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The Biblical Doctrine of Dominion - Part 1

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• Genesis chapter 1. We're going to be dealing with verses 26 through 28. This message will be in two parts. This is the first part, and the title is "The Biblical Doctrine of Dominion." And Lord willing, next Sunday, I will be finishing it in part two. And Lord willing, we'll be meeting in our regular place next Sunday. So notice, if you would please, Genesis chapter 1, beginning there with verse 26.

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• The Bible says, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Now, note if you would please, the Bible tells us that God gave dominion to Adam.

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• Dominion is a word that is infrequently used and even less frequently understood. And yet the truth of the matter is this: every man, whether he's saved or unsaved, is dominion-oriented. The passage that I'm dealing with today, Genesis 1:26-28, is usually known as the creation mandate, or the great charter, or the dominion charter, or the dominion mandate. If you look in verse 26, God tells Adam that he is to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. The word "dominion" there is the word "radah" in the Hebrew, and it means to rule, to have dominion over, to reign, to tread down, to subjugate, and to dominate. A good illustration of this is found in Joshua 1:3, where God told Joshua, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." So, it literally means to tread down. Now, if the word "dominion" is not sufficient enough, if you look in verse 28, the Bible says, "Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it."

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• Now, the word "subdue" is the word "kabosh," which literally means to subdue, to bring into bondage or to bring into subjection, to keep under and to make subservient. So now God has said to Adam that he is to exercise dominion and he is to subdue the earth. The word "dominion" itself occurs 62 times in the Bible. That does not count the variations of the word, but it does imply that something mighty important is involved when God mentions this truth 62 times. So you must believe something about it. The Latin word is "dominus," and it literally means to rule or to have power to rule by sovereign authority.

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• And sometimes it refers to a governed territory. When we speak of domesticated animals, we're talking about animals that have been dominated and subdued. We talk about domesticated horses, dogs, cats, cattle, oxen. And any domesticated animal is an animal that has been tamed, subjugated for our service and for our pleasure as well. So the word "domesticated" is intimately connected with the word "dominion." However, when you look at Genesis 1:28, God makes it plain that it's not just the animals that are to be dominated and subdued; it is indeed the whole earth. So dominion then affects every man, but it especially affects the Christian man, because the Christian man has been called to covenant restoration. And the truth is that dominion is going to be exercised by someone. It's either going to be exercised by the godly or it's going to be exercised by the ungodly. When it is exercised by the ungodly, it is always the godly who suffer.

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• The Bible says in Proverbs 28:28, "When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase." And then when you get to Proverbs 29:2, the Bible says, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." So obviously someone is going to be exercising dominion.

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• Now I want to lay down some propositions today so that we can really wrap our minds around this truth. First of all, God has all authority, all power, and all dominion. And any dominion that man has has been given to us by delegation. The Bible tells us in the book of Job 25:2, "Dominion and power are with him." God alone has absolute dominion and absolute power.

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• Now, I want to give you some verses and I'm going to be quoting some of these in order to save time, because I've got a lot to share with you today. So this is going to be from the book of Daniel, chapter 4, verse 3, verse 17, verse 32, and then verse 34. All of these deal with dominion. So listen to this: Daniel 4:3, the Bible says, talking about God, "How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation." So God's dominion never expires. In verse 17, "This matter is by the decree of the

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• watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." And then, of course, verse 32, God is talking to Nebuchadnezzar, and he says this: "And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." So after seven years, Nebuchadnezzar became sane again, and he finally confessed this in verse 34. He said, "And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from

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• generation to generation." So let me say it like this very plainly. All of these verses, plus a multitude more, teach us one truth: Dominion is in God inherently and essentially. There's absolutely nothing and there's absolutely no one over which God does not have absolute and total control. So God's dominion is eternal. It is immutable. It is complete and it is total. So God has dominion inherently and essentially. The only way man can exercise dominion or have any dominion or authority is by delegation. When you talk about the doctrine of God, there are incommunicable attributes and there are communicable attributes. When you talk about God's infinity, God's eternity, God's sovereignty, these are attributes that cannot be communicated to man. But there are others that can be communicated to man, such as love, grace, mercy, justice, and dominion. So let me put it like this: any dominion, any power, any authority that any man has has been delegated to him, given him by God alone. There is not an ounce of dominion, there's not an ounce of power or authority outside of God. And anytime we have any of that, God just simply gave it to us.

