1 00:00:04,660 --> 00:00:09,179 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:09,179 --> 00:00:15,039 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:15,779 --> 00:00:22,780 Today, can a Christian possibly make the world holy? What a question you might ask. You might 4 00:00:22,780 --> 00:00:29,039 say, I would in fact ask, is a Christian responsible to make his world holy? Sounds 5 00:00:29,039 --> 00:00:35,219 like an oxymoron, doesn't it? A holy world? Is it possible to take the evil world of culture, 6 00:00:35,340 --> 00:00:40,579 society, and politics that we have today and conform it to the will of God in the Bible? It 7 00:00:40,579 --> 00:00:46,140 seems like an impossible task, an insurmountable obstacle. But even further, are we obligated 8 00:00:46,140 --> 00:00:52,280 by the very nature of the gospel to do so? And I would suggest to you, O Christian, especially you 9 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:57,939 Christian listening to this broadcast today, that an integral component of the gospel does require 10 00:00:57,939 --> 00:01:03,619 us to make holy insofar as we are able, the world in which we live. That component of the gospel is 11 00:01:03,619 --> 00:01:09,519 called sanctification. It's a big word. Many people have no clue as to what it means. Some 12 00:01:09,519 --> 00:01:14,359 Christians have heard it from time to time, may have a vague notion. What is sanctification? And what does 13 00:01:14,359 --> 00:01:20,840 it have to do with a presidential race or abortion or political corruption? I would suggest you 14 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,159 sanctification has everything to do with these issues because the Christian is indeed supposed to 15 00:01:25,159 --> 00:01:30,739 make his world holy around him, his actions, his behaviors, his sphere of influence. And that sphere 16 00:01:30,739 --> 00:01:37,400 of influence will influence then politics, culture, and society all around him. The Westminster Shorter 17 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:43,319 Catechism gives us a succinct definition of sanctification. It says that sanctification is the 18 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:50,180 work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, excepting in 19 00:01:50,180 --> 00:01:55,579 how we deal with politics, culture, and society. No, it doesn't say that. It says, sanctification is a 20 00:01:55,579 --> 00:02:01,159 work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are 21 00:02:01,159 --> 00:02:08,379 enabled more and more to die into sin and live unto righteousness, unquote. In the Bible, to sanctify 22 00:02:08,379 --> 00:02:13,819 something involves two things, both of which are reflected in the answer in our Westminster Shorter 23 00:02:13,819 --> 00:02:18,620 Catechism. But in the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, sanctification involve two things, 24 00:02:18,620 --> 00:02:24,180 that is, to make morally pure. Prophets, priests, and people were meant to be right and good and 25 00:02:24,180 --> 00:02:28,860 morally pure. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace that does this. Secondly, 26 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:33,539 sanctification means to set aside for God's service. This is also reflected in the Scriptures. 27 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:38,680 Whether it was a priest of the tribe of Levi or a piece of furniture made for the temple or an elder 28 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:44,039 ordained in the New Testament, a thing set aside for the use of God in his service was said to be 29 00:02:44,039 --> 00:02:51,180 sanctified. The question then becomes, can our world as we know it be sanctified? This brings us 30 00:02:51,180 --> 00:02:56,319 to the meaning of the word world, too, as well as sanctification. What do we mean when we say our world 31 00:02:56,319 --> 00:03:02,120 must and can be sanctified? On its face, the question of whether a believer can sanctify his world seems 32 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:07,180 absurd to the average Christian. We hear verses like the one I'm about to read you, and we immediately 33 00:03:07,180 --> 00:03:12,719 associate the world with that which is thoroughly evil and irredeemable. John says in 1 John 2, 34 00:03:12,719 --> 00:03:18,979 verses 15 to 17, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, 35 00:03:19,159 --> 00:03:24,259 the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the 36 00:03:24,259 --> 00:03:29,340 desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the 37 00:03:29,340 --> 00:03:34,580 world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 38 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:40,639 Unquote. Yet most modern evangelical Christians misunderstand the meaning of the word world. 