Good morning on this beautiful fall morning. This morning we sang the Song, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation, written by a young man named Joachim Neander. Joachim, interestingly enough, at the age of 18, went to a church service with several of his friends to make fun of the preacher; only, things didnt turn out how he thought. Do you know what happened? He heard the Gospel, and He was saved. He gave his heart and life to Christ. He only lived to be 30 years old, but during that span, he wrote 60 Songs. He loved nature and Creation. In an ironic twist, his most well-known hymn that he wrote was Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. He loved Creation and nature so much. There was a cave and a valley where he inhabited quite often. He went there to pray and meditate. He was so well known that that valley actually became Neander Valley. About 100 years later when supposedly some missing links were found, guess what one of those missing links was named? Neanderfall Man. Isnt that amazing? Only the real Neander for whom Neanderfall Man was named would tell you that the God of Creation changed His life. There is design everywhere you see. Weve talked about that in many messages before, so I want to talk today about Gods design and order in society: Social Order and Sociology. Turn, if you will, to the Book of Matthew 12:31 (Page 967 of pew Bibles). Our wonderful tech team is going to put it on the screen, so I dont have to read it out of the Bible. I can save my eyeballs. Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of His day, and He said, And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. We are not even talking about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but youre thinking, What in the world does this have to do with social order, right? Heres my question: how many of you have ever watched a pro sports game and the player makes some fabulous play, especially in football, and the camera focuses in on him-zeros in on him-and all the sudden the player turns, looks at the camera, waves and says, Hi Mom. How come they dont say, Hi Dad? In fact, one of the most hilarious things I ever saw was about six or seven years ago. NFL Films made a movie, or a video clip, of all these guys saying, Hi Mom. They put it to Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture. It was fabulous. It had all these different players saying hi mom in all these different ways. It was absolutely great. There is this honor of Mother. Where did that come from? It is in fact among young men. Sometimes you make fun of each others dads, but who is the one person you dont make fun of, and you know if you do, youre going to pay a price for it? Mom. Its still etched in my memory, in very vivid living color, my senior year in high school in shop class. I walked in one day, and a young man who was very arrogant and cocky walked in after I did. His name was Bruce. In front of everybody, he started to sing really filthy and crude things about my mother. At that point in my life, Id realized I couldnt fight. As much as I would have liked to put him on the floor, I could not do that. So I said, Bruce, I tell you what. You deserve to get slapped and smacked and beaten to a bloody pulp, but I cant do that, so I tell you what Im going to do. Im not going to hit you; Im going to let you hit me. Ill give you a free shot. You hit me in the stomach as hard as you jolly well please. His eyes got big. He was like, Youre kidding me! I said, No! As hard as you want. Crank it up and hammer me. I dont care. Unbeknownst to Bruce, I had spent the last four years of my life doing 400 sit-ups a day, every single day. So Bruces eyes get wide, and his mouth is salivating, and he draws back and swings, and his wrist goes all wobbly. He sprained his wrist very badly, and all the guys in the shop class were sitting there laughing at him. I said, Bruce, that ought to teach you not to make fun of other peoples mothers, especially mothers who make their sons go down in the basement and do 400 sit-ups a night. There is this desire to defend and protect Moms name. Where did that come from? Where did that come from? I submit to you this morning that that comes from the relationship of God the Son to God the Holy Spirit and God the Father to God the Holy Spirit. There have been many illustrations of the Trinity and the Godhead, none of which are perfect. Its with humility that I give you this one. As you think about the Trinity and the Godhead, how many cans of racquetballs am I holding up? One. Okay, thank you very much. Not two cans, which are also tropical birds with big beaks and colorful… Not two cans, not three cans, not four cans: One can. But inside that can, you have how many balls? Three. You guys are awesome! The interesting thing is you couldnt tell one from the other, right? Theyre all interchangeable. Thats maybe in some ways where our illustration breaks down because in the Godhead, there are various roles that the members of the Godhead perform. The Westminster Shorter Catechism said 200 years ago the members of the Godhead are the same in essence and equal in power and glory. To see one is to see the other. So that Jesus said, If