 All right, it's time, good morning. Welcome to Cornerstone Baptist Church and our Sunday school class on a theology of public life. I pray you guys are doing well, missed you guys this week. It's always good to be back in here on a Sunday. There's too many days between Sundays. So I look forward to the Lord's Day and getting together. We are, have undertaken this theology, cultivating or developing a theology of public life, lessons for lot in the city of Sodom. I don't know why I wanna continue to say the city of Solomon. I don't know, there's something about that L in there. I just wanna throw in the city of Sodom. And we've begun with part one, we're calling Leviathan Rising, talking about the relationship between church and state. And each time we get together for these lessons on Sunday morning, I wanna give you a brief review. So we just can sort of reorient our minds on what we're talking about because you get into a lengthy study like this when there's a week between each of these 45, 50 minute lessons. Sometimes it's difficult to see our place in the big forest, for all the trees. And so we'll give a brief review. And what we're essentially doing in this first part in particular is developing or cultivating a theology of public life. Christianity is not going to be, isn't to be, relegated to the private sphere alone. We're not to metastasize ourselves, sequester ourselves within the four walls of our home as the government would have us do or as unbelievers would have us do. It is a faith that is to be proclaimed from the rooftops. And so this issue or of a theology of public life is really important for us to consider as time goes by because we're gonna need to think through as maybe as we think about the walls as it were closing in on the church from the outside in terms of the state or in terms of an encroaching secular humanism. As the walls begin to encroach or cave in on us, we need to respond biblically and take a stand for what other Lord would have us do in our generation. So public theology will help us to do that. And as we develop or cultivate a theology of public life, we're also gonna be looking at in response what we would call a theology of Christian resistance, to tyranny, resistance to government encroachment. And we'll talk about that more as we work through the fundamentals. Right now what we're doing in this process is just laying a basic foundation. And I hope what has been helpful so far is just to get us to begin to think about these things that there is in the Bible instruction for us, good biblical instruction for how we are to relate to the state, how we're to relate to governments and that can help us answer questions that we face even in our day with these issues that appear to be complex, really ancient and old and already sort of been there, done that, got the t-shirt in centuries past that now we in our day are having to face. So the Bible has answers to our questions with respect to this and we wanna take our time, lay a good foundation and then as we understand these things more fully and I think fully also would include a good historical perspective on how this theology is developed, then we can begin to formulate a response to that which is I think it's gonna be really foundational for our church, really important for our church. What is the Christian to do? What are we as a church to do? And we have all kinds of hopes and aspirations for how we're going to honor the Lord, how we're gonna pursue the spread of the gospel in this age, we're just getting started and I'm excited about that. So, okay, tentacles of tyranny. Today we're gonna be discussing sphere sovereignty and I wanna give you a brief introduction, brief review of where we've been. We've been discussing the biblical concept of jurisdiction which again is a biblical concept. Jurisdiction is the authority to speak the law and that authority, whatever jurisdiction you find yourself is bounded by or governed by God's word. For example, an individual has jurisdiction over an individual's sphere, you could say. Authority over his own conscience. The government cannot compel conscience. The church cannot compel conscience. The Christian, the believer, the person has liberty of conscience. The family has a jurisdiction. Husband over his wife, parents over their children. The state has jurisdiction. God's minister for good over the people to restrain evil and then the church has a jurisdiction. We're gonna look at those more in depth today. The church may not usurp the authority or encroach upon the jurisdiction of a father, for example, in the household. The state may not usurp the authority or encroach upon the jurisdiction of the church and they're increasingly doing that. Neither of those spheres may compel the conscience of the individual. In other words, each one has been given a bounded authority, a delegated authority, a derived authority that is bounded by God's word. It's a jurisdiction. In that, we wanna remind ourselves that one in particular has been given all authority. His authority is unbounded and he has the sole sovereign right to dictate, including the conscience, the heart, the mind of the individual, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the one from whom all authority is derived. Matthew 28, verse 18, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore make disciples of all the nations. We then, after discussing jurisdiction, discussed a corruption of that biblical concept and abuse of that biblical concept that has leached into the form of government that our founders had conceived of and has polluted jurisdictional boundaries in our country, and that is the separation of church and state as it's understood by the state in our day. And we talked