[Donald Ward] The title of the sermon today is "The Great Cultural Shift of the Ages." Some people are turned off by the word culture because they think that it has to do with anything formal or classical, and that is what is meant by the word culture, formal or classical. So let's define the word culture. It may not be what you think it is. Culture is the development, improvement, and refinement of the mind, emotions, interests, manners, taste, refined ways of thinking, talking, and acting. Your culture really defines who you are, what you think, your worldview, the values you hold, what you teach, how you behave. Your culture is really everything that makes you you. Your culture is your identity, your roots, your development, your training, your culture is everything you are good or bad. The culture of a nation is a powerful force in shaping the thinking of its people.

Here's a quote from Scientific American, titled "The Power of Cultural Influences." Your culture to a large degree determines the songs you sing, the steps you dance, and the words you write. It also shapes your brain, in other words, the way you think. Scientists have long known the neuroplasticity of the brain because the culture influences the way you shape and actually your brain begins to conform to that. The neuroplasticity allows the individual events to sculpt the brain's form and function. Now, there is evidence that life experience as intangible as culture can also recognize our neural pathways. Recent research has found that culture influences the way a person's brain perceives visual stimuli such as scenes and colors. The United States and most of the Western world is engrossed in a great cultural war, much like the world was before the flood, the pre-flood world, where the thoughts and intents of the heart of man was continually upon evil.

America perpetuated a relatively stable culture until the rock music, drug drench, sex saturated hippie culture of the 1960s. Those events along with other factors brought the decades of the old culture of America under attack. Beginning in the 1960s, what one might call a perfect storm, the perfect storm of causal factors has shifted the culture of the U.S. into what we see today. The peoples of the Western world have been conditioned to covet and to think in terms of self-fulfillment appealing to youths' adventure, sex, and romance. If you would turn to 2 Peter 2.

2 Peter 2:14 "Having eyes full of adultery."

Some translations have it having the eyes of an adulteress and that's really a better translation. If you note as you go through the checkout counter in grocery stores and other places, all of the magazines that are lined up, most of those have to do with how you can be young, beautiful, more sexy, that kind of thing.

In the 1970s, in 1980s, I used a book, I don't know if it's in publication now, called Sex Exploitation, in some of the classes showing how that sex has been exploited in the country and it is one of the main tools in the advertising world.

2 Peter 2:14 "Having the eyes full of an adulteress or the eyes of an adulteress that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, an heart they have trained with covetous practices, trained having children accursed."

To a large degree they are conditioned, much like Pavlov dog was conditioned, it's what it's called classical conditioning where you pair one item with another item and eventually remove one item and the animal behaves as if the item was still there. For example, ringing the bell paired with food, and eventually after many times the food is removed, only the bell is rung and the dog behaves as if it was being fed. So, in the advertising world, youth, beauty, romance is paired with everything from pickup trucks to deodorant, giving you the notion that you can be young, beautiful, adventurous, and all of that if you use that product.

Adam and Eve were supposed to grow in grace and knowledge of God and His culture, they were also charged with transmitting God's culture to their family. God ordained marriage and family. God is the author of marriage and family. And He wanted the family to transmit His culture to future generations. Practically, everyone here can quote Proverbs 22:6.

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Thus the admonition from Deuteronomy 6.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 "And these words which I command you this day..." This is beginning with verse 6. "And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently unto your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk in the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."

Scripture makes it clear in lots of places that the family is to transmit the culture of God. Satan has continually waged war against God-ordained institutions, especially the institution of the family and of the family structure. Satan knows that God's plan is a family plan. The God-ordained family structure is a type of what God is doing in bringing sons and daughters to glory in His family, a process of begetting and birth in the spirit born family of God.

When we repent, exercise faith in the sacrifice of Christ, we're baptized, we receive the laying on of hands, we receive of the Father, the very essence of God. The same spirit that is in God is in Christ as it says in Ephesians 4, there is one spirit. We have the same spirit in us that God in Christ have in them. And so we are begotten of that eternal spirit. And so, we are of that same essence when we are born, resurrected into the family of God. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50.

