Christian Worldview

Good evening everyone. Most of you probably already know who doctor Vodie Bacham Junior is. He's a world renowned author and speaker. He speaks at many conferences across the United States and particularly adapt at speaking on the Christian worldview and apologetics and how to defend our faith. It's a great honor to have him here. He is currently the dean at African Christian University in Zimbabwe. Family wife was seven kids now and so it's a great honor and pleasure for him to be with us this evening. Please give him around a plaus. Thank you, Bill. Good evening, let's trying. Good evening, all right. Oh wow, Aggie's in the house. That's too bad. A couple of things. One, thank you for the introduction. I appreciate it. Let me make a couple of corrections. The African Christian University is in Zambia. Zimbabwe is our neighbor to the south. We have seven children at home with us in Zambia. We have two older children here in the US and two grandchildren. Yes, it's awesome, Yes it is. And I am here. I come back to the US three to four times a year to do a two week tour and was that, Oh, the door is open there doing it? Okay, that was strange. Did y'all hear that when you open the door and the voices? I was like, And then so this is one of those tours. So I just got here a couple of days ago. We started in Waco and preached the homeschool conference in Waco, got here on Friday, preached there on Saturday, and then on Sunday at a church in all and then drove up here from there today this morning. So if I if I fall asleep, just give me a minute, I'll probably I'll probably, I'll probably come back wake up again and something. A couple of resources I want to draw your attention to. One is this is our latest book, Expository Apologetics, Answering Objections with the Power of the Word, and really this is about doing apologetics with scripture, doing apologetics from scripture. So those are out there. And then our friends over at Wretched anybody know about Richard Todd, frero Rechard Radio, Regid Todd and I got together in the studio and talked about this and really just sort of practical application of this. And this is the resources that this is the resource that came out of that. So this is a DVD of Todd and me talking about how we do expository apologetics, so you can avail yourself of those. And remember that when you buy things at our table, all the proceeds go to feed hungry children in Africa. Just saying, you know, if you have your Bibles with you, open them to the Book of Colossians, the Colossians, Colossians, Colossians Chapter one, Colossians Chapter one, and and we're talking about biblical worldview today. And the reason that is significant is that, oh, by the way, there's one more resource that I that I want to draw your attention to. Maybe I'll I'll show you that later, but it's probably it's arguing, I believe the most significant biblical worldview resource that I've been able to be a part of. And it was actually a movie. It was a theatrical release here. It was released in three D, it was released in two D, and it was Genesis Paradise Lost. Then he might see the movie when he came out, Genesis Paradise Lost. Okay, so you saw Genesis Paradise did you know? So, yeah, I did the narration for Genesis Paradise Lost, and It's interesting because they anybody went to the Creation Museum, Yes, Creation Museum. So in the Creation Museum they had their four D theater and it's great. You go and you watch this film. Well, they changed the film in the for D theater and they're now using Genesis Paradise Lost, an abbreviated version of Genesis Paradise Lost in the forty theater. So the family and I, we were here on furlough December till February, and we what we did was we went up to the Creation Museum into the art. So we go into the forty theater. I was not here. I was over in Zambia when the movie came out, it was released, and then it was so successful they released it again both times. I was not here. I was here, right, I was not here. They released it, and then I came and it was already done, and then I left and then they re released it. Never saw it, you know, in the theaters, and of course my family never got to see it or anything. So we go and we sit down in the forty theater and they start playing this film and the voice comes on and my kids are alike, and my wife's going I'm like babe, that's your husband. She said, oh, yeah, you know so. But we have those, We have the film them in two D and in three D, and it is not It is a great movie. They did a great job. The video production and editing of the movie is like stellar, second to none. But it is also a creation to Christ, picture of the Gospel and redemption and an incredible piece in terms of biblical worldview. So that's another resource that you might want to avail yourself up that is out there as well. Why is this worldview stuff so important? It's important because and hold onto this, Okay, we believe we behave in accordance with what we believe. Let me say that again, we behave in accordance with what we believe. I don't care what you say you believe, right, I know what you believe by the way you live. Your worldview matters. And so when we talk about this issue of biblical