39 00:03:40,639 --> 00:03:47,199 world. When it's here, it has particular meaning indeed to the desires of the flesh and pride of 40 00:03:47,199 --> 00:03:52,199 life and evil and that sort of thing. John is using world in that context. But the word world, 41 00:03:52,360 --> 00:04:00,199 which is cosmos in the Greek, from which we derive our English word cosmos, cosmos, world, has seven 42 00:04:00,199 --> 00:04:04,639 different shades of meaning in the New Testament, only one of which is represented by a text like the 43 00:04:04,639 --> 00:04:11,159 one I just read you. The text from 1 John 2, for example, represents one shade of meaning for world. 44 00:04:11,819 --> 00:04:17,399 There it represents what the Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament says is that which is hostile 45 00:04:17,399 --> 00:04:23,519 to God, lost in sin, wholly at odds with anything divine, ruined, and depraved. There is a meaning of 46 00:04:23,519 --> 00:04:28,899 the word world in this sense, but most Christians bring the whole freightload of meaning of that to 47 00:04:28,899 --> 00:04:35,399 every occurrence of the word world. But the idea of the word world is not that which we have in mind 48 00:04:35,399 --> 00:04:41,040 when we say the Christian must sanctify his world. That kind of world will never be sanctified until 49 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,459 Christ returns and banishes evil altogether in the eschaton, which is the new age, the new world coming. 50 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:50,480 For us, when we say the Christian must sanctify his world, when I say this, I mean the world, 51 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:56,639 once again, as the Greek-English lexicon puts it, the scene of earthly joys, possessions, cares, 52 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:03,839 sufferings, and human affairs. That kind of understanding of the word world is found in texts like these. 53 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:09,040 For example, 1 Corinthians 7, I want you to be free from anxieties, Paul says, the unmarried man is anxious 54 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:13,319 about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord, but the married man is anxious about worldly 55 00:05:13,319 --> 00:05:20,060 things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the same goes for the married woman, 56 00:05:20,060 --> 00:05:24,800 the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. But the idea of worldly 57 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:29,399 things here does not have to do with evil and corrupt and irredeemable. It has to do with the 58 00:05:29,399 --> 00:05:36,300 prosaic things of life, like cooking and cleaning and working as well. In 1 John 3, 17, he says, 59 00:05:36,420 --> 00:05:41,240 if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, 60 00:05:41,279 --> 00:05:46,600 how does God's love abide in him? Unquote. So when we talk about the world in this sense, 61 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,319 we're not talking about the world which is inherently evil, but rather the world which 62 00:05:50,319 --> 00:05:55,879 is filled with that which is human and good when used according to God's purposes. The 63 00:05:55,879 --> 00:06:01,680 world's goods, for example, as expressed in 1 John 3, being a classic example of this, 64 00:06:02,220 --> 00:06:07,139 we share the world's goods with those in need. And when we do that, we show that God's love 65 00:06:07,139 --> 00:06:13,519 abides in us, and thus we sanctify our world to that extent. And this is how we are to sanctify 66 00:06:13,519 --> 00:06:19,459 our world. We make our world holy. Do we not? When we do God's good works, fill the world with 67 00:06:19,459 --> 00:06:24,560 those good works, and we begin to sanctify and to make that world holy. And it's holy and sanctified 68 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:30,579 around us as we perform those deeds. And whether we do that in the community, in the voting booth, 69 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:36,139 in the halls of Congress, in the White House, we begin to sanctify the world around us. 70 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:39,759 Also, the text I just read you about the married man and the married woman, 71 00:06:39,759 --> 00:06:44,399 they are anxious about worldly things. It's not necessarily behaving sinfully or in an evil way, 72 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:52,180 as