1 Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

We're living in one of the most dramatic periods in human history, the events that are unfolding right before our eyes will be the subject matter of the history books in the near future. On the other hand, the culture of this present evil age parades as a new utopian age of unparalleled freedom, but it is based on unbridled hedonism. Eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow you may die. Of course, it's difficult for any person to conceive of being dead. God has placed eternity in our heart. So it's difficult to think of you actually being dead, though you can think of it, but to really internalize it.

But on the other hand, deep down in their inner being, they're filled with fear and anxiety, and they wonder where the next shoe will drop, where the next terrorist will strike. Even if all of the other problems of hate, envy, jealousy, fear, greed, all of those things, even if wars were stopped, human beings would destroy themselves. Jesus states in Matthew 24:24.

Matthew 24:24 "Unless those days are shortened, no flesh should be saved alive."

Led by their arch enemy, Satan, the devil, the peoples of this world have produced an alien culture that is destroying humankind. As the leaders of this present evil age proclaim liberty and brotherhood, they become more enslaved by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We note the increase in the acceptance of the LGBTQ agenda coupled with various forms of aberrant sexual behavior. To some degree this is exemplified by the furor from the left over the Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, fearful that he might overturn Roe v. Wade or his vote might be the swing vote to do that, abortion would then become illegal. Then there is the sexual revolution that permeates media, movies, television, print media, it is the hook for most advertisements as we have already noted. Sex is Hollywood's cash cow. If the writers and producers were to take the blatant sexual innuendo, nudity and sexual scenes out of media, they would be challenged, present that which exhorts, edifies, and comforts the psyche and emotions and intellect of man.

The ever increasing drug problem with recreational marijuana being legalized in more and more states. No nation, no civilization has ever survived gross immortality, I mean, gross immorality. The pre-flood world was destroyed because of gross immoralities. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of gross immorality. Ancient Israel went into captivity and so did Judah because of gross immorality. The spirit of the times has taken a dead aim at the word of God, they use every ploy they can to discredit the Bible and those who believe it and strive to live by it. The commandment of the day is, you shall not be intolerant. Do your own thing as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. What is the logical fallacy of do your own thing unless it hurts someone else? Well, the logical fallacy is simple, you decide what hurts someone else. The smoking, secondhand smoke hurts someone else, well the research says definitely it does. So we have parents smoking in homes, children breathing in that smoke, the same thing was happening in restaurants and so on, you know the story. And so there are many things that people say, oh, I have the freedom to do such and such. And when you decide what hurts someone else you have taken their freedom from them.

God introduced His culture to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God's culture is based on His word. If you would turn to Genesis 2:15. In Genesis 2:15, we see God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden and told them to dress it and keep it. In other words, to maintain it, to refine it, to make it even more beautiful. And then if you look at verse 16, Genesis 2:16, God commanded Adam and Eve to look to Him for moral and spiritual knowledge. And if they ate of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die, and dying you shall die.

So now we come to the essence of culture, that is God's culture. The essence of culture is to look to God, the true God, and look to Him for the knowledge of good and evil and to obey that knowledge. If you look across a page at Genesis 3:1, Satan used what might be called the Hegelian dialectic to deceive Eve. The Hegelian dialectic is first of all a synthesis, not a synthesis, sorry, it is first of all a thesis. Thesis. God produced a thesis. Look to Me for the knowledge of good and evil, if you don't, you're going to die. Satan came along and asked Eve, "Has God said, you cannot eat of every tree in the garden. And she said, we may eat of every tree except one, and if we eat of that tree or if we touch it," which she may have added, "we're going to die." And Satan says, "You shall not die. You shall not die." The first great lie after humans were created that is recorded, you shall not surely die. In the beginning of the doctrine, the mortality of the soul, if you follow it all the way through in history, a damnable doctrine that is connected to almost every false religious system that has ever been, you shall not surely die became the antithesis. "Then Eve saw that the fruit..." She reasoned in her mind that it was something to make one wise, so, appealing to the pride of life. "Saw it was good for food," appealing to the lust of the flesh. "Saw that it was pleasant to the eyes," the lust of the eyes, and "She did eat. And then she gave it to Adam and he ate."

