Dr. Voddie Baucham | February 12, 2020

well good evening it is it here with you this evening as was shared my family and I currently live we reside in Lusaka Zambia the capital city of Zambia we've been there for the last four and a half years at last should be will make five years this August that we've been there they Bridget our seven youngest children actually here on furlough right now and we leave we go back on the 15th heading back to the Sokka it is time to go back home we've been here for for a while now for a couple of months now and are looking forward to heading back home do bring you greetings from the African Christian University and from the Reformed Baptist Church Association of Zambia who started the African Christian University ACU is a classical Christian liberal arts biblical worldview University currently offering degrees in agriculture and business and education theology Fine Arts getting ready to add biology and to chemistry and then a couple of graduate degrees in theology as well we started four years ago I had the purpose of being part of that team that was there on the ground with everything launched and Lord willing we'll have our first graduates this year so we're really excited about about that excited about what God is doing there what he has been doing there what he continues to do there so pray for us as we continue that work and pray for our family in particularly when we went our thinking was that we would go for a three to five year stint and as we were there for three years it started looking a lot more like five and now we're coming up on five years and yeah who knows who knows so we'll definitely be there for more time or just we're just not sure how much more time this is up to me I'd be buried there but we'll see we'll see what the Lord says and and all right if you have your Bibles with you open them with me to the book of Colossians the book of Colossians I want us to look at a very familiar passage of Scripture here in the book of Colossians one of the things that's been very interesting I told you it's a classical Christian liberal arts biblical worldview University and when we start talking about our worldview there are a couple of ways that we can think about our worldview one way that we can think about our worldview is that there are there are elements of our worldview right our worldview you can think about a worldview like this you can think about it in terms of the lens through which we view the world think about it in terms of a set of glasses you've heard the terminology looking at the world through rose-colored glasses right if you put on glasses with a certain tent then everything that you look at you see through that that same tent that's what your review does right it determines how you see the world another way you can think about it is it's like a map and I don't know if that's something I'm doing or something but it's like a map okay or think about it's like your GPS all right there's a couple of things for you it Orient's you it lets you know where you are in relation to where you're going right i it your worldview does that for you your worldview looks out and says here's where we are here's where we're going there's home right and it helps you to make sense of things last way that it's been described is it's like a it's like a Oh picture I don't know if you're one of these people who does post I'm not a puzzle person particularly you know I did yeah I like different kinds of stuff but you know people are cool but here's what you probably not if you're a puzzle person you're probably not the type of person that gets the big five thousand ten thousand piece puzzle pours out all the pieces and then throws away the box it's probably not who you are and if you if you are okay but you probably have the box up there so you can see the composition of the picture so that when you pick up a piece you have an idea at least of what part of the puzzle that goes in just your worldview does right so life throws something at you you've got this piece that seems out of context you don't know what to do with it your worldview helps you understand what to do with it okay so this is this is the this is the way your view functions but there's a couple of ways that we can define our worldviews and one of them is the elements of our worldview particularly what we believe about God man truth knowledge and ethics let me give you those five again God well we believe about God man what do we believe about man truth what we really believe about truth is it knowable is it accessible knowledge how do we know things and then finally ethics what's right what's wrong all right so you can you can gauge a person's worldview by looking at how they answer those five questions questions about who God is who man is what truth is how we know and what ethics are okay and so in the Christian worldview for example our view of God is theistic God is a necessary personal creator right that's our view of God others would view God while those would be atheistic right you see that there is no God our view of man we view man as special creation okay there'd be others who would view man as the product of evolution right our view of truth we believe that truth is absolutely universal right that which corresponds to reality others would believe the truth is relative a different world view our view of knowledge how do we know things those out there who believe that you know you you only know throwing things that you can see and touch and tasting hear and smell and so and so forth we believe that knowledge comes through reason and revelation you you we know things by those senses that God has given us but ultimately