worldly is used in 1 John 2, but rather it is inhibited. The idea here is being preoccupied 73 00:06:52,180 --> 00:06:57,120 with worldly things, one is inhibited from giving his or herself in full-time devotion to the things 74 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:03,120 of the Lord, which Paul says is better. So it is important then to remember that when I use the 75 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:08,660 word world, when I say a Christian should sanctify that world, this is the sense in which I use it. 76 00:07:08,660 --> 00:07:14,379 The scenes of earthly joys, possessions, cares, sufferings, and human affairs, 77 00:07:14,579 --> 00:07:19,079 as the Greek lexicon categorizes it. The scene of earthly joys, possessions, cares, 78 00:07:19,220 --> 00:07:24,259 sufferings, and human affairs. And I don't mean that which is hostile to God, lost in sin, 79 00:07:24,459 --> 00:07:30,019 holy at odds with anything divine, ruined, and depraved. Okay? So this previous world, 80 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:35,259 which can be made holy then, and this world that I'm talking about can be set aside for the uses for 81 00:07:35,259 --> 00:07:39,879 which God intended them. It is this world of which Paul speaks when he says to Timothy, 82 00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:45,500 for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 83 00:07:45,860 --> 00:07:51,920 for it is made holy by the word of God in prayer. Unquote. Sanctification then is an important part 84 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:59,000 of the gospel when it is preached as it should be. Once more, what is sanctification? Sanctification 85 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,720 is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God 86 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:12,779 and are enabled more and more to die into sin and live unto righteousness. So sanctification is an 87 00:08:12,779 --> 00:08:18,319 important part of the gospel because it proves the power and presence of Christ in the converted heart. 88 00:08:18,540 --> 00:08:23,480 And you should bring this into your world. You should bring this into culture and society 89 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:30,699 and politics too. Yes, politics should be sanctified, even as it was in Christian nations all over the 90 00:08:30,699 --> 00:08:36,440 world throughout history. Those who practiced, they were called ministers in England, right? 91 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:43,259 Ministers of various departments of government were set aside, setting aside their work as 92 00:08:43,259 --> 00:08:50,480 holy unto God. They were sanctifying government. So sanctification is an important part of the gospel. 93 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,200 Who would believe, for example, a newborn baby was alive if it did not move and cry and suckle its mother? 94 00:08:56,299 --> 00:09:00,720 That is, give evidence of life. And who would believe a pirate was reformed if he continued to rape, 95 00:09:00,879 --> 00:09:06,860 steal, and murder rather than make restitution and live an honest life? So sanctification is merely that portion 96 00:09:06,860 --> 00:09:13,500 of the gospel which evidences this new life. As the new saint dies more and more to sin, and the Puritans 97 00:09:13,500 --> 00:09:19,620 used to call this process of dying to sin mortification, putting to death the old man, which is the negative 98 00:09:19,620 --> 00:09:25,379 side of sanctification. And then he lives unto righteousness. That is, the new saint does and 99 00:09:25,379 --> 00:09:30,879 becomes good like Christ, which is the positive side of sanctification. And this is so because he 100 00:09:30,879 --> 00:09:37,500 is truly converted as our sanctification question, excuse me, puts it, that we are renewed in the 101 00:09:37,500 --> 00:09:43,000 image of God. Now, I have spent some time reviewing sanctification because it is not only important to 102 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:48,039 the gospel, but also to our surrounding world, your surrounding world, especially in this election year, 103 00:09:48,419 --> 00:09:54,799 including the world of your society and culture and politics. You are not expected to influence the 104 00:09:54,799 --> 00:10:01,620 sphere of influence, the politics, culture, and society of Pago Pago, right? Or of some far-off 105 00:10:01,620 --> 00:10:06,240 island or nation. No, you are meant to sanctify your immediate sphere of influence, your world. 