The Christian Family: Marriage and Household Order: The Family

The Family - Part 2

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Family Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2007-08-26

Synopsis: In this sermon, John Weaver continues his series on the biblical doctrine of the family, focusing on the dominion aspect. He argues that Christ, as the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion, reversing the fall by restoring knowledge, righteousness, and authority. The family is designed by God as an instrument of dominion, with responsibility, authority, and private property as key components. God's law is the instrument of dominion, and success requires obedience to His Word. Applications emphasize communication, cooperation, and knowing and applying Scripture.

[John Weaver] This next four messages, I believe, are going to be vitally important as far as the family is concerned, the doctrine of the family. And I would encourage you to be faithful for the next four Sundays after next Sunday so that you may hear these messages. There's going to be a few more beyond that. But I do pray that you'll be faithful and make application to them. Already, there's a number of things that I want to to bring to you beyond this that I've been working on.

[John Weaver] And I was asked to write an article. And when I wrote the article, I said, might as well make it a message. So the article I was asked to write is entitled, What's the secession treason? And so I have to prove it not only historically, but biblically. And so I'm dealing I've dealt with that I've dealt with several other messages that I'm just eager to preach and. And in fact.

[John Weaver] There's a lot, a lot to share, so let's open our Bible's day to Genesis chapter two, Genesis chapter two verses 18 through 25, Genesis two verses 18 through 25. And today we come to number two. Message number 2 on the institution of the family and we're still covering the dominion aspect. So notice Genesis 2 beginning with verse 18. And the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone.

[John Weaver] I will make and help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found in hell meat for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh, and stead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had brought from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

[John Weaver] They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Now, last week we began our study on the family by looking at Genesis chapter 2, because Genesis chapter 2 not only demonstrates the origin of the family, but also the dominion aspect. So let's begin by asking a simple question. Why did God institute the family? Very obviously, it was for more reasons than just mere reproduction. Adam and Eve were not only told to reproduce, they were also told to subdue and to exercise dominion. And I pointed out last week that this dominion mandate was given in light of the married estate. It was given to Adam and Eve as husband and wife. Now, I covered three points last week.

[John Weaver] The first one is this. The family must be viewed in terms of God. That is, it has a theological significance. You cannot understand the family by modern day theories of socialism and evolution and Freudian philosophy. The only way you can understand the family is based upon the Word of God. The second point that I covered last week was this, that the family was designed by God to be an instrument in dominion. Therefore, we have its cultural significance. And then thirdly, I pointed out last week that man's fall was the result of attempting an autonomous dominion apart from God. Remember what the word autonomous means, auto, is self, nomos, law. So when we talk about an autonomous individual, he's one who follows his own law, his own will, he is following self is what it amounts to. So the fall that we looked at in Genesis chapter 3 came about when Adam then endeavored to create basically his own law and exercise dominion apart from God. So when Adam tried to do that, he brought death to himself and to his posterity.

[John Weaver] You remember I gave you the verse in Proverbs 8 in verse 36 where our Lord said, He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. And so what happened was this. We died in Adam. In fact, everything we had in Adam, we lost. We not only lost everything we had in Adam, we were positively cursed. So in Adam, the only thing that now exists is misery, death, and destruction. In fact, Martin Luther basically said it like this. He said, there are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles. So you're either in Christ or you're in Adam. So we basically lost everything in Adam. That's why the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so that all have sinned. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. When did all sin? We all sinned in Adam. So in Adam then, we lost everything and the curse of God was placed upon us.

[John Weaver] Now, today I want to begin with the fourth point, and that is this, that Christ, the second man, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion. Let me say that again. Christ, the second man, Christ, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to two passages. The first one, Psalm 69, and then 1 Corinthians 15. Psalm 69, and we're going to read verse 4. Psalm 69, verse 4, and then we're going over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want you to note What is said of our Lord in Psalm 69? Look in verse four. This is a messianic song and it has reference to Christ. So in Psalm 69, verse four, our Lord says this.

[John Weaver] They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They that would destroy me being my enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just tell you that Psalm 69, verse 4, applies directly to Jesus Christ. In fact, in the New Testament, in John 15, verse 25, our Lord quotes Psalm 69, verse 4, and applies it to Himself. There He said,"...but this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, that they hated Me without a cause." So the first part of verse 4, of Psalm 69 is applied directly to Jesus Christ. I might also point out that the last part of verse 4 is also applied directly to Jesus Christ. For as he said, they that hate me are hating him without a cause, and his enemies were numerous.

[John Weaver] But then he says, Then I restored that which I took not away. So Christ now has given back something that He did not take away. Well, what is He talking about? Well, look in 1 Corinthians 15, and let's read verses 45 through 47. 1 Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 45. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45, and so it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy, and the second man is the Lord from heaven. That is an interesting... In verse 45, Adam is called the first man. And in verse 45, Christ is called the last Adam. In verse 47, Adam is called the first man of the earth. And in verse 47, Christ is called the second man. So Jesus Christ is now called the last Adam and the second man. So, how in the world can Christ be called the last Adam?

[John Weaver] How can Christ be called the second man? Well, he is called the second man not because he was the second man chronologically speaking. Christ was first and foremost. It was Christ who created Adam. He is the creator of all things. But he is called the second man because he was the second one in time to sustain a federal headship with a people. Adam was the first one in time to sustain a federal headship. In other words, we were in Adam. What Adam did, we did. When Adam sinned, we sinned.

[John Weaver] That's why the curse of God passed upon us. That's why, as in Adam, all die. Everything that happened to Adam basically happened to us. We did it because he was our representative and we were there in him. Now, Jesus Christ is called the last Adam because there will never, ever be anyone else after him to sustain this federal headship and representation with the people.

[John Weaver] Now, if you look in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and I want you to see this in light of 1 Corinthians 15, but Romans chapter 5 and verse 14. Look what the Bible says in comparing Christ and Adam. Romans 5 verse 14. The Bible says, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him that was to come." Now listen carefully. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him who was to come.

[John Weaver] So you have to ask yourself this question. How in the world could Adam be a figure or a type of Christ? Adam sinned. Christ did not sin. Adam failed. Christ did not fail. How in the world could Adam then be a figure or a type of Christ? And the answer is, Adam sustained a federal headship with a people. He was our federal representative. Christ also sustains a federal headship with the people. He also is our representative. So, he is the figure of Adam, or the type of Adam, only in the fact that he sustained this federal headship. Adam plunged all of his posterity into sin and death. Christ takes all of his posterity and raises them out of sin and death and gives them eternal life.

[John Weaver] Now, there's a whole argument based upon this in Romans chapter 5. I'm not going to get into that today because I'm not dealing with this particularly. But if I were to ask you, why did Jesus Christ come? You would probably answer me, to save sinners. And I'm going to tell you that that is an excellent answer, although it may not be the full answer. You would have to understand what salvation included for that answer to be acceptable.

[John Weaver] You say, what are you talking about? Well, look in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, and you will see why Jesus Christ came. Yes, He came to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said that. He came to save sinners of whom Paul said He was chief. But when you look in 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, it goes a little further than that. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, the Bible says,"...for Christ hath also suffered for sins, the just for the unjust." Why?

[John Weaver] That He might bring us to God. "...being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."

[John Weaver] Now, why did Christ come? To save us, yes. But what is involved in saving us? In saving us, He brings us to God. What happened in the garden? Adam sinned. He hid himself. He lied. He ran from God. Now Christ comes and saves us. But in saving us, he brings us back to God. In the garden, Adam basically said this, Lord, I don't want your law. I'm going to be a law to myself. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'll exercise dominion the way I want to exercise dominion. You don't have any right to tell me what to do. Now Christ has come, and He saves us, and He brings us to Himself, and then He leads us back to the Father, and now we bow to the Father and say, O how love I thy law! Thou hast the right to rule over me. You have the right to tell me what to do and how to live. It's you, Lord, that I need to love and need to serve. So in other words, Christ then basically has reversed the fall.

[John Weaver] Now, if I were to ask you what Adam had in the garden, Here's what he had. He had original knowledge, righteousness, and dominion. Listen, Adam was not a caveman. Adam communed with God. He walked with the Lord in the cool of the day, the Bible says. Adam read The purpose of God in all of those animals that he named. As I said last week, he was scientifically classifying those animals. Adam was a brilliant man. He did have original knowledge and righteousness and dominion.

[John Weaver] But what happened was this. When he sinned against God, he lost all of it. His mind now becomes clouded. He becomes ignorant. In fact, that's what the Bible says about all of those people who left God, they being ignorant of God. He lost his righteousness. And he lost his dominion in the sense that now it has become perverted. Well, what does Christ do for us in salvation?

[John Weaver] I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 3 in verse 10. Colossians 3. And look at verse 10. Then we'll go to Ephesians chapter 4. Look in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10. Here's what the Bible says, Colossians 3 verse 10, And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

[John Weaver] What does Christ do when he saves us? He restores knowledge to us. Knowledge of God. Knowledge of His Word. Look now, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. So in Christ then, we have a renewed, godly knowledge. Look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. Chapter 4, if you would, and verse 24. Ephesians 4, verse 24. And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in true righteousness or in righteousness and true holiness.

[John Weaver] What now have we gotten back? Not only knowledge, but righteousness and holiness. You say, what about dominion? Well, let me just quote it. Do you remember in Matthew 28 in verse 18, what did our Lord say? All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. Therefore, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Do you realize the Great Commission is an aspect of the dominion mandate? It's an aspect of the great charter that God gave to Adam and Eve to subdue and exercise dominion. We got back far more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam. Adam had limited authority. Christ has all authority. Adam had a created righteousness. We now have the perfect righteousness of Christ. Adam had original knowledge. We now have the full revelation of God given us in His Word. Why did Christ come? You say to save sinners. Yes. But to save those sinners and bring them back to God the Father.

[John Weaver] So the Christian man and the Christian family are now instruments in extending the Kingdom of God. The Christian man and the Christian family have been brought back by Christ to serve the Father in honoring Him and extending His Kingdom. Let me go to point number five today, and here it is. Dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals. Dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals.

[John Weaver] Have you ever asked yourself this question? What if Adam had not sinned? Well, Henry last Sunday said, well, one thing for sure, he would never die. And that's true. Wow. Can you imagine? If Adam had not sinned, everyone who had ever been born since the beginning of time would still be alive. Now, that leads me to this question. Had Adam not sinned, would he have remained in the Garden of Eden forever? The answer is no. The Garden of Eden was just simply a prototype.

[John Weaver] He would have gone there, or gone from there, subduing the earth, exercising dominion as he had been commanded by God in Genesis 1, 26 through 27. The Garden was just simply the beginning. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 115 and verse 16? Listen to this. Even the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children of men." Now, what all the earth includes, I don't know.

[John Weaver] It may include our moon, it may include our sun, it may include our planet. I'm just simply saying. But God gave us the entire earth. Thus, in Christ, the Christian man and the Christian family are called to function in the sphere of dominion. Now, think about this. The home, the Christian family, the home is only the beginning. Just like the Garden of Eden was to be the beginning for Adam, our Christian families are simply to be the beginning for us.

[John Weaver] We refer to our homes as our domiciles. Ever wondered why you refer to your home as your domicile? Well, the Latin word domini means Lord. And the Latin word domus means house. You know what domicile actually means? It means that you are the lord of your house. Have you ever heard the old expression that a man's home is his castle? What's that mean? He's king there. That's where he rules. That's where he reigns. And it's from the word domicile. So just like the garden then would have been a beginning for Adam and he's subduing and exercising dominion over all the earth, our family is just beginning for you and I to do the same.

[John Weaver] Now let me explain this a little further. And I don't want to get too much into this today because I'll probably develop it a little more later. But I want you to look in your Bibles to Psalm 127. When I'm telling you that your family is to be just simply the beginning of your dominion. Look at it in Psalm 127. Psalm 127, verse 4. And we're going to come back to this passage in a little while, so please mark it. But Psalm 127, verse 4.

[John Weaver] As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. What do you do with an arrow? You shoot it. Who do you shoot arrows at? Your enemies? Or any target that you want to bring down, subdue, or conquer? Do you realize that one of the aspects of the Christian family means this? That we're to exercise dominion and we're to subdue the earth by sending our children out as conquering arrows to exercise dominion for Christ.