what Trump's those things is what God has revealed to us in his word okay and then finally ethics we believe that there are things that are true and right for all people in all places in all times and ethics are not negotiable they're not cultural they don't shift and change they're absolutely okay so when you look at the elements of our worldview that would be it but there's another way though there's another way that we could communicate worldview and that's through what's called a meta-narrative meta-narrative is the the overarching story the overarching story that explains the world and why the world is the way it is that overarching story is the lens that we look through its the GPS that says okay here's where we are it's the puzzle picture that says okay this piece of life right here it goes right there okay the meta-narratives and what I want us to do is I want us to look at too many narratives one meta-narrative is the meta-narrative of our culture at large it's a bit simplified and then I want us to look at the way biblical Christianity would counter that meta-narrative okay now this meta-narrative is gonna answer some questions for us the four questions in particular it's the four questions that every meta-narrative has to answer regardless of where you are in the world and it's been very interesting for me living in another part of the world and another continent I mean we've lived out out of the outside of the country before we lived in the UK different world view but very similar it's kind of like English right the worldview situation there was kind of like the language situation I realized they speak English I speak American right they made it very clear but I do not speak the Queen's English very similar but yet a little different same thing right now I'm in a part of the world where the world view is very different very different than the one with which I'm familiar but regardless of where you go Eastern Western Christian Buddhist Hindu Muslim everybody's worldview everybody's Marinette meta-narrative is answering these four questions y'all looking at me like can you give them to us especially certain people I'm not gonna say any names you sitting there what you know it's like you know yeah one two three four I need to get to just question number one Who am I question number two why am I here question number three what's wrong with the world question number four how can what is wrong be made right every worldview every world view meta-narrative is concerned with those four questions and if you want to understand someone's worldview all you have to know is how they answer those four questions and I find that it's a lot easier than the elements of the worldview right you ask somebody about their view of God and if you have man if you're truth if you're knowledge of you have ethics yeah you know they may not they may not have ready answers for those questions but you start talking about Who am I who is man who are we as humanity now all of a sudden you get a picture of somebody's world you know answer that they'll tell you right and by and large you'll get some version of we are the products of evolutionary processes we are the result of evolutionary processes right as my friends over at Answers in Genesis like to say from from the GU to you by way of the zoo right you'll get some version of that which is interesting especially here in the US because the overwhelming majority of people 75 80 % of people claimed to be theists claimed to believe in God right but at the same time when we asked the question who is man right who are we the answer is we are the result of random evolutionary processes okay the second question why are we here why are we here and ultimately if we're honest if the interest of the first question is were the result of random evolutionary processes the answer to the second question is we're here to consume and enjoy get all you can can all you get sit on the game that's why we're here to pursue pleasure okay now again we don't we don't really like to be that honest about it we want to be altruistic we want to say you know that we should do some good or whatever but ultimately ultimately if I'm just the result of random evolutionary processes that over here to consume and enjoy what is wrong with the world because everybody's world view acknowledges that there's something wrong with the world everybody's meta-narrative has something to explain what is wrong with the world and ultimately in our culture most common response to that question is what is wrong with the world is that we are either insufficiently educated or insufficiently governed and if you want to know that that's people's answer to question number three all you got to do is think about the answer to number four how is what is wrong made right more education more government as GU BMI NT government that's our answer for everything right either that or or therapy that's our answer that's what gets us to our utopia okay so there it is Who am I why am I here what's wrong with the world how can what is gonna be made right those last two questions have a couple of options depending on who you're talking to one would say we're insufficiently governed you know the answer is more more more government and more education right others would have more of a therapeutic model and basically the way how are things how is what's wrong made right it's it's through the pursuit of this therapeutic model there's a problem that you have outside of you and the answer to the problem is inside of you through therapy you tap into that thing on the inside of you that helps you cope with the problems on the outside of you again these auto sound pretty familiar right