about that some last week. Never meant to separate God from civil institutions. And I think as we continue to move through discussions of that, you're gonna have the confidence to say from the Bible that that is the case. The separation doctrine employed by government's courts today civil institutions, social institutions has been used effectively to eradicate any Christian influence on the state. And it's simply not the way that God has intended and is in itself an indication of tyranny. Cutting itself off, the government cutting itself off from any influence by the church, cutting itself off from any checks and balances from the other spheres. We'll talk about that this morning. And in effect, it's been, we've reaped what we've sowed with respect to that in terms of unchecked encroachment by the civil government with no resistance as it were, effective resistance from the church. Sam Waldron in his modern exposition of the 1689, which includes our 1689 includes chapter 24 on the civil magistrate. It's interesting isn't it that our confession of faith has a chapter with a three articles in it dealing with the civil magistrate. And that tells you that our, those very wise, very godly men who wrote our confession understood these things to be necessary and good. And so included a chapter in our confession with respect to the civil magistrate, Sam Waldron explaining that chapter says this, does it surprise you that the confession contains a chapter on the subject of the civil magistrate? Are you inclined to ask what does politics have to do with Christ? If that is something of your response, may I suggest that you are a victim of a religious background which has retreated from its social responsibilities under a wrong view of the separation of church and state. Such an attitude has virtually denied the sovereignty of God over all areas of life to restrict Christianity to the spiritual realm is ultimately to destroy it. It's an interesting statement by Waldron. And I think there's a couple of points in there that are worth thinking about meditating on. That retreat effectively undermines the sovereignty of God over all areas of life including the government. And so the church has to say, and I think Bible believing Christians in good sound biblical churches, I need to put their foot down. As my mom would say, put your foot down. Put your foot down, draw a line in the sand as it were and take a stand for God's sovereignty over civil institutions and to be a voice with respect to that. Now, as we go forward in time, there's going to be less and less tolerance on the part of the state, less and less tolerance on the part of Roman first and his secular humanist buddies to listen to any of that, right? They're not gonna listen to that, but we have a responsibility nonetheless to proclaim it on behalf of the king. That's our responsibility with the gospel and our responsibility to the state. And we need to be loud about that and not shirk from our responsibility because people don't like it. Last time I heard, last time I understood, God wasn't really asking men's opinions about what he said or what he commanded. He just simply commands it and we're to be the voice of that command in our generation. So we're not to retreat from our social responsibilities under a wrong view of the separation of church and state that attitude has denied the sovereignty of God. Christianity is not to be restricted to some private spiritual realm. Christianity is God's rule over God's people in God's place and that includes every square centimeter of this planet or if you're in the US, every square inch, right? So we're to assert that as biblical truth and not shirk back or shrink back from doing that. And we'll look at what the implications of that are and what that looks like as we go through the study. Okay, sphere sovereignty. Since the reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th century, there's been many of them in those centuries in particular, there has been in each of those confessions a consideration of the role of government and the relationship of the church and the individual Christian to the state. In those confessions, you often find chapters dealing with the civil magistrate and how we are to relate to the civil magistrate. And in years past, those things had to be thought of, right, they were living under tyranny. Throughout human history, most human beings have lived under some form, some degree of governmental tyranny. And so Christians in ages past have had to contend with those things and deal with those things. And so over time, there has been developed, there's been cultivated a robust theology of public life that teaches us how we are to interact with the state. We've not had to concern ourselves as much with those things because we've enjoyed a lengthy period of peace in our country as far as we're concerned, our entire lives, where that hasn't been much of an issue. That's becoming an issue now. It has been an issue and we're think timely in dealing with this now. Over that time though, that theology has developed. If you've read any Augustine, Augustine had the city of God, if you remember, I've heard of that book or read that book, maybe some of you homeschool kids have glanced at it. Maybe not read the whole thing, it's huge. But two cities, city of God, city of man, that sort of developed later under Martin Luther and two kingdom theology. And we're gonna look at the city of God, we're gonna look at two kingdom theology. But that thought was developed further under Luther, developed further under some of the reformers. As that theology of public life began to be worked out, we arrive at Abraham Kuiper, who is a Dutch reformer in the 20th century, early, late 19th century, early 