106 00:10:06,799 --> 00:10:11,980 This means sanctification has importance for our involvement immediately in where our nation is going, 107 00:10:11,980 --> 00:10:16,000 too, in regards to her society, culture, and politics. You can't just throw up your hands, 108 00:10:16,340 --> 00:10:20,720 put on your blinders, and say, I'm going to be as good as I can. I'm going to convert as many people 109 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:26,620 as I can and wait for the rapture. No. There's a man who is being sanctified. Sanctification is a 110 00:10:26,620 --> 00:10:31,980 lifelong process, too, by the way. Hebrews says, for by a single offering, he has made perfect for all 111 00:10:31,980 --> 00:10:37,860 time, those who are being sanctified. Does a man who's being sanctified vote differently than a 112 00:10:37,860 --> 00:10:43,320 non-Christian? I would say yes. Does a man who's being sanctified think and act on a whole host of 113 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:48,399 issues like abortion or sexual orientation or war or social welfare, all these kinds of things, 114 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:53,019 does he think and act differently than a non-Christian? Now, most every Christian would 115 00:10:53,019 --> 00:10:58,259 give a hearty yes to these two questions. And also, any Christian who understands the gospel at 116 00:10:58,259 --> 00:11:03,440 even a rudimentary level would also agree that this doctrine of which I speak, sanctification, 117 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:09,480 is an integral part of the gospel. You do not preach the gospel of Jesus Christ if you do not 118 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:14,679 also preach sanctification. Well, with this in mind, we must ask, what part of my life must be 119 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:21,159 sanctified? Huh? How much of my life must be set aside for God's use? And how much can I keep back 120 00:11:21,159 --> 00:11:27,100 for myself and my flesh? Right? Some of us ask that functionally, if not literally. Well, how much of 121 00:11:27,100 --> 00:11:31,700 our life must be made holy then? That is the other part of its meaning, made good and pure and right. 122 00:11:31,700 --> 00:11:37,220 Can some of my life be sanctified, like my church life and family life, while the rest left untouched 123 00:11:37,220 --> 00:11:41,899 by the gospel that is secular, like my finances or my sex life or my relation to the state? I can just 124 00:11:41,899 --> 00:11:48,500 let those go by and by. Further, how will my efforts to live a holy, righteous, and good life, that is a 125 00:11:48,500 --> 00:11:54,279 sanctified life, how will it now affect the world around me? A very important question. This is how we 126 00:11:54,279 --> 00:12:00,100 sanctify our world, I would suggest, is that we live a holy, righteous, and good life, and all of those 127 00:12:00,100 --> 00:12:06,019 things combined with others who are living a holy, righteous, and good life to begin to create a 128 00:12:06,019 --> 00:12:12,759 sanctified world around us. Am I sanctified in a vacuum? Can my life be transformed without 129 00:12:12,759 --> 00:12:17,639 transforming in some small way the world around me, including my society, culture, politics, and the 130 00:12:17,639 --> 00:12:24,559 state? These are important questions, dear Christian, for they help determine, they help determine how you 131 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:30,500 live out your Christian life for the gospel, and to what extent you live out that life on behalf of the 132 00:12:30,500 --> 00:12:37,740 gospel. So, does God expect, then, only part of you to be sanctified? Of course not. We would say, of course 133 00:12:37,740 --> 00:12:43,799 not. The Apostle Paul summarizes sanctification eloquently, too, in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Paul 134 00:12:43,799 --> 00:12:49,360 says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living 135 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:56,000 sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this 136 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:01,899 world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the 137 00:13:01,899 --> 00:13:07,940 will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Unquote. What an eloquent definition of 138 00:13:07,940 --> 00:13:14,320 sanctification. When you present your body as a living sacrifice, you present the whole person as a living 139 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:20,779 sacrifice. A sacrifice gave all, didn't it? Gave its entire life unto God. And Paul says, you must be a 140 00:13:20,779 --> 00:13:25,600 living sacrifice, that is, somebody who continues to live and breathe on behalf of God, the whole person. 