[John Weaver] Hold Psalm 127, but look in your Bibles, first of all, to Genesis 22 and verse 17. Genesis 22, 17. Then we'll go to Genesis 24. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Genesis 22. Notice, if you would please, verse 17. Look at this blessing. Genesis 22, 17. That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and thy sandwiches upon the seashore, and thy seed That's the children. Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

[John Weaver] You say, what's so significant about that? Do you know where courts were held? Do you know where kings normally ruled from? From the gates. Oh yeah, they had palaces. But anything else that was done was done publicly. And when the Bible says that your seed will possess the gates of your enemies, what does that mean? You control them. You have subdued them. You exercise dominion over them.

[John Weaver] If you look in Genesis 24 and verse 60, Rebecca is given this blessing by her family. Genesis 24 verse 60. And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate thee." Wow. Let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate thee. In other words, let them exercise dominion. Genesis 24, verse 60.

[John Weaver] Now go back in your Bibles to Psalm 127. I told you we were coming back there. Look in verse 4. Psalm 127, verse 4. Let's read verse 3. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.

[John Weaver] They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. What are the children doing? Conquering. I'm just trying to show you that dominion is an aspect of the family as well as the individual. Let me tell you that first of all, dominion clearly implies responsibility and authority. We as Christian families have a responsibility to use God's earth, God's world, in terms of God's law. God is the creator. He is the lawgiver. He has commanded dominion, but we are to exercise dominion according to his word. What God has given us, he has given us as a stewardship.

[John Weaver] He is still the transcendent owner. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2, moreover it is required of a steward that a man be found faithful. We must recognize and acknowledge and confess the fact that everything that is, everything that we have, everything that we possess in reality belongs to God. We're just the stewards of it. God gave it and God may take it. We have a responsibility to be stewards.

[John Weaver] Now, authority is given to us by God to rule and exercise in terms of God's law. We have no authority to abuse and misuse and destroy or pervert that which God has given us. We do have authority to act within the law of God. You see, without authority, The family would quickly move into social anarchy. The source of the family's authority is God, and I'm going to point out, and I will deal with it later, but the main representative of that authority is the husband and the father, which you're going to find in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 3, but we're going to look at that in

[John Weaver] detail shortly, in a week or two. But let me show you what the abdication of this authority results in. Look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 12. I'm just showing you that God has given to the family responsibility and authority. Unhappily, what many men do is they abdicate their authority and refused to work and refused to exercise biblical knowledge. Consequently, in Isaiah 3, verse 12, God says this, As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee, cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy past. What did He say? As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. So when men then advocate or deny or misuse and abuse their position, what happens is you have social anarchy not only in the home, but in every other realm, and the children become the rulers and oppressors and or the women. Do you know something? In the average home in this country, the average home is either ruled by the children or by the wife.

[John Weaver] That's a fact. Consequently, you have social anarchy and family anarchy. Skip down to verse 16 and boy, I want you to see how God, by the way, this is God and he's judging these women. He says in verse 16, Moreover, the Lord said, because the daughters of Zion, now women, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanted eyes, walking and mincing as they go.

[John Weaver] and making a tinkling with their feet. Therefore, the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. And that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their claws and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the braces, the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs.

[John Weaver] the headbands, the tablets, the earrings, the rings, the nose jewel, the changeable suits of apparel, the mantles, the whipples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, the fine linen, the hoods, and the veil, and it shall come to pass that instead of a sweet smell there shall be a stink, instead of a girdle of rent, instead of well-set hair, baldness, instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth, and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war."

[John Weaver] And I want to show you how severe it will be when God judges like that. Look in chapter 4 and verse 1. In that day, seven women will take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear on our apparel. Only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.

[John Weaver] Now, all I'm showing you is this. When men refuse to exercise biblical and godly authority, you have nothing but family and social anarchy, which results in political anarchy. And I'm not being ugly when I say this, but if Hillary Clinton was a perfect woman, I still wouldn't vote for her. She has no business being in office, period. Now, authority is absolutely necessary for protection, for promotion, and for preservation of the family. But it must be a biblical authority that is exercised in terms of God's Word.

[John Weaver] On the one hand, God prohibits us from abusing and misusing the earth. And on the other hand, He gives us full authority to use it according to His law for our good and for His glory. So you cannot have a family without responsibility and without authority. So the true meaning of the family then is found in a God-centered responsibility and authority in terms of man's calling to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over it.

[John Weaver] Now, under this point, there's a second thought. And that is, dominion clearly implies private property. There are so many verses in the Bible. For instance, Exodus 9 in verse 29, Psalm 24 in verse 1, you can quote some of these. The earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. There is no state, there is no government that owns this world. There's not even a private individual that owns this world. God owns the world.

[John Weaver] He is the absolute and transcendent owner of everything. He is the creator, He is the owner, He is the sustainer. And He has given us authority, He's delegated that to us to exercise dominion under Him for our good and for His glory. So even property then, is given to us as a stewardship.

[John Weaver] Now, biblically speaking, families have always been, they are now, and will always be the controller of property and not the state. One of the ways that children were taught responsibility and discipline was through the use of property. You say, what are you talking about, Brother Weaver? I'm just telling you that disobedient, recalcitrant, rebellious children were always disinherited. They were cut out. They were cut off. Let me give you a quote from Rush Dooney, his Institutes of Biblical Law. One short paragraph. The question of inheritance and wills can best be understood if we examine the biblical word for will or testament. It is the word blessing. And inheritance is precisely that, a blessing. And for a parent to confer a blessing, or the central blessing on an unbelieving child, or rebellious, contemptuous child, is to bless evil. He then adds, To cut off a child is a total curse. Now, when you stop and think about biblical law, there were basically only two ways of dealing with a rebellious, recalcitrant, disobedient child. And I'm not talking about someone six years old.

[John Weaver] I'm talking about a grown child. The first way to deal with that is based upon Deuteronomy 21. When the parents went to the elders and said, this our son is a drunkard and rebellious and will not heed the word of his father's mother. And what would the elders do? They would take him and stone him to death. That was one way to get rid of him. The other alternative was to disinherit him. And most parents had rather disinherit the child than to have him stoned to death.

[John Weaver] Now, when the child is disinherited, he has a choice of repenting and doing that which is right and biblical or losing everything. It's just that simple. You're going to find, as you read through the Bible, that sometimes the elder child who was supposed to receive the double fortune was often set aside because of sin and irresponsibility. Reuben was set aside, you'll remember. Esau was set aside, you'll remember. Reuben sinned against his father, had sex with his father's concubine. And Jacob said, he's not going to be the one to get the double portion in my house. He was set aside.

[John Weaver] Parents have to learn that whatever we have is a stewardship from God, and we cannot bless evil by giving our stewardship to wicked, rebellious children. My wife can tell you, I told my girls, I told my grandchildren, I love you, I'll help you, I'll break my neck for you, as long as you're doing what's right. But if you think for one instance that you're going to rebel and sin and expect me to help subsidize your wickedness, you're mistaken. You'll never get one cent from me to help you do what is wrong and wicked. You cannot bless evil.

[John Weaver] A further demonstration from Scripture that property, private property, was to be controlled by the family is found in Ezekiel 46, verses 16 through 18. We've gone over that passage in times past. That is where the king is forbidden the right of eminent domain. He was forbidden to take the property of the people and give it to his family or his servants. Eminent domain belongs only to God. Because eminent domain is an aspect of sovereignty.

[John Weaver] It does not belong to the state for the state is not sovereign. I don't know if I. Told you this or not, but years ago I was in a meeting. And there was an American Indian who is attending that church and was a professing Christian. And I preached all week and every day I had dinner with the pastor in this American Indian, and everything was fine. We talked and had good fellowship. And about the last day, when we were at dinner, he was morose, sullen, and I looked at him and I said, what's wrong with you?

[John Weaver] And he said something he shouldn't have said. He said, you white men stole our land. I said, I'll tell you something. It wasn't your land. It was God's land. I said, and God has the right to disinherit anyone who will not pay him his taxes and his taxes or worship and praise and honor. I said, He disinherited the Amorites, the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Habites, and all those others.

[John Weaver] I said, here your people were out running around worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars, and the trees. I said, God had every right to take it away from you and give it to us. And God will have every right to take it away from us and give it to someone else if we go into idolatry like you did. I said, are we clear on that? Listen, God is the Sovereign.

[John Weaver] And I got news for you folks. Ahab learned the lesson the hard way that he didn't really have eminent domain. He thought he could take Naboth's property and get away with it, but God killed him because of it. Eminent domain belongs to God alone, because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. The right of the state to eminent domain has no place in biblical law.

[John Weaver] Rush Duney said something that Every politician needs to hear. He said this, the state has the duty to protect man and his property, but not to tax it or confiscate it. And that's the truth, folks. You realize that one of the problems we have in this country is that we have a whole country full of displaced citizens. When I say displaced citizens, I mean this, that Our homes, our farms, our lands have been taken from us either through eminent domain, taxation, fraud, or theft of some kind. Do you realize, 50, 60 years ago, most Americans were born, raised, lived, and died on the family property. Never left it. Never left it. I'm not being ugly when I say this, but I want you to listen to me. Do you know what most popular home in this country today is? A mobile home. I'm not denigrating anyone who lives in a mobile home. Please don't. Think I am. I certainly am not. But I'm showing you the emphasis is on the mobile.

[John Weaver] You can move it here. You can move it there. You can go there. In other words, no roots. Consequently, what has happened in this country, no one has anything worth fighting for or dying for. They don't have the family farm. They don't have the family land. They just move hither and move yon. And it doesn't bother them. They're like nomads. It was not like that in the founding of this country.

[John Weaver] The truth of the matter is unless we go back. And start developing a family. And family roots. I don't care if it's one acre or two acres or whatever. Just so it is yours. It is yours by virtue of God. And you can live there and you can farm it. And you have something to fight for. But you don't have anything to fight for when you're paying a lot of rent every month. If things get rough, you just move. I suppose that's probably one reason There's very little conviction in this country today. Why would you fight for something that's not yours? Historically, the family has been the controller and possessor and preserver of property. So private property is inherent in the exercise of Minyan.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 1. I want to give you one last point today. I want you to understand that God's law is the instrument of dominion. God's law is the instrument of dominion. Look what God told Joshua in Joshua chapter 1. Joshua 1. Notice verse 1. Now after the death of Moses, a servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses his minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead.

[John Weaver] Now, therefore, rise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people into the land which I do give to them." Notice God's giving it to them. "...even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you, as I've said to Moses." By the way, the word tread there means to crumble off, to break down, to subdue. Radah. Verse 4, from the wilderness and this Lebanon even to the great river, the river of Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast.

[John Weaver] There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

[John Weaver] Now look what God says to Joshua. Be strong and of good courage. For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give to them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all thy law, which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand, nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest." This book of the law, he's talking about the first five books of the Bible, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all according to all that is written therein. For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have great success." Notice what God says. Now Joshua, you're about to go into this land. You're going to be exercising dominion. You're going to be subduing. I've given you this land.

[John Weaver] I've taken it away from the Amorites and the Hittites and Jebusites and the Hivites and all the otherites. It's yours. Only be thou strong and very courageous and you observe to do everything that I've commanded you. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Only then will you be successful. Only then will you be prosperous. You know, it's interesting. When God says that His law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate in it therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. What is God doing? God is giving us the prescription for success and prosperity. We are not going to succeed and we're not going to prosper apart from God.

[John Weaver] What happened to Adam when he tried to exercise an independent dominion? He died. He lost everything. And when I'm using the term law right now, I'm using it in its broadest sense to refer to the entirety of the revealed Word of God. You must remember this, that a king rules by his law. And every word that God speaks is law. You know what the Hebrew word for law is? It's the word Torah. Torah. You know what the word Torah means? It means instruction, authoritative direction, or instruction. It's just like when you get that new machine, along with that new machine comes an instruction booklet.

[John Weaver] Which all the women read, but the men never do. Well, this book is our instruction booklet for success and prosperity and exercising dominion. All you have to do is read through the Bible to find out what happens when we don't obey God and His law. Look at Leviticus 26. Look at Deuteronomy 28. Look at Amos 4. Look at Isaiah 58. There's a curse attached for disobedience. And the more and the greater our disobedience, the more and the greater the curses that fall upon us. God said, look, if you want success, here it is.