youve seen me, youve seen the Father. They bear the same essence, the same substance, and the same characteristics, the same quality; yet, they are three individuals. How does the Godhead work? Well, the Son, interestingly enough, He is going to rule and reign on this earth. In fact, the Son says that He is going to reign until He puts all enemies under his feet. Paul says, Then when He has done that, He will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father. So you have the Son in subjection in honoring the Father. You see that in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays to the Father, Not my will, but Yours be done. If there is one member of the Godhead that is seemingly left out sometimes, and the least well-known, who is that? The Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, the Holy Spirit is the one who seemingly gets less honor, less attention, and the members of the Godhead say that member, the Holy Spirit, Youd better not say anything about Him. Interesting, right? So we get ticked off as young man if they say something about our mothers. Look what Jesus says. He says, You can blaspheme the Father, and you can find forgiveness. You can blaspheme Me, the Son, and you can find forgiveness, but youd better not blaspheme the Holy Spirit. You do that, the Son says, You blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and youre in trouble. Isnt that interesting? Why do we react that way with our moms? Friends, that is the stamp of the Godhead in our families. We ask ourselves, in our societies, our families, our government, and at work, How do we function? God is a God of word. Hes not a God of confusion. Hes a God of design. You see it everywhere in Creation. As we look at that pattern in families, labor, and governments today, we want to take some lessons from there, and we want to see Gods design and how that applies to our lives. First of all, in families, I would say that because of that stamp of God, friends, as a human being, you cannot stand chaos. You cant abide it. What happens in a family when order is thrown out and theres no order in a family? You have fracturing of families; divorce follows. What is the foundation of that kind of order? Id call it the Two Ss: submission, which in our culture is almost a dirty word, isnt it? The second is servant leadership, but thats what you have: Service and Submission, leaders using their positions to serve others, and those under authority submitting themselves to the leadership of those over them. Thats the model of the Godhead, service and submission, among the members of the Godhead. Thats what creates order. When you have leaders in homes and parents who are servants to each other and children who honor their parents, who are in submission to them. You have order. When that is violated, you have chaos. The same thing happens in governments, and the same thing happens at work and on the job. If you watched the videos, Del Tackett will talk about the family a little more extensively and government and labor a little less extensively, so we want to jump into that today. If we can turn to Romans 13:1 (page 1123), look at what it says, Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which god has established. Theres the S word again, which, again, is almost like a curse word in our culture. Everyone must, what? Submit himself to the governing authorities. Whats your attitude about that? Submission, honor, respect. Those are like lost words in our culture, arent they? Some of you that were teachers 50 years ago in our schools, the worst crimes were running in the halls and chewing gum. I know Im getting older, but when I graduated from a four-year high school with over 2,000 kids, I knew one child who came from divorced parents. There was one pregnancy in our school. That was from a school of 2,000 kids! What has happened is we have gotten away from respect, honor, authority, and submission. We have reaped the consequences of that, right? We pay the price in our society as that order breaks down. Interestingly enough, where did that start? We were talking about evolution. When you begin to say that everything got here by accident, by chance, we just happened to show up here…POOF! And things magically appeared. There was no design, no order, and no structure, which basically means as Huxley, Darwins bulldog, said, Do you know why everyone embraces evolution? This is interesting. …because evolution says there is no God, and it gives us license to do anything that we want to do. Huxley said, …especially that allows us to do anything we want sexually. Isnt that interesting? Those are the words of an atheist and an evolutionist, not a Creationist. But what happens when we throw God and His pattern out, you reap the consequences; you reap chaos. Friends, in our societies and our government, this is the one thing we cannot abide. Its the one thing we have to understand or realize. When we throw off order, and we throw off self-control, we get basically the type of government that we deserve. Do you realize that? How many of us have every complained about bigger and bigger government, higher taxes, more byrocracy? Theres a verse in Proverbs that the wisest man