141 00:13:26,179 --> 00:13:35,039 And you are expected not to conform, that is, you are expected to mortify your life, the sinful life, 142 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:39,399 and then you must be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That is, you must be transformed under 143 00:13:39,399 --> 00:13:44,500 righteousness, to those things which are good, acceptable, and perfect. But there are too many 144 00:13:44,500 --> 00:13:49,919 Christian schizophrenics, I tell you, too many Christian schizophrenics in our churches today who behave in one 145 00:13:49,919 --> 00:13:56,039 manner for the church and in another manner for the world, including their relationship to the state. In this 146 00:13:56,039 --> 00:14:01,799 presidential election year, it is so important to understand that we are meant to sanctify all of our 147 00:14:01,799 --> 00:14:08,360 world, including human government. Conventional wisdom has it that schizophrenia is a severe mental 148 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,700 disorder in which a person appears to have multiple personalities that can manifest themselves in 149 00:14:12,700 --> 00:14:18,259 conflicting behaviors one with another. A classic split personality can love you one moment, hate you 150 00:14:18,259 --> 00:14:24,440 the next, drink heavily one moment, live abstemiously the next. The classic schizophrenic personality may 151 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:29,139 speak lovingly and courteously one moment and curse you up and down the next. Perhaps we've known people 152 00:14:29,139 --> 00:14:35,279 like this. By analogy then, to live one's Christian life as if the gospel does not touch every part of your 153 00:14:35,279 --> 00:14:41,220 life is to live as a spiritual schizophrenic. You cannot be of two minds in your marriage, having the 154 00:14:41,220 --> 00:14:46,179 wife God gave you and a mistress on the side. You cannot be of two minds in your finances, giving a 155 00:14:46,179 --> 00:14:50,700 portion to God and spending the rest willy-nilly without considering how God would have you allocate the 156 00:14:50,700 --> 00:14:56,419 whole of it. You cannot be of two minds in your speech, speaking love and righteousness on Sunday and 157 00:14:56,419 --> 00:15:01,399 then hatred, contention, and cursing the rest of the week. Yet such Christians often think they're truly 158 00:15:01,399 --> 00:15:05,600 converted and they're going to heaven. There's Christian schizophrenics. I'm saved and going to 159 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:11,799 heaven when I die and so am I, right? If this is the case with you, then you are obligated as Christians 160 00:15:11,799 --> 00:15:18,059 to sanctify all of your life under each of the covenants to which we are bound. This brings us in 161 00:15:18,059 --> 00:15:26,759 then to the spheres of our sanctification and they come in a covenant form. God's economy is a covenant 162 00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:33,700 economy. It is not dispensationalism. It is not included in another testament. No, God's will is 163 00:15:33,700 --> 00:15:39,600 included in his covenants, his economy. The way he works with man is through covenants. And there are 164 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:47,460 four great covenants by which God dispenses love and mercy, wrath and punishment, righteousness and 165 00:15:47,460 --> 00:15:54,059 goodness. All of the things that God dispenses to man, he dispenses through a covenant economy. Four great 166 00:15:54,059 --> 00:15:59,440 ones there are. Number one, we are to sanctify them as well. We are to sanctify our lives under the 167 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:04,940 covenant of creation, for example. We are to sanctify our lives and our world under the covenant of 168 00:16:04,940 --> 00:16:09,740 creation. This is that covenant, the covenant of creation made with our first parents, Adam and Eve, 169 00:16:09,980 --> 00:16:14,179 by which they and all their descendants would fulfill the dominion mandate, which is 170 00:16:14,820 --> 00:16:20,620 ensconced in Genesis 1, 28. And it reads, and God blessed them. And God said to them, 171 00:16:20,620 --> 00:16:25,399 be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the 172 00:16:25,399 --> 00:16:30,159 sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. The 173 00:16:30,159 --> 00:16:35,980 dominion mandate, part of the covenant of creation. And as we do those things, as we fill the earth and 174 00:16:35,980 --> 00:16:41,240 subdue it, as we take dominion over the creation, we indeed sanctify it. That is, we make it holy. 175 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:47,320 We