So Satan deceived Eve into eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus, Satan introduced a culture that rejects God's reveal knowledge. And because of disobedience, God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden and cut them off from the tree of life. As a result, two opposing cultures developed, one, from the line of Seth after Cain killed Abel, and the other from the line of Cain. Because of humanity choosing the way of Satan and Cain, the world became so evil that it even grieved God in His heart that He created man in the first place. And so, He decided that He would destroy that culture and start over with Noah and his family. Noah and his wife, three sons and their wives.

But soon after the flood, Nimrod, grandson of Ham succumbed to Satan, the devil, and introduced an alien culture based on the laws of man combined with false religion. Then God raised up Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And eventually the nation of Israel to transmit His culture, His way of life to the nations. Israel was to be the model nation, to take that culture of God to the nations. Israel failed miserably, and now God through Christ has raised up His Church to transmit the culture, God's culture to the world. We are the holy nation. If you would turn to 1 Peter 2:9. One of the most inspiring scriptures in all of the Bible, if we really understand the full import of it. It basically repeats a lot of the language that you find in Exodus 19, where there God said, if you'll obey Me, keep My commandments, then you'll be a holy nation that you'll be able to transmit this culture. But of course, as we know, they failed and went into captivity.

1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy a nation." The word holy means God's active presence is within it. Sacred things point to God, holy things of God's presence within it. "An holy nation, a peculiar" or purchased people, "that you should show forth the praises of Him, who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, which in times past were not a people. But are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy," Lo-Ruhamah, "but have now obtained mercy," Ruhamah. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the nations," the ethnos, "the gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of their visitation."

Wanda and I had opportunity to visit many of the projects that Ambassador University, Ambassador Cultural Foundation sponsored in overseas places like Thailand, Jordan, Israel, other places. Sri Lanka was one of the main places in which we actually created what I would call a mini Ambassador College in a place called Nuwara Eliya up on a high mountain, about 606,000 feet, an old tea plantation. And the people there, after the funds were withdrawn, I got a letter that says, we're still carrying that on, that tradition, people are selling their inheritances to send their children here. And they told me, we don't really want your money, we want the knowledge, we want the example that you have set for us.

So in their day of visitation, there'll be a lot of people around the world who are not being called now, who are hearing the gospel, who have witnessed the gospel in action that will respond in the day of their visitation. The two mottos of the Church of God and Ambassador University will become a universal reality. The word of God is the foundation of knowledge, and the motto "recapture true values" will become more than a motto in the wonderful world tomorrow. Now, God's culture allows latitude for national and ethnic differences, but those differences must conform to true values. If you would turn now to Psalm 19, Psalm 19:7. Very powerful words here for those who might say, oh, the law of God is done away with.

Psalm 19:7 Says, "The law of the Eternal is perfect, converting the soul."

See, God's eternal spiritual law defines true values, it is relevant at all times, in all nations and all cultures.

Psalm 19:7-11 "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the eternally sure, making wise the simple. The statues of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired, are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them as your servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward."

The measure of true values, in other words, how do you know if it is a true value? Like, if you're using your talents, your gifts, or whatever you have.

1 Corinthians 14:3 It says, "That which exhorts, edifies, and comforts."

So we can ask ourselves, do our thoughts, do our actions, do they exhort? Do they edify? Do they comfort? And couple this with Philippians 4:8, and you'll have a way of judging whether everything you say or do is acceptable to God. Is it in keeping with His culture, the way He wants us to live our lives? "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true..."

