I have one verse I want to read
this morning. It's found in Genesis chapter two, if you want to be
turning there. Genesis chapter two, verse 19. 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. Think about Adam for a moment.
What an amazing specimen he must have been. Skilled, created with
skill. The moment God breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, he was skilled enough to dress
and keep the garden. The moment God breathed breath
into him, he was in his prime. He was to be fruitful and multiply. The moment that God Almighty
breathed breath into his nostrils, he was without flaw because God
not only said of him, he and the creation, it was good, he
said it is very good. And also remember what a specimen
he was. He had no guilt. He and his wife
were naked, and they had no shame. And he was also wise. How do
I know that? Because God, the Lord God, brought
the beast of the field and the fowls of the air to Adam to see
what Adam would name them. Now I don't know exactly what
all animals were there, and I'm not here to try to debate that.
But which one of us today, just to illustrate this, which one
of us today looks at a chicken and thinks, well, that ought
to be an elephant. Because the title chicken just don't fit
the chicken. You know what I'm getting at? Whatever Adam named
those animals, it was the right thing. It was the right name. And you think about animals.
Now, I know there are those, we're just so used to hearing
it, but it's right. It's right. God brought every field beast
and every one of the fowl of the air to Adam to see. That
is, so that God might observe what Adam would call them. Here's
a question. Why? Why? Well, let me give you a couple
things that I know it was not because of. And I know it wasn't
because of these couple things, because of the preponderant testimony
of this book. One thing God did not do it for
was because God was ignorant. Now that may seem to be a simple
statement but folks there are people in this world who believe
God doesn't know everything from all eternity and time. But one of the phrases is not
found in the especially in the King James Version, but God is
omniscient. That is, God knows all things
from all time and all eternity. God has never had a new thought.
Never had a new thought. Here's another one. God was not
inquisitive. He was not anticipating to see what would happen. But
even more than that, here's a third one. God did not relinquish his
absolute authority. There are those, some commentators
who say, you know, God relinquished his authority. Oh no, God brought
the animals to Adam. And God chose which animals he
would name and which ones he wouldn't because he didn't bring
him the fish of the sea. And he didn't tell him to gaze
at the stars of heaven and name them, did he? He said, here's
the beast of the field. And he brought them to him. And
here's the fowl of the air. And God brought him to him. and
God observed what Adam called him. Here's why, here's why. And I know this is why because
it's the preponderant testimony of this book and I'll give you
an example to prove it. God, here's why God did this.
God was pleased to observe the action of his one man as his
one man echoed forth God's wisdom in words. He said, I thought
about this a long while. Think about it. God was pleased
to observe the action of his one man as his one man echoed
forth God's wisdom in words. I know this is true because there
has only ever been two men whom God ever observed with delight,
their action and their words welling forth from within themselves,
and God was pleased with them. That's the first Adam and the
last Adam. That's the first Adam and the
second Adam. And Paul tells us that very thing
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 45, 46, and 47. And the kicker
is first Adam and not second Adam, that's mentioned, but the
first Adam and the what? The last Adam. There has only
been two representative men on the face of this earth. One was
the first Adam, the other was the second Adam whom God, Paul
calls by inspiration, the last Adam. What a thing. My title is Christ's Action and
Words. That's what we see prophesied
here. That's what we see, maybe not prophesied, it's not the
best word. This is what we see illustrated here when God brings
the animals to Adam and Adam names them. God said of the Lord
Jesus Christ at his baptism, when John the Baptist baptized
Jesus, It says that God literally spoke
from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased. And then later on another occasion
in Matthew chapter 17 and verse five, you can read these words.
God said the very similar thing again. He shouted forth from
glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And
then what did he say? Hear ye him. I can imagine Eve, just imagine
Eve standing there with wonder as her husband named all these
animals. That one's a tiger. That one's
a bear. That one's a lion. That one up
there on that limb, that's an eagle. This one over here, that's
a crow. And Neely did it without hesitation.