[John Weaver] I've given you the plan. You have to learn to exercise dominion biblically. You know what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, in verse 5. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 5. God says, and if a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. If a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

[John Weaver] Now folks, let me tell you something. There are plenty of big churches in this country. We could have a big church too. That's no problem. Just get the best entertainers in. Have the shortest sermons. You can get wood, hay, and stubble in a heartbeat. And I could say, I've got 5,000 in church and I'm successful, but I've got news for you folks. If I'm going to run a race, I'm not proud except I strive lawfully. That means whatever I do, I have to run according to the Word of God. I don't care if it's building a church. I don't care if it's building a family or building a business. If we want success, if we want prosperity, we must follow God's Word. We must bring our lives and our businesses in conformity to the Word of God. We're to exercise dominion the way God says we're to exercise dominion. Otherwise, it's an autonomous dominion and it doesn't count. I could challenge everybody to a foot race. A foot race could be around this block.

[John Weaver] And although I might start out last, I might cut across the yards, come back in and around and break the tape and say, I won, I won, I won. But did I win? No. I beat you to the tape. But I didn't stay on course. I cheated. The man strived for masteries, yet he's not crowned, except he strived lawfully. God has told us in His Word how to raise our family, how to teach our children, how to treat your husband, how to treat your wife. He's given us everything that we need to know.

[John Weaver] And if we don't learn it and apply it, we're never, ever going to prosper. I want to tell you something. If you have good, godly, and knowledgeable, and honest, and upright children, you've already won. You've already been successful. If you haven't, you need to cry out to God for conversion for them, and for wisdom on your part. We've got to learn to go according to the word of God.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make just a couple of applications and I'll close. God has instituted the family as an instrument of dominion. I think that's clear from scripture. He's given us responsibility. He's given us authority. Pointed out last week that God created the woman to be the helper that was suitable to the man. What does that mean? First of all, it should be obvious that the dominion mandate requires and demands communication and cooperation within the family. You have to have communication. You have to have cooperation. A wife that won't help her husband is not right with God. A husband that won't consider his wife is not right with God. When you won't talk to each other, you can't possibly be right with God. You have to have communication. You have to have cooperation in order to work things out, in order to exercise dominion. Family members must, I don't care if it's husband, wife, child, family members must understand their proper role, and I'm going to deal with this in the future, they must understand their proper role and fulfill that role.

[John Weaver] You must, by all means, communicate. And I've got news for you. You can talk and not communicate. And you can communicate and not talk. What do I mean? If I looked at you and said, Now, this is communication. If I looked at you and said, I love you. What did you hear me say? I love you. Well, what did I actually communicate? I'm mad, and I'm angry, and I'm upset, and I really probably don't love you. But I said I love you. And you know, I can communicate this and never say a word. Watch me. You know what I mean.

[John Weaver] Let's be honest, folks, if we are going to have Christian families and we're going to exercise dominion. If we're going to do what God tells us to do, we have to communicate and we have to cooperate. We have to work together. The second application is this. If we're going to be obedient to the Word of God, first and foremost, we must know the Word of God. We must find out what it says. And the second thing, we must apply the Word of God. And as we apply the Word of God, we seek the Lord for his blessing and for the Holy Spirit to enable us to carry out and fulfill our responsibilities. God has called us to dominion.

[John Weaver] He didn't just call us to reproduction. He called us to dominion. And we're to conquer for Christ. We are to tell people. And we're to live it and show it and demonstrate it that Jesus Christ is Lord. What does the word Lord mean? I've told you so many times. It means boss, owner, master, sovereign. And when I say Jesus Christ is Lord, that means that everyone is required to bow to Jesus Christ.

[John Weaver] And that is our goal. As we exercise dominion for Him, we extend His kingdom. bringing men and women in a submission and subjection to the Word of God, bowing the knee and acknowledging that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your love and Your truth to us. We do ask, Father, that You would help us to understand the dominion aspect of the family. It's so basic. It's so fundamental. The reason You instituted the family was so that We could exercise dominion under Thee. Help us, Lord, to bring our personal lives and our family lives in conformity to Your Word. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray, Amen.

The Family - Part 2

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	111071116164
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Marriage and Household Order: The Family
Genre	Sermon
Date	2007-08-26
Dictation Name
Book	Book 035: The Family — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	76

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Review

Weaver introduces the message as part of a series on the family, reviewing the first three points from the previous sermon: the family's theological significance, its role in dominion, and the fall as autonomous dominion apart from God.

This next four messages, I believe, are going to be vitally important as far as the family is concerned, the doctrine of the family. And I would encourage you to be faithful for the next four Sundays after next Sunday so that you may hear these messages. There's going to be a few more beyond that. But I do pray that you'll be faithful and make application to them. Already, there's a number of things that I want to bring to you beyond this that I've been working on. And I was asked to write an article. And when I wrote the article, I said, might as well make it a message. So the article I was asked to write is entitled, "What's the Secession Treason?" And so I have to prove it not only historically, but biblically. And so I'm dealing—I've dealt with that. I've dealt with several other messages that I'm just eager to preach. And in fact—

There's a lot, a lot to share, so let's open our Bibles today to Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2 verses 18 through 25, Genesis 2 verses 18 through 25. And today we come to number two. Message number 2 on the institution of the family, and we're still covering the dominion aspect. So notice Genesis 2 beginning with verse 18:

Scripture Reading — Genesis 2:18-25

"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."

Now, last week we began our study on the family by looking at Genesis chapter 2, because Genesis chapter 2 not only demonstrates the origin of the family, but also the dominion aspect. So let's begin by asking a simple question. Why did God institute the family? Very obviously, it was for more reasons than just mere reproduction. Adam and Eve were not only told to reproduce, they were also told to subdue and to exercise dominion. And I pointed out last week that this dominion mandate was given in light of the married estate. It was given to Adam and Eve as husband and wife. Now, I covered three points last week.

The first one is this. The family must be viewed in terms of God. That is, it has a theological significance. You cannot understand the family by modern day theories of socialism and evolution and Freudian philosophy. The only way you can understand the family is based upon the Word of God. The second point that I covered last week was this, that the family was designed by God to be an instrument in dominion. Therefore, we have its cultural significance. And then thirdly, I pointed out last week that man's fall was the result of attempting an autonomous dominion apart from God. Remember what the word autonomous means: auto is self, nomos is law. So when we talk about an autonomous individual, he's one who follows his own law, his own will; he is following self is what it amounts to. So the fall that we looked at in Genesis chapter 3 came about when Adam then endeavored to create basically his own law and exercise dominion apart from God. So when Adam tried to do that, he brought death to himself and to his posterity.

You remember I gave you the verse in Proverbs 8 and verse 36 where our Lord said,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 8:36

"He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."

And so what happened was this. We died in Adam. In fact, everything we had in Adam, we lost. We not only lost everything we had in Adam, we were positively cursed. So in Adam, the only thing that now exists is misery, death, and destruction. In fact, Martin Luther basically said it like this. He said, there are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles. So you're either in Christ or you're in Adam. So we basically lost everything in Adam. That's why the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." When did all sin? We all sinned in Adam. So in Adam then, we lost everything and the curse of God was placed upon us.

Christ, the Second Man, Restores Godly Dominion

Christ came as the last Adam to restore what was lost in the fall—knowledge, righteousness, and dominion—bringing believers back to God and reversing the curse.

Now, today I want to begin with the fourth point, and that is this, that Christ, the second man, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion. Let me say that again. Christ, the second man, Christ, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion. Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to two passages. The first one, Psalm 69, and then 1 Corinthians 15. Psalm 69, and we're going to read verse 4. Psalm 69, verse 4, and then we're going over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want you to note what is said of our Lord in Psalm 69. Look in verse 4. This is a messianic song and it has reference to Christ. So in Psalm 69, verse 4, our Lord says this.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 69:4

"They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away."

Now, let me just tell you that Psalm 69, verse 4, applies directly to Jesus Christ. In fact, in the New Testament, in John 15, verse 25, our Lord quotes Psalm 69, verse 4, and applies it to Himself. There He said,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 69:4

"...but this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause."

So the first part of verse 4 of Psalm 69 is applied directly to Jesus Christ. I might also point out that the last part of verse 4 is also applied directly to Jesus Christ. For as he said, they that hate me are hating him without a cause, and his enemies were numerous.

But then he says, "Then I restored that which I took not away." So Christ now has given back something that He did not take away. Well, what is He talking about? Well, look in 1 Corinthians 15, and let's read verses 45 through 47. 1 Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 45.

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 15:45-47

"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."

That is an interesting... In verse 45, Adam is called the first man. And in verse 45, Christ is called the last Adam. In verse 47, Adam is called the first man of the earth. And in verse 47, Christ is called the second man. So Jesus Christ is now called the last Adam and the second man. So, how in the world can Christ be called the last Adam?

How can Christ be called the second man? Well, he is called the second man not because he was the second man chronologically speaking. Christ was first and foremost. It was Christ who created Adam. He is the creator of all things. But he is called the second man because he was the second one in time to sustain a federal headship with a people. Adam was the first one in time to sustain a federal headship. In other words, we were in Adam. What Adam did, we did. When Adam sinned, we sinned.

That's why the curse of God passed upon us. That's why, as in Adam, all die. Everything that happened to Adam basically happened to us. We did it because he was our representative and we were there in him. Now, Jesus Christ is called the last Adam because there will never, ever be anyone else after him to sustain this federal headship and representation with the people.

Now, if you look in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and I want you to see this in light of 1 Corinthians 15, but Romans chapter 5 and verse 14. Look what the Bible says in comparing Christ and Adam. Romans 5 verse 14. The Bible says,

Scripture Reading — Romans 5:14

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."

Now listen carefully. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him who was to come.

So you have to ask yourself this question. How in the world could Adam be a figure or a type of Christ? Adam sinned. Christ did not sin. Adam failed. Christ did not fail. How in the world could Adam then be a figure or a type of Christ? And the answer is, Adam sustained a federal headship with a people. He was our federal representative. Christ also sustains a federal headship with the people. He also is our representative. So, he is the figure of Adam, or the type of Adam, only in the fact that he sustained this federal headship. Adam plunged all of his posterity into sin and death. Christ takes all of his posterity and raises them out of sin and death and gives them eternal life.

Now, there's a whole argument based upon this in Romans chapter 5. I'm not going to get into that today because I'm not dealing with this particularly. But if I were to ask you, why did Jesus Christ come? You would probably answer me, to save sinners. And I'm going to tell you that that is an excellent answer, although it may not be the full answer. You would have to understand what salvation included for that answer to be acceptable. You say, what are you talking about? Well, look in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, and you will see why Jesus Christ came. Yes, He came to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said that. He came to save sinners of whom Paul said He was chief. But when you look in 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, it goes a little further than that. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, the Bible says,

Scripture Reading — 1 Peter 3:18

"...for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."

Why?

"That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." Now, why did Christ come? To save us, yes. But what is involved in saving us? In saving us, He brings us to God. What happened in the garden? Adam sinned. He hid himself. He lied. He ran from God. Now Christ comes and saves us. But in saving us, he brings us back to God. In the garden, Adam basically said this, "Lord, I don't want your law. I'm going to be a law to myself. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'll exercise dominion the way I want to exercise dominion. You don't have any right to tell me what to do." Now Christ has come, and He saves us, and He brings us to Himself, and then He leads us back to the Father, and now we bow to the Father and say, "O how love I thy law! Thou hast the right to rule over me. You have the right to tell me what to do and how to live. It's you, Lord, that I need to love and need to serve." So in other words, Christ then basically has reversed the fall.

Now, if I were to ask you what Adam had in the garden, here's what he had. He had original knowledge, righteousness, and dominion. Listen, Adam was not a caveman. Adam communed with God. He walked with the Lord in the cool of the day, the Bible says. Adam read the purpose of God in all of those animals that he named. As I said last week, he was scientifically classifying those animals. Adam was a brilliant man. He did have original knowledge and righteousness and dominion.

But what happened was this. When he sinned against God, he lost all of it. His mind now becomes clouded. He becomes ignorant. In fact, that's what the Bible says about all of those people who left God, they being ignorant of God. He lost his righteousness. And he lost his dominion in the sense that now it has become perverted. Well, what does Christ do for us in salvation?

I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 3 in verse 10. Colossians 3. And look at verse 10. Then we'll go to Ephesians chapter 4. Look in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10. Here's what the Bible says, Colossians 3 verse 10,

Scripture Reading — Colossians 3:10

"And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."

What does Christ do when he saves us? He restores knowledge to us. Knowledge of God. Knowledge of His Word. Look now,

Scripture Reading — Colossians 3:10

"and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."

So in Christ then, we have a renewed, godly knowledge. Look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, if you would, and verse 24. Ephesians 4, verse 24.