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• So it has been delegated. It has been communicated. But God alone possesses all power, authority and, of course, dominion. The second thing I want to show you in Genesis 1 is that man was created for dominion. In fact, the Bible tells us that God commanded Adam to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth. Someone is going to object and say, "But Adam sinned and Adam fell." That is true. But if you will turn to your Bibles very quickly to Genesis chapter 9, you will see that this dominion mandate is once again given to Noah and his sons. Look in Genesis 9, beginning there with verse 1. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." That's exactly what God told Adam.

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• He said, "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered." The Hebrew word for "delivered" here is the word "nathan," and it literally means to be given, to be granted, to be bestowed, to be committed, to be entrusted, to be appointed, and to be delivered. So he says, God has delivered all of these things into the hands of Noah and his sons.

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• It's the same truth that he mentioned in Genesis 1. Now, if you will turn in your Bibles to Psalm 8, you will see, once again, this dominion mandate is indeed repeated again. Psalm 8, it's a short Psalm, so let's read all of it. Psalm 8, beginning there with verse 1. The psalmist says, "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

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• Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"

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• Now I want to call your attention to verse 5. The Bible says, "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." So the angels, in one sense of the word, are above us. Of course, they are spirit beings. They're at the throne of God, awaiting His command. But the Bible also says in verse 5, "and hast crowned him with glory and honour." So the question is, since man is lower than the angels in one sense of the word, how is it that God has crowned man with glory and honour? And the answer then is given in verse 6: "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." And then he delineates some of the things that have been put under the feet of man. So God crowned man with glory and honour by giving him dominion. Now according to the Bible, man then is dominion-oriented both by nature and by calling. By nature, man has been specifically created for dominion. There are differences between men and women, and I'm not just talking about physical differences. There are

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• mental differences or emotional differences. All these differences have been created by God. However, there have been tests run between men and women, and they discovered that men were basically superior to women only in two areas: number one, abstract thinking, and number two, aggressiveness or dominion orientation. When you think about the aggressiveness, it's usually the man who chases after the woman, right? Except in my case, Alice chased after me, you know, but yeah, you believe that, I'm sure. I can tell by the smiles on your face and the laugh that you're giving. No, but you know how I'm taught. It is man that is usually more aggressive in anything than the woman. So God created man specifically for dominion. Now, the earth then was created as God's kingdom. And man then was appointed as God's vicegerent or vice president. In other words, he was to manage the earth and rule the earth and subdue the earth and exercise dominion over the earth for God's honour and for God's glory. So his role was to be as unto God.

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• So man's calling then in dominion is a religious calling. It is an aspect of his worship as well.

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• Now, you know that God created Adam and he placed him in the garden. Adam had a responsibility to guard that garden, of course, to plant it, to prune it, to tend it, to harvest it, to preserve it. He had all of that. But there is also the cognitive aspect, because in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 19, God brought all of those animals to Adam to see what he would call them. Let me point out the fact that what Adam was doing in that instance was that he was scientifically classifying these animals.

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• He was not looking at a cow that was kind of lording it over the other cows and saying, "Well, I'll just call her old Bossy." No, no. What Adam was actually doing was this: he was reading out of those animals the purpose for which God created those animals. He knew exactly the purpose of God for those animals. And he was basically scientifically classifying them. I want you to note something. God has created Adam and he's given him work. He's given him knowledge.

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• Included in this is responsibility. He was responsible to work and keep and guard the garden. And he was responsible for the animals that he classified, that he read out of them the purpose of God created in them and for them. And so he was responsible. What I'm trying to tell you is this: man cannot be understood in a primitive past, nor can he be understood in what you and I would call childhood. When God created Adam and Eve, He created them full grown. He created them mature. So man can only be a man in relationship to work, knowledge, and responsibility. That is what defines a man according to the Word of God. Man was created by God, for God's glory, to exercise dominion.

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• Now, man's calling is in terms of his vocation. Whatever God called you to do, whether it's being the best mechanic in the world, the best ditch digger in the world, the best preacher in the world, your vocation is your calling, what God has called you to do. Your calling is a religious calling because in that calling you are to exercise dominion. And here's a truth that most people have never understood: and that is man cannot be satisfied unless there is productivity in his work. In other words, if he cannot conquer, if he cannot subdue, if he cannot exercise dominion, he becomes totally frustrated. And all you have to do is ask your wives, wives, can you tell when your husband is in a good day at work or a bad day at work? And the answer is yes, because when he has a bad day at work, he comes home frustrated and the wife tries to please him and she can't. And then she becomes frustrated because he's frustrated.