20th century, who wrote on this in particular and has developed this thought even further, to the point where we've got a good foundation today, a good reformed basis on which we, a good reformed biblical basis, on which we can consider the subject for ourselves. So I wanna give an explanation of Kuiper's public theology, this summary, if you will, of his public theology, and this in particular subject called Sphere Sovereignty. And we'll refer back to, in particular we'll refer back to Luther and to Abraham Kuiper in particular, when we talk about our own application of these things in weeks to come. This will be sort of a foundational, very basic, very 30,000 foot overview of the subject, but I think helpful as we're moving forward. One of the more recent of those developments in a theology of public life and very influential on some, some for the good, some for the bad, governments tend to hate it, kings hated it, monarchies hated it, governments tend to repudiate it, our government would certainly repudiate it, but that was the political theology of Abraham Kuiper and his work summarized in Sphere Sovereignty, Sphere Sovereignty. Sphere Sovereignty includes a basic application of biblical principles as we work through the spheres. I'll give you those biblical principles and we'll look at some passages where those are formed. And all of that within a historical context, Abraham Kuiper, as well as the reformers who were working on this understood that these things were in progress of thought, as it were, and have developed over time. All right, Abraham Kuiper was an elder with the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands, heavily involved in Dutch politics. He was an elder in the church, but also served as prime minister for a period of time. From 1901 to 1905, Abraham Kuiper was the prime minister of the Netherlands. Leader of the first modern political party in the Netherlands, he led that party. It was the anti-revolutionary party, if I'm not mistaken. He founded a newspaper, very, very involved in public life, social life in the Netherlands, founded what was called the Free University, and that's where we see, if you've read any of Abraham Kuiper, he gave a speech at the inauguration of that university, in which he spoke clearly about sphere sovereignty, it's really helpful, really good. Part of what drove Abraham Kuiper in his sphere sovereignty, his public theology, was to cultivate a theology of public life by which Christians would engage the culture biblically for the sake of the gospel. It was to cultivate or foster Christian engagement in the culture, which is really important and grotesquely lacking for a long time now. If you guys, some of you are old enough to remember the moral majority decades past, when Ronald Reagan was elected, there was much talk about the moral majority. Better called the moralistic majority or the moral light majority. Wasn't a lot moral about that majority. They had a few political statements they would make, but there was a prominent voice given to that group at that time. Since then, they've been silenced almost all together. We hear a little else of that kind of thing at all. There was a reference this week to the Day of Prayer, and a point was made that Joe Biden was able to get through the entire Day of Prayer without mentioning the name of God one time the entire day. And then they made the comparison that Trump mentioned 11 times and Obama mentioned in five times, those kinds of things. But Christians have been largely silenced in the public sphere. It's not right that that's the case, and we need to resist that and proclaim the gospel where we are able to and to look for opportunities to do that. But that's the state of our day today. Kuiper wanted to get Christians engaged and get Christians engaged in the culture. And so he led by example in those ways. He saw a Christian worldview as defining three fundamental relationships. The Christian's relationship to God, the Christian's relationship to man, and the Christian's relationship to the world. And so he wanted to develop in all three of those areas, not one or two of them, an exclusion of a third. For Kuiper, Calvinism was the only biblical system that made sense of these relationships. And the reason that Kuiper relied upon a thorough Calvinistic theology in developing a theology of public life is because he saw Calvinism as the only system that asserted the sovereignty of God over every aspect of life, every detail of life. And in that, we're reminded of the beginning of this when we talked about Luther's doctrine of Corum Deo, right? Every second of a person's life, believe it or not, every second of his life is lived under the gaze of an omniscient God who searches the heart and will judge the hearts of an intense of men, judge the secrets of men, as Paul would say. God is sovereign over everything. And so Kuiper believed that to be critical in our understanding of our relationship, certainly to him, our relationship to our fellow man and our relationship to the world as a whole. Kuiper said, instead of a monastic flight from the world, the duty of the Christian is now emphasized in serving God in the world in every position of life. And it sounds like Luther's Corum Deo, doesn't it? So whether you're on the job, whether you're in school, you're interacting with state officials or the government in some form, you go to Target, you go to the nail salon, wherever you find yourself, you're living for the Lord, Corum Deo, right? And a robust Calvinism says that when you walk into the nail salon, God is sovereign, right? Even over what you do with those things. A Calvinistic theology of public life recognizes the triune God as sovereign over the whole cosmos to