that ever lived, Proverbs 28:2 (page 653), Solomon says, For the transgression of a land, many are its princes. In other words, the less self-control that people have, the more bureaucrats have to control them and tell them what to do. The songwriter, 100 years ago, wrote America, confirm my soul. America, America, God shed His grace on thee. Confirm thy soul and self-control by liberty and law. When people have self-control, you dont need near as big of a government telling you what to do, right? This is not politically correct to say, okay? Im not taking potshots at anybody elses religion; although, there is truth, but I will never forget until the day I die a week after we liberated Baghdad, one of the holiest shrines in a small city a few miles away from there-the shrine of Mohammads nephew, the Shiites holiest shrine, was now open. National Geographic had pictures of thousands and thousands of men, women, dads, sons, grandfathers, grandsons, all dressed in white, streaming to this holiest site. Do you know what they were doing? They had machetes and knives, and the grandfathers, sons, and grandsons were cutting themselves, cutting their sons, cutting their grandsons. There was blood streaming down their faces. This was in National Geographic. You can look it up. Blood was streaming down their white garments. If you are a grandfather, could you imagine taking a machete and cutting your grandson, taking a dagger and slicing your son or your grandson? I could not imagine such a thing! I said to myself, And we are going to bring democracy to these people? You have got to be kidding me! I, in no way, in no way at all, condone anything Saddam Hussein did, but you know why he existed? Do you know why he ruled with a ruthless iron fist for 20 years? Because for 2,000 years, those people have been killing each other, slitting each others throats, and shedding each others blood. Because they have very little self-control, somebody with an iron hand and an iron rod has to bring order because people cannot abide chaos. Weve seen this in the last 100 years in the world: how many of you have ever heard the lie that all wars in history have been started over religion and that all wars are religious wars. If you go to many history classes, you hear that lie. There have been some awful atrocities committed in the name of religion. Im not lying to you. In fact, one of the degrees I have is in history. Im being honest. There have been atrocities committed in the name of religion; however, do you know what they dont tell you? In the last 100 years, in the 20th Century, more people have died in the 20th Century under atheistic regimes. That threw God out of the picture and denied His order. More people died under those brutal regimes than all the other wars of all of history, of all the years put together. Isnt that amazing? They dont tell you that, do they? Adolf Hitler, by conservative estimates-and hes the boogieman of the 20th Century, killed 3 million people. In moderate estimates, he killed 6 million. Adolf Hitler was a kindergartner compared to what Joseph Stalin did in Russia. When communism outlawed Christianity, outlawed God, and instituted atheistic government and denied Gods social orders and regimes, do you know what happened? Joseph Stalin ended up butchering, conservative estimates, 30 million of his own people. Moderated estimates say 50 million of his own people. Joseph Stalin was in junior high compared to what Mao Zedong did in communist, atheistic China. Mao Zedong ran Chiang Kai-shek as a Christian out of China. Chiang Kai-shek fled to Formosa, now Taiwan. And interestingly enough Hong Kong and Taiwan are some of the tiniest and most prosperous countries in the world founded with a Christian leader. When Mao Zedong ran Chiang Kai-shek out of China, communism and atheism took over. Christianity, religion, was outlawed in China, and Mao proceeded to butcher, by conservative estimates, 70 million of his own people. By liberal estimates, or moderate estimates, 100 million plus of his own people were butchered. Thats what Godlessness gets you. On the other hand, contrary to the American Revolution, we sent letters to King George III and said, Why can we do this? Because you, as a king, cannot do whatever you jolly well please. But what did our Forefathers write to him? We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. There are universal laws, King, that apply to you. There are truths; there are absolutes; there are laws that apply to everybody whether you sit on the thrown or youre the lowliest pheasant. These laws apply to you. So the American Revolution, even though there was bloodshed, was characterized by one word: order and not by chaos. We instituted the government and George Washington. At the chance where he could have made himself King, the most powerful man in the country, he stepped down after two terms. King George III saw that George Washington, this powerful leader, stepped out and submitted himself to the rule of everybody and was a true servant. King George III said that George Washington truly was the most powerful man in the world, to have power and give it up. What happened, on the other hand, in France? During the French