He knew what to call them. This is my beloved Son, God said,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. And the reason that's only ever
said of Christ is because the first Adam failed. The first Adam failed. All of
that skill, all of that pride, All of that no flaw, all of that
no guilt, all of that wisdom, vanished like that. When it come
to anything concerning spiritual matters in God Almighty. The
first Adam failed. The first Adam experienced the
fall by one sin and one sin only. He didn't have to amass a mass
of sins He stepped knowingly into one sin, and in that one
sin, he fell, and he gained guilt. He gained self-will, not free
will. At best, Adam had free will before
the fall. He did not have it after the
fall. And you go back and read Genesis chapter three, and you'll
see that. He was filled with self-will, not free will. guilt, he gained guilt, he gained
self-will, he hid from God. He hid from God. Rather than
crying out for mercy from God, he hid from God. And then, and then, he tried
to cover, Joe, his own nakedness with the work of his own hands.
And God seen through them fig leaves. God seeing Adam, he probably
looked pretty good to himself. Made it for Eve too. Well, she's
covered, covered quite well. Huh? All the embarrassing parts
now are covered quite well. When at one time they were not
an embarrassment to him. Right? But yet it did not cover
them before God's eyes. All other humans, Notice I didn't say men. Because
here we're talking about the first man and the last man. The first man and the second
man. And that's what the word Adam actually means. Adam, to
show blood in the face. All other humans were made sinners
by that first Adam's one sin. That's what the book says. Reject
it and you reject the truth of God. I don't like that. God didn't tell us to like it.
He says, bow down to my truth. Believe the truth of God. And
God says that by the one act of one disobedience, many were
made sinners. Think about it. We did not fall
like Adam fell. We fell when Adam fell. Did you ever think about that?
Adam failed. He was in a state of no guilt. That's right. Wisdom, skill,
it is prime, without flaw, wise, and he fell from that. Exactly. I don't know what that's like.
No, you're right. And you don't know what that's
like. And no one hearing my voice today, nor any other human being
ever since Adam, none of us has ever understood that. We did
not fall like Adam fell. We fell when Adam fell. Therefore,
this is why Paul calls us the natural man. Because the fall
to us is natural. It's all we're used to. It's
all we know. It's the only place that we've
ever been, and it is by nature. And notice something about the
natural man. Turn to it, 1 Corinthians chapter
one, and listen to what it says about
the natural man. I say one, I meant 1 Corinthians
chapter two. Listen to what it says, 1 Corinthians
chapter two, Verse 14, but the natural man, that's what we are
in Adam. That's what we are by conception
and by birth and by life and by upbringing. No matter how
well you try to train your child, you cannot train the natural
man out of them. You may, you may, under God Almighty's
providential direction, keep some of that at bay, but you
can't train it out of them. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them. It's an impossibility. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. And when Adam fell, he lost all
spiritual ability. All of it, all of it was gone. And you and I are conceived and
born with that. Mason, we can't even look back
to some traces of it in us because we never had a trace of it in
us. And notice one of the things that Paul points out here. Look,
verse 11. For what man knoweth the things
of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so,
the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given unto us, which things also we speak. You see it? Speak. So this lets
me know this. When God Almighty gives you spiritual
life, he must first of all speak that spiritual life into existence.
and he speaks that spiritual life into existence so that you
will then be able to hear and understand and receive and believe
the things that God ordained through the preaching of the
gospel. So again I say, we did not fall
like Adam fell, we fell when Adam fell. Our sinfulness is
natural sinfulness. Ah, but Christ the last and the
second Adam, He always did and said that which the Father delighted
to observe. He always did and said that which
the Father delighted to hear. I can only imagine. the delight
of God as Adam, his creation, his one man named those animals.
Think of this, here is God the Son, speaking and doing, and
God says about it all, I am well pleased. You better listen to
this man. Think about it. The father delighted
to observe in what? Even in his very incarnation.
And when he was born, God Almighty sent a distinguished marquee,
a distinguished marquee, but he only sent it to some shepherds
in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an
angel suddenly appeared, and that had to be a glorious sight.