use Kuiper's words. From this Kuiper's thought, we can derive three spheres of derived sovereignty, all right? Derived authority or derived sovereignty, three spheres, the state, the society and the church. A biblical Calvinistic theology of public life was basically an application of this principle of sphere sovereignty in public life over those three spheres, the state, the society and the church, right? Reformed Baptist guys with the Crato Covenant blog, if you're familiar with that, put together sort of a helpful summary of Kuiper's thoughts on this subject and it starts with the sphere of the state, the sphere of the state, referring to the civil government. And with respect to the sphere of the state, Kuiper made three assertions, right? Three theses, right? One, God only and never any creature is possessed of sovereign rights in the destiny of the nations because God alone created them, maintains them by his almighty power and rules them by his ordinances, right? So you hear Kuiper's Calvinism rich in that statement, and that is biblical truth, right? I'm reminded of Daniel chapter four with respect to that. If you remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible, is this not great Babylon, which I have built with my own hands, right? Nebuchadnezzar says, and the Bible says that while those words were still in his mouth, God ripped the kingdom from him, right? Made him like a beast, an ox to eat grass in the field. He says, the Bible says that seven times shall pass over you, Nebuchadnezzar, until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses. Now listen to this from Daniel chapter four, beginning in verse 34, listen to this. And at the end of time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven. My understanding returned to me. I came to my senses. After that, I was brought to my senses, as it were. And I blessed the most high and praised and honor him who lives forever, because his dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? God gives kingdoms to whom he wills, but God is the one who rules over the kingdoms of men. And so Kuiper's statement, again, is a thoroughly biblical statement. God only, never any creature is possessed of sovereign rights in the destiny of nations because God alone created them, maintains them by his almighty power and rules them by his ordinances. Now is that true of our country today? Of course it is. Absolutely it is. We'll talk about why it's deteriorated to the point where it has, but God is sovereign. God alone creates nations. He raises them up and he brings them down all by his almighty power. And God rules over them by his ordinances, by his commands. So when a nation, a government, trails from, walks away from, abandons God's commandments, God's ordinances, that nation is rebellious. Now an enemy of God by wicked works, you could say. That nation has gone rogue and faces the judgment of God. Exactly what our nation has done today. Second thesis, sin has in the realm of politics broken down the direct government of God. That's an important statement. We're gonna consider that in a moment. Sin has in the realm of politics broken down the direct government of God. And therefore the exercise of authority for the purpose of government has subsequently been invested in men as a mechanical remedy. He means mechanical as opposed to quote unquote natural, as God intended, natural, mechanical. Okay, let's think about that statement. Kuiper understood that if the fall had not taken place, what would government have looked like? And when I use the word government, I don't mean it in terms of the state that we know it as today. What would, let's say, what would God's administration of rule, what would God's administration of rule look like today if the fall had never happened? What would be the basis for his, we got the mic over here, I'll come back to Lee. So, Ryan. I'm just thinking of Adam and Eve, how he made them upright, where he declared his creation to be very good. So they were holy, having the law of God on their hearts and given this commission to fill the earth for his glory. Very good. So I would think of a spreading of humanity over the earth and government in the fear of God. So in everything that man is doing, God is the chief end of the governance of the people. Very good. So they're, and Kuiper sort of references that does to me with the idea of a direct, the direct governance of God. Adam, all men at that time were under the direct governance of God. What would have been the main, the main institution of administering that government on the planet? Initially, who did God put in charge? Adam, right, Adam, his vice-region over creation, given Adam the cultural mandate, that Ryan just referenced. Adam had offspring. What would have happened when Adam died? Who would have taken over? One of his sons, Tom. That's true, good point. I'm not thinking, that's good. Adam would have continued to rule. Adam would have continued to be king, very good. Yes. Maybe his vice, he would have had vice presidents, as we might have conceived of them. Yeah, very good, Tom. Yeah, his sons, like his sons would have held influence, would have held responsibility. We see that modeled in the Old Testament, even with the nation of Israel, prior to the monarchy, you had a family units, right? It was Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 leaders of the 12 tribes. There was this family, this patriarchal society, family government where you had the, the father was the head of the household, so to speak. And as long as that father was alive, you had a sort of a patriarchal leader to the tribe. And that's the way that the government sort of subsisted albeit sinful, fallen world. That's the way that the government, the