus and shake His hand. Jesus is a real human being. Jesus is incarnated, is the incarnated Son of God. So when Jesus comes to this earth, what do we find Him doing? And I want to point this out because Well, he not only restores the spiritual, your sins are forgiven you, but he restores the physical as well. And I want you to see both of those things as we come to the table and participate in this very material sacrament. Jesus is as concerned about the body as the soul. Now, there's an instant flowing healing power coming out of Jesus and evidently coming from his body this is the most interesting thing there is seems to be a life essence now we say is this is the means of grace by which the Holy Spirit can enable a life-giving force or energy or A life that flows from the veins of Jesus into us. Now we believe that happens in a mysterious way. We don't say these things turn into the body and blood of Jesus. But we see there's a spiritual application of this very material substance and the material elements of Jesus's life. So there's an essence, a life essence that comes out of his body and flows into other people. Again, let me take a look at Mark chapter five. A certain woman had a flow of blood for 20 years, or for 12 years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. So she had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. And when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. And she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Immediately, here we read, the fountain of her blood was dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? So what I'm saying is there's something about the material life of Jesus that brings material healing to these people. The power flows from Jesus to these people who need the physical healing. That's what we're seeing in these particular miracles. Later on in the chapter, the daughter of Jairus, she had just died, and he took the child by the hand. He said to her, Talitha cumi, which is translated, little girl, I say to you, arise, and immediately the girl rose and walked. Now I want to point out that he took her hand. To me this is significant. We find Jesus touching people and healing them throughout his ministry. Also Luke chapter 7, now it happened the day after that Jesus was into a city called Nain and many of his disciples went with him in a large crowd and when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out. The only son of her mother of his mother who was a widow and a large crowd from the city was with her and when the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said to her do not weep and then he came and touched the open coffin and those that carried him stood still and he said young man I say to you arise and so he who is dead sat up and began to speak now what I'm saying is that Jesus has a power that flows out of him to not only heal us in terms of our sins, but he heals the diseases of these people as well in this period that is obviously before the resurrection. So the word of God gives us that by his stripes, we are healed. By his blood, that is his physical, material blood flowing out of his body, we receive a cleansing and a healing for our souls today. We receive His resurrection life as well to our bodies at the very end. So the cleansing of our souls and the cleansing of our bodies come by the life of Jesus, by His resurrection life. Now, as we come to the table, I want you to focus on the healing of Jesus. Our souls need healing, our bodies need healing. Oftentimes, he's waiting on the healing of our bodies to the final resurrection. We receive that. But even in this life, we receive healing from Jesus. Listen to Psalm 147. He heals the broken hearts and binds up their wounds. Psalm 107 as well. One of the vignettes from this psalm brings this out. Fools they were because of their transgressions and because of their iniquities they were so afflicted their souls abhorred all manner of food. Now here we see the example not only were their souls affected by this particular sin disease but their appetites Their bodies were wasted by the drugs or the alcohol or whatever it was. Their souls abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death, and then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He saved them out of their distresses, and they get this, he sent his word and healed them. Now I'm gonna say that he sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. He sent his word, he sent Jesus. Jesus is the word of God and he came to heal us of our diseases that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. And may that be our experience. We have experienced the healing of Jesus in our spiritual frame, perhaps something of our emotional frame, even our physical life. We've experienced the healing of Jesus in this life and look forward to complete healing at the resurrection. as well. So as you take the cup, let's think upon the healing power of the blood of Jesus as it affects all of us as we, by faith, participate in this sacrament. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, We thank you for the healing blood of Jesus. It's the real, physical, material blood that was shed on the cross. We don't have all this figured out, but Father, we know there is healing essence, there is healing power that comes through the blood of Jesus. And we, by faith, lift our hands to the air and say, God, give us this grace. Give us more of his life. As we come to this table, by faith, we look to you for the life-flowing essence of Jesus in his physical, material life that He put on that cross for us. Thank you, Father, for this. We receive this sacrament with this prayer in mind. Thank you, Father, for your blessing. Thank you for the blessing of Jesus. Thank you for His life. In Jesus' name, amen.