You can't find this one, Padger.
You don't know how to handle the Bible very well. Genesis
chapter 1. Let's go to the Holy Prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for the day. We thank
you for your grace and mercy that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you for this time together today as your church. And Father, we just pray today
that you'd be with us, that you'd be among us, that you might teach
us that you might lift our hearts and our minds to be able to understand,
that you might reveal your truth to us, that you might encourage
us, that you might establish us in the faith, Lord, that you
might give us an understanding of the things said, and that
we might, in all things, find Christ in it. Lord, we pray that
you just might exalt your son through our worship today, and
we are so grateful. I pray, Lord, that you would
help me now, give me utterance look at these things in scripture
and Father I pray that you would feed your people and that you
would encourage them, edify them by your word for it's in Christ's
name that we pray, amen. Well, I can't seem, well I said I can't
seem, it seems as though the Lord has had me in this kind
of a path, this kind of a I don't want to say a rut, but has gotten
me in this lane over the last few weeks as we've been talking
about the difference between physical and spiritual, right? The difference or the dichotomy
between those things which are given to us in the physical and
those things that we see as the reality as it pertains to the
spirit. And as I've mentioned in messages
passed and everything. We are, as the children of God,
a spiritual people and a physical people. That's the strange thing. Now, the reprobates are just
a physical person. They are a natural person. Let
me use that term. That's probably a more biblical
term that we should use. They're just a natural person. natural body, they have a natural
soul, natural spirit. They are natural. However, for
the child of grace, we have two men in us. We have the natural
man and we have the spiritual man. One we get from Adam, one
we get from the Lord Jesus Christ. I've taught in times past, and
you guys have heard me mention this on many occasions, not just
in specific sermons, but you guys have heard me mention this
all the time, about the two seeds. We know that there are two seeds.
And this used to be a very common teaching throughout Scripture,
or throughout history, in the churches of Jesus Christ. They
used to teach these things. They used to teach eternal and
vital union. Matter of fact, I've got a couple of books down
here. I can break these things out and all they are is old circular
letters from the 17-1800s. And if you look down through
the table of contents, you'll see you have probably 50 circular
letters. A third or a half of them are
on Eternal Vow of Union. And it's just amazing how these
teachings over the years have become less and less and less
of an importance, becoming more diminished in the minds and the
preaching. However, I believe the true churches
of God, they still hold to these things, they still believe these
things, and it is a source of comfort for them. But in this teaching between
the physical and the spiritual, we find that It all is based
from the very beginning in God and how he set up the creative
order. How he set up everything in creation. Here in Genesis
chapter 1 we find a principle and I've mentioned this to you
guys before and I know it's not nothing new. You've heard this
and I don't ever claim to preach something new. Everything I hope
that I preach is old. that has already been preached
that is in the Bible. And if it's not, I pray that
the Lord would give me clarity on that or give revelation to
that. But in Genesis chapter 1, we find a principle found
that is an underlying thing, not only of the natural world,
but also of the spiritual. And I think we can see this.
Now, I mentioned to you, I can't remember if it was last week
or the week before last, whenever it was, But I mentioned that
there was a comment that had come up where a guy had asked,
is there any way that you can prove a spiritual kingdom from
just through the Old Testament? Well, we talked about last week,
we talked about the spiritual kingdom and mostly it was in
the New Testament, but that we learned that the New Testament
is the revelation or the fuller understanding of those things
that are concealed in the Old Testament. the mystery of the
things that are found in the Old Testament are fully opened
up and revealed to us in the New Testament. And we learned
that the spiritual kingdom of God is not something that comes
with observation, it's not something that is tangible, and that it
truly was a spiritual kingdom. And we learned a few weeks before
that, that the Israel of God, the true Israel of God, is a
spiritual people. It's not the physical people
that are counted as the people of God, but it is the spiritual
people. And so the question, or maybe
the challenge was, is can you show this spiritual Israel, this
spiritual kingdom, just preaching from the Old Testament, because
that's all those people back there had available to them.
So how would they know that? Now, as I mentioned last week,
we don't have to have just the Old Testament to do that because,
as we learned last week, God sent Christ. The Law and the Prophets were
until John. But whenever John came, he came
preaching the Kingdom of God, preparing a people for Christ.