worldview, the reason that it is so significant is because first and foremost we will behave in accordance with what we believe, and what we have a tendency to do is we have our world views. And that baby is not bothering me. Don't worry about that. Baby at all. We have our world views, and what we have a tendency to do is we tend to have and hold our world and life view, and we tend to take some facts about the Gospel, right, Jesus and Salvation that, and we just try to smash that on top of our worldview. And so we end up behaving in accordance with this culture worldview while claiming Christ. And there are massive inconsistencies, Okay, we live with with what's called cognitive dissonance, right, these things that we say we hold to over here that are completely inconsistent with how we're living over there, and it just it just it doesn't work for us long term. There are many competing world views, but the main, the main worldview in existence today and our culture is the worldview of secular humanism. Okay, have we heard of have we heard of this? We've heard of this? Right. Secondly, humanism is the primary worldview that we deal with today when it comes to evaluating world views. And our worldviews function in many ways. They function like like like eyeglasses, right, you ever heard the term looking at the world through rose colored lenses? Like if you if you have a colored pair of lenses. You put them on your eyes. Everything looks that way, right. Your worldview functions like that. It is the lens through which you see the world, through which you view the world and how you interpret reality. Your worldview also functions like a map. You know. It's like it's like your GPS. We were on our way, you know, here from from Austin this morning, and you know, and we'd gone from Waco and Austin and now we're coming up to Denton and we're riding and you know, in thirty five and how much further we got to go? What do you do? You look at the GVS and the GPS shows you where you are, where you're going, right, It shows you that you're on the right path. Your worldview does that. Your worldview orients you. Okay, You look around and see things, and your worldview says, here's here's where you are, Here's where you headed. Another illustration of your worldview is your worldview is like a puzzle, right, It's like the picture. It's like the picture for the puzzle. I don't know how many of you put together puzzles, but there are people who put together these like massive puzzles. Here's the people generally don't do right. They generally don't get the big, you know, five ten thousand piece puzzle and then dump the pieces out and then throw away the box. I hope there's nobody here who does that. If you do, you know whatever, nobody cares. We're not impressed. I mean we are, but that's generally not what you do. Right. You dump the pieces out, and then you look at the box. The box shows you what the finished product is supposed to look like. So you pick up an individual piece and you look at the composition of that individual piece to try to figure out where it should go in the puzzle. Right, that's what your worldview does. Life throws you an individual piece, some piece of information, some events, some idea, and your worldview looks at the composition of this thing and says, here's where that fits, here's what that is. Okay. So these are the things that your worldview does. This is the way that your worldview operates. Now, when it comes to evaluating worldviews, mainly, there are two ways to evaluate a worldview. One way that you evaluate a worldview is through its narrative or its meta narrative. Meta narrative is like the overarching story that explains existence. Okay. The other way that you evaluated worldviews through the worldview elements five main elements our view of God, Man, truth, knowledge and ethics, Right and truth, knowledge, ethics? Who is God? Who was Man? What is truth? How do we know it? And what is right and wrong? And so secular humanism's view of God. It's interesting. Remember, secular humanism is the primary worldview. It's the predominant worldview of our day, of our era, of our culture. Right. Its view of God is atheistic, which is kind of problematic, right, because it's like, wait a minute, if that's the primary worldview and it's atheistic, then, especially you know, if our culture is primarily religious and primarily Christian, how do those two things work. Secular humanism has a view, an atheistic view that within our culture tends to still talk about God writ large. Right, I'm spiritual, okay, you know, I believe in spirituality, and you know God, mom, apple pie, you know whatever, but not not theistic, not a personal God, right, not a personal intelligent necessary being. Just this kind of concept that helps us cope. Right, But generally it's it's atheistic. Our view of man is an evolutionary view. Our view of truth, truth is relative. What's true for you is not necessarily true for me. What's true today is not necessarily true tomorrow. Right, what's true here is not necessarily true there. Right, truth is relative. There's there's there's my truth. Right, that's there's my truth. That's your truth, but this is my truth. Secular