Voddie Baucham - Culture #Wield The Sword

¿Para mi familia siempre estoy en mi mejor momento? Por eso también quiero lo mejor en mi cocina, y eso significa solamente huevos de Eggland Best.

Siempre tienen un sabor tan fresco y delicioso, con seis veces más vitamina D, 10 veces más vitamina E, y 25% menos grasas aturadas que los huevos comunes.

Entonces, ¿por qué darle menos a tu familia cuando pueden tenerlo mejor? Egglands Best, mejor sabor, mejor notición, mejores huevos.

¿Para mi familia siempre estoy en mi mejor momento?

¿Para mi familia siempre estoy en mi mejor momento?

¿Para mi familia siempre estoy en mi mejor momento?

Ahora tenemos un problema, no sé si tenemos un problema, pero tenemos una obligación a llenar la cultura de los huevos, a los huevos, y a lo que creen, se conformen a la norma bíblica.

La cultura es una observación.

Estas personas tienen esta cultura porque tienen esta arte y tienen esta arquitectura, tienen esta música, tienen esta lengua, esa cultura es diferente.

Estas personas tienen una cultura diferente y tienen una arquitectura diferente y produce una cultura diferente.

Entonces, porque pensamos sobre cultura en los términos, es que es apenas observar lo que personas hacen.

Es fácil para nosotros pensar sobre una cultura de neutralidad.

Hay una cultura que es mejor que una otra cultura.

Hay una cultura que es superior a una cultura. En el caso de eso, tenemos una defensa para pensar que una cultura podría ser superior o inferior.

También, cuando es una cultura de neutralidad, hay un movimiento entre misiones para intentar comunicar el gospel en una manera que no se atreguen a la cultura, porque eso es colonialismo.

Y no queremos engañar a eso. Pero es una forma de pensar sobre cultura.

Cuando pensamos sobre cultura, como pensamos sobre algo,

tenemos que ir a la gente.

Y cultura no solo emerge.

Es el que es el que nos da la idea de cultura.

Cultura es para cultivar.

En Genesis 1 y en verse 26,

Dios dice, ¡let us make man in our image, in our likeness!

Verse 27, God makes man, in God's image, and likeness.

Y en verse 28, God gives man a mandate.

Now, en verse 26, ¡let's make man in our image, in our likeness!

Y también, la idea es...

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Man Dominion over everything else that God created.

Verse 27, he creates man, verse 28, verse 29.

He gives this cultural mandate.

He tells man to exercise dominion over literally everything,

every category of thing that God has made.

Then we end chapter 1 and we get into chapter 2.

And in chapter 2 we zoom in on the creation of man, on the creation of Adam.

And in the first part of chapter 2, the word work is referenced three times or mentioned three times.

And these are those three times, it's referencing God's work in creation.

God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

So God is the first worker, the first cultivator.

And then God creates man.

But interestingly enough, before we see the creation of man,

we see that there's no vegetation.

And then the reason there's no vegetation, because God hadn't caused it to rain him,

because there was no man to take care of it, to cultivate it.

Then what happens?

God makes man, and then God makes the garden.

And God puts man in the garden to cultivate it.

And so essentially the whole idea of culture, the whole idea of cultivation, if you will,

is tied up in the very purpose for which man was created.

And then there's another piece.

There are these trees there in the garden.

And there are three types of trees.

There are the trees that are good for food.

And those make sense, we get that.

If there are trees that are good for food, that's why the garden is here.

So you need to cultivate this garden, so that you can eat.

You need to take care of the trees that are good for food, so that they can produce food.

We get that. That makes sense. That's straightforward.

But that's not the only type of tree.

There is also this category of trees that is pleasing to the sight.

What does that category of trees teach us?

They teach us about culture.

You cultivate the first type of trees because they're good for food and you can eat.

But why the second category of trees?

Can you imagine Adam there in the garden?

I can imagine him with these trees and he's partaking of these trees.

I can imagine a perfect man in a perfect garden eating perfect fruit from perfect trees.

What an experience that must have been.

But then as he's eating this fruit, this perfect man is eating these perfect fruit from this perfect trees.

There are other trees and these trees are producing fruit.

And we're told that the purpose of those trees is found not in their fruit but in their beauty.

These trees are there because they're pleasing to the eye.

Because God wants to teach Adam what beauty is.

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Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder.

Beauty is in the eye of God and we see it in the creation of God.