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• And then she thinks she's a failure. But it all has to do with his work. And most people have never, ever recognized the implications of a man's work. His work does indeed affect his attitude. The truth of the matter is this: God called man specifically for dominion. Men cannot be men except in relationship to work, to knowledge, and to responsibility. So what we've done is this: we have sired a generation of people who do not want to work, who do not want to study, who don't want to learn, who do not want to be taught, and who do not want to assume any responsibility whatsoever. And you find this especially among husbands and wives, because the husbands want to pass everything off on the wife. The wife educate the kids, the wife do this, the wife do that. In some cases, the wife is to even support the man.

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• I remember years ago reading an article about a house husband. I've never heard of such a thing, and so I read the article, and what it was about was about a man who was staying home and keeping the house and watching the children while his wife was out working, making the living for the family. I thought, "What in the world is going on?" You see, God has created us so that we can lead and teach.

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• Let me show you a passage. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. And you can hold that passage because we will come back to another passage temporarily very close to it in just a short period of time. But look, if you would, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and notice, if you would please, verses 33 through 35. Watch this carefully. 1 Corinthians 14:33, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

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• What does the apostle say? "If they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home." What does that mean? It means the husband is to teach the wife and to teach the children. It's his responsibility. He has to have the knowledge necessary to do the teaching, to do the leading, to do the instructing. And today you have a whole generation of people, men particularly, who do not want to teach, who do not want to instruct, who do not want to work, who do not want to be responsible. So we've got a generation of emasculated men, men that turn out to be nothing more than drones.

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• You know what a drone is? A drone is the male that fertilizes the female bee. And then after he fertilizes her, he's useless. And they end up usually killing him or starving him to death. And that's basically what we have today. Men think that they're here to reproduce and nothing else. They're drones in an insect world is what it amounts to. But the Bible tells us that God created man for dominion, and man can never be satisfied unless he is exercising dominion.

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• Now, that brings me to this point: man's fall was the result of attempting to establish an autonomous dominion over the earth. I want you to go back in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. Every one of us understands the fall of Adam. We have never really understood the impact and the implications of this fall. Remember now, God created Adam and Eve. He placed Adam in the garden and he gave him work and he gave him knowledge and he gave him responsibility. Now in Genesis chapter 3 we read about the fall. Look at verse 1.

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• "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

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• So how in the world are we to understand the fall of man? You cannot understand the fall without understanding it was treasonous. It was treachery. Adam was actually a traitor. How can I say that? Well, look and go in Genesis 2:16. Watch carefully. "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." Now, the word that I want to emphasize is the word "commanded." The LORD commanded the man. He charged the man. He ordered the man. He appointed the man. He put Adam under an oath. May I remind you that Adam was created to be God's vicegerent or vice president. God was the president. God was the creator. God was the owner. And God created man in order to exercise dominion and subdue that which God created as unto God, for God's honour and glory and for man's good.

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• So now what happens is this: the serpent comes up and tempts Adam and Eve, and he says, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye yourself will become a god. Let me tell you what he is advancing. The serpent is advancing what is known as an open system. I'll explain that. If you were to study Greek philosophy, you would understand the phrase "Aristotelian Auditorianism."

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• Aristotle taught that the universe was a great auditorium in which anything could happen. It was an open system. In other words, it might be possible for a mouse to mate with a lioness. I mean, anything could happen. It might be possible that corn could produce cotton. You see, that's what an open system is. That's why you have all of these scientists trying to merge all of these animals and animals and humans as well, because they believe in an open system. The Bible does not teach an open system. The Bible teaches a closed system. The only thing that can happen and the only thing that can come to pass in time and history is that which God has decreed and ordained from eternity. And that's it. You have to work in light of a closed system. I read some time ago about one scientist who had won far more awards than most of the scientists put together. And he was asked how in the world was it possible that he won so many awards.