humanism's view of truth is relative. Right, knowledge, How do we know things? Secular Humanism's view of knowledge is yeah, naturalistic materialism. Right, Nature is a closed system and matter is all that matters. There's nothing outside of nature. So the only way that we know things is through our senses examining what we have in nature. By the way, that's why even if the secular humanist talks about God but believes that nature is a closed system, right, that means God can't be supernatural because to be supernatural, you would have to be outside of nature. Right, there is nothing outside of nature. Okay, So that's why even when the secular humanist talks about God, it's talking about God within the confines of a worldview that is materialism. Nature is a closed system, matter is all that matters. Well, then the last thing we're left with is ethics. You know, right and wrong. Right, Ethics are culture rural and negotiated. They're not absolute. They're cultural and negotiated. So what is ethical depends on your culture, right, It depends on your culture. How do we how do we determine that? Well, that's that's negotiated amongst the amongst the particular people in the particular culture. Right. And so there's this idea that cultures are relative and cultures are neutral, and there are no cultures that are necessarily or inherently better than other cultures. It's just relative in this culture. This is what's acceptable in that culture. That's what's acceptable, which is which is very interesting. And the inconsistencies in secular humanism are just really glaring. They're really easy to see, you know. So that's that's the worldview elements portion. What I want us to look at is not the elements of the worldview. I want us to look at the meta narrative. Okay, I want us to look at the overarching story. And what I want us to do is look at really four questions that the overarching story always has to answer. There are four questions that every human being in every culture and in every era is always asked and we'll always ask, and those four questions are this, who am I? Why am I here? What is wrong with the world? And how can it be made right? Every human being we may not ask those questions formally, but we all ask those questions. Every human being who has ever lived or will ever live, is going to wrestle with those four questions. Who Who am I? Who am I right? Who? Why do I exist? How do I exist? Who am I again? Beyond you know, sort of flesh and blood? I mean on the inside? Who am I? Who are we? What is man? What is the nature of man? Who am I right? Why am I here? What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose of life? What's wrong with the world? Because obviously something wrong, amen something something something wrong with something's wrong with the world. By the way, if we didn't think something was wrong with the world, we wouldn't grow, advance, invent, right, Why do we continue to grow and advance and invent? And because everybody understand is that there's something wrong with the world, and how can that something wrong be made right? What can be done about that? So there's a story or a meda narrative that answers this seculary humanism has a story, It has a media narrative that answers these sorts of questions. Who am I? Well, who I am is the result of random evolutionary processes. Basically, I'm a cosmic accident. One day there was you know, just little glob or something, and then another day, billions and billions of years later, there was us. Right. That that's it. That's that's the meta narrative. That's the story. Now what secular humanism wants you to think is that No, no, no, this is not our meta narrative. This is just scientific fact. That's what they want you to think. Of course, it's not right, it's not you just ask a few questions, Just ask a few questions, and you realize that it's not science, it's philosophy. A few questions like where'd the first stuff come from? All right? What? Yeah, the first stuff? Where'd the first stuff come from? Right? Well, well you know where there was a big bang? What went bang? Will matter? Yeah? That first stuff? Where did it come from? Well? That was? And I don't care who the scientist is. They do not have scientific fact at this point. They have philosophical theory at this point. Anybody see the movie Expelled right. I love the documentary Expelled and uh and Expelled. There's this this this moment where you know, Ben Stein is interviewing you know, one of the eminent you know, scientists of our day on this very question, right, and what was it? Dawkins, you know, and and he's sitting there with with Dawkins and that you know the atheists. I mean you go upere to you and t right in the atheists here Dawkins and you know, all these and he's sitting there and he's pressing Dawkins on this question, where do first stuff come from? Well, there was you know, and other scientists that he's asking these people who are you know, imminent scientists, scientists that who billions and being of years. Okay, where'd the first stuff come from? Well, you know, there was the there was a big bang, and there was where'd the first stuff come from? And ultimately ultimately, where Dawkins goes, is aliens