turn it for God's purposes and we bless it. The second great covenant, we are to sanctify our lives 176 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:52,179 in our marriage covenant. Most of us see this pretty clearly, don't we? This great covenant, 177 00:16:52,179 --> 00:16:57,399 the marriage covenant, assures the continuation of the human race, providing loving companionship 178 00:16:57,399 --> 00:17:04,839 for husband and wife and for godly seed to which God desires. God desires godly seed. So those two 179 00:17:04,839 --> 00:17:09,220 covenants, there's a third covenant. We are to sanctify our lives in the covenant of grace, 180 00:17:09,519 --> 00:17:15,140 the covenant of grace or the covenant of redemption. It's sometimes known as this is that great covenant by 181 00:17:15,140 --> 00:17:20,940 which we're saved. Dear listener, in that covenant, God covenants with his son to save a people for 182 00:17:20,940 --> 00:17:25,900 himself. Those whom you have given me, as Jesus puts it in his high priestly prayer. When we are 183 00:17:25,900 --> 00:17:30,799 engrafted into Christ, we are made part of that covenant. We become covenant children. We are then 184 00:17:30,799 --> 00:17:35,559 obligated to keep the terms of that covenant. Jesus himself said, if you love me, you will keep my 185 00:17:35,559 --> 00:17:40,880 commandments. These are the terms of the covenant, Christ's commandments under this covenant of 186 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:47,420 grace now. And then fourthly, we are to sanctify our lives under the civil covenant. We are to 187 00:17:47,420 --> 00:17:51,940 sanctify our lives under the civil covenant. And when we do this, then government becomes 188 00:17:51,940 --> 00:17:58,720 holy and righteous and sanctified as well. This is that covenant, the civil covenant begun in Genesis, 189 00:17:59,299 --> 00:18:05,500 that covenant by which we live in society together under law, under God's law. And almost all teachers 190 00:18:05,500 --> 00:18:10,039 agree that this covenant was inaugurated with a command to exercise the death penalty for murder. 191 00:18:10,039 --> 00:18:16,259 And this was, of course, after Noah had reclaimed the earth. Chapter nine of Genesis verses five 192 00:18:16,259 --> 00:18:21,180 through seven goes like this. And for your lifeblood, I will require a reckoning from every beast. I 193 00:18:21,180 --> 00:18:26,380 will require it. And from man, from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 194 00:18:26,740 --> 00:18:31,559 Whoever sheds the blood of man by man, shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image. 195 00:18:31,900 --> 00:18:37,200 And you, he says to Noel, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. 196 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:42,380 But here, God republishes the covenant of creation to Noah after destroying that creation 197 00:18:42,380 --> 00:18:49,299 and beginning now to make it new again. So he republishes then this dominion mandate. 198 00:18:49,759 --> 00:18:53,980 Be fruitful and multiply, he says to Noah, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. So 199 00:18:53,980 --> 00:18:58,599 these four great covenants, dear listener, encompass the entire spectrum of our life 200 00:18:58,599 --> 00:19:03,779 with God and with one another, including the voting booth, including if you are a government 201 00:19:03,779 --> 00:19:09,859 magistrate, including what you do in government, including then correcting corruption when it occurs, 202 00:19:10,220 --> 00:19:16,500 being proactive, taking a vital part of life in government and our nation. All of our actions 203 00:19:16,500 --> 00:19:21,819 can be guided by the principles of each of these covenants if we know them and if we know their 204 00:19:21,819 --> 00:19:27,619 provisions. For the Christian, you are responsible to do this. And it means sanctifying your life in 205 00:19:27,619 --> 00:19:32,980 relation to these covenants, including the civil covenant. A lot of Christians cop out, cop out 206 00:19:32,980 --> 00:19:38,319 Christians they are when it comes to serving and when it comes to making a difference in their world 207 00:19:38,319 --> 00:19:46,079 and to standing and resisting wicked government as we have now. No, you are meant to not to cop out, 208 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:52,799 not to say sanctification applies to everything but this. No, your purposes here today, it means that 209 00:19:52,799 --> 00:19:58,220 you can sanctify your life under the civil covenant. In fact, if sanctification is a vital 210 00:19:58,220 --> 00:20:03,920 part of the very gospel of Jesus Christ, then you are obligated to sanctify your life under the 211 