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• And his answer was this: "I'm a Christian." He said, "I believe the Bible. I don't waste my time trying to do that which I know cannot be done. I spend my time doing that which I know that God allows to be done." And that's the fact. That's the difference between a closed system and an open system. So the serpent comes up to Adam and Eve and says, "Ye shall be as gods."

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• It is impossible for the creature to become the creator. It's impossible. But he said, "You will become gods. You don't need God. You don't need God's law. You can put your own stamp on God's creation. You can do whatever you want to do." It's kind of like in witchcraft and in masonry, there's a saying that goes like this: "As my will is, so must it be." Or, "So mote it be."

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• In other words, I'm going to impose my will upon anything and anyone that I choose. As my will is, so must it be. And this is what Adam is trying to do. He's trying to impose his will upon God's creation. Now, well, what happened? Well, let me quote Romans 5:12. Here's what happened. When Adam attempted to steal God's creation and impose his will upon it, he murdered himself and his family and his posterity. Romans 5:12 says this: "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 men sin? All men sinned at one time in Adam. And death passed upon us because of our sin. And that sin came through Adam. That's why in Romans 5:14, the Bible says, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." And the very fact that men die demonstrates the fact that we are sinners and we were in Adam.

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• Whenever you have anyone trying to play God, all they can produce is death. Adam produced death. Consider the French Revolution. Look at Stalin. Look at Mao Zedong. Look at Pol Pot. Look at Robert Mugabe. Look at Idi Amin. All of these men were tyrants, and they murdered their own people—thousands, millions—in order to produce their society. And all their society was, was a society of death. Stalin has had his utopia and he murdered millions. You know, a utopia is nothing more than an illusion upon a deceived and rebellious brain. You read about the socialist utopia, the communist utopia.

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• I think it was my first year in taking Greek that I found out about the word "utopia," and I've just enjoyed telling it ever since. The word "utopia" is actually from the Greek, and it's made up of two Greek words: "ou," which is a negative, and "topos," which is place. Utopia, ou-topos: no place. Utopia does not exist. It's a figment of the imagination. It's only in someone's mind. A utopia is not reality. So whenever you hear about the socialistic utopia, the communistic utopia, it's all insane. All you are doing is you have a mass murderer, you have a tyrant trying to bring a society, but it turns out to be a society of death. And that's

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• why in Proverbs 8:35-36, Jesus Christ, who is wisdom personified, says this: "Whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." All those that hate the Lord Jesus Christ love death. Stop and think about this. There are different kinds of death. Yes, there's a physical death. There's a spiritual death. There's an economic death. There's a political death. There's a familial death. There's an ecclesiastical death. There's all kinds of death. And he said, "All they that hate me love death."

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• If you've never read George Orwell's book, 1984, I would encourage you to do so. I would also encourage you to read his book, Animal Farm. It's one of my favorite books. But George Orwell saw what the world was without God and without God's law. And here's what he wrote in 1984. He said, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

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• "All they that hate me love death." Fallen man and fallen government want power just simply for power's sake. Fallen man always views himself as ultimate. He does not view God as ultimate. He views his law or his thoughts as ultimate. He does not view God's law or God's thoughts as ultimate. So let me bring it down to you very plainly. The issue is theonomy or autonomy. Theonomy: "theos" is the Greek word for God, "nomos" is the Greek word for law. Theonomy just means God's law. Autonomy: "autos" is the Greek word for self, "nomos" is the Greek word for law. So autonomy just simply means self-law.

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• I could put it another way. It comes down to God's law or man's law, God's law or your law. This was the choice in the garden. Adam could follow God's law or he could follow his own law. "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods, knowing or determining good and evil for yourself." Make up your own law. Impose your will upon creation. So we're either going to be ruled by God or we're going to be ruled by man. God created man for dominion. But man failed. Man sinned. Man rebelled. Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And as you're turning there, I want to give you another point and quote a scripture. As you're turning there, here is the next point: Christ, the last Adam and the second man, came to restore a godly people to exercise a godly dominion. I will quote this verse more fully next week, but in Psalm 69:4, in referring to the Messiah, the scripture says, "Then I restored that which I took not away."

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• I'll explain that and show you that next week. But I want you to look, if you would, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And let's begin reading there with verse 45. 1 Corinthians 15:45. Watch carefully. "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. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." Now, here's my question. In this text, Adam is called the first man and Jesus Christ is called the second man. And Jesus Christ is also called the last Adam. So here's the question: How can Jesus Christ be called the second man when we know that he was the eternal Son of God?