seated the planet? That's ultimately his answer. Well, obviously there was some superior alien life form that seeded the planet and it was from that that it really But they're the super intelligent ones and we're the ones, right who are the narrow minded unscientific ones who need a god to explain everything. They just need aliens. But but there, there's there's their story. Their narrative begins there. Who are we? We are the result of nd evolutionary processes. And again, ideas have consequences because they want to say to little Johnny, I mean, let's just go, let's just go to school. Right here, we are in school where they're teaching our children that they evolved from from you know, single celled organisms. And then you know, eventually they you know, we're in the water and then we come out of the water. Why how I don't know. Millions of years see answer to everything, by the way, right, I mean millions of years, right, millions of years in the water you come out? Why means the years? And so you know, we come out of the water, and then all of a sudden, we got out of the water and we got into the trees, and we were in the trees wanted to fly, and so eventually we flew. Well, okay, we came out of the water and we got in the trees for some reason, maybe there's stuff in the trees that we want to get that. But then we but then we fly, I mean I want to know how we So how how do we do that? Man's years and then you know, and then the and then the the you know, there's primates and these primates they become us and here we are. Okay, fine, So there's the there's the there's there, that's that's that's the answer to who we are. And now Johnny, little Johnny is in school and he's pulling little Susie's hair m and he's taking things that are hers and a little Susie is screaming and comes to the teacher and the teacher looks at little Johnny and says, don't do that. Why careful with how you answer this, because you're probably going to make an appeal to morality. But if I am the result of random evolutionary processes, among the things that don't make sense, like why get out of the water, there's questions like why would there be a right and a wrong? Where would that come from? If we're just the result of random evolutionary processes, Hey, if some of them, you'll not get release a f wistigated right. And they said, well no, because you know we we we need for the for this for the species to survive. Apparently, not because there's a lot of them that stops surviving. Right, we don't need the species to survive. We need the species to evolve, which means, by definition, we don't need the species to survive. So that can't be your answer either. And then why am I here? So that's the answer to who? Who am I here? The result of the random evolutionary processes, no rhyme or reason to your existence. By the way, there's huge problems inherent in this as well. I mean, for example, let's just gip, let's just give it another example, because you know, throughout history there have been these people who've held onto this and who've believed in this, and who've said that, yes, we're the result of random evolutionary processes, and some of us are more evolved than others. For example, darker skinned people are less evolved than lighter skinned people, and therefore it is completely morally acceptable for lighter skinned people to dominate, enslave, and or exterminate darker skinned people. Well, that's just not right. Why why would that not be right? How could it not be right? How could Hitler and the Third Reich. By the way, Darwinian evolutionists who did what they did because of their belief in the inherent right of more evolved species to dominate and or exterminate less evolved species. How does what they did not make complete sense if you're a Darwinian evolutionist How do you argue against them morally? If you are a Darwinian evolutionist, The answer you can't. You can't. So the next question right that their narrative has the answers, why am I here? You're the result of random evolutionary processes? Well, why am I here? Secudary Humanism's answer quite simply is you're here to consume and enjoy. That's it the way Paul would say it is, eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we all die. You exist to consume and enjoy. Period. Johnny, you shouldn't do that to Susie. Why I'm bigger and stronger than Susie is and she has something I want billions of years has programmed it into me that I have every right to take from her what I want if I am the bigger and stronger and am able to do it because I exist to consume and enjoy. You tell me why I shouldn't. You can't, Well, what's wrong? With the world, because even the second of human is recognized that there's something wrong with the world. And if you listen carefully, there's two basic answers. There's two basic answers. Either we are insufficiently educated. That's that's the answer. That air thing, not everything. Air thing, that's beyond everything. Right, airthing? Right? You need some classes, right, or some therapy. That's that's the answer. You need some classes, you need some therapy. Right. You are insufficiently educated. You you do what you do, You do this bad stuff because you lack information