Scripture Reading — Colossians 3:10

"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

What now have we gotten back? Not only knowledge, but righteousness and holiness. You say, what about dominion? Well, let me just quote it. Do you remember in Matthew 28 in verse 18, what did our Lord say? "All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. Therefore, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." Do you realize the Great Commission is an aspect of the dominion mandate? It's an aspect of the great charter that God gave to Adam and Eve to subdue and exercise dominion. We got back far more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam. Adam had limited authority. Christ has all authority. Adam had a created righteousness. We now have the perfect righteousness of Christ. Adam had original knowledge. We now have the full revelation of God given us in His Word. Why did Christ come? You say to save sinners. Yes. But to save those sinners and bring them back to God the Father.

Dominion as the Function of the Family

The family is an instrument of dominion, with children as arrows sent out to conquer for Christ. The home is the beginning of dominion, just as the Garden of Eden was a prototype for Adam's rule.

So the Christian man and the Christian family are now instruments in extending the Kingdom of God. The Christian man and the Christian family have been brought back by Christ to serve the Father in honoring Him and extending His Kingdom. Let me go to point number five today, and here it is. Dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals. Dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals. Have you ever asked yourself this question? What if Adam had not sinned? Well, Henry last Sunday said, well, one thing for sure, he would never die. And that's true. Wow. Can you imagine? If Adam had not sinned, everyone who had ever been born since the beginning of time would still be alive. Now, that leads me to this question. Had Adam not sinned, would he have remained in the Garden of Eden forever? The answer is no. The Garden of Eden was just simply a prototype.

He would have gone there, or gone from there, subduing the earth, exercising dominion as he had been commanded by God in Genesis 1, 26 through 27. The Garden was just simply the beginning. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 115 and verse 16? Listen to this.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 115:16

"Even the heavens are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men."

Now, what all the earth includes, I don't know.

It may include our moon, it may include our sun, it may include our planet. I'm just simply saying. But God gave us the entire earth. Thus, in Christ, the Christian man and the Christian family are called to function in the sphere of dominion. Now, think about this. The home, the Christian family, the home is only the beginning. Just like the Garden of Eden was to be the beginning for Adam, our Christian families are simply to be the beginning for us.

We refer to our homes as our domiciles. Ever wondered why you refer to your home as your domicile? Well, the Latin word dominus means Lord. And the Latin word domus means house. You know what domicile actually means? It means that you are the lord of your house. Have you ever heard the old expression that a man's home is his castle? What's that mean? He's king there. That's where he rules. That's where he reigns. And it's from the word domicile. So just like the garden then would have been a beginning for Adam and his subduing and exercising dominion over all the earth, our family is just beginning for you and I to do the same.

Now let me explain this a little further. And I don't want to get too much into this today because I'll probably develop it a little more later. But I want you to look in your Bibles to Psalm 127. When I'm telling you that your family is to be just simply the beginning of your dominion. Look at it in Psalm 127. Psalm 127, verse 4. And we're going to come back to this passage in a little while, so please mark it. But Psalm 127, verse 4.

"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. What do you do with an arrow? You shoot it. Who do you shoot arrows at? Your enemies? Or any target that you want to bring down, subdue, or conquer? Do you realize that one of the aspects of the Christian family means this? That we're to exercise dominion and we're to subdue the earth by sending our children out as conquering arrows to exercise dominion for Christ.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 127:3-5

Hold Psalm 127, but look in your Bibles, first of all, to Genesis 22 and verse 17. Genesis 22, 17. Then we'll go to Genesis 24. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Genesis 22. Notice, if you would please, verse 17. Look at this blessing. Genesis 22, 17. "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."

You say, what's so significant about that? Do you know where courts were held? Do you know where kings normally ruled from? From the gates. Oh yeah, they had palaces. But anything else that was done was done publicly. And when the Bible says that your seed will possess the gates of your enemies, what does that mean? You control them. You have subdued them. You exercise dominion over them.

If you look in Genesis 24 and verse 60, Rebecca is given this blessing by her family. Genesis 24 verse 60. "And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate thee." Wow. Let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate thee. In other words, let them exercise dominion. Genesis 24, verse 60.

Now go back in your Bibles to Psalm 127. I told you we were coming back there. Look in verse 4. Psalm 127, verse 4. Let's read verse 3.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 127:3-5

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."

"They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." What are the children doing? Conquering. I'm just trying to show you that dominion is an aspect of the family as well as the individual. Let me tell you that first of all, dominion clearly implies responsibility and authority. We as Christian families have a responsibility to use God's earth, God's world, in terms of God's law. God is the creator. He is the lawgiver. He has commanded dominion, but we are to exercise dominion according to his word. What God has given us, he has given us as a stewardship.

Responsibility and Authority in the Family

Dominion implies responsibility and authority under God's law. When men abdicate biblical authority, social and family anarchy result, as seen in Isaiah 3.

He is still the transcendent owner. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2,

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 4:2

"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."

We must recognize and acknowledge and confess the fact that everything that is, everything that we have, everything that we possess in reality belongs to God. We're just the stewards of it. God gave it and God may take it. We have a responsibility to be stewards.

Now, authority is given to us by God to rule and exercise in terms of God's law. We have no authority to abuse and misuse and destroy or pervert that which God has given us. We do have authority to act within the law of God. You see, without authority, the family would quickly move into social anarchy. The source of the family's authority is God, and I'm going to point out, and I will deal with it later, but the main representative of that authority is the husband and the father, which you're going to find in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 3, but we're going to look at that in detail shortly, in a week or two. But let me show you what the abdication of this authority results in. Look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 12. I'm just showing you that God has given to the family responsibility and authority. Unhappily, what many men do is they abdicate their authority and refuse to work and refuse to exercise biblical knowledge. Consequently, in Isaiah 3, verse 12, God says this,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 3:12

"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."

What did He say? As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. So when men then abdicate or deny or misuse and abuse their position, what happens is you have social anarchy not only in the home, but in every other realm, and the children become the rulers and oppressors and or the women. Do you know something? In the average home in this country, the average home is either ruled by the children or by the wife.

That's a fact. Consequently, you have social anarchy and family anarchy. Skip down to verse 16 and boy, I want you to see how God, by the way, this is God and he's judging these women. He says in verse 16, "Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs,

the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war." And I want to show you how severe it will be when God judges like that. Look in chapter 4 and verse 1. "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach."

Now, all I'm showing you is this. When men refuse to exercise biblical and godly authority, you have nothing but family and social anarchy, which results in political anarchy. And I'm not being ugly when I say this, but if Hillary Clinton was a perfect woman, I still wouldn't vote for her. She has no business being in office, period. Now, authority is absolutely necessary for protection, for promotion, and for preservation of the family. But it must be a biblical authority that is exercised in terms of God's Word. On the one hand, God prohibits us from abusing and misusing the earth. And on the other hand, He gives us full authority to use it according to His law for our good and for His glory. So you cannot have a family without responsibility and without authority. So the true meaning of the family then is found in a God-centered responsibility and authority in terms of man's calling to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over it.

Now, under this point, there's a second thought. And that is, dominion clearly implies private property. There are so many verses in the Bible. For instance, Exodus 9 in verse 29, Psalm 24 in verse 1, you can quote some of these. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." There is no state, there is no government that owns this world. There's not even a private individual that owns this world. God owns the world.

Private Property and Dominion

Dominion includes private property as a stewardship from God. Families, not the state, are to control property, and inheritance is a blessing that should not be given to rebellious children.

He is the absolute and transcendent owner of everything. He is the creator, He is the owner, He is the sustainer. And He has given us authority, He's delegated that to us to exercise dominion under Him for our good and for His glory. So even property then, is given to us as a stewardship.

Now, biblically speaking, families have always been, they are now, and will always be the controller of property and not the state. One of the ways that children were taught responsibility and discipline was through the use of property. You say, what are you talking about, Brother Weaver? I'm just telling you that disobedient, recalcitrant, rebellious children were always disinherited. They were cut out. They were cut off. Let me give you a quote from Rush Dooney, his Institutes of Biblical Law. One short paragraph. The question of inheritance and wills can best be understood if we examine the biblical word for will or testament. It is the word blessing. And inheritance is precisely that, a blessing. And for a parent to confer a blessing, or the central blessing on an unbelieving child, or rebellious, contemptuous child, is to bless evil. He then adds, To cut off a child is a total curse. Now, when you stop and think about biblical law, there were basically only two ways of dealing with a rebellious, recalcitrant, disobedient child. And I'm not talking about someone six years old.

I'm talking about a grown child. The first way to deal with that is based upon Deuteronomy 21. When the parents went to the elders and said, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard." And what would the elders do? They would take him and stone him to death. That was one way to get rid of him. The other alternative was to disinherit him. And most parents had rather disinherit the child than to have him stoned to death.

Now, when the child is disinherited, he has a choice of repenting and doing that which is right and biblical or losing everything. It's just that simple. You're going to find, as you read through the Bible, that sometimes the elder child who was supposed to receive the double portion was often set aside because of sin and irresponsibility. Reuben was set aside, you'll remember. Esau was set aside, you'll remember. Reuben sinned against his father, had sex with his father's concubine. And Jacob said, he's not going to be the one to get the double portion in my house. He was set aside.

Parents have to learn that whatever we have is a stewardship from God, and we cannot bless evil by giving our stewardship to wicked, rebellious children. My wife can tell you, I told my girls, I told my grandchildren, I love you, I'll help you, I'll break my neck for you, as long as you're doing what's right. But if you think for one instance that you're going to rebel and sin and expect me to help subsidize your wickedness, you're mistaken. You'll never get one cent from me to help you do what is wrong and wicked. You cannot bless evil. A further demonstration from Scripture that property, private property, was to be controlled by the family is found in Ezekiel 46, verses 16 through 18. We've gone over that passage in times past. That is where the king is forbidden the right of eminent domain. He was forbidden to take the property of the people and give it to his family or his servants. Eminent domain belongs only to God. Because eminent domain is an aspect of sovereignty.

It does not belong to the state for the state is not sovereign. I don't know if I told you this or not, but years ago I was in a meeting. And there was an American Indian who was attending that church and was a professing Christian. And I preached all week and every day I had dinner with the pastor and this American Indian, and everything was fine. We talked and had good fellowship. And about the last day, when we were at dinner, he was morose, sullen, and I looked at him and I said, "What's wrong with you?" And he said something he shouldn't have said. He said, "You white men stole our land." I said, "I'll tell you something. It wasn't your land. It was God's land." I said, "And God has the right to disinherit anyone who will not pay him his taxes and his taxes are worship and praise and honor. I said, He disinherited the Amorites, the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Hivites, and all those others."

I said, "Here your people were out running around worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars, and the trees. I said, God had every right to take it away from you and give it to us. And God will have every right to take it away from us and give it to someone else if we go into idolatry like you did. I said, are we clear on that?" Listen, God is the Sovereign. And I got news for you folks. Ahab learned the lesson the hard way that he didn't really have eminent domain. He thought he could take Naboth's property and get away with it, but God killed him because of it. Eminent domain belongs to God alone, because the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. The right of the state to eminent domain has no place in biblical law.

Rush Dooney said something that every politician needs to hear. He said this, "The state has the duty to protect man and his property, but not to tax it or confiscate it." And that's the truth, folks. You realize that one of the problems we have in this country is that we have a whole country full of displaced citizens. When I say displaced citizens, I mean this, that our homes, our farms, our lands have been taken from us either through eminent domain, taxation, fraud, or theft of some kind. Do you realize, 50, 60 years ago, most Americans were born, raised, lived, and died on the family property. Never left it. Never left it. I'm not being ugly when I say this, but I want you to listen to me. Do you know what the most popular home in this country today is? A mobile home. I'm not denigrating anyone who lives in a mobile home. Please don't think I am. I certainly am not. But I'm showing you the emphasis is on the mobile.

You can move it here. You can move it there. You can go there. In other words, no roots. Consequently, what has happened in this country, no one has anything worth fighting for or dying for. They don't have the family farm. They don't have the family land. They just move hither and move yon. And it doesn't bother them. They're like nomads. It was not like that in the founding of this country.

The truth of the matter is unless we go back and start developing a family and family roots—I don't care if it's one acre or two acres or whatever. Just so it is yours. It is yours by virtue of God. And you can live there and you can farm it. And you have something to fight for. But you don't have anything to fight for when you're paying a lot of rent every month. If things get rough, you just move. I suppose that's probably one reason there's very little conviction in this country today. Why would you fight for something that's not yours? Historically, the family has been the controller and possessor and preserver of property. So private property is inherent in the exercise of dominion.