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• He is the one who created the first Adam. So how can he be called the second man? And the answer is very simple: because Jesus Christ was the second man in time and in history to sustain a headship and a federal relationship with the people. He was the second man in time and history. Now, watch this. Adam was our federal head and representative. What Adam did, we did.

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• When he sinned, we sinned. When he fell, we fell. When he died, we died. He was our federal head and representative. Now comes Jesus Christ. He is the second man in time in history to sustain this headship and federal relationship. So in Jesus Christ, when he died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried. When he arose from the dead, we arose from the dead. When he ascended, we ascended.

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• When he sat down at the right hand of God, so did we. Because he is our head, we are his body. And the Bible tells us very clearly that we identified with Jesus Christ. So he's the second man. But he's also called the last Adam. And the reason he's called the last Adam is very simple: because he is the last individual who's going to sustain such a federal headship and representation with the people. Let me spell that out for you. Here's what it literally means: If you're not saved by Jesus Christ, you'll never be saved. There's never going to be another Savior. There's never going to be another Lord. There's never going to be another Redeemer. There's never going to be anyone else that will sustain this federal headship and relationship. And Jesus Christ alone is the last Adam, and he came to restore a godly people with a godly dominion. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:18, listen carefully: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." So what did Adam do when he sinned? He ran from God and he hid himself, right?

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• So when Adam sinned, he was running as far and as fast as he could to get away from God. When Jesus Christ comes and redeems us and brings us back to the Father, now we bow before him. We want to confess our sins and acknowledge that we were the ones who rebelled against him, that we now love him and we should serve him. And instead of running from him, we're running to him and we're coming boldly unto the throne of grace. So Jesus Christ came to restore a godly dominion to a godly people. And the Bible says in the book of Colossians 1:12-14, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

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• So we have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. So where the first Adam failed, the second man, the last Adam, succeeded. Where the first Adam rebelled, the last Adam or the second man came as a lamb. The first Adam was proud and rebellious and haughty and arrogant and demanding. The second Adam or the last man came in meekness, willing to lay down his life for his people.

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• Have you ever wondered about that passage? Matthew 5:5, where our Lord says, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Have you ever really stopped to think about meekness? How about this verse: Matthew 21:5, talking about Jesus Christ, "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." So it says Jesus Christ came in meekness, sitting upon an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass.

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• Everyone in here knows, because I've already told you in times past, who the meekest man in the Old Testament was. And it was who? Someone tell me. Come on, Moses. Numbers 12:3, the Bible says, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." So Moses was the meekest man in the Old Testament. The problem that we have is this.

  #48 | 41:14 to 41:38 | cleaned

• We tend to think that meekness is mousiness. It's being a milquetoast man, letting everybody run over you, letting everybody stomp their feet and clean their feet all over you. That's the idea that the world has of meekness. That is the farthest thing from the truth when it comes to the Bible. In fact, the Hebrew word for meek literally means to be bowed down, to be tamed, to be oppressed, or broken as to yoke.

  #49 | 41:39 to 42:11 | cleaned

• Now, let me put it to you like this. Meekness has reference unto God. The meek are those who have been tamed. The meek are those who have been broken to yoke. Do you remember what our Lord said in Matthew 11:29-30? Listen carefully. He said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Take my yoke upon you. The word meek has reference to being broken to yoke.

  #50 | 42:12 to 42:58 | cleaned

• Everyone has seen the Western pictures where the cowboy gets on the wild horse and all the horse does is buck and buck and kick and try to throw the man off. But after the horse is broken, the man just walks up to him, puts a bridle on him, puts a saddle on him. The horse does as he is commanded to do. The same thing with oxen. An ox is wild until he's broken to yoke. What is an ox?

  #51 | 43:01 to 43:32 | cleaned

• An ox is disciplined strength. It is strength controlled. What's the horse with a bridle? It is strength controlled. Meekness is nothing more than disciplined strength under Jesus Christ. We've been broken to yoke. For instance, remember now that Moses was the meekest man in the Bible in the Old Testament. Do you remember this meek man who killed an Egyptian defending a fellow Hebrew? This meek man confronted Pharaoh, the strongest power in the world in those days. This meek man pronounced all the plagues upon Pharaoh. This meek man watched Pharaoh and his entire army drowned. This meek man prayed when Dathan and Abiram and Korah rebelled.