education. You are either insufficiently educated or you are insufficiently governed. So what's the answer to air thing? More education and more government as g U, B M I N T government. Okay, that's the answer to everything. More education, more government, because everybody knows that makes us better. What happens, what happens when you put these things together. You're the result of random evolutionary processes. You exist to consume and enjoy. What's wrong with you? You're either insufficiently educated or insufficiently governed. You just need more information and more supervision. That was the third Reich Among the most highly educated people in the world at the time, and among the most governed. And look what they did. They developed the most sophisticated killing machine history at the time, highly educated people. What happens, right, we go from killing one another with you know, stones, to killing one another with swords, to blotting out one another with atomic weapons. Education science. So if the problem, again was the last question, right, who am I it results of random evolutionary processes? Why am I here consuming enjoy what's wrong with the world? You're either insufficiently educated or insufficiently governed. How can what is wrong be made right? More education, more government, that'll fix it, and that'll lead us to utopia. Well, there is another narrative, and that's what we want to look at tonight, hey man. Because I don't know about you. I'm not okay with secular humanism's narrative. By the way, secular humanism is not okay with his own narrative. So the second of human is trying to tweak their narrative to make it sound better. But the only way that they can tweak their narrative is to be inconsistent with their worldview. Because what I just share with you is consistent with the secular humanist worldview. But you and I both know secular humanists that they would just they would not come out and just just openly advocate for these types of things. They want morality to a certain degree, they want ethics to a certain degree, even though their worldview is morally incapable of supporting such things. So ultimately, what they do is they rob and steal from our worldview while they mock it and say they want to tell Johnny that he has to be nice to Susie because that's just right. Doesn't work in their worldview, works in ours, But you know whatever, So is there a better answer, almost surely is let's look at this answer in turn, and let's look at this answer from Colossian chapter one, And we want to answer these four questions. How does Christian theism answer these questions as compared to secondary humanism Colossus chapter one, beginning at verse fifteen and Colossians Paul is dealing here with a wrong worldview. Is a wrong worldview in Colossie, And this wrong worldview is resulting from an an aberrant theology. It's never really identified clearly, we know the elements of it, but it is an aberrant theology that is inconsistent with the Christian Gospel, and Paul is confronting it systematically here in the Book of Colossians, and here he's confronting it with the Christian meta narrative. The Christian meta narrative can be really summed up in this way. There's creation, fall, redemption, consummation. Right, that's our overarching meta narrative, creation, fall, redemption, consummation. But let's look at it in answering these four questions. Number one first question is what Who am I? Who am I? Okay, look at verse fifteen. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Wait, I thought the question was who am I? Yes, that is the question. Well, then how do you answer the question of who am I? With? Who he is? Exactly? By the way, who's he? He is Christ? Who is Christ? Christ is the last atom? He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Who am I? Well, who am I? The answer begins with creation? So who is Christ? Christ is the God Man? He is the last atom. The first atom is created in the image of God, and he falls, and that image is marred and it is broken, and the last atom comes and restores what the first atom lost. However, the underlying assumption here is in that last word of this first verse creation. We are created by God. God made us, and he made us in his image. And by the way, we've already won. We've already obliterated executive humanism to anyone who's a thinking person, because secular humanism says you are the result of random evolutionary processes. There's no rhyme or reason for your existence. You have no inherent value and no inherent dignity none. And from the get go, Christian theism says you have absolute, immeasurable, almost unquantifiable worth and value and dignity because you were made on purpose, with a purpose, by God himself. Now let's talk to Johnny. Johnny, don't do that to Susie. Why, Because Susie was made in the image of God, and she has inherent worth and inherent dignity and you need to treat her as such. Secular humanism cannot say that to Johnny, not with a straight face, not while being consistent with itself. But Christian theism can say nothing else to Johnny because our worldview demands it. Secular humanism can't look at the Nazis and say that's wrong, because the Nazis look right