governance or the administration of God's rule existed at that time. Kuiper understood that if the fall had not taken place, sorry, I didn't come back to you, brother. Did you have something to add? Go ahead. No, it was, you just said everything I was gonna say. I was just saying theocracy because it would have been Adam and then his descendants and like you said, all the way down to Abraham, Isaac, all the way down. And what popped in my head was like when Jesus was born and the wise men came through and told Herod, Herod said, hey, let me know, so I can come and worship. Herod knew he wasn't the rightful king. And here the rightful king was coming. The rightful governing body was coming. That's what it Herod wanted to do. Everyone wanted to kill him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Yeah, Kuiper understood, we understand that if fall hadn't taken place, then there would have been no reason, no reason for the structures of civil government. And I think it's an important point and something for us to think about. If the fall had not taken place, if sin had not entered the world, if Adam hadn't died or because Adam died, there would be no reason for the structures of civil government. We know how God would have administered his rule and reign on the earth, had not Adam fallen in the garden. We would have had a patriarchal society, if you will, family, centric, submitted to God the direct rule of God, politics in the state then, politics in the state are unnatural, unnatural, or mechanical additions as it were, developments in human history, instituted by God with a purpose. Kuiper says a mechanical structure, a mechanical as opposed to a natural, a mechanical structure imposed upon the natural organic relationships that bind men together. What are those natural organic relationships? Family bonds, marital bonds, familial bonds, work bonds, social bonds, right? All those things that naturally, organically bind men together. Government, civil government is a mechanical structure imposed upon those things that God has instituted because of sin, because of sin. God instituted the civil magistrate because or by reason of sin. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter eight. Let's look briefly at where that got started. 1 Samuel chapter eight. In 1 Samuel chapter eight, you have the rule, the direct rule of God and that direct rule of God administered through the priesthood and the high priest in particular. And here you have God's direct rule administered through one who is essentially prophet priest at the time, which is Samuel. But Samuel is about to die and Samuel's sons did not walk in Samuel's ways. There is become obviously evident even to the people that Samuel's sons cannot take over and administer that rule. Effectively, the people are convinced they need a king anyway. And so they ask then Samuel for a king. Look at verse four. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Rama and said to him, look, Samuel, you're old. Your sons, that's nice. Your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Right, make us a king. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them. Bringing to an end as it were in their own perception or according to them what they were intending to do was to bring to an end the direct rule of God over the people. Now God didn't only directly rule over the nation of Israel as Samuel is here. God rules in all the nations of men. All those pagan nations around Israel, God ruled over them too. Israel in particular in covenant with God is rejecting, even in covenant with God, rejecting the direct rule of God asking for a king. Verse eight, according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even to this day, which they have forsaken me and served other gods so they are doing to you also Samuel, now therefore heed their voice. However you shall solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them, right? God is about to institute the monarchy and the rule of men as it were instituting civil government over the people giving them what they ask for so to speak and God forewarns them when you have men to rule over you in this way. Here's what you can expect, right? Samuel told all the words of the Lord in verse 10 to the people who asked him for a king and he said, this will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for his own, for his own chariots and to be his horsemen. Some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands, captains over his fifties. He will set some to plow his ground, reap his harvest, some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks and bakers and he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a 10th of your grain, your vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. He will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, your donkeys, put them to his work. He will take a 10th of your sheep and you will be his servants. You will cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. They said, no, but we will have a king to rule over us that we also may be like all the nations that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Samuel heard all the words of the people and repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. So the Lord said to Samuel, he their voice, make them a king. We've reaped the consequence of that, haven't we? We can be grateful to God for the institution of civil government. When civil government acts in accord with the intentions of God in it because the civil government is used to restrain the very sin that gives rise to these kinds of things, right? The civil government wields the sword, wields a delegated authority meant to restrain evil. And in that sense, God protects and has provided for us