  #52 | 43:33 to 44:22 | cleaned

• "Lord, let a new thing open. Let the earth open up and swallow them alive. Let them go down to the pit alive." That was meekness. Meekness is disciplined strength under God. In other words, meekness means you move when God says move. You do what God says to do. You are controlled by God and by his word. When you get home, you need to read Hebrews 12:25-29, because he's going to tell you that there's going to come another shaking and God's going to shake everything that cannot be moved. And you better make sure that you're broken to yoke and you cannot be moved, for that passage concludes by "our God is a consuming fire."

  #53 | 44:22 to 45:11 | cleaned

• So Jesus Christ came to restore a godly dominion to a godly people. Now, that brings me to my final point for today. And that is this: dominion is the function of the family as well as individuals. The family under God, in the role of man as the head of the household, is to function in the sphere of dominion, subduing and exercising dominion over the earth. Let me put it to you like this. Dominion clearly involves responsibility and authority. So God then has given a godly man a responsibility and an authority over the earth. But that responsibility and that authority is a two-edged sword.

  #54 | 45:12 to 46:11 | cleaned

• By that, I mean this: we do not have the right to abuse and misuse and destroy the earth or God's creation.

  #55 | 46:12 to 46:21 | cleaned

• On the other hand, he gives us full authority to exercise dominion under him and subdue it under him for his honour and for his glory and for our good. In other words, we must subdue and we must exercise dominion in terms of God's law. So authority then is delegated to the family by God so that we can exercise a godly dominion and rule in terms of God's law. So we are free on the one hand to use God's earth in accordance with his law, but we're bound on the other hand not to abuse or misuse his earth either.

  #56 | 46:24 to 47:07 | cleaned

• Now, let me point something else out. When we think of the family, we normally think of procreation. Here's a man and a woman who are married and then children are born. The family cannot be understood just in terms of procreation, because God has given those children for a reason. You can go back and read Psalm 127 when you get home. But you remember the Bible talks about children as being arrows in the hand of a mighty man. And he is blessed as the man who has his quiver full of them. Have you ever stopped to think, what did you do with an arrow?

  #57 | 47:08 to 47:56 | cleaned

• You shoot it at your enemy. An arrow is to be shot at your enemy. An arrow can be used to subdue or exercise dominion in many different ways. But do you remember even when Rebecca went to become the wife of Isaac and her family sent her away and they gave her all these blessings and they said, "May your children be those that sit in the gate." When you look in the Bible, those in the Old Testament that sat in the gate, those were the rulers. Those were the ones who had authority, power, and dominion. And they're saying, here's what we want to give you as a blessing: we want your children to exercise power and dominion. And so the family then is to have generational views. In other words, it's not just my wife and myself. It's my wife and I and my children and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren and my great-great-grandchildren. In other words, we're thinking about dominion and subduing, not just today, but in the future as well.

  #58 | 47:58 to 49:15 | cleaned

• Now, you have to understand something. You have to understand that the family is involved in dominion. And we talk about your home or your house. You know, there's another word that is used. In fact, it is used legally and in legal terminology concerning your house. You know what it is? It's the word "domicile." Your domicile. You know what the word "domi" means? The word "domi" actually means ruler, master. Your domicile is your kingdom. It is your territory. It is where you are master. It is where you are ruler. That's why we've always said a man's home is his what? His castle. Because he rules there.

  #59 | 49:16 to 50:16 | cleaned

• Now, dominion, therefore, involves private property. Did you know that in the Bible property was always an aspect of the family? It was not an aspect of the state. It was not an aspect of federal government. And yet the federal government owns more property today than anybody else. There's nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government can own property. Yet they own most of the state of Nevada and some of the other states as well. But property was an aspect of the family.

  #60 | 50:18 to 50:55 | cleaned

• That's why one of the ways that you could discipline a child in the Old Testament was you could disinherit them. And when you disinherited them, they were cut out of property. Now, think about this. God is the transcendent owner of the entire earth. Moses told Pharaoh in Exodus 9:29, listen to this. He said, "As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD's." And in Psalm 24:1, he said, "The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." You know who owns this earth? God does. That is one reason why I so despise and detest property taxes.