And so when man cultivates the garden he's not just cultivating these trees.

That produce fruit to sustain him.

He's also cultivating these trees that are there simply because they are beautiful

and simply because man needs to have a standard for beauty and a standard for aesthetics.

And there's a third category of trees.

The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And these trees remind man of the fence that God has put around his cultivation.

That not all cultivation is good cultivation.

Not all culture is good culture.

It must be done within the context and confines of righteousness as determined by God Himself.

This tree you don't eat from.

This tree reminds you that God is the source of life.

You can't do that.

Only God can do that.

You must not do that because God says don't do that.

And so from these three different types of trees we get these ideas of truth and beauty and goodness.

And so the cultivation or the culture that man produces and that he is to produce is governed and guided by these principles that we find.

Number one that God is the author of life and that God gives man his purpose.

Secondly that God is the first worker and that work is good and that man works because man is made in the image of God who works.

Our work is about cultivation, cultivation for the sake of truth, beauty and goodness.

Now this is all wonderful but then there's the fall.

And because of the fall the whole idea of culture itself becomes compromised.

Now that should be enough and I believe it is enough for us to make the argument that there's no such thing as culture and neutrality.

If God's the one who creates man and puts man in the garden for him to cultivate, for him to do the things of culture, then of course we can either obey that or we can disobey that.

We can either promote this kind of thriving in terms of truth, beauty and goodness that God intended or we cannot promote it.

We can either obey or we can disobey and we see that in the fall.

But even beyond that we see that there's no cultural neutrality because what happens at Babel?

What happens at Babel is that culture decides to build this tower and God determines that that is inappropriate.

Because he told them to scatter.

A lot of people miss this.

That at Babel what is happening is that people are there and they want to stay there and they want to build this tower as a monument to themselves when God has said that they are to cultivate the whole earth as a monument to God.

And that's problematic.

And so these languages are confused and people are sent off in multiple directions in order to obey what it is that God has called them to do since he put Adam in the garden.

So if cultural neutrality.

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Then there would have been nothing wrong at Babel.

The fact that there was something wrong at Babel means that there is no cultural neutrality.

That man doing architecture, that is impressive, is not enough to satisfy the mandate that God has given us.

It has to be architecture that pursues truth, beauty, and goodness to the glory of God. Beyond that, we also see, for example, that the caldians are referred to as this bloodthirsty people.

Their culture is not acceptable, their culture is a bloodthirsty culture, there is not neutrality there.

There are many cultures that are condemned in the Bible, that are condemned by the prophets, that are condemned by God, because there is no such thing as cultural neutrality.

There are cultures that fall in line with the truth, beauty, and goodness that we're called to pursue, and there are cultures that simply do not.

I like to communicate it this way, sometimes I'll tell this story.

There's a group of people, and this group of people find themselves living on an island, and across from the island, there's a chasm that separates the island from another body of land.

And on that other body of land, there are trees where there's abundant fruit and abundant wood for building and abundant, there's just abundance across there.

And so these people have to get from where they are to the other side.

Among these groups, this group of people, there's three subgroups of people.

One subgroup of people decides we just need to get there no matter what, so they knock down a tree, they put the tree across the chasm.

And of course the strongest and most agile among them are able to go across and take advantage of the good things that are on the other side.

However, some people die because they are not able to get across, they're not as agile as others, and so there are casualties.

That group just wants to go and they want to consume, then that's all that they want to do.

And so I call those one tree cultures, right? These are the people who, the only tree that they're paying attention to from creation is that tree that says they're these things that are good for food, that's all.

Well, there's a second group on the island. And the second group says we're not just going to knock down a tree and put it across the chasm.

And we're not just going to go over there and consume until there's nothing to consume.

We're actually going to build a bridge that is safe for us to cross.

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It's safe for us to cross, but when we get across there, we're going to make sure that we take care of what's there so that we don't just consume it until it's gone.

And that's great, right? Now you have people with first tree and the third tree that those law trees, if you will, right?

You have this sense of righteousness attached, human life is important, human life is to be protected, right? The things that God gives us are to be stewarded.

So that's a two tree culture, but they got the first tree and the third tree.

What about the second tree? Here's the third group of people. The third group of people are like the first in that they're going to make a way across to get to those good things that God has made.

They're like the third group in that they are going to make something that's safe and when they get there, they're going to make sure that they're good stewards.

But they're different in that. They make a bridge that's beautiful.