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:09,839 civil covenant. This means you are responsible for your nation. God will judge the nations. Part of your 212 00:20:09,839 --> 00:20:14,559 personal judgment, dear listener, whether you realize it or not, is how you have responded to the 213 00:20:14,559 --> 00:20:19,200 civil covenant. You may take an exception here. You may put this in parentheses and say, 214 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:24,720 I'm not responsible, but God will judge you because he judges the nations. This is one of the rubrics 215 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:29,680 under which the final judgment will come. He will separate the nations, will he not? As Matthew 25 216 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:35,420 says, he will separate the nations. He doesn't say individuals. He will separate the nations into sheep 217 00:20:35,420 --> 00:20:40,779 and into goats. The goats go to hell, the sheep go to heaven. Part of your personal judgment, 218 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:45,599 dear listener, will be how you responded under the civil covenant. That is how you responded 219 00:20:45,599 --> 00:20:53,700 in society and culture and yes, oh yes, politics. Can you fight and resist an evil and wicked government 220 00:20:53,700 --> 00:20:59,420 that we have now? You are responsible to do so and you will be judged for what you did or did not do 221 00:20:59,420 --> 00:21:04,440 under the civil covenant, dear listener. You are responsible and I'm here to tell you that. 222 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:16,519 We must also then understand that it is possible then to sanctify our world, to sanctify our 223 00:21:16,519 --> 00:21:23,119 surroundings, our culture and our society and our politics. And we see the evidence all around us 224 00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:28,920 indeed that there have been men and women in the past. History is an eloquent testimony to the very 225 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:37,539 fact that others, our forebearers, have indeed sanctified their world. Now you have experienced 226 00:21:37,539 --> 00:21:44,440 historical blackout in your public schools and in your churches as well, dear listener. Most pastors 227 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:50,680 teach indeed that we must be blind sheep submitting to the government, whether it's good or evil, whatever 228 00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:56,539 it says and does, we are to do. And that's, as we talked about last week, a misinterpretation of Romans 229 00:21:56,539 --> 00:22:03,839 13, 1 to 7, as if we are to have our consciences a tender and alive in our life of sanctification 230 00:22:03,839 --> 00:22:10,279 to everything else except our government and our responsibilities under the civil covenant. Are we to 231 00:22:10,279 --> 00:22:15,240 turn our consciences off and just say, well, we must obey, we must draft whenever we're supposed to be 232 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:22,539 drafted, we must abort whenever we're supposed to abort babies, we are indeed to have gender-neutral 233 00:22:22,539 --> 00:22:29,119 bathrooms, or we are to shower with special privileges, those of different sexual orientations 234 00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:33,980 just because the government tells us we should. No, brothers and sisters, we are to have a tender 235 00:22:33,980 --> 00:22:39,259 conscience for all these things. And we are to be proactive and active in opposing where we need to 236 00:22:39,259 --> 00:22:44,240 oppose, encouraging where we need to encourage, and complying and obeying where we need to comply and 237 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:49,059 obey. And not just comply and obey like sheep and turn off our consciences because the government 238 00:22:49,059 --> 00:22:55,200 tells us to, and because of a biblical pastoral misinterpretation of Romans chapter 13. And 239 00:22:55,200 --> 00:23:00,819 once again, history demonstrates eloquently, brothers and sisters, that indeed others are 240 00:23:00,819 --> 00:23:08,119 forbearers have sanctified their world in the past. I use for an example, the Christianity and slavery, 241 00:23:08,279 --> 00:23:13,700 for example, many, many issues we could bring up, but Christianity and slavery is one good example. 