and that's good. Where men have corrupted civil government, that's the problem we're gonna be talking about, okay? Second, sin has in the realm of politics broken down the direct government of God. That now has been invested in the hands of men as a mechanical, not a natural remedy. Third, third thesis. We're still talking about the sphere of the state. In whatever form this authority may reveal itself. In other words, whether it's a monarchy, republic, democracy, whatever form this authority may reveal itself, civil government, man never possesses power over his fellow man in any way than by an authority which descends upon him from the majesty of God. Another very important consideration. Whatever form government takes in whatever form it takes, right? In whatever form that government that civil magistrate may reveal itself, man never possesses power over his fellow man in any way other than by the authority which descends upon him is delegated to him from on high, from God. So any power, any authority wielded over man that hasn't been expressly given him, delegated to him by God is of definition a tyrannical authority, okay? Government does not have the right. I don't care what kind of government it is. It doesn't have the right to exercise an authority outside the boundaries of what God himself has determined and does not have the authority to exercise its will over the people other than in ways that God has determined for their good, okay? Now there are many, many implications of that statement. That's a biblical statement and it's a strong statement and it applies today in our understanding of what is tyrannical and what isn't. I think over the years maybe have just not thinking of these things as I should and maybe as I am now. Would have defined tyranny much more loosely. The more that I understand, for example, that statement or what the Bible teaches about these things, the more tightly and clearly defined the definition of tyranny becomes and the more tyrannical you see our quote unquote democracy or our republic. There has been a grotesque, deplorable, continued persistent overreach of our government into individual rights, into other spheres that can only be defined as tyrannical and outside the boundaries of what God has determined for the civil government and it's something that Christians should resist, should preach against, should stand against, should be culturally engaged with for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of God's rule in the earth. The more that civil governments spread beyond their delegated or given boundaries, the more that we see what happens in our culture today and increasing wickedness and increasing humanism and increasing, we're gonna cast his cords from us. We don't want this man to rule over us at all. There's more and more of a pushing and a shoving of God and of Christians who preach the gospel out of the public sphere and the longer that Christians, the longer that the church allows that to continue unchecked the more and more that it happens to the point where you've got in many places in history Christian, Christians huddled in woods and huddled underground, huddled in basements for fear of their lives, Christians, pastors by the hundreds, thousands being killed, murdered, why an encroaching authoritative tyranny on the part of the state. And so it wherever the state encroaches the preaching of the gospel becomes hindered. We're already seeing that, right? Free speech laws, rights quote unquote that we have being infringed upon. Laws being changed, a public becoming increasingly intolerant. I saw the video last week of that pastor on a street corner in London being manhandled, arrested because of preaching from the Bible against homosexuality and they arrested him on the street happening more and more in Canada. Whatever happens in Canada and the UK just give it a few years, it happens here. And this is the fruit of certainly wickedness and men are responsible for their own sin. But rather than this, we have a responsibility to attempt to stand, don't we? To do something like instead of just continuing our retreat, I think sometimes Christians just sort of imagine they're just gonna continue retreating all the way to heaven. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go to heaven or I'm just gonna keep retreating at some point Jesus is gonna come back and fix this whole mess but I can retreat long enough until he does. Now we're not to retreat, we're not to retreat. So I think there's responsibility that is given to us in our generation to take a stand and we've gotta determine what that stand looks like what it is. Okay, sphere of the state. Second sphere, the sphere of society or the social sphere, the sphere of society or the social sphere. The social sphere has a number of diverse parts within it made up of components, if you will. Inside the social sphere, you have the family. You have business, industry. A family may have had control over lands. Abraham had control over great flocks, great area of land. Another social sphere is that Kuiper talks about. We can think of several in this sort of category but Kuiper mentioned science in particular. Science should be able to operate and Kuiper's mind should be able to operate without the encroachment of other spheres for science to be the impartial objective arbiter that it is. Can you see how today, how we don't have any real ability to trust anything that comes out of the quote unquote scientific community? Why? It's because it's been so absurdly politicized, right? Everybody's got an agenda. It's ridiculously liberal. And so people will just spread abject lies in the name of quote unquote science in order to fulfill their political agenda. It's ridiculous, right? And