but how how does biblical Christianity answer these questions how does our meta-narrative answer these questions well let me give it to you and then we'll look at it in the text creation fall Redemption consummation that's our meta-narrative creation fall Redemption consummation how do we put it in terms of these four questions Who am I why am I here what is wrong with the world and how can what is wrong to be made right well now let's look at our text in Colossians let's look there at that paragraph that begins in verse 15 it reads he speaking of Christ it's the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him who am i it's interesting that the text starts the answer to that question Who am I by telling me who he is because according to the biblical worldview according to the Christian meta-narrative you cannot know or understand who you are apart from knowing and understanding who God is because essentially what separates our worldview is that we don't start with man and that's the issue the secular human worldview secular humanism humanism human human you get that we start with man and try to answer those questions that's not the way Christianity answers those questions we start with God there is a God who created the world he's the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven on earth visible invisible Thrones dominions rules authorities all things were created through him and for him what that means is Who I am is created and not just created if we look at the story of creation in Genesis chapter 1 man is not just created man is the crowning glory of creation amen unlike the rest of creation because man is made in the image of God oh I was reading a book today something I read a half to two-thirds of the stuff that I read makes me mad and I'm but I know that it will right I know that it will I know that it will beforehand and it's just there's a lot of craziness out there I want to kind of understand where the craziness is coming from it and in this book today the this gentleman who was trying to you do his best to come up with a way forward on the whole climate change issue title earth is there is no planet to be and he lays out really his worldview at the beginning of the book and he talks about the inherent dignity and value of every human life it's awesome man but then a little bit later on he talks about the inherent dignity in value of all human things and how his his son when his son learned that a human embryo is about the same size of you know this this small rodent creature at a certain point of development the son asked him about the relative value of the human embryo compared to this small rodent creature that is around the same size at a certain point of development and he admits that he could not answer the question about relative value and the reason that he could not answer the question is because in his for world view the answer the question Who am I starts with evolution evolution so there is no distinction in value for him man is not the crowning glory of the creation of God for him and then later on he starts talking about some other things in the book and this this this thing just becomes more and more clear because and he's talking about the fact that people are living longer and that we're doing such a good job with medicine and people's lives are becoming longer and some people believe that the first person who lived 200 years has already been born just think about that that's a long life y'all and what this means for him because of the population that is going to create is that we need to be thinking more critically about when and how we in people's lives again worldview just it just shows up right it just comes it matters it makes a difference our meta-narrative says that everyone does have intrinsic and inherent dignity and value and worth because were made in the image of God and that is a completely different starting point than any other worldview why is it for example that they're women in the Christian world and it's interesting you wouldn't know this you wouldn't know this to listen right I mean if you listen if you listen to the noise out there from a lot of feminist circles you would think that women in the Christian world have it worse than women anywhere else but the fact of the matter is that women and Christian cultures are the healthiest wealthiest most protected most prosperous women in the history of mankind period end of discussion it's not even close there is no other culture in the world where women are prized more or protected more than in Christian cultures throughout the history of mankind never never but why because this worldview that sees inherent dignity and value and every human being sees no distinction between the dignity and value of a female person and a male person does that mean things have always been great nope there's an answer everybody's been talking a lot about slavery in American slavery you know what's unique about slavery in America not that it existed because it existed everywhere in the world and by the way still exists and some by some measurements there's more slaves in the world today than they've ever been you know it was unique about American slavery we fought to end it that's what was unique in the history of the world not that it existed because again every period of history every culture in history had slavery not many of them took up arms to try to end it and why because if we believe in the inherent dignity and value of people because they're created by God and then the image of God then whether they're male or female whether they're Jew or Greek whether they're slave or free oh that sounds familiar doesn't it it's Galatians 