Now, I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 1. I want to give you one last point today. I want you to understand that God's law is the instrument of dominion. God's law is the instrument of dominion. Look what God told Joshua in Joshua chapter 1. Joshua 1. Notice verse 1. "Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them." Notice God's giving it to them. "...even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses." By the way, the word tread there means to crumble off, to break down, to subdue. Radah. Verse 4, "From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

God's Law as the Instrument of Dominion

Success in dominion comes only through obedience to God's law. Joshua 1 shows that meditating on and obeying the law leads to prosperity; striving lawfully is essential.

There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Now look what God says to Joshua. "Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Notice what God says. Now Joshua, you're about to go into this land. You're going to be exercising dominion. You're going to be subduing. I've given you this land.

I've taken it away from the Amorites and the Hittites and Jebusites and the Hivites and all the otherites. It's yours. Only be thou strong and very courageous and you observe to do everything that I've commanded you. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Only then will you be successful. Only then will you be prosperous. You know, it's interesting. When God says that His law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. What is God doing? God is giving us the prescription for success and prosperity. We are not going to succeed and we're not going to prosper apart from God.

What happened to Adam when he tried to exercise an independent dominion? He died. He lost everything. And when I'm using the term law right now, I'm using it in its broadest sense to refer to the entirety of the revealed Word of God. You must remember this, that a king rules by his law. And every word that God speaks is law. You know what the Hebrew word for law is? It's the word Torah. Torah. You know what the word Torah means? It means instruction, authoritative direction, or instruction. It's just like when you get that new machine, along with that new machine comes an instruction booklet.

Which all the women read, but the men never do. Well, this book is our instruction booklet for success and prosperity and exercising dominion. All you have to do is read through the Bible to find out what happens when we don't obey God and His law. Look at Leviticus 26. Look at Deuteronomy 28. Look at Amos 4. Look at Isaiah 58. There's a curse attached for disobedience. And the more and the greater our disobedience, the more and the greater the curses that fall upon us. God said, look, if you want success, here it is.

I've given you the plan. You have to learn to exercise dominion biblically. You know what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, in verse 5. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 5. God says, "And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

Now folks, let me tell you something. There are plenty of big churches in this country. We could have a big church too. That's no problem. Just get the best entertainers in. Have the shortest sermons. You can get wood, hay, and stubble in a heartbeat. And I could say, I've got 5,000 in church and I'm successful, but I've got news for you folks. If I'm going to run a race, I'm not crowned except I strive lawfully. That means whatever I do, I have to run according to the Word of God. I don't care if it's building a church. I don't care if it's building a family or building a business. If we want success, if we want prosperity, we must follow God's Word. We must bring our lives and our businesses in conformity to the Word of God. We're to exercise dominion the way God says we're to exercise dominion. Otherwise, it's an autonomous dominion and it doesn't count. I could challenge everybody to a foot race. A foot race could be around this block.

And although I might start out last, I might cut across the yards, come back in and around and break the tape and say, I won, I won, I won. But did I win? No. I beat you to the tape. But I didn't stay on course. I cheated. The man strived for masteries, yet he's not crowned, except he strived lawfully. God has told us in His Word how to raise our family, how to teach our children, how to treat your husband, how to treat your wife. He's given us everything that we need to know.

And if we don't learn it and apply it, we're never, ever going to prosper. I want to tell you something. If you have good, godly, and knowledgeable, and honest, and upright children, you've already won. You've already been successful. If you haven't, you need to cry out to God for conversion for them, and for wisdom on your part. We've got to learn to go according to the word of God.

Applications: Communication, Cooperation, and Obedience

The dominion mandate requires communication and cooperation within the family. Believers must know and apply God's Word, seeking His blessing to fulfill their responsibilities.

Now, let me make just a couple of applications and I'll close. God has instituted the family as an instrument of dominion. I think that's clear from scripture. He's given us responsibility. He's given us authority. Pointed out last week that God created the woman to be the helper that was suitable to the man. What does that mean? First of all, it should be obvious that the dominion mandate requires and demands communication and cooperation within the family. You have to have communication. You have to have cooperation. A wife that won't help her husband is not right with God. A husband that won't consider his wife is not right with God. When you won't talk to each other, you can't possibly be right with God. You have to have communication. You have to have cooperation in order to work things out, in order to exercise dominion. Family members must, I don't care if it's husband, wife, child, family members must understand their proper role, and I'm going to deal with this in the future, they must understand their proper role and fulfill that role.

You must, by all means, communicate. And I've got news for you. You can talk and not communicate. And you can communicate and not talk. What do I mean? If I looked at you and said, now, this is communication. If I looked at you and said, "I love you." What did you hear me say? "I love you." Well, what did I actually communicate? I'm mad, and I'm angry, and I'm upset, and I really probably don't love you. But I said "I love you." And you know, I can communicate this and never say a word. Watch me. You know what I mean.

Let's be honest, folks, if we are going to have Christian families and we're going to exercise dominion. If we're going to do what God tells us to do, we have to communicate and we have to cooperate. We have to work together. The second application is this. If we're going to be obedient to the Word of God, first and foremost, we must know the Word of God. We must find out what it says. And the second thing, we must apply the Word of God. And as we apply the Word of God, we seek the Lord for his blessing and for the Holy Spirit to enable us to carry out and fulfill our responsibilities. God has called us to dominion.

He didn't just call us to reproduction. He called us to dominion. And we're to conquer for Christ. We are to tell people. And we're to live it and show it and demonstrate it that Jesus Christ is Lord. What does the word Lord mean? I've told you so many times. It means boss, owner, master, sovereign. And when I say Jesus Christ is Lord, that means that everyone is required to bow to Jesus Christ.

And that is our goal. As we exercise dominion for Him, we extend His kingdom, bringing men and women into submission and subjection to the Word of God, bowing the knee and acknowledging that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your love and Your truth to us. We do ask, Father, that You would help us to understand the dominion aspect of the family. It's so basic. It's so fundamental. The reason You instituted the family was so that we could exercise dominion under Thee. Help us, Lord, to bring our personal lives and our family lives in conformity to Your Word. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Christ as the Restorer of Dominion

Summary: Jesus Christ, as the last Adam, came to restore what Adam lost—knowledge, righteousness, and dominion—bringing believers back to God and enabling them to exercise godly rule.

Evidence: Weaver explains that Christ is called the last Adam and second man because He sustains a federal headship, reversing the fall by restoring knowledge (Colossians 3:10), righteousness (Ephesians 4:24), and authority (Matthew 28:18).

The Family as an Instrument of Dominion

Summary: The family is designed by God to exercise dominion, with children as arrows sent out to conquer for Christ, and the home as the starting point for subduing the earth.

Evidence: Weaver cites Psalm 127:4 ('As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth') and Genesis 22:17 ('thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies') to show that families are to extend God's kingdom.

Biblical Authority and Responsibility

Summary: God has given families authority and responsibility to rule under His law; abdication of this authority leads to social anarchy, as seen when children or women rule.

Evidence: Weaver references Isaiah 3:12 ('children are their oppressors, and women rule over them') to illustrate the consequences of men failing to exercise godly authority.

Private Property as a Stewardship

Summary: Dominion includes the control of private property, which is a stewardship from God. Families, not the state, are to manage property, and inheritance should not bless evil.

Evidence: Weaver discusses Ezekiel 46:16-18, where the king is forbidden eminent domain, and argues that disinheritance is a biblical way to deal with rebellious children.

Obedience to God's Law for Success

Summary: God's law is the instrument of dominion; success and prosperity come only through obedience to His Word, as illustrated in Joshua 1 and 2 Timothy 2:5.

Evidence: Weaver emphasizes Joshua 1:8 ('This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth... then thou shalt have good success') and 2 Timothy 2:5 ('except he strive lawfully') to show that lawful striving is required.

Key Arguments

Christ reversed the fall by restoring knowledge, righteousness, and dominion.

Summary: Weaver argues that Christ, as the last Adam, came to restore what was lost in Eden, enabling believers to exercise godly dominion under God's law.

Evidence: He cites Psalm 69:4 ('Then I restored that which I took not away'), 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (Christ as last Adam), Colossians 3:10 (renewed in knowledge), Ephesians 4:24 (created in righteousness), and Matthew 28:18 (all authority given to Christ).

The family is an instrument of dominion, not just reproduction.

Summary: The family's purpose includes subduing the earth and extending God's kingdom, with children as arrows sent out to conquer.

Evidence: Weaver points to Psalm 127:4, Genesis 22:17, and Genesis 24:60 to show that children are meant to possess the gates of enemies, indicating dominion.

Abdication of male authority leads to social anarchy.

Summary: When men fail to exercise biblical authority, families and society descend into chaos, with children or women ruling.

Evidence: Isaiah 3:12 is cited: 'As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.'

Private property is a family stewardship under God.

Summary: God owns all things; families are stewards of property, and the state has no right to eminent domain. Inheritance should be used to bless obedience, not evil.

Evidence: Weaver references Ezekiel 46:16-18 (king forbidden eminent domain) and the practice of disinheritance for rebellious children, citing Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law.

Success in dominion requires obedience to God's law.

Summary: Prosperity and success come only by following God's Word; autonomous dominion leads to death, as with Adam.

Evidence: Joshua 1:7-8 commands obedience to the law for success, and 2 Timothy 2:5 states that one is not crowned unless he strives lawfully.

Scripture References

Genesis 2:18-25

Context: Read as the foundational text for the institution of the family and the dominion mandate.

Proverbs 8:36

Context: Cited to show that sinning against God is loving death, referencing the fall of Adam.

Romans 5:12

Context: Used to explain that all sinned in Adam and death passed upon all men.

Psalm 69:4

Context: Messianic psalm applied to Christ, showing He restored what He took not away.

John 15:25

Context: Jesus quotes Psalm 69:4, applying it to Himself.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47

Context: Contrasts Adam as the first man and Christ as the last Adam and second man, highlighting federal headship.

Romans 5:14

Context: Adam is a figure of Christ in terms of federal headship.

1 Peter 3:18

Context: Christ suffered to bring us to God, reversing the separation caused by Adam's sin.

Colossians 3:10

Context: The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ, restoring what Adam lost.

Ephesians 4:24

Context: The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness, part of the restoration in Christ.

Matthew 28:18

Context: All authority is given to Christ; the Great Commission is an aspect of the dominion mandate.

Psalm 115:16

Context: The earth is given to the children of men, indicating the scope of dominion.

Psalm 127:3-5

Context: Children are like arrows; they will speak with enemies in the gate, showing dominion.

Genesis 22:17

Context: Abraham's seed will possess the gate of his enemies, indicating dominion.

Genesis 24:60

Context: Rebekah blessed to have her seed possess the gate of those who hate her.

1 Corinthians 4:2

Context: Stewards are required to be faithful, emphasizing responsibility.

Isaiah 3:12

Context: Children oppress and women rule when men abdicate authority.

Isaiah 3:16-4:1

Context: God's judgment on haughty women and the resulting social chaos.

Ezekiel 46:16-18

Context: The king is forbidden eminent domain, showing property belongs to families under God.

Joshua 1:1-8

Context: God commands Joshua to obey the law for success in possessing the land, illustrating dominion through obedience.

Historical References

Martin Luther

Context: Quoted as saying there are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles.

Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law

Context: Cited on inheritance as a blessing and the state's duty to protect property, not tax or confiscate it.

Deuteronomy 21 (stoning rebellious son)

Context: Referenced as one biblical way to deal with a rebellious child, alongside disinheritance.

Reuben and Esau

Context: Examples of elder children set aside from inheritance due to sin.

Ahab and Naboth's vineyard

Context: Ahab killed for trying to exercise eminent domain, showing it belongs to God alone.

American Indians and land

Context: Weaver recounts a conversation where he argued God disinherited idolatrous peoples and gave land to others.

Important Quotes

Christ, the second man, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion.

Significance: Central thesis of the sermon: Christ's work reverses the fall and restores dominion to believers.

Then I restored that which I took not away.

Significance: Psalm 69:4 quoted to show Christ restored what Adam lost, though He did not take it away.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Significance: Key verse illustrating that children are instruments of dominion, sent out to conquer for Christ.

The state has the duty to protect man and his property, but not to tax it or confiscate it.

Significance: Rushdoony quote emphasizing the biblical limit on state power over private property.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Significance: Joshua 1:8 quoted as the prescription for success and prosperity through obedience to God's law.

And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

Significance: 2 Timothy 2:5 used to argue that success must be achieved according to God's rules.

Discussion Questions

How does understanding Christ as the last Adam change the way we view our role in the family and society?