back and say says, who we are the master race? And if we are the master race, the most evolved of all the races, then us dominating and or exterminating the other races is the most profitable thing that we could possibly do. What could the secular humanists possibly say to that with a straight face being internally consistent? Nothing? But what can Christian theism say to that? Every human being has inherent dignity and inherent worth and inherent value that is immeasurable because we're made in the image of God. But there is something else, There's something more than that. There's something more than just the idea that we were created by God and made in the image of God. Because when Christ is incarnate, when Christ our Redeemer comes into the world, here's what he does not do. Christ our Redeemer does not come into the world and just materialize one day, like you know, he's been beamed down from the enterprise. He could have, but he didn't. He didn't. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the womb of a virgin and born in Bethlehem. Do you have any idea what that means? What that means is that when God sends his son into the world to redeem us and to become one of us, the incarnation says to you and me that not only do you and you and you have inherent dignity and worth and value because you're made in the image of God, but the seed of the woman, from the moment of conception has inherent dignity and value and worth, as demonstrated by the fact that the Son of God became that because that was required for him to become fully human. You want to talk about the abortion debate, this is the heart of it. The inherent dignity and value of every human life from the moment of conception, as proven and demonstrated by God himself, who sent forth his son as an embryo. As an embryo, we behave in accordance with what we believe and worldview matters. Secular humanism can never say that it's wrong to slutter a baby or an infirmed person. You're sick, you're, you're, you're, you're deformed, you're, you're, you're whatever. Your dignity and your worth and your value are tied up in the degree to which you represent the most pristine form of our current evolutionary state. If you're small, you're weak, unintelligent, you're less than. You're of a lower race, as demonstrated by the color of your skin, certain ethnic features, you're less than. But Christian theism says you have inherent dignity and worth and are of inestimable value because you're made in the image of God, created on purpose, with a purpose. The second question why am I here? Looking for sixteen? For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or rulers or authority, all things were created through Him and for him. And He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body of the Church. He is the first born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre eminent. Why am I here? You are here to bring glory to God. That's why you're here. All things were created by Him and for Him. It is for Christ that you exist. It is for the glory of God that you exist. That's why you are here, not just to consume and to enjoy. You are an image bearer, and you are dreaming to all creation. There is a God and he made the world, and he made it for himself, and everything was made for God. And you are the crown and glory of the creation of God, made for the glory of God, made by the glory of God, made to the glory of God. That's why you exist. Not for yourself, not for your own purposes, your own means, your own ends, but for the glory of God. Look at that again. By Him, all things were created heaven, on earth, visible invisible thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, all things, everything or everything, all right, every conceivable thing. You know what this also says, you know, the evolutionary worldview, the second of humanist worldview says you know that nothing was created, nothing was on purpose. Things evolved, and so things have come to improve. This thing was of little or no worth, and this thing is of more worth. But here's the thing. That single celled organism was created by Him and for him, and it brings him glory. That small microscopic thing, the atom, the atom itself was created by God and for God, and it brings God glory. It does not become glorious when it is part of another sophisticated organism. It is as glorious as any other organism because it speaks to the very glory of the God who made it. All things, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, single cell, organisms, the atom. Things I can see, things are I cannot see. Things that you have to put under a microscope, and things that you have to see through a telescope. They bring glory to God. That's my worldview. Who am I the crown and glory of the creation of God? Why am I here? I'm here to bring God glory because that's why I was created. Well, what is wrong with the world? Well, we're gonna come back here to verse nineteen, but for now we need to go twenty one. Well, what's wrong with the world? And you? Yeah, that's that's kind of the answer to your question. What's wrong with the world? You? I mean kind of me too, but mainly you, you who once were alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. Who