3:28 people 3:28 and again upheld perfectly no no that's why we continue to yearn and creation continues to yearn for Christ to come and deliver us from our brokenness right but we're gonna get that I don't want to get ahead of myself that's a consummation part right but there's an answer just think about it it's teacher Johnny don't hit Susie Johnny don't take that from Susie Johnny don't fool Susie's hair Johnny stop it why because if I'm teaching Johnny that he is the result of random evolutionary processes then the only thing that all the matter is if Susie has something he wants and if he's big and strong enough to take it on what basis and on what grounds do I tell Johnny that he said treat Susie better Christian theism has an answer Johnny Susie's made in the image of God just like you are she has inherent dignity and Worth and value as one who bears the image of Almighty God and there's the way that we treat people because they're made in the image of God see I can say that to Johnny the evolutionist can only say that the Johnny if he's inherently dishonest Who am I crown and glory the creation of God okay so why am I here let's keep reading here's the inner image of the invisible God again talking about Christ the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible invisible with Thrones dominions rulers authorities all things were created through him and for him we read that and he is before all things and in him all things hold together he is the head of the body of the church the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent this finished a paragraph for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross what why did I want us to read that this paragraph this one and the one after we're going to look at it he's filled with repetition verse 15 first born verse 17 be for all things verse 18 head and then in the first 18 beginning and first born again and then preeminent all of that right there in verse 18 so we have firstborn before beginning firstborn head preeminent think he's making a point verse 15 last phrase all creation verse 16 by him all things and then toward the end of her 16 all things again verse 17 before all things again and in him all things again then in verse 18 in everything and in verse 20 all things so we got firstborn before head firstborn preeminent and then we got all things all things all things all things in everything all things do you think there's a point here even earlier at the end of verse 16 we saw that all things were created through him and for him there's repetition there so there's repetition over and over and over and over again and what's the repetition therefore to answer the second question why am I here I'm here for the same reason all things are here to bring glory and honor to the one who created me that's why I exist that's why you exist that's why everything exists not everything you're saying that's beyond everything y'all it all exists to bring him glory again do you not feel him making this point I just want to read it again let this just wash over you he is the image of the invisible God by the way that's that just right there that's huge the firstborn of all creation of her by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible invisible whether Thrones or dominions rulers or authorities all thing by the way there's a list that list is to magnify all things were created through him and for him he is before all things in him all things hold together he is the head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or heaven making peace by the blood of his cross all things all things all things everything all things in him by him through him for him firstborn head beginning firstborn preeminent that's who Christ is and he has to because he's the image of the invisible God which means he's God by the way not almost God not kind of God he's God which is why he's before all things Who am I crowning glory the creation of God why am I here to bring glory and honor to God not just to consume and enjoy not just to eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we all die but to bring glory to my Creator so question number three what's wrong with the world verse 21 and you need to stop right there what's wrong with the world and you I mean me too kinda but mainly you right by the way again we're going to get repetition we're gonna get repetition and it's it's this pattern of threes which again from the standpoint of oratory and rhetoric is a powerful powerful tool listen to what he says and you who once were alienated hostile in mind doing evil deeds that's three things right he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you what holy blameless above reproach before him if indeed you continue did you notice all those threes boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom that that's a rhetorical device you have the repetition of the paragraph before six seven times he says the same thing over and over again in two different ways in that paragraph and then right after it right after it he has this one two three once saying the same thing three different ways over and over and over again and you what was wrong what was wrong he gives us three things to communicate one truth again he's building here and you once were alienated hostile in mind and doing evil deeds alienated has to do with our relational and positional problem hostile and mind has to do with the way that we think and then engaged in evil deeds has to do with the way that we behave in other words ruined we were ruined there's another little word for this it's called sin what is wrong with the world sin we are alienated from God so alienated from God that we try to