And he begins to announce the birth of the son of God, the
one, the last Adam, the second Adam. And he announces this is
great joy. Where does the joy begin? With
God, not with man. There was joy in God at the birth
of his son and it says suddenly there's this massive host of
angels. But God revealed that to a group
of men and only to that group of men. And that's the way God's
always worked. That's the way God's always worked.
Oh, I can see it. It's like one of those Las Vegas
marquees, just wah, wah, wah. But this was far more glorious
than that. And God did it to just a bunch
of shepherds. He didn't go up to the palace. Did he? as them shepherds out there keeping
what? Their flock. Keeping sheep. Now isn't that
amazing? Think about it, in his adolescence,
our Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam, the second Adam,
in his adolescence, he was doing what? I must be about my father's
business. At 12 years old. How many of
us was about the father's business at 12 years old? I do like what
Tim James said about it, about the adolescence of our Lord Jesus
Christ until he began to be about, what, 30 years old, 33, something
like that, whatever it was, 33. He said, we have a glimpse into
his birth, we have a glimpse when he was about two years old
when he moved down into Egypt, and we have a glimpse of when
he was about 12 years old, and that's it. That's all we're told. But Tim James said this, he said,
you know what our Lord Jesus Christ was doing during all that
time when we have nothing, no light, no revelation? He was being perfect. I like
that. He was being perfect. He was
being perfect. I like that. Even in his adolescence. And then when his public ministry
began, That's when we hear God sounding forth from heaven. This
is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him? Our
Lord Jesus Christ also prayed this. And you can read the words
of John chapter 17, verse four. And you think about this. John
17, verse four. He says this. I have glorified
thee on the earth. Only one man. has ever been able
to make that statement honestly. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished, I have finished,
that is completed. I have completed the work which
thou gavest me to do. And what's he talking about here?
He's talking about his preceptive obedience to the law of God. He's saying I did it all right. Now that's more than just some
mortal man speaking here. This is God Almighty manifest
in the flesh. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. But all of that, in his life
and death, he wrought the highest honor from God the Father. For
we read in Philippians, the inspired canon says in chapter two, verses
five through 11, but it specifically says these words, and turn back
there. Philippians chapter two, listen to what Paul says. I understand in Philippians chapter
two, Paul was speaking of these things and encouraging us to
let the mind that was in Christ also be in us. But look at what
he says, verse five. that this man be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. But let's just drop that for
a moment, because we want to look at who is Christ Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself. And not too many of us do that.
We have to be humbled, don't we? God has to humble us. He humbled himself and became
obedient, look, unto death, but he didn't
just die in his sleep. And became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He died hanging there as a common
criminal. In the eyes of most people, they
were just seeing another bad man down a cross. Many of them malked, spat. Even the death of the cross,
wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name. See some naming going on here?
Given him a name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things
in the earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There's his name, Jesus
Christ the Lord. And every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory. of God the Father. It pleases
God. It pleases God when he brings
creatures to Christ and he names them by name and puts them under
his crown. Thousands speak of Jesus but
they never speak of Christ Jesus. Some may even mention Christ
but they rarely speak of Lord. Others speak of Lord but they
have no idea what it all means. But these people I'm talking
about, they've come to know the one true and living God and Jesus
Christ, the one God Almighty sent. Therefore, therefore, turn over
to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, therefore,
because of this, Let us, every individual who hears me here
this morning, or who would ever hear this message ever again,
therefore let us take great heed, and here is why. Hebrews chapter
12 and verse 24 to start with. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel, See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. You see it? And I say this, I'm
gonna try to qualify it, you best hear him. You best bow down
unto him. You best pay heed unto him. Let us take great heed. Will
I hear the last and second Adam, or will I refuse? Will I hear the first, or the
last, I'm sorry, will I hear the first, the last, and second
Adam, or will I refuse? Hear, and your soul is alive. If you hear, if you can hear,
then you're alive. If you refuse, You shall not
escape. You hear? And that's just the
way it is. If you hear, you're alive. You
refuse, you shall not escape. Father, bless these words. May they be used by the power
of thy spirit, not this clay pot. Use it for the uplifting
of thy people and the calling out of those who are not yet
even converted, Lord, if you'd be so pleased. I thank you in
Christ's name, amen.