242 00:23:13,700 --> 00:23:20,539 Now, slavery was practiced and practiced narrowly in terms of time and space in the West. Comparatively, 243 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:25,579 slavery has been a worldwide institution and it is Christianity that has brought a stop to it. 244 00:23:25,700 --> 00:23:30,680 William Wilberforce in England, of course, being the most famous example of a man of Christian 245 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:37,480 conscience who began to sanctify his world, began to sanctify parliament, if you will, bringing God's 246 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:42,359 will to bear there in ending slavery, which eventually spread then to the United States 247 00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:48,240 as well. The abolitionists, the abolitionist movement began in churches when men and women 248 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:54,059 of faith and conscience began to take a stand against slavery. And insofar as they were able then 249 00:23:54,059 --> 00:23:59,480 to have an impact on their culture and society, they sanctified it by getting rid of slavery, 250 00:23:59,619 --> 00:24:04,700 by standing in good conscience against it. And we must do the same thing in our world today. And as we do 251 00:24:04,700 --> 00:24:10,000 so, we will sanctify our world as well. I think of Christianity and science. Many of you are 252 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:19,079 listening to this broadcast over technology and science that has blossomed and flourished and 253 00:24:19,079 --> 00:24:24,759 grown because of a Christian culture for science. Otherwise, you'd be listening to this between two 254 00:24:24,759 --> 00:24:30,500 soup cans stretched on a string. No, it is Christianity and its culture and its attitude 255 00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:35,440 towards science that helped to develop science. As men and women, scientists, Newton in particular, 256 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:41,819 wanted to sanctify his world. And he did so then by practicing science in accordance with God's will. 257 00:24:42,420 --> 00:24:49,940 The Bible says, there's a proverb that says, it is God's glory to hide a thing and it is a king's 258 00:24:49,940 --> 00:24:56,319 glory to uncover it. That is, it is man's goal and duty then to discover what God has made and built 259 00:24:56,319 --> 00:25:00,180 in creation. This was the scientific impulse, brothers and sisters, and it was a Christian one. 260 00:25:00,180 --> 00:25:06,380 As Christian men and women of science sought to sanctify their world. And our world is a better 261 00:25:06,380 --> 00:25:12,380 place. Our world is a more holy place. It is a world set aside more and more for God because men and 262 00:25:12,380 --> 00:25:18,180 women have done precisely that. Those that founded our nation, especially the Puritan divines, the pilgrims, 263 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:24,220 they all came to this country indeed hoping that they would usher in the new millennium, 264 00:25:24,220 --> 00:25:30,759 that they would indeed bring in God's kingdom. Now, they may have been disillusioned in this, 265 00:25:30,819 --> 00:25:36,039 but they brought with them the idea of a Christian republic to establish here in this country. 266 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:42,619 And they worked to sanctify their world, to sanctify the state. That may seem like an oxymoron. 267 00:25:42,859 --> 00:25:48,759 Again, the idea of a holy state, the idea of a holy kingdom. But we have been so filled with 268 00:25:48,759 --> 00:25:54,640 secularism here in our nation throughout our history that we have forgotten that it is possible 269 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:59,759 to sanctify our world around us. And that includes government. And we need to have that attitude more 270 00:25:59,759 --> 00:26:06,460 and more in our statesmen, in those that serve us in government, indeed to have an attitude that we 271 00:26:06,460 --> 00:26:12,019 can indeed sanctify the world around us, bring it more and more into conformity with God's will 272 00:26:12,019 --> 00:26:17,460 and with God's world. Brothers and sisters, this has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva 273 00:26:17,460 --> 00:26:24,259 Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I encourage you to come and join us for worship on Sunday 274 00:26:24,259 --> 00:26:30,619 at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you'll hear this and other 275 00:26:30,619 --> 00:26:37,119 things like it as well in our radio broadcast and in our sermons. Come and visit us at 10 a.m. 276 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:43,019 for worship on Sunday, 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And call us for input, 277 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:49,819 feedback, information, 523-0196. 523-0196.