am I the crown and glory of the creation of God? Why do I exist to bring glory to God? What is wrong with the world? I exist for the glory of God, But I'm alienated from God. I'm hostile to God, and I'm engaged in evils that do the exact opposite of bring glory to God. That's what's wrong with the world. A simple three letter word. Yes, I in that's what's wrong with the world. Not insufficient government and insufficient education. Sin, it's what's wrong with the world. In fact, the entire secular human worldview is a primary What is the secondary human worldview? It's alienated from God, it's hostile in mind, and it's doing evil deeds. It is a manifestation of our sinfulness. What is wrong with the world. What's wrong with the world is Johnny wants to do whatever he wants to do to Susie, to his own ends and without consequence. That's what's wrong. By the way, Johnny and Susie, the Nazis, and everybody else other than them, exact same thing. It's a manifestation of the exact same worldview. And I'm using, you know, Nazi Germany as an example. It's just this example writ large. But I want to say this, Johnny and Susie, you and your sin same thing. It's the same thing. What is wrong with us is that we were created by God and for God, and we're alienated. How does Isaiah put it all? We like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way. Huh How does Paul put it? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that there is none righteous, no, not even one. We're alienated, and we're not just alienated from God, we're hostile to God. A lot of people think, you know that, well, people are alienated from God, but they're just alienated from God because they're ignorant. By the way, does that sound familiar, right? No? No, no, no, no, no no no. The people out there, you know, especially like the people who haven't heard, they're just they're just they're just ignorant, ignorant and innocent. No, alienated and hostile. We inherited that from the first atom, which is why there had to be a last atom. Alienated and hostile and engaged in evil deeds. Because of this alienation and this hostility, what is wrong with the world. Sin is what's wrong with the world. And there is no amount of education and no amount of government that can take away man's sin. Can't be done, It won't be done. Parents, what is your child's greatest need? Is your child's greatest need more information, more supervision. No, that's not your child's greatest need, because their greatest problem is not ignorance or lack of supervision. Their greatest problem is sin. How can would is wrong be made right? That's the last question. How do we fix it? Go back to verse nineteen. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile in himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Then we find verse twenty one. And you once were alienated, hostile in mind, and doing evil deeds Verse twenty two. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I Paul became a minister, How can would his wrong be made right? The Gospel? The Gospel. Yes, Isaiah does say, all we like sheep gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way. And he continues but God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us, all of sin and fall short of the glare of God, and the wages of sin is death. Ah, but the gift of God's eternal life through Christ Jesus. How God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. See in the first album. Remember remember that meta narrative creation, fall, redemption, consummation, and creation. We find the first atom, our forefather and our representative, and all of us were in Adam, and Adam disobeyed, and he fell on behalf of all of his posterity, and we inherit a sinful nature from the first atom, because he is our federal head. Federal headship is incredibly important if you want to understand federal headship. Oh, you think about it this way. You know, here we are, we are, we are Americans. And I remember, you know, back in school, I turned fifty last month, and it's you know, it's an interesting thing to turn half a century. It's yeah, it's crazy. But I feel like, you know, I'm an old man now and I can say certain things like you know, back in my day, I Remember we used to have the drills, and some of you remember the drills where you know you had to get under the table, right, and you know, prepare like the Russians were going to get us. Man, I mean we were going to get them too, but they were going to get us, and we had to be prepared, you know, nuclear attacks and all that kind of stuff, the Cold War and YadA YadA YadA. Right, And here's the thing. I didn't know a Russian, and most Russians didn't know an American. I didn't have beef with the Russians, right, But if America had beef with Russia, and I was under the federal headship of our leadership, and all these Russians over here were under the federal headship of their leadership, when buttons started getting pushed, it didn't matter what we as individuals felt like toward one another. What mattered is what federal headship we were under. And if I'm under this federal headship and this one is at war with this one, then that means I'm at war. So when we're under the