  #61 | 50:56 to 51:57 | cleaned

• Because that is nothing more than the state. That is nothing more than man stealing God's earth and claiming to be owners of it and forcing you by extortion to pay them money or else they will come and confiscate it from you. May I remind you? That is what got Ahab killed. Ahab wanted Naboth's vineyard. And Jezebel said, "I'll give it to you." And she had Naboth and his sons murdered. And when Ahab went down to take possession, God sent Elijah there and he said, "Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?" He said, "Let me tell you something: in the very place that those dogs licked the blood of Naboth, they're going to lick your blood." Property belongs to God. It's given to man as a stewardship.

  #62 | 51:58 to 52:53 | cleaned

• Interestingly, I read years ago during the American War for Independence, that the Americans tried to get the Canadians to fight with us against England. And one of the arguments that the Americans used was this: "Well, the next thing you know, they'll even be trying to tax our property." Property tax is a rather recent intervention.

  #63 | 52:54 to 53:17 | cleaned

• Now, I want you to understand something. Eminent domain is just as unbiblical. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Ezekiel chapter 46. Ezekiel chapter 46. And notice, if you would, beginning there with verse 16. Ezekiel 46:16. Look what God says. He's going to show you the distinction between the prince and the people. In Ezekiel 46:16, "Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance." So the prince can give of his inheritance to his sons, and it'll be theirs permanently. Verse 17, "But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them." So you give the sons an inheritance, they keep it. You give it to a servant,

  #64 | 53:18 to 54:29 | cleaned

• it has to come back in the year of jubilee. Watch verse 18: "Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his possession." In other words, God says the prince can give away everything that he has. But he didn't have any power to give away what you have. In other words, that is your inheritance, that is your stewardship, that is your possession from the Lord. And so when the government comes along and says, "We want your property." Well, I don't want to sell it. "Well, that's too bad. We're going to take it. We'll condemn it and take it." That's theft. That's theft. According to the Bible, they have no power or right to do that. Obviously.

  #65 | 54:29 to 55:23 | cleaned

• Consequently, we have today a displaced generation of Americans. What I'm about to say is not cutting, it's not sarcastic. It's not critical. I'm not saying this in a bad way. I'm just pointing it out. Do you realize that the most prominent home today that most Americans live in is a mobile home, with emphasis on mobile? Have you ever stopped to think that a hundred years ago, probably less than that, men and women were born, lived, died in the same house, in the same place that their father and their grandfather did? There are

  #66 | 55:25 to 56:23 | cleaned

• very few family farms left. There are very few family homesteads left. There are very few family ranches left. And when you look at what was happening out west in the last several years, where they were trying to steal land that had been in the family for five and six and seven generations. All I'm saying is this: when you had a home place, you were ready to fight for it. You're ready to die for it. Today, most people are not willing to fight. They're not willing to die for anything.

  #67 | 56:23 to 57:06 | cleaned

• Because we've lost our roots. We've lost our home place. It's what it amounts to. Our family farms have been destroyed. I'm just simply pointing out the fact: possession of property is that which relates to the family, not the state, not the government, because it's an aspect of dominion and you cannot exercise dominion without property.

  #68 | 57:06 to 57:36 | cleaned

• Now, let me point something else out. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 1. I will take up here next week, Lord willing, and show you some other things. But I want you to understand that God's law is the means of dominion. You cannot have a godly dominion without having a godly obedience. So look in Joshua chapter 1 and let's read the first nine verses. Watch carefully. Joshua 1:1, "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."

  #69 | 57:37 to 58:24 | cleaned

• "Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give 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. 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. 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. 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."

  #70 | 58:24 to 59:28 | cleaned

• "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. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Why was God going to be with Joshua? Because Joshua was not to turn from the left hand or the right hand from the word of God. God has called us to dominion. Fallen man has perverted dominion. Jesus Christ came to restore a godly dominion to a godly people. And the way we're to exercise this dominion is in obedience to God's law. There cannot be a rebellious dominion without it producing death. Only a godly dominion brings forth life. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth.

  #71 | 59:28 to 1:00:46 | cleaned

• We pray, Father, that you'd make us dominion-oriented by being obedient to thy word and bringing our lives in the totality and conformity to it, acknowledging that Jesus Christ came to make us covenant keepers and not covenant breakers. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

  #72 | 1:00:47 to 1:01:44 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T23:02:03Z