that's because of this encroachment we're talking about. Kuiper, I think wisely viewed science as one of the social spheres that has a sovereignty that is exclusive to itself, a delegated sovereignty, right? Arts was another education, very important one. So he saw several components to this social sphere. You may think of others or think of fewer, but there they are. Four main groups, four main groups. This may help you categorize them. First, the sphere of social relationships where individuals meet and interact with each other. The Elk Lodge. No, that's not a sphere. No, it's, but where do people at bingo night, you know, where do people meet and gather together a social relationships, okay? Secondly, the corporate sphere, which includes all groupings of men in a corporate sense, such as, let me give you some examples, universities, right? Trade union, trade union, trade union, trade unions, employers, organizations, companies, right, we can think of those, the corporate sphere. There is the social sphere. There is the corporate sphere. Third, the domestic sphere deals with the family, marriage. That deals with education. Why would the domestic sphere deal with education? Why would that be the case? Pardon me? Yeah, homeschooling, but why is education considered a domestic sphere? Anya? It involves one's children. Yes, we're getting warmer. Yeah, Mike? Because that's where a child's education first starts. That's right, that's right. So we put all those points together. Who's responsible for the education of our children? We are. It is a domestic responsibility. In other words, it's not the first and foremost responsibility of the state to educate children, to give our children the state. Now, there are, and I'm gonna make two statements. First is, there are circumstances in which that's a necessary thing, right? We find ourselves in circumstances where we don't have an opportunity. And we rely upon the resources that are available to us to help us do what is necessary. But ultimately, we may, for example, they may get a math education, education in math from a school teacher, but who's responsible for the education of that child? Mom and dad, right? Mom and dad. They may, because I are not a math person. I can get you as far as like basic subtraction and then we're gonna be done, okay? You can get help and assistance with educating our children, but the one who's responsible are the parents. The parents are responsible for the education of their children. I'm gonna make another statement then, ancillary to that, is that I think that we, as the church, not just Cornerstone Baptist Church, but particularly Cornerstone Baptist Church, need to be thinking about rendering any other option, any other resource to educate our children an irrelevant consideration, because we ourselves, as the church, have provided for our families, provided for people to educate their children the way that God has intended. And I think that's a good reason why we, as a church, we'll talk about this later, we should consider, as quickly as we are able to do so, Cornerstone Academy, whereby all of our children would be able to be educated, well educated without having to rely upon the state to do it, okay? So I'm hoping that we'll come, we'll talk about that later. Okay, the domestic sphere. Lastly, fourth, the communal sphere. The communal sphere, which includes all groupings of men and communal relationships, such as streets, villages, towns and cities, okay? So Kuiper saw in the Bible those developing communal spheres, cities, for example, all right. Each part of these spheres, Kuiper argues, has sovereignty in the individual social spheres and these different developments of social life have nothing above themselves but God. That's an interesting statement, isn't it? Think about your family, the family sphere, has nothing above it but God, right? The state cannot intrude here, Kuiper says. In society, the chief aim of all human effort remains what it was by virtue of our creation and before the fall, namely, dominion over nature. Now the argument that Kuiper's gonna give in sphere sovereignty here is that man has been given the cultural mandate. It's not the authority or the responsibility of the state to accomplish the cultural mandate for or on behalf of man, man has been given the cultural mandate before God and man has the liberty and should maintain the liberty to pursue obedience to the cultural mandate and what that looks like under God with no one dictating to him other than God. The state does not have the right to encroach on the sovereign rights of these spheres in their pursuit of dominion. The state is impeding, as it were, our obedience to the cultural mandate. In other words, the state is not to take dominion for us. Man is to take dominion. The state is not to take dominion. Where does it come from? It comes from Genesis chapter one. Somebody give me a definition, like a quick summary definition. What is the cultural mandate? Where do we get that? I don't know what I want. Yes, Michael, don't be bashful. I know I'm talking too much. I need to get you guys more engaged with some questions. Yeah, brother. What God says, we'll let them be blessed and have dominion over the fishes, see over the fowls of the air. We'll let them subdue, replenish and take dominion. Very good. That's right. That's right. Be fruitful and multiply. All those, what that entails in taking dominion. Yeah, thank you, brother. Very good. All right, that's from Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one, verse 26. If you wanna look at that, the cultural mandate. I think there is a new covenant context, new covenant context of the cultural mandate and we can't be impeded there either. God is looking for