And when Christ began preaching, he also preached the Kingdom
of God. And we've seen that he began to preach this spiritual
kingdom that was completely and totally contradictory, it seemed,
to what they had learned and understood. Those people had
assumed that Messiah was coming to set up a physical kingdom
where they would be rulers among the nations. But yet, as we learned,
Jesus came and preached and said, my kingdom is not of this world.
It's a spiritual kingdom. and that I have servants in this
spiritual kingdom, and they are serving in a spiritual way, not
in a physical way. Okay? So, with that being said,
we see that there was a spiritual kingdom with a spiritual people,
but can we see that in the Old Testament? And I think we can. I think we can, and I mentioned
that I may come back and deal with that later, and hopefully
the Lord will, That's what we'll see today. In Genesis chapter
1, now I'm going to lay down some smarty pants language here. We've all heard of, probably
I'm sure, I've mentioned it to you before and everything, the
Law of First Occurrence. What the Law of First Occurrence
is, is whenever you In the scriptures, whenever you come upon a subject
matter or a word or a term the first time it's used in scripture,
whenever we learn how that's used there and everything, a
lot of times that drives home how our understanding should
be about that as it goes on throughout the scriptures. Now, I'm not
saying that that's cut and dry on everything. I'm not saying
that that is something that the Bible even teaches. That's just
what smarty people say. I think a lot of times, though
there is a lot of validity in some of that, and you can see
that as you study Scripture, you can see a lot of times when
something is laid down in Scripture for the first time, as God reveals
that to us, that that theme of that carries through throughout
the rest of Scripture. But as with anything, we gotta
keep everything within its context, so we can't just lay a blanket
statement and go with it, right? Well, here in Genesis, we find
this, and if you would, Look at verse 11. It says, And God said, Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth
brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind
and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his
kind, and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the
morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be light
in the firmament of heaven. I'm sorry, let's drop down to
verse 20. And God said, Let the waters
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl
that may fly upon the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created quails and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind. And every weaned fowl after his
kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in
the earth. And the evening and the morning
was the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth the
living creature after his kind. Cattle and creeping things and
beasts of the earth after his kind. And it was so. And God
made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their
kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. kind, and God saw that it was
good. And God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
the fish, and 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." Now, God created Adam, right? But
it says here he created them, male and female, but yet there
was only one standing there when God created, right? Whenever
he created man. He created man and fashioned
him out of the dust of the earth. And once he fashioned this man
into this body out of the dust of the earth, the Bible says
that he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and that man
became a living soul. It didn't say he became a spiritual
spiritually alive person, okay, with the divine life in him,
it just says that he became a living soul. You're a living soul. I'm
a living soul. Everybody who is ever born who
comes alive is a living soul, okay? That dog over there is
alive. It's a living soul, okay? It has life in it. Now, as we've
seen here, something that God laid down as a principle is that
everything that God created in this natural realm was created
with its seed in itself and it reproduces after its kind. And Adam, the last to be created
here, was created male and female, but yet there only stood one.
And he stood as a male. Now we know the Bible teaches
that Adam was the first Adam. He was the figure of him that
was to come. Scriptures declare that Adam
was a figure or a type or a foreshadowing of the Adam that was to come,
the second Adam, which was Christ Jesus. So he was a figure of him that
was to come. And so we see here there's a
picture of the natural, but it is showing the reality of the
spiritual. With your finger held right there, and by the way, just so that
we're not mistaken, we do know that over in Genesis chapter 5 that Adam reproduced
after his time it says this is the book Genesis 5 1 this is
the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created
man in the likeness of God made he him Male and female created
he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the
day when they were created And Adam lived 130 years and begat
a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name
Seth. Adam reproduced after his kind. His seed was in him and he reproduced
after his kind. A natural man produced a natural
child in his likeness. Now Adam was created in the likeness
Not in the exactness, but in the likeness of God. Now, a lot of people say, well,
He's made mind, emotion, and will, body, soul, and spirit,
all that kind of stuff. Now, I will say this, and many
people have heard me teach on this before as well, I hold that
the likeness is a two-part thing. Number one, I believe that likeness
is talking about the actual body form, the human form. that that
was created after the likeness of Christ, Christ's eternal manhood. But I also believe that it represents
Christ with his bride