explain our own existence apart from God we're so alienated from God that we would rather believe in the virgin birth of the universe than the virgin birth of Christ somebody says they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus we say they're unintelligent somebody says they believe in the virgin birth of the universe we send you brilliant we're alienated from God we want to explain ourselves apart from him hostile in mind our thinking is darkened as Paul says in Romans 1 and then we're doing evil deed which grow out of this alienation and which grew out of our hostile minds that's what's wrong it's not that you're insufficiently educated it's not it's not the world is filled with brilliant evil people amen man has become far more sophisticated sophisticated and and far more educated and you know what that does you know the difference here's the difference we've gone from being able to kill one another one at a time face to face with a sword to being able to push buttons and kill one another by the thousands but we're still killing each other just and more sophisticated in educated ways we still steal from each other it's just that now instead of trying to figure out how to get close enough to put a hand in your pocket people just got to figure out what the codes are educated sophisticated our problem is not that we're insufficiently educated our problem is not that we're insufficiently governed that is my question who's governing in the governor's Amen the problem is sin or to put it another way Who am I I'm the crowning glory his creation of God why am I here to bring glory and honor to the God who created me what's wrong with the world I don't I live for me and I live to satisfy me again back to that paragraph all creation all things all things all things all things in everything all things first born before head first born preeminent over and over and over again making much of Christ saying that's that's who you are and that's why you're here and then but you don't do that you're broken and unlike the therapeutic model your problem is not on the outside of you waiting for the solution from the inside of you no no our worldview says your problem is on the inside of you and the solution is on the outside of you how can what is wrong remade right there's the question look at verse 21 again and you once where alien is hostile in mind doing evil deeds he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you there was three things wrong with us right alienated hostile in mind doing evil deeds in order to present you holy blameless above reproach what's the answer the answer the cross as Isaiah says all we like sheep have gone astray each of us had turned to his own way but God has laid upon him the iniquity of us all that's the answer that's the answer God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him Christ died for sin once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us back to God God demonstrated his love for you in this in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that's the answer that's the answer Christ's death on the cross but I want you to get this I want you to I want you to understand this you were alienated you were hostile in mind you were doing evil deeds and then he reconciled you in his body of flesh we start with verse 15 he's the image of the invisible God and now in verse 22 in his body of flesh and by his death the very one who's the image of the invisible God takes on the body of flesh and dies the very one who's the image of the invisible God because here we are under the federal headship of the first atom and we're guilty before God because the first atom is our federal head and he falls and we fall in him he sins and we sin in him we are born in sin shaped in iniquity because we are under the federal headship of the first atom you understand federal headship don't tell me you don't don't tell me you don't December 7th 1941 a day which will live in infamy what happened what happened to the next day what happened the next day was Congress declared war here's what Congress didn't do Congress didn't get together and say ok we're gonna sign this and send this to Japan and it's gonna say that all of us who have signed here challenge you to a fight no our federal head signed the document that declared war on behalf of all of those under their federal headship it didn't matter if we agreed or not once our federal heads declared war all of us were at war cuz that's how federal headship works we have a flag Amen we have a flag nobody asked you right you don't get to you don't get to say you know I had this I think it'd be pretty if we put a little purple right there and we put a little is right you know you don't get to do that because your federal head determined what your federal emblem would be are you following me that's federal headship and Adam is our federal head and Adam fell Adams sinned and all of us because our federal head essentially declared war with God fell into sin under Adam and we needed another federal head but there's a problem our federal head had to be had to be a man but but man is born into sin because man is born under Adam how do we have a federal head who's a man who could represent us before God like Adam represented us before God if every man is born in sin the answer to that is in the fullness of time God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law but not born of a man born of a woman by the Holy Spirit don't you ever let anybody tell you that the virgin birth doesn't matter because that's why Christ is the god man he is the image of the invisible God but takes on flesh and becomes a man so that he can be our representative but he