godly offspring, godly worshipers to worship him in spirit and in truth. He says in John chapter four. So God desires godly offspring. How do godly offspring come today? Well, they certainly come in fulfillment of the cultural mandate to have children and raise those children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And I can say with a clear conscience before God and with great joy that we are amply doing our part with respect to that on a regular basis and continue to do so. So very happy about that. Thank you, brother. But it also comes through the preaching of the gospel. Right the way that godly offspring worshipers of God in spirit and truth, the way they're produced today is through the preaching of the gospel. So we need to continue to preach the gospel and we don't need to be impeded in doing that. In contrast to this natural order, government is a mechanical device. The natural order is the way that God intended. Government is a mechanical device. It's essential power, the sword, which is power over life and death to restrain evil ought to be exercised only in the administration of justice. Kuiper, because government has been imposed upon those organic spheres, friction then occurs. Why does friction occurs? Friction occurs because men are sinful and fallen and fallible. So friction occurs between the spheres, so to speak, because that mechanical device has been imposed upon sinful, wicked men. And so this friction occurs. Kuiper says the government is always inclined with its mechanical authority to invade social life, to subject it and to mechanically arrange it. I think that deserves a lesson in and of itself explaining that statement. Government is always inclined with its mechanical authority to invade social life, to subject it and to mechanically arrange it. At the same time that Kuiper argues that the various social spheres will endeavor to throw off all restraints of government, thus men will be continually faced with the twin dangers of statism or anarchy, right? Between those two ditches as it were. But Calvinism, Kuiper maintains, avoids those extremes by insisting on the sovereignty of God. Where statism or tyranny is avoided and anarchy or chaos is avoided is when we are subject to the authority of God as sovereign. When we shove off that authority, we loose our binds, so to speak, then we're given over to either anarchy or statism, chaos or tyranny. And that's what we're seeing. There are three ways, and I'll finish this up next week, there are three ways the state could support the social sphere to draw a boundary between the state should support the social spheres in these ways. They should draw boundaries and maintain boundaries around the spheres in order to avoid social conflict. The state doesn't draw or maintain those boundaries, the state is too busy trying to do away with them and overreach into them, right? So it does a terrible and awful job of drawing and maintaining those boundaries. Our founders did that with our constitution. Their intent in devising of our Declaration of Independence, our constitution, the Bill of Rights was to clearly define the jurisdictional boundaries of those spheres to prohibit or restrain encroachment by particularly the government. Particularly the government, but by any sphere into another. A worker should never be misused or abused by his employer. The government can help draw boundary around that sphere. Right, and we can think of numerous ways in which we could think of examples. Secondly, the state could support the social sphere in defending individuals in weak elements within each sphere. In other words, the state should protect the sovereignty of the church, so to speak, over its own affairs and not allow persecution of the church or restriction of church rights. The state could support that. Now the state continues to encroach upon that rather than protect it. Thirdly, to coerce all the separate spheres of society to support the state and uphold its legitimate functions, right, to call for support in order to do their job, to wield their sword, to render to Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God's, right? There's a legitimate function to civil institutions and that is to wield the power of the sword to restrain evil and to protect those spheres. Thus, each sphere has an obligation to render whatever do is necessary for the maintenance of the overall unity of society as protected by the state. We looked at the sphere of society. We looked at the sphere of the state. Next week, we'll look at the sphere of the church and the sphere of the individual as one and we'll look at some of the applications of Abraham Kuyper's sphere sovereignty. We don't have time for questions this morning. Please forgive me. We'll allow more time for questions next week. Bear with me. Let's pray and let's prepare for worship. Father in heaven, thank you Lord for the astounding and helpful sufficiency of your word. So grateful Lord for how wise, infinitely wise, you obviously and evidently are as revealed to us in your word in helping us consider subjects like this. Thank you Lord. Thank you for not leaving us without a witness in that you've done such good to us. Help us Lord to serve you faithfully within the sphere with the delegated authority that you've given us to do our part and our generation to obey you in the great commission and all that you've given us to do we're grateful for instruction there. Help us to be faithful in it as we face encroaching tyranny and encroaching humanism and encroaching darkness that hates you. Help us to stand for you with the gospel in faithfulness to your word, your will, our king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray all these things in his name, amen.