Context: Weaver argues that Christ restored knowledge, righteousness, and dominion, enabling believers to exercise godly rule.

In what practical ways can families view their children as 'arrows' sent out to exercise dominion for Christ?

Context: Psalm 127:4 is used to illustrate that children are to be trained and sent out to conquer in various spheres.

What are the consequences of men abdicating their biblical authority in the home, according to Isaiah 3?

Context: Weaver cites Isaiah 3:12 to show that when men fail to lead, children or women rule, leading to anarchy.

How should the concept of private property as a stewardship from God affect our decisions about inheritance and wealth?

Context: Weaver discusses disinheritance of rebellious children and the prohibition of eminent domain, emphasizing family control of property.

What does it mean to 'strive lawfully' in our personal and family lives, and why is it essential for success?

Context: 2 Timothy 2:5 is used to argue that success must be achieved according to God's Word, not by worldly methods.

Applications

Communication and Cooperation in the Family

Summary: Family members must communicate and cooperate to fulfill the dominion mandate; a wife must help her husband, and a husband must consider his wife.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'A wife that won't help her husband is not right with God. A husband that won't consider his wife is not right with God.'

Know and Apply God's Word

Summary: To exercise dominion biblically, believers must first know what Scripture says and then apply it, seeking God's blessing and the Holy Spirit's enablement.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If we're going to be obedient to the Word of God, first and foremost, we must know the Word of God... we must apply the Word of God.'

Exercise Dominion for Christ

Summary: Believers are called to conquer for Christ by living and demonstrating that Jesus is Lord, bringing others into submission to God's Word.

Evidence: Weaver concludes, 'We're to conquer for Christ. We are to tell people. And we're to live it and show it and demonstrate it that Jesus Christ is Lord.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T16:04:25Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T06:26:10Z