federal headship of the first atom and he sins and becomes an enemy of God, then all of us who are under his federal headship become enemies of God as well creation fall. But then redemption, Remember redemption. God made him who knows sin, to become sin for us so that we might become the rightness of God in Him, for us, in Him, for us in him. What is that federal headship? When we are found under the federal headship of the last atom, we are redeemed by him, We are found in him, and we have peace with God through him. How look at the text again, For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. He made peace by the blood of his cross. And so here's what we have at the cross. So in the first atom, we're under the federal headship of the first atom, and we sin. We've sinned. We have a sin nature that we inherited, and we have actual sin that comes out of that sin nature. And there is a God who was holy and just, who must punish sin. He is an enmity with sinners. So what must I do? I must be righteous, but I can't be righteous. I am a sinner, and there is a law standing in my way. So Christ, remember we go back to him being being born of a virgin. He's born in the womb of a virgin, so that he is fully human. But he is not born through ordinary conception, which means that he's not under the federal headship of the first Atom, which means he's born without original sin. Folks, the virgin birth is not optional. He's born without original sin. And then he keeps the whole law perfectly, which means that he has inherent righteousness. And he achieves perfect righteousness through the keeping of the law, which is important because when I come under his federal headship, he has to impute to me that perfect righteousness that I don't have. He has to have the virgin birth, and he has to keep the whole law so that he can impute to me that righteousness or his federal headship. But there's not just that righteousness that has to be imputed to me. My sin also has to be dealt with, so my sin is imputed to him. So in his active obedience, he keeps the whole law and he imputes righteousness to me. Then in his passive obedience he dies a death on the cross that he does not owe because he's perfect. But it's my death, and my sin has been imputed to him. So he dies a death on the cross, and he doesn't owe. He pays the debt that I do owe, so that now under the federal headship of Christ, his active obedience is imputed to me as righteousness. His passive obedience takes my sinfulness and pays for it, so that by the blood of his cross I am redeemed. That's how it is wrong is made right now verse twenty one and twenty two. You who are once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. How you do that through that double imputation. Every other religion in the world, this is an oversimplification, but not by much. Every other religion in the world basically says this. You have to have a religious experience, right, and they'll define that differently, right, but you have to have a religious experience. And then after you have that religious experience, you have to do more good things than bad things. And then hope for the best when you die. That's every other religion in the world in the nutshell. Unfortunately, it's the way a lot of people think about Christianity too. Right, there's two things wrong with that. Okay, here's the first thing that's wrong with that. I can't be good, Amen, somebody. I can't be good. I tried it. I can't be good. And even and even when I am good, I get proud of the fact that I'm good, and then that's not good. Here's the second problem with that. What about the stuff I did before my religious experience? Huh? Who or what takes away that? Nowhere else in the world do you find an answer for that? You know where you find an answer for that. Christ died for sin, once for all, but just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Oh, those words are so important, and we usually just let him fly right by us. In him? What is that? It's federal headship, it's federal du And so there are these two narratives, one of them completely unsatisfactory. It just leaves us wanting. Who am I the result of random evolutionary processes? Why am I here to consume and enjoy? What's wrong with the world? Ah, people are insufficient to governed, are in sufficiently educated? How can what is wrong be made right? We need more education and more government. You can have that all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. Who am I the crowning glory, the creation of God, created on purpose with a purpose by God himself? Why am I here to bring glory to God? What is wrong with the world? I don't a sin? How can what is wrong be made right? Through the God Man? Through the person and work of Christ and Christ alone, we will behave in accordance with what we believe. Worldview matters. Let's pray, Gracious God, our heavenly Father. We bow before you in gratitude and humility, thanking you for your kindness and mercy and goodness toward us. In Christ, Grant by your grace that we might come to see Him, to know him, to worship him, to be found in Him, and to trust in Him alone for perfect righteousness. Grant this we pray for. We ask it in Christ name. Amen.