Philippians 4:8 "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things."

There is good news ahead. There is a great cultural shift coming in contrast to this world's culture which we have briefly described. God has called us to His feast, which pictures the world's immersion into the culture of God in Christ. Our merciful and loving heavenly Father and our merciful savior Jesus Christ exhorts us to live God's culture now, and that is what the Feast of Tabernacles pictures to a large degree.

The teaching and enforcement of moral and spiritual values is the essence of leadership. Leadership the world desperately needs. Even in this present evil age, successful people understand the importance of setting the rules, teaching the rules, and clearly defining the consequences of breaking those rules. That is applicable to almost everything we do, especially in childrearing. Pat Riley led the Los Angeles Lakers to several NBA playoffs and sometimes world championship, he's now president of the Miami Heat. He wrote a book on his coaching philosophy. In the book he writes about goal setting and discipline. He calls it Rile's Rules. He writes, "we can safely conclude that any level of leadership established for any purpose that does not clearly articulate the mission, the goals, the objectives, the core covenant, the expected behavioral outcomes, the administrative and operational strategies necessary for desired results coupled with disciplinary action if the core covenant is violated, is doomed for failure."

Remember that a vital part of the definition of culture is the act of developing intellectual and moral faculties. God and Christ are the great master teachers. The greatest lesson God revealed to Adam and Eve, look to Me, look to God for the knowledge of good and evil. We have people even in the Church and some that have left that I'm very familiar with, who in essence, have made God over into their own image. They say, "Well, I don't believe a loving God would send me to Gehenna, fire, just because..." And you fill in the blank. They have decided that in their own mind, and think, well, you know, I can pray to God when I'm in trouble, but at the same time, I trample all over God's Sabbath. I don't even know when the holy days are but yet expect God to answer their prayers.

The fulfillment of what this piece represents will usher in the greatest cultural shift of the ages. God and Christ are going to bring law and order to the whole universe. God is a great law giver and all good things spring from God. How do I know that? You would note James 1:17.

James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning of His own will begat He us with the word of truth."

See, if you have God's spirit He was involved in it, and He knows you. Each one of us can ask ourselves, am I fulfilling the trust He has placed in me, and that He would place within me His very life essence and allow me to understand the pearl of great price? Of His own will He begat us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation. God is love and the expression of His will is defined by His love and law. We could even set up an equation, God equal love, equal law, equal light, equal life. "The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life," Jesus said in John 6:63. God's word is a reflection of His love, His law, His light, His life, His righteousness. We should hold it dear and we should renew the inward man every day.

As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16, true culture means love, law, harmony, order, beauty. Say that again. True culture will produce peace, happiness, prosperity, beautiful art, beautiful music, inspiring literature, and a host of other positive outcomes that will enrich the lives of every person on earth. But some are quick to point out, some contend that music for example, is just this objective thing. Of course, I've done a lot of research here and have a lot of experience with it even when I was coaching football, the power of music on the human psyche and the nervous system. Music has an uncontrollable effect on the human nervous system and psyche, that's why many of you tap your toes while special music is going on. In some cases unconsciously, when the evil spirit came upon Saul, they called for David to play the harp and the evil spirit departed from him. There are other of course biblical principles there, but let's go on with this. Evil men can compose beautiful music, produce beautiful art, write inspiring literature if they follow the laws of order, beauty, and harmony. If those laws are obeyed, they can produce beautiful music. And as I said, music has an uncontrollable effect on the human nervous system and psyche. I could give many examples there, but we will go on. Be careful with music, music is one of the main things that was used to shift this culture and it continues to be.