doesn't take on Adam's sin otherwise he'd have his own sin to die for could not atone for yours and as a man he lives a perfect sinless life so that he can impute righteousness to all of those who place faith in Him and then he dies a vicarious substitutionary death so that God may be just in punishing sin and the justifier of all who place faith in Jesus and how do we know that that is acceptable because he's called the firstborn from the dead watch this if I introduced a child of mine to you or you introduced a child of yours to me and you say this is our firstborn guess what I automatically know you have other children because you're only the firstborn if some comes after you huh he's the firstborn from the dead why because those who are under his federal headship will overcome death hell and the grave just like he did how can what is wrong be made right through the blood of his cross he reconciles us in his body of flesh by his death in order to present us holy blameless and above reproach that's the answer every other religion in the world can basically be summed up in this you need to have some kind of religious experience and now they'll define that differently but essentially you need to have some kind of religious experience go through some religious right and then after that do more good stuff than bad stuff and hope for the best when you die that's what I believed when I first heard the gospel I I never heard their I never heard the gospel till I got to a university I didn't grow up around Christians I didn't grow up around Christianity I was raised by a single teenage Buddhist mother Buddhism was the only religion I knew I didn't know about Christianity to shared with me in college and essentially I had the same idea you need to have some kind of religious experience they need to do more good stuff than bad stuff I hope for the best when you die God comes shares the gospel with me I don't really get what he's talking about cuz I don't I mean world view wise I'm a world apart we spent three weeks together talking about this stuff and all of a sudden two things came crashing down on me number one I can't be good a mint somebody I can't be good y'all I tried it I can't do it and then even when I am doing good at being good then I get proud of the fact that I'm being good and the pride is not good I got to start all over again second problem that came crashing down in on me what about the stuff I did before my religious experience I mean I I have this religious experience I'll go through this religious right and then for the rest of my life I'm trying to be good enough so that I have more on the right side of the scale I can't even do that let alone the stuff before how do I deal with that Christ died for sin once for all the blood of Jesus is sufficient there's no other answer anywhere else in the world Who am I the crowning glory the creation of God why am I here I'm here to bring glory and honor to God what is wrong with the world me I don't do what I was created to do I don't glorify the God who I was created to glorify instead I live for me myself and I I've alienated from God I'm hostile in mind I'm engaged in evil deeds that's what's wrong how can what is wrong be made right through the Penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on my behalf that's my only hope that's your only hope you're only sufficient answer that's it and so we got a world full of people who've coaches they're trying to be good enough or governed enough or educated enough to deal with their sin problem and that it just it digs of it digs a deeper hole you're more alienated from God so now I'm a Lea native from God and then when I think about the problems in my world my answer is something other than God it's further alienate should be from God or a therapeutic answer problems out there answers in here again alienated from God he provides the answer through the person and work of Christ remember I told you these four pieces creation fall Redemption consummation God created the world man fell an atom man is redeemed in Christ and we anxiously await the consummation of all things at his return that's the right narrative I don't know what you believe about God man truth knowledge ethics I don't know what you've come to believe about the overarching story that explains who we are and why we're here but if it's anything other than creation fall Redemption consummation if it's other it's anything other than Who am I crowning glory the creation of God why am I here to bring glory and honor to God what is wrong with the world me and my sin how can it maybe be made right through the blood of Christ if that's not your answer then you have no hope and both know that if that's not your answer whatever is your answer it's insufficient flee to Christ flee to Christ cling to the cross for it is indeed and he is indeed your only hope let's pray gracious God our Heavenly Father how we thank you and praise you for your goodness and kindness and mercy toward us that goodness and kindness and mercy that we see the person and work of Christ thank you for granting us an opportunity tonight to make much of him grant by your grace that we might be found in him for he is indeed our only hope and we ask this in his name and for his sake amen

Channel: First Baptist Alcoa

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Keywords: worship, first, baptist, church, sermon, alcoa, tn, tennessee, choir, broadcast, Praise, Worship (style), Baptists (Religion), Ministry, Lord, Christian Worship, Christianity (Religion), Religion (Literary Genre), Gospel, ryan roach

Id: DmtQnn5oZaw

Length: 52min 35sec (3155 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020