Revolution, where they threw off God, distained God, at the Age of Enlightenment from Locke and Montesquieu and Rousseau, it lead to butchery everywhere. You know the symbol of the French Revolution, the Guillotine. The whole symbolism, throw God out of the picture and heads roll. You talk about social order! They went so far as to deny God and say that, Since God instituted the seven-day week, were going to institute the eight-day week. Only, do you know what? It didnt work. People were breaking down; horses were breaking down; things did not work because they denied the very creative order of God. This is what happens in societies and countries where you deny that: chaos reigns. Ill go one step further. When we talk about a Christian worldview, what makes government work? Is there any perfect form of government? The answer is no. Its interesting to think of what form of government the new Heaven and the new earth will be? It will be a monarchy. Jesus is King; He reigns. Will it work? Will it be wonderful? Absolutely. Why? Because the King is perfect and good and just. If the people in charge, those in charge, are holy, good, just, and right, guess what? Any form of government will work. If theyre not, it wont. To contrast philosophically, what do we hear everywhere, which kind of government are we-98 percent of the time? Ninety-eight percent of the time, youll hear that America is a democracy. My question to you: Is that true? The answer is no. Remember what you said everyday in school growing up? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands... Democracy is ruled by the majority. To break to down to the bear essence, its mob rule. So what if the mob is bad? What if the mob is evil? Democracy isnt so wonderful, is it? How many of you have ever experienced fighting? That is one reason why it bothers me so much when I see people get picked on and abused; I used to be that. How many of you have ever experienced mob rule in junior high or high school? Ive seen it; youve seen it. Its not fun, is it? When the majority decides they are going to pick on the weak, the helpless, and the innocent. The contrast that was with the Republic, which is intended to be ruled by law, was there are certain absolutes, certain truths that you cannot deny. These exist. Thats what America was founded as. It was because our leaders believed in the Word of God. There are absolutes that God designed. Lets jump into labor really quickly. Flash forward to 1 Peter 2:18 (page 1201). Slavery was outlawed in the United States, over 140 years ago, so lets substitute workers in this passage. Workers, submit yourselves to your masters (or bosses) with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. Okay, well stop right there for a second. As you look at the social, are you talking about the levels of the Godhead, the three persons of the Godhead? Do you know that government can talk about it? Government worked the same way. In work and government, what do you have? You have three levels of authority or three levels of rules, three levels of existence in government or work. You have in government, in the United States, a federal government, a state government, and a local government. Any form of government, whether its autocratic-ruled by a dictator or an individual; monarchy; ruled by a king; democracy; republic communism; any of those, you may have one visionary-one lead person. But if you have a society of several million people, can that one lead person and that one visionary, that one ruler, can they minister and rule everybody by themselves. The answer is no. You cant be that many places at once. So the gap between the leader and the people is bridged by middle management, right? Bureaucracy. Let me tell you something; those of you who are in middle management know it. Those of you who are under middle management, give them a break. They have the toughest job in the world. People in middle management have to be in submission and honor and respect of the people over them, right? Then they have to deal with the people under them. They have a tough job. The Godhead shows again what happens when there is honor given all the way around, where there is a servant-like attitude. Theres submission; theres honor and respect for every member. Theres complete and incredible harmony. But what happens when that isnt happening, when workers rise up against bosses, and bosses use their position to grind workers under their heal and gain advantage? What kind of a workplace do you have? Not very fun, is it? Not very enjoyable. But on the other hand, when you have a workplace where bosses, owners and CEOs use their position to be servant leaders, and workers respect them, and people in middle management honor, serve, and respect both ways, you have an amazing place. One of my favorite stories ever is of Henry Heinz. Do you know who Henry Heinz was? Youve heard of Heinz Ketchup. It used to be Heinz 57 Varieties. Henry Heinz knew what it was like to grow up with nothing. He grew up on a small farm, and at nine years old, he was given two acres of his own, from which he grew fresh vegetables. At nine years old, Henry Heinz started making horseradish. By his teens, he had a booming