In fact, it's a bridge that's so beautiful that people come just to see the beauty of the bridge that they made. It's not just safe, it's also beautiful.

Not only that, when they get to the other side, they're not only good stewards over these resources that are there.

They're not only good stewards, for example, of the fruits that they find there, but they actually take their time and they make things that are incredibly precise and succulent and delicious.

Because this group puts all three of the trees and Genesis together and they pursue truth, goodness and beauty to the glory of God.

That culture is superior to the other cultures. It's not superior because the color of the skin of the people in the story.

In fact, we don't know the color of the skin and the people in the story. They're not superior because the language that they speak or where they come from, that culture is superior because it best epitomizes and best takes advantage of and best obeys the cultivating realities that we find.

In the garden, in Genesis.

So, bring that to today. Are all cultures the same? Are they neutral? No, they're not. Some cultures are oppressive, some cultures are violent, some cultures are denigrating.

No, of course not. It's not the same. But how do we determine which cultures are better or worse or superior or inferior? Not by where we find them on the globe.

Not by the color of people's skin or the language that they speak, but by the degree to which these cultures adhere to, pursue and represent the truth, beauty and beauty.

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This is the goodness that we see in the garden. You see when we understand this, it changes the way we understand and evaluate culture.

And it changes the way we pursue culture ourselves. And it transforms the way we understand what it means to be a Christian, made in the image of God, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ,

not just so that we can be saved and go to heaven, but when He redeems us, He redeems our understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness, and our desire and our ability to pursue truth, beauty, and goodness to the glory of God, and cultures that have grabbed ahold of this.

Make it evident. Where are the freest, safest, least corrupt, and most prosperous people on the planet?

They are in those cultures that have been most inundated with and impacted by the truth of the gospel, the Protestant Reformation.

Look at the globe, and you see this. The places where people live the way that I'm describing are places that pursue truth, beauty, and goodness to the glory of God.

They're not just safe places, they're not just free places, they're beautiful places.

They're places that people go to just to look at the things that have been made, just to taste and see that that culture is good, but they can only do that because that culture has taste and seen that the Lord is good.

Again, when we see the fall, it's not long after the fall that we see broken culture, and it's epitomized at battle, and that's because of the fall.

And the remainder of the story of the Bible is this story of culture that has fallen in culture, that has broken, and this attempt to bring things in line with the truth, beauty, and goodness that God has put into His creation.

Not only in creation, but also in man, it's because of man's brokenness that he loves things that are not true, that are not good, and that are not beautiful.

And ultimately, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born on the law to redeem those who are under the law, and what we see in Jesus is the redemption of man.

And it's a beautiful thing, when man is redeemed, when we are made right with God, when our brokenness is restored, but it doesn't just restore us on the inside, it restores us on the inside and it begins to manifest itself on the outside.

And so now, again, because we're fallen and we're broken, we don't pursue truth, beauty, and goodness, but we actually love things that are not true, that are not beautiful, that are not good, and this transformation, this redemption, is something that allows us, and that awakens us, not just to the brokenness in ourselves, but to the brokenness around us.

And we do begin to pursue truth, beauty, and goodness to the glory of God, now by God's grace, and because of common grace, the world is not completely broken or as bad as it could be.

And yet, we still love things that are not true, that are not good, and that are not true.

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And with our redemption in Christ, we have this sort of already, not yet, struggle. We are already redeemed, but it's not yet consummated.

And Paul tells us, in Romans 8, that even creation is groaning in anticipation of the revealing of the sons of God.

It's groaning, why? Well, when you read the end of book, you see why, because in Revelation 21, Revelation 22, what do we see?

We see a restoration of the culture that God establishes in the garden.

We see the rivers and the tree of life and these 12 kinds of fruit and the restoration that it brings.

We see God dwelling with His people and people dwelling in communion with their God, and it is a restoration, not just of individual souls or collective souls, but there is a new heaven and a new earth that new men with new bodies occupy.

So we're always looking forward with anxious anticipation to the consummation of all things at the end of the age, because no matter how much truth, beauty and goodness we pursue in the here and the now, it will always be less than that which we desire, because there is always something for us to anticipate and to look forward to.

But in the meantime, we continue to pursue truth, we continue to pursue goodness, we continue to pursue beauty, we continue to seek in our own ways the kind of redemption and restoration that we are absolutely capable of knowing all the while that it pales in comparison to the restoration that is to come at the end of the age.