Clean Transcript

The Family - Part 2

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

This next four messages, I believe, are going to be vitally important as far as the family is concerned, the doctrine of the family. And I would encourage you to be faithful for the next four Sundays after next Sunday so that you may hear these messages. There's going to be a few more beyond that. But I do pray that you'll be faithful and make application to them. Already, there's a number of things that I want to bring to you beyond this that I've been working on.
#1 | 0:01 to 0:34 | cleaned
And I was asked to write an article. And when I wrote the article, I said, might as well make it a message. So the article I was asked to write is entitled, "What's the Secession Treason?" And so I have to prove it not only historically, but biblically. And so I'm dealing—I've dealt with that. I've dealt with several other messages that I'm just eager to preach. And in fact—
#2 | 0:34 to 1:04 | cleaned
There's a lot, a lot to share, so let's open our Bibles today to Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2 verses 18 through 25, Genesis 2 verses 18 through 25. And today we come to number two. Message number 2 on the institution of the family, and we're still covering the dominion aspect. So notice Genesis 2 beginning with verse 18: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.
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I will make an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
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They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Now, last week we began our study on the family by looking at Genesis chapter 2, because Genesis chapter 2 not only demonstrates the origin of the family, but also the dominion aspect. So let's begin by asking a simple question. Why did God institute the family? Very obviously, it was for more reasons than just mere reproduction. Adam and Eve were not only told to reproduce, they were also told to subdue and to exercise dominion. And I pointed out last week that this dominion mandate was given in light of the married estate. It was given to Adam and Eve as husband and wife. Now, I covered three points last week.
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The first one is this. The family must be viewed in terms of God. That is, it has a theological significance. You cannot understand the family by modern day theories of socialism and evolution and Freudian philosophy. The only way you can understand the family is based upon the Word of God. The second point that I covered last week was this, that the family was designed by God to be an instrument in dominion. Therefore, we have its cultural significance. And then thirdly, I pointed out last week that man's fall was the result of attempting an autonomous dominion apart from God. Remember what the word autonomous means: auto is self, nomos is law. So when we talk about an autonomous individual, he's one who follows his own law, his own will; he is following self is what it amounts to. So the fall that we looked at in Genesis chapter 3 came about when Adam then endeavored to create basically his own law and exercise dominion apart from God. So when Adam tried to do that, he brought death to himself and to his posterity.
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You remember I gave you the verse in Proverbs 8 and verse 36 where our Lord said, "He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." And so what happened was this. We died in Adam. In fact, everything we had in Adam, we lost. We not only lost everything we had in Adam, we were positively cursed. So in Adam, the only thing that now exists is misery, death, and destruction. In fact, Martin Luther basically said it like this. He said, there are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles. So you're either in Christ or you're in Adam. So we basically lost everything in Adam. That's why the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." When did all sin? We all sinned in Adam. So in Adam then, we lost everything and the curse of God was placed upon us.
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Now, today I want to begin with the fourth point, and that is this, that Christ, the second man, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion. Let me say that again. Christ, the second man, Christ, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion.
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Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to two passages. The first one, Psalm 69, and then 1 Corinthians 15. Psalm 69, and we're going to read verse 4. Psalm 69, verse 4, and then we're going over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want you to note what is said of our Lord in Psalm 69. Look in verse 4. This is a messianic song and it has reference to Christ. So in Psalm 69, verse 4, our Lord says this.
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"They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away."
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Now, let me just tell you that Psalm 69, verse 4, applies directly to Jesus Christ. In fact, in the New Testament, in John 15, verse 25, our Lord quotes Psalm 69, verse 4, and applies it to Himself. There He said, "...but this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause." So the first part of verse 4 of Psalm 69 is applied directly to Jesus Christ. I might also point out that the last part of verse 4 is also applied directly to Jesus Christ. For as he said, they that hate me are hating him without a cause, and his enemies were numerous.
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But then he says, "Then I restored that which I took not away." So Christ now has given back something that He did not take away. Well, what is He talking about? Well, look in 1 Corinthians 15, and let's read verses 45 through 47. 1 Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 45. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." That is an interesting... In verse 45, Adam is called the first man. And in verse 45, Christ is called the last Adam. In verse 47, Adam is called the first man of the earth. And in verse 47, Christ is called the second man. So Jesus Christ is now called the last Adam and the second man. So, how in the world can Christ be called the last Adam?
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How can Christ be called the second man? Well, he is called the second man not because he was the second man chronologically speaking. Christ was first and foremost. It was Christ who created Adam. He is the creator of all things. But he is called the second man because he was the second one in time to sustain a federal headship with a people. Adam was the first one in time to sustain a federal headship. In other words, we were in Adam. What Adam did, we did. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
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That's why the curse of God passed upon us. That's why, as in Adam, all die. Everything that happened to Adam basically happened to us. We did it because he was our representative and we were there in him. Now, Jesus Christ is called the last Adam because there will never, ever be anyone else after him to sustain this federal headship and representation with the people.
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Now, if you look in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and I want you to see this in light of 1 Corinthians 15, but Romans chapter 5 and verse 14. Look what the Bible says in comparing Christ and Adam. Romans 5 verse 14. The Bible says, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." Now listen carefully. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him who was to come.
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So you have to ask yourself this question. How in the world could Adam be a figure or a type of Christ? Adam sinned. Christ did not sin. Adam failed. Christ did not fail. How in the world could Adam then be a figure or a type of Christ? And the answer is, Adam sustained a federal headship with a people. He was our federal representative. Christ also sustains a federal headship with the people. He also is our representative. So, he is the figure of Adam, or the type of Adam, only in the fact that he sustained this federal headship. Adam plunged all of his posterity into sin and death. Christ takes all of his posterity and raises them out of sin and death and gives them eternal life.
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Now, there's a whole argument based upon this in Romans chapter 5. I'm not going to get into that today because I'm not dealing with this particularly. But if I were to ask you, why did Jesus Christ come? You would probably answer me, to save sinners. And I'm going to tell you that that is an excellent answer, although it may not be the full answer. You would have to understand what salvation included for that answer to be acceptable.
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You say, what are you talking about? Well, look in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, and you will see why Jesus Christ came. Yes, He came to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said that. He came to save sinners of whom Paul said He was chief. But when you look in 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, it goes a little further than that. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, the Bible says, "...for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust." Why?
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"That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."
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Now, why did Christ come? To save us, yes. But what is involved in saving us? In saving us, He brings us to God. What happened in the garden? Adam sinned. He hid himself. He lied. He ran from God. Now Christ comes and saves us. But in saving us, he brings us back to God. In the garden, Adam basically said this, "Lord, I don't want your law. I'm going to be a law to myself. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'll exercise dominion the way I want to exercise dominion. You don't have any right to tell me what to do." Now Christ has come, and He saves us, and He brings us to Himself, and then He leads us back to the Father, and now we bow to the Father and say, "O how love I thy law! Thou hast the right to rule over me. You have the right to tell me what to do and how to live. It's you, Lord, that I need to love and need to serve." So in other words, Christ then basically has reversed the fall.
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Now, if I were to ask you what Adam had in the garden, here's what he had. He had original knowledge, righteousness, and dominion. Listen, Adam was not a caveman. Adam communed with God. He walked with the Lord in the cool of the day, the Bible says. Adam read the purpose of God in all of those animals that he named. As I said last week, he was scientifically classifying those animals. Adam was a brilliant man. He did have original knowledge and righteousness and dominion.
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But what happened was this. When he sinned against God, he lost all of it. His mind now becomes clouded. He becomes ignorant. In fact, that's what the Bible says about all of those people who left God, they being ignorant of God. He lost his righteousness. And he lost his dominion in the sense that now it has become perverted. Well, what does Christ do for us in salvation?
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I want you to turn very quickly in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 3 in verse 10. Colossians 3. And look at verse 10. Then we'll go to Ephesians chapter 4. Look in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10. Here's what the Bible says, Colossians 3 verse 10, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."
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What does Christ do when he saves us? He restores knowledge to us. Knowledge of God. Knowledge of His Word. Look now, "and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." So in Christ then, we have a renewed, godly knowledge. Look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, if you would, and verse 24. Ephesians 4, verse 24. "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
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What now have we gotten back? Not only knowledge, but righteousness and holiness. You say, what about dominion? Well, let me just quote it. Do you remember in Matthew 28 in verse 18, what did our Lord say? "All authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. Therefore, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." Do you realize the Great Commission is an aspect of the dominion mandate? It's an aspect of the great charter that God gave to Adam and Eve to subdue and exercise dominion. We got back far more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam. Adam had limited authority. Christ has all authority. Adam had a created righteousness. We now have the perfect righteousness of Christ. Adam had original knowledge. We now have the full revelation of God given us in His Word. Why did Christ come? You say to save sinners. Yes. But to save those sinners and bring them back to God the Father.
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So the Christian man and the Christian family are now instruments in extending the Kingdom of God. The Christian man and the Christian family have been brought back by Christ to serve the Father in honoring Him and extending His Kingdom. Let me go to point number five today, and here it is. Dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals. Dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals.
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Have you ever asked yourself this question? What if Adam had not sinned? Well, Henry last Sunday said, well, one thing for sure, he would never die. And that's true. Wow. Can you imagine? If Adam had not sinned, everyone who had ever been born since the beginning of time would still be alive. Now, that leads me to this question. Had Adam not sinned, would he have remained in the Garden of Eden forever? The answer is no. The Garden of Eden was just simply a prototype.
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He would have gone there, or gone from there, subduing the earth, exercising dominion as he had been commanded by God in Genesis 1, 26 through 27. The Garden was just simply the beginning. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 115 and verse 16? Listen to this. "Even the heavens are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men." Now, what all the earth includes, I don't know.
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It may include our moon, it may include our sun, it may include our planet. I'm just simply saying. But God gave us the entire earth. Thus, in Christ, the Christian man and the Christian family are called to function in the sphere of dominion. Now, think about this. The home, the Christian family, the home is only the beginning. Just like the Garden of Eden was to be the beginning for Adam, our Christian families are simply to be the beginning for us.
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We refer to our homes as our domiciles. Ever wondered why you refer to your home as your domicile? Well, the Latin word dominus means Lord. And the Latin word domus means house. You know what domicile actually means? It means that you are the lord of your house. Have you ever heard the old expression that a man's home is his castle? What's that mean? He's king there. That's where he rules. That's where he reigns. And it's from the word domicile. So just like the garden then would have been a beginning for Adam and his subduing and exercising dominion over all the earth, our family is just beginning for you and I to do the same.
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Now let me explain this a little further. And I don't want to get too much into this today because I'll probably develop it a little more later. But I want you to look in your Bibles to Psalm 127. When I'm telling you that your family is to be just simply the beginning of your dominion. Look at it in Psalm 127. Psalm 127, verse 4. And we're going to come back to this passage in a little while, so please mark it. But Psalm 127, verse 4.
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"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. What do you do with an arrow? You shoot it. Who do you shoot arrows at? Your enemies? Or any target that you want to bring down, subdue, or conquer? Do you realize that one of the aspects of the Christian family means this? That we're to exercise dominion and we're to subdue the earth by sending our children out as conquering arrows to exercise dominion for Christ.
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Hold Psalm 127, but look in your Bibles, first of all, to Genesis 22 and verse 17. Genesis 22, 17. Then we'll go to Genesis 24. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Genesis 22. Notice, if you would please, verse 17. Look at this blessing. Genesis 22, 17. "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."
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You say, what's so significant about that? Do you know where courts were held? Do you know where kings normally ruled from? From the gates. Oh yeah, they had palaces. But anything else that was done was done publicly. And when the Bible says that your seed will possess the gates of your enemies, what does that mean? You control them. You have subdued them. You exercise dominion over them.
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If you look in Genesis 24 and verse 60, Rebecca is given this blessing by her family. Genesis 24 verse 60. "And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate thee." Wow. Let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate thee. In other words, let them exercise dominion. Genesis 24, verse 60.
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Now go back in your Bibles to Psalm 127. I told you we were coming back there. Look in verse 4. Psalm 127, verse 4. Let's read verse 3. "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."
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"They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." What are the children doing? Conquering. I'm just trying to show you that dominion is an aspect of the family as well as the individual. Let me tell you that first of all, dominion clearly implies responsibility and authority. We as Christian families have a responsibility to use God's earth, God's world, in terms of God's law. God is the creator. He is the lawgiver. He has commanded dominion, but we are to exercise dominion according to his word. What God has given us, he has given us as a stewardship.
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He is still the transcendent owner. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2, "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." We must recognize and acknowledge and confess the fact that everything that is, everything that we have, everything that we possess in reality belongs to God. We're just the stewards of it. God gave it and God may take it. We have a responsibility to be stewards.
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Now, authority is given to us by God to rule and exercise in terms of God's law. We have no authority to abuse and misuse and destroy or pervert that which God has given us. We do have authority to act within the law of God. You see, without authority, the family would quickly move into social anarchy. The source of the family's authority is God, and I'm going to point out, and I will deal with it later, but the main representative of that authority is the husband and the father, which you're going to find in 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 3, but we're going to look at that in
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detail shortly, in a week or two. But let me show you what the abdication of this authority results in. Look in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah chapter 3 and verse 12. I'm just showing you that God has given to the family responsibility and authority. Unhappily, what many men do is they abdicate their authority and refuse to work and refuse to exercise biblical knowledge. Consequently, in Isaiah 3, verse 12, God says this, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." What did He say? As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. So when men then abdicate or deny or misuse and abuse their position, what happens is you have social anarchy not only in the home, but in every other realm, and the children become the rulers and oppressors and or the women. Do you know something? In the average home in this country, the average home is either ruled by the children or by the wife.
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That's a fact. Consequently, you have social anarchy and family anarchy. Skip down to verse 16 and boy, I want you to see how God, by the way, this is God and he's judging these women. He says in verse 16, "Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go,
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and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs,
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the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war."
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And I want to show you how severe it will be when God judges like that. Look in chapter 4 and verse 1. "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach."
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Now, all I'm showing you is this. When men refuse to exercise biblical and godly authority, you have nothing but family and social anarchy, which results in political anarchy. And I'm not being ugly when I say this, but if Hillary Clinton was a perfect woman, I still wouldn't vote for her. She has no business being in office, period. Now, authority is absolutely necessary for protection, for promotion, and for preservation of the family. But it must be a biblical authority that is exercised in terms of God's Word.
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On the one hand, God prohibits us from abusing and misusing the earth. And on the other hand, He gives us full authority to use it according to His law for our good and for His glory. So you cannot have a family without responsibility and without authority. So the true meaning of the family then is found in a God-centered responsibility and authority in terms of man's calling to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over it.
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Now, under this point, there's a second thought. And that is, dominion clearly implies private property. There are so many verses in the Bible. For instance, Exodus 9 in verse 29, Psalm 24 in verse 1, you can quote some of these. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." There is no state, there is no government that owns this world. There's not even a private individual that owns this world. God owns the world.
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He is the absolute and transcendent owner of everything. He is the creator, He is the owner, He is the sustainer. And He has given us authority, He's delegated that to us to exercise dominion under Him for our good and for His glory. So even property then, is given to us as a stewardship.
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Now, biblically speaking, families have always been, they are now, and will always be the controller of property and not the state. One of the ways that children were taught responsibility and discipline was through the use of property. You say, what are you talking about, Brother Weaver? I'm just telling you that disobedient, recalcitrant, rebellious children were always disinherited. They were cut out. They were cut off. Let me give you a quote from Rush Dooney, his Institutes of Biblical Law. One short paragraph. The question of inheritance and wills can best be understood if we examine the biblical word for will or testament. It is the word blessing. And inheritance is precisely that, a blessing. And for a parent to confer a blessing, or the central blessing on an unbelieving child, or rebellious, contemptuous child, is to bless evil. He then adds, To cut off a child is a total curse. Now, when you stop and think about biblical law, there were basically only two ways of dealing with a rebellious, recalcitrant, disobedient child. And I'm not talking about someone six years old.
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I'm talking about a grown child. The first way to deal with that is based upon Deuteronomy 21. When the parents went to the elders and said, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard." And what would the elders do? They would take him and stone him to death. That was one way to get rid of him. The other alternative was to disinherit him. And most parents had rather disinherit the child than to have him stoned to death.
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Now, when the child is disinherited, he has a choice of repenting and doing that which is right and biblical or losing everything. It's just that simple. You're going to find, as you read through the Bible, that sometimes the elder child who was supposed to receive the double portion was often set aside because of sin and irresponsibility. Reuben was set aside, you'll remember. Esau was set aside, you'll remember. Reuben sinned against his father, had sex with his father's concubine. And Jacob said, he's not going to be the one to get the double portion in my house. He was set aside.
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Parents have to learn that whatever we have is a stewardship from God, and we cannot bless evil by giving our stewardship to wicked, rebellious children. My wife can tell you, I told my girls, I told my grandchildren, I love you, I'll help you, I'll break my neck for you, as long as you're doing what's right. But if you think for one instance that you're going to rebel and sin and expect me to help subsidize your wickedness, you're mistaken. You'll never get one cent from me to help you do what is wrong and wicked. You cannot bless evil.
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A further demonstration from Scripture that property, private property, was to be controlled by the family is found in Ezekiel 46, verses 16 through 18. We've gone over that passage in times past. That is where the king is forbidden the right of eminent domain. He was forbidden to take the property of the people and give it to his family or his servants. Eminent domain belongs only to God. Because eminent domain is an aspect of sovereignty.
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It does not belong to the state for the state is not sovereign. I don't know if I told you this or not, but years ago I was in a meeting. And there was an American Indian who was attending that church and was a professing Christian. And I preached all week and every day I had dinner with the pastor and this American Indian, and everything was fine. We talked and had good fellowship. And about the last day, when we were at dinner, he was morose, sullen, and I looked at him and I said, "What's wrong with you?"
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And he said something he shouldn't have said. He said, "You white men stole our land." I said, "I'll tell you something. It wasn't your land. It was God's land." I said, "And God has the right to disinherit anyone who will not pay him his taxes and his taxes are worship and praise and honor. I said, He disinherited the Amorites, the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Hivites, and all those others."
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I said, "Here your people were out running around worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars, and the trees. I said, God had every right to take it away from you and give it to us. And God will have every right to take it away from us and give it to someone else if we go into idolatry like you did. I said, are we clear on that?" Listen, God is the Sovereign.
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And I got news for you folks. Ahab learned the lesson the hard way that he didn't really have eminent domain. He thought he could take Naboth's property and get away with it, but God killed him because of it. Eminent domain belongs to God alone, because the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. The right of the state to eminent domain has no place in biblical law.
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Rush Dooney said something that every politician needs to hear. He said this, "The state has the duty to protect man and his property, but not to tax it or confiscate it." And that's the truth, folks. You realize that one of the problems we have in this country is that we have a whole country full of displaced citizens. When I say displaced citizens, I mean this, that our homes, our farms, our lands have been taken from us either through eminent domain, taxation, fraud, or theft of some kind. Do you realize, 50, 60 years ago, most Americans were born, raised, lived, and died on the family property. Never left it. Never left it. I'm not being ugly when I say this, but I want you to listen to me. Do you know what the most popular home in this country today is? A mobile home. I'm not denigrating anyone who lives in a mobile home. Please don't think I am. I certainly am not. But I'm showing you the emphasis is on the mobile.
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You can move it here. You can move it there. You can go there. In other words, no roots. Consequently, what has happened in this country, no one has anything worth fighting for or dying for. They don't have the family farm. They don't have the family land. They just move hither and move yon. And it doesn't bother them. They're like nomads. It was not like that in the founding of this country.
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The truth of the matter is unless we go back and start developing a family and family roots—I don't care if it's one acre or two acres or whatever. Just so it is yours. It is yours by virtue of God. And you can live there and you can farm it. And you have something to fight for. But you don't have anything to fight for when you're paying a lot of rent every month. If things get rough, you just move. I suppose that's probably one reason there's very little conviction in this country today. Why would you fight for something that's not yours? Historically, the family has been the controller and possessor and preserver of property. So private property is inherent in the exercise of dominion.
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Now, I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 1. I want to give you one last point today. I want you to understand that God's law is the instrument of dominion. God's law is the instrument of dominion. Look what God told Joshua in Joshua chapter 1. Joshua 1. Notice verse 1. "Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead.
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Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them." Notice God's giving it to them. "...even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses." By the way, the word tread there means to crumble off, to break down, to subdue. Radah. Verse 4, "From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
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There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
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Now look what God says to Joshua. "Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Notice what God says. Now Joshua, you're about to go into this land. You're going to be exercising dominion. You're going to be subduing. I've given you this land.
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I've taken it away from the Amorites and the Hittites and Jebusites and the Hivites and all the otherites. It's yours. Only be thou strong and very courageous and you observe to do everything that I've commanded you. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Only then will you be successful. Only then will you be prosperous. You know, it's interesting. When God says that His law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. What is God doing? God is giving us the prescription for success and prosperity. We are not going to succeed and we're not going to prosper apart from God.
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What happened to Adam when he tried to exercise an independent dominion? He died. He lost everything. And when I'm using the term law right now, I'm using it in its broadest sense to refer to the entirety of the revealed Word of God. You must remember this, that a king rules by his law. And every word that God speaks is law. You know what the Hebrew word for law is? It's the word Torah. Torah. You know what the word Torah means? It means instruction, authoritative direction, or instruction. It's just like when you get that new machine, along with that new machine comes an instruction booklet.
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Which all the women read, but the men never do. Well, this book is our instruction booklet for success and prosperity and exercising dominion. All you have to do is read through the Bible to find out what happens when we don't obey God and His law. Look at Leviticus 26. Look at Deuteronomy 28. Look at Amos 4. Look at Isaiah 58. There's a curse attached for disobedience. And the more and the greater our disobedience, the more and the greater the curses that fall upon us. God said, look, if you want success, here it is.
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I've given you the plan. You have to learn to exercise dominion biblically. You know what the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, in verse 5. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 5. God says, "And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully." If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
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Now folks, let me tell you something. There are plenty of big churches in this country. We could have a big church too. That's no problem. Just get the best entertainers in. Have the shortest sermons. You can get wood, hay, and stubble in a heartbeat. And I could say, I've got 5,000 in church and I'm successful, but I've got news for you folks. If I'm going to run a race, I'm not crowned except I strive lawfully. That means whatever I do, I have to run according to the Word of God. I don't care if it's building a church. I don't care if it's building a family or building a business. If we want success, if we want prosperity, we must follow God's Word. We must bring our lives and our businesses in conformity to the Word of God. We're to exercise dominion the way God says we're to exercise dominion. Otherwise, it's an autonomous dominion and it doesn't count. I could challenge everybody to a foot race. A foot race could be around this block.
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And although I might start out last, I might cut across the yards, come back in and around and break the tape and say, I won, I won, I won. But did I win? No. I beat you to the tape. But I didn't stay on course. I cheated. The man strived for masteries, yet he's not crowned, except he strived lawfully. God has told us in His Word how to raise our family, how to teach our children, how to treat your husband, how to treat your wife. He's given us everything that we need to know.
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And if we don't learn it and apply it, we're never, ever going to prosper. I want to tell you something. If you have good, godly, and knowledgeable, and honest, and upright children, you've already won. You've already been successful. If you haven't, you need to cry out to God for conversion for them, and for wisdom on your part. We've got to learn to go according to the word of God.
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Now, let me make just a couple of applications and I'll close. God has instituted the family as an instrument of dominion. I think that's clear from scripture. He's given us responsibility. He's given us authority. Pointed out last week that God created the woman to be the helper that was suitable to the man. What does that mean? First of all, it should be obvious that the dominion mandate requires and demands communication and cooperation within the family. You have to have communication. You have to have cooperation. A wife that won't help her husband is not right with God. A husband that won't consider his wife is not right with God. When you won't talk to each other, you can't possibly be right with God. You have to have communication. You have to have cooperation in order to work things out, in order to exercise dominion. Family members must, I don't care if it's husband, wife, child, family members must understand their proper role, and I'm going to deal with this in the future, they must understand their proper role and fulfill that role.
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You must, by all means, communicate. And I've got news for you. You can talk and not communicate. And you can communicate and not talk. What do I mean? If I looked at you and said, now, this is communication. If I looked at you and said, "I love you." What did you hear me say? "I love you." Well, what did I actually communicate? I'm mad, and I'm angry, and I'm upset, and I really probably don't love you. But I said "I love you." And you know, I can communicate this and never say a word. Watch me. You know what I mean.
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Let's be honest, folks, if we are going to have Christian families and we're going to exercise dominion. If we're going to do what God tells us to do, we have to communicate and we have to cooperate. We have to work together. The second application is this. If we're going to be obedient to the Word of God, first and foremost, we must know the Word of God. We must find out what it says. And the second thing, we must apply the Word of God. And as we apply the Word of God, we seek the Lord for his blessing and for the Holy Spirit to enable us to carry out and fulfill our responsibilities. God has called us to dominion.
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He didn't just call us to reproduction. He called us to dominion. And we're to conquer for Christ. We are to tell people. And we're to live it and show it and demonstrate it that Jesus Christ is Lord. What does the word Lord mean? I've told you so many times. It means boss, owner, master, sovereign. And when I say Jesus Christ is Lord, that means that everyone is required to bow to Jesus Christ.
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And that is our goal. As we exercise dominion for Him, we extend His kingdom, bringing men and women into submission and subjection to the Word of God, bowing the knee and acknowledging that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your love and Your truth to us. We do ask, Father, that You would help us to understand the dominion aspect of the family. It's so basic. It's so fundamental. The reason You instituted the family was so that we could exercise dominion under Thee. Help us, Lord, to bring our personal lives and our family lives in conformity to Your Word. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray, Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T16:04:25Z