business. By the age of 21, he was making $2,400 a year, which doesnt sound like a lot now, but in the early 1900s, that was a lot of money. He went on to found his company, Heinz and named it 57 Varieties even thought they used way more varieties than that, he thought 57 sounded like a cool number. When the Labor Movement came in and unions came in, they repeatedly tried to enter Henry Heinzs companies, and nobody wanted them. Why do you think that was? It was because Henry Heinz was a Christian. He had a huge impact in Pittsburghs Sunday Schools. Henry Heinz was the first man to build swimming pools for his employees. Henry Heinz built gymnasiums for his employees. He had his people hold classes so that if his employees wanted to better themselves, they could take classes and better themselves. Henry was one of the first people in America to provide free medical benefits with doctors and nurses on hand for his workers. Isnt that amazing? So when people came in and started trying to stir them up against management, the workers were saying, You have to be out of your mind! Everybody wanted to work for Henry Heinz. Weve got benefits. Weve got swimming pools. Weve got gymnasiums. Weve got free medical care. Wow! How incredible when somebody uses their resources, money, to care for their workers, right? The workers in turn show honor and respect. Yet, heres the last thing God says in this passage. Thats the idea, what if isnt true? He says, For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. When you realize God put those bosses, good or bad, over you, it changes your attitude. Do you also realize that the way you treat your boss is the way you would treat Jesus Christ. How is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing a wrong and endure it, but if you suffer for doing well and you endure it, this is commendable before God? To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. Lets go back to Heavenly families. Let me ask you. Kids, God says Honor Your Parents- point blank, cut and dried, end of discussion. Let me ask you a question. Has any Father ever asked any more of a kid or a son or a child than God the Father asked of His Son, Jesus Christ? Son, I have a plan. Youre going to go through hell, multi-billions of times over to suffer for all the sins of the world, even though You didnt ever commit a sin in Your life. Did Jesus throw a hissy fit? Did Jesus say, Well, how dare You treat Me that way? Did He slam the bedroom door on the Heavenly Godhead and say, Forget You Dad? No. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He falls on His face before God and says, Father, not My will, but Yours be done. Have you ever gotten in trouble from being way too respectful, way too honorable, and way too noble? You are going to see your kids teachers, and the teacher is like, Well, your child is just way too respectful. They honor everybody in the school way too much, will you please, please get them to quit? Did Jesus suffer? Absolutely. Even though He committed no sin, and no deceit was in His mouth, did He suffer more than any son has ever suffered for a father? Absolutely. What did it get Him though? Therefore, God is also highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Will He be rewarded? Absolutely. Has any king or any nation ever asked anything as much out of their citizens as the King of the Universe asked out of His Son? The answer is no. Has any boss ever asked as much out of their workers as God the Father, the Heavenly Master, asked out of His Son, the Servant? The answer is no. What did it get Him? The greatest reward, the greatest honors, the greatest position the world has ever seen. God asks us to mimic and to mirror His example. Though He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth, yet what happened? When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. God knows that if you show honor, you show respect, you know what will happen? The way you treat your boss is the way you treat Jesus Christ. He sees everything, doesnt He? He sees all the things that you go through, and there is not one thing that happens to you that He does not see. He will reward you for your attitude. He will reward you for your goodness. He will reward you for doing your job to the best of your ability. I was just talking with a gentleman on the way out. He said, I started working in a factory… He could tell the difference between the people who were Christians and who were not. The people who were not were griping about everything under the sun, from the boss to the pay… He said, I could walk up to people who were Christians and say, Are you a Christian? and theyd say, Yeah, howd you know? Because you dont whine, you dont gripe, and you dont run your mouth. Isnt that amazing? Thats the example of Jesus Christ. That helps us to bring order to the world that we live in. So pray that God will encourage you. If youre in a position of authority, use that to serve and to bless and build up others. If youre in a position with people under you, honor them, so give them reverence, respect. Youll reap the rewards of that. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but down the road and for all eternity. God bless you.