A few years ago there was a book on the bestseller list titled Cultural Illiteracy by Allan Bloom. Actually it's Cultural Literacy, I think. The author graphically describes how illiterate we are when it comes to understanding just the basics of what may be termed civilized culture. But God has revealed that to us in His word. So if we glean from His word, what He says with regard to how to live our lives, we will not be illiterate. All the world's major religions are looking for a great messianic figure to come on the scene and rescue humanity from the chaos and confusion that grips the hearts and minds of humankind. The Buddhists are looking for the fifth Buddha. The Hindus are looking for Krishna. The Islamic world is looking for the 12th Imam. The Jews are looking for the Messiah. The New Agers are looking for Maitreya. And of course, we're looking for the return of Christ, but none of those figures outside of God in Christ, none of those figures will usher in a new culture in which dwells peace and righteousness. The true God and His anointed one, Jesus, the Christ will usher in a truly new age of peace. Let's notice Psalm 2.

Psalm 2:7 "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." We had a Bible study last evening on Zion. The holy hill of Zion. "I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me, You art My son."

Actually, I'm reading verse 7 right now. I want to go back to 1.

Psalm 2:1 "Why do the heathen rage?" And we see the heathen, the nations, and the peoples of the world raging at the present time. "And the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Eternal and against His anointed one."

Anointed one means messiah. Now verse 6.

Psalm 2:6-12 "Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, you art My son, this day have I begotten you." That word begotten in Hebrew is yahid, it is equal, corresponds to the Greek word gino. "Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, oh, you kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Eternal with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son." Recognize, understand who He is, what He is, "lest He be angry and you perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are they that put their trust in Him."

The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God and Christ. So look at Revelation 11:14. Interesting little verse 14, as we get there.

Revelation 11:14 It says "The second woe is past." So, six of the trumpet plagues have been poured out.

Revelation 11:15-18 "The second woe is past, behold the third woe comes quickly." You're wondering about the time of Christ's coming, resurrection and so on. "The seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces, worshipped God saying, we give You thanks, oh Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come because You have taken to Yourself great power and have reigned." And you see the next verse it says, "And the nations were angry."

Oh, yes, they were angry. And Satan, the false prophet of the beast stirred them up which you read about in Revelation 16:12, and they go and stir up the nations to bring them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, recorded in Revelation 16:12-16.

Revelation 16:12-16 "So the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates," that's verse 12 of Revelation 16. "The water was dried up making way for the kings of the East. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, mouth of the false prophet. Spirits of devils working miracles which go forth into the kings of the earth, the whole world to gather them to the battle, the great day of God Almighty."

Of course, we know that God in Christ will conquer during that time. And over a period of time, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of God and His Christ. Christ will make us kings and priests to God and we will reign forever and ever. There are two places in Revelation that says, we're made kings and priests, Revelation 1:6 and Revelation 5:10. We're now being prepared to be ministers of God's culture in the kingdom of God. We will teach the people how to live in every facet of their lives. Look at Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, you notice there in verse 3 that…

Isaiah 61:3 "To appoint them that mourn in Zion."

We saw clearly last evening Hebrews 12:22, that Zion symbolizes the Church. You have come to the Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the general assembly of the Church of the firstborn.

Isaiah 61:3 "To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Eternal that He may be glorified."

Now look at verse 6.

Isaiah 61:1 "But you shall be named, the priests of the Eternal, men shall call you the ministers of our God and you shall eat the riches of the gentiles and their glory shall you boast yourselves."

You should read all of Isaiah 61 and 62, especially the first part of 62 it gets specific on what you will be doing in the kingdom of God as kings and priests. And now, we come as we close this split sermon to my favorite scripture. Someone asked, what is your favorite scripture? Feast of Tabernacles, millennial scripture. For me it's Isaiah 2:1-4. After having spent all of my life in education and ministry.

Isaiah 2:1-4 "The word that Isaiah, the son of Amos saw concerning," or Amos saw concerning, "Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains," God's government. "They shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it." All nations. "And many people shall go and say, come you and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways. We will walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the Word of the Eternal from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations. He shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears in the pruninghooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

Let us all pray. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And may God hasten that day.