The Family - Part 2

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

In this sermon, John Weaver continues his series on the biblical doctrine of the family, focusing on the dominion aspect. He argues that Christ, as the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion, reversing the fall by restoring knowledge, righteousness, and authority. The family is designed by God as an instrument of dominion, with responsibility, authority, and private property as key components. God's law is the instrument of dominion, and success requires obedience to His Word. Applications emphasize communication, cooperation, and knowing and applying Scripture.

Introduction and Review

Scripture Reading — Genesis 2:18-25

"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."

You remember I gave you the verse in Proverbs 8 and verse 36 where our Lord said,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 8:36

"He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."

Christ, the Second Man, Restores Godly Dominion

Christ came as the last Adam to restore what was lost in the fall—knowledge, righteousness, and dominion—bringing believers back to God and reversing the curse.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 69:4

"They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away."

Scripture Reading — Psalm 69:4

"...but this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause."

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 15:45-47

"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."

Scripture Reading — Romans 5:14

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."

Now listen carefully. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him who was to come.

Scripture Reading — 1 Peter 3:18

"...for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."

Why?

Scripture Reading — Colossians 3:10

"And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."

What does Christ do when he saves us? He restores knowledge to us. Knowledge of God. Knowledge of His Word. Look now,

Scripture Reading — Colossians 3:10

"and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."

So in Christ then, we have a renewed, godly knowledge. Look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, if you would, and verse 24. Ephesians 4, verse 24.

Scripture Reading — Colossians 3:10

"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Dominion as the Function of the Family

The family is an instrument of dominion, with children as arrows sent out to conquer for Christ. The home is the beginning of dominion, just as the Garden of Eden was a prototype for Adam's rule.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 115:16

"Even the heavens are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men."

Now, what all the earth includes, I don't know.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 127:3-5

Hold Psalm 127, but look in your Bibles, first of all, to Genesis 22 and verse 17. Genesis 22, 17. Then we'll go to Genesis 24. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Genesis 22. Notice, if you would please, verse 17. Look at this blessing. Genesis 22, 17. "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."

Now go back in your Bibles to Psalm 127. I told you we were coming back there. Look in verse 4. Psalm 127, verse 4. Let's read verse 3.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 127:3-5

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."

Responsibility and Authority in the Family

Dominion implies responsibility and authority under God's law. When men abdicate biblical authority, social and family anarchy result, as seen in Isaiah 3.

He is still the transcendent owner. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2,

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 4:2

"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 3:12

"As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."

Private Property and Dominion

Dominion includes private property as a stewardship from God. Families, not the state, are to control property, and inheritance is a blessing that should not be given to rebellious children.

God's Law as the Instrument of Dominion

Success in dominion comes only through obedience to God's law. Joshua 1 shows that meditating on and obeying the law leads to prosperity; striving lawfully is essential.

Applications: Communication, Cooperation, and Obedience

The dominion mandate requires communication and cooperation within the family. Believers must know and apply God's Word, seeking His blessing to fulfill their responsibilities.

The Family - Part 2

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	111071116164
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Marriage and Household Order: The Family
Genre	Sermon
Date	2007-08-26
Dictation Name
Book	Book 035: The Family — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	76

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Review: Weaver introduces the message as part of a series on the family, reviewing the first three points from the previous sermon: the family's theological significance, its role in dominion, and the fall as autonomous dominion apart from God.
Christ, the Second Man, Restores Godly Dominion: Christ came as the last Adam to restore what was lost in the fall—knowledge, righteousness, and dominion—bringing believers back to God and reversing the curse.
Dominion as the Function of the Family: The family is an instrument of dominion, with children as arrows sent out to conquer for Christ. The home is the beginning of dominion, just as the Garden of Eden was a prototype for Adam's rule.
Responsibility and Authority in the Family: Dominion implies responsibility and authority under God's law. When men abdicate biblical authority, social and family anarchy result, as seen in Isaiah 3.
Private Property and Dominion: Dominion includes private property as a stewardship from God. Families, not the state, are to control property, and inheritance is a blessing that should not be given to rebellious children.
God's Law as the Instrument of Dominion: Success in dominion comes only through obedience to God's law. Joshua 1 shows that meditating on and obeying the law leads to prosperity; striving lawfully is essential.
Applications: Communication, Cooperation, and Obedience: The dominion mandate requires communication and cooperation within the family. Believers must know and apply God's Word, seeking His blessing to fulfill their responsibilities.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Christ reversed the fall by restoring knowledge, righteousness, and dominion.

Weaver argues that Christ, as the last Adam, came to restore what was lost in Eden, enabling believers to exercise godly dominion under God's law.

He cites Psalm 69:4 ('Then I restored that which I took not away'), 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (Christ as last Adam), Colossians 3:10 (renewed in knowledge), Ephesians 4:24 (created in righteousness), and Matthew 28:18 (all authority given to Christ).

The family is an instrument of dominion, not just reproduction.

The family's purpose includes subduing the earth and extending God's kingdom, with children as arrows sent out to conquer.

Weaver points to Psalm 127:4, Genesis 22:17, and Genesis 24:60 to show that children are meant to possess the gates of enemies, indicating dominion.

Abdication of male authority leads to social anarchy.

When men fail to exercise biblical authority, families and society descend into chaos, with children or women ruling.

Isaiah 3:12 is cited: 'As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.'

Private property is a family stewardship under God.

God owns all things; families are stewards of property, and the state has no right to eminent domain. Inheritance should be used to bless obedience, not evil.

Weaver references Ezekiel 46:16-18 (king forbidden eminent domain) and the practice of disinheritance for rebellious children, citing Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law.

Success in dominion requires obedience to God's law.

Prosperity and success come only by following God's Word; autonomous dominion leads to death, as with Adam.

Joshua 1:7-8 commands obedience to the law for success, and 2 Timothy 2:5 states that one is not crowned unless he strives lawfully.

Scripture References

Genesis 2:18-25: Read as the foundational text for the institution of the family and the dominion mandate.
Proverbs 8:36: Cited to show that sinning against God is loving death, referencing the fall of Adam.
Romans 5:12: Used to explain that all sinned in Adam and death passed upon all men.
Psalm 69:4: Messianic psalm applied to Christ, showing He restored what He took not away.
John 15:25: Jesus quotes Psalm 69:4, applying it to Himself.
1 Corinthians 15:45-47: Contrasts Adam as the first man and Christ as the last Adam and second man, highlighting federal headship.
Romans 5:14: Adam is a figure of Christ in terms of federal headship.
1 Peter 3:18: Christ suffered to bring us to God, reversing the separation caused by Adam's sin.
Colossians 3:10: The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ, restoring what Adam lost.
Ephesians 4:24: The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness, part of the restoration in Christ.
Matthew 28:18: All authority is given to Christ; the Great Commission is an aspect of the dominion mandate.
Psalm 115:16: The earth is given to the children of men, indicating the scope of dominion.
Psalm 127:3-5: Children are like arrows; they will speak with enemies in the gate, showing dominion.
Genesis 22:17: Abraham's seed will possess the gate of his enemies, indicating dominion.
Genesis 24:60: Rebekah blessed to have her seed possess the gate of those who hate her.
1 Corinthians 4:2: Stewards are required to be faithful, emphasizing responsibility.
Isaiah 3:12: Children oppress and women rule when men abdicate authority.
Isaiah 3:16-4:1: God's judgment on haughty women and the resulting social chaos.
Ezekiel 46:16-18: The king is forbidden eminent domain, showing property belongs to families under God.
Joshua 1:1-8: God commands Joshua to obey the law for success in possessing the land, illustrating dominion through obedience.

Historical References

Martin Luther: Quoted as saying there are only two men in the world, Christ and Adam, and everyone hangs from their girdles.
Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law: Cited on inheritance as a blessing and the state's duty to protect property, not tax or confiscate it.
Deuteronomy 21 (stoning rebellious son): Referenced as one biblical way to deal with a rebellious child, alongside disinheritance.
Reuben and Esau: Examples of elder children set aside from inheritance due to sin.
Ahab and Naboth's vineyard: Ahab killed for trying to exercise eminent domain, showing it belongs to God alone.
American Indians and land: Weaver recounts a conversation where he argued God disinherited idolatrous peoples and gave land to others.

Important Quotes

Christ, the second man, the last Adam, came to restore a godly people and a godly dominion.

Central thesis of the sermon: Christ's work reverses the fall and restores dominion to believers.

Then I restored that which I took not away.

Psalm 69:4 quoted to show Christ restored what Adam lost, though He did not take it away.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Key verse illustrating that children are instruments of dominion, sent out to conquer for Christ.

The state has the duty to protect man and his property, but not to tax it or confiscate it.

Rushdoony quote emphasizing the biblical limit on state power over private property.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Joshua 1:8 quoted as the prescription for success and prosperity through obedience to God's law.

And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

2 Timothy 2:5 used to argue that success must be achieved according to God's rules.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does understanding Christ as the last Adam change the way we view our role in the family and society?

[Context]

Weaver argues that Christ restored knowledge, righteousness, and dominion, enabling believers to exercise godly rule.

[Question]

In what practical ways can families view their children as 'arrows' sent out to exercise dominion for Christ?

[Context]

Psalm 127:4 is used to illustrate that children are to be trained and sent out to conquer in various spheres.

[Question]

What are the consequences of men abdicating their biblical authority in the home, according to Isaiah 3?

[Context]

Weaver cites Isaiah 3:12 to show that when men fail to lead, children or women rule, leading to anarchy.

[Question]

How should the concept of private property as a stewardship from God affect our decisions about inheritance and wealth?

[Context]

Weaver discusses disinheritance of rebellious children and the prohibition of eminent domain, emphasizing family control of property.

[Question]

What does it mean to 'strive lawfully' in our personal and family lives, and why is it essential for success?

[Context]

2 Timothy 2:5 is used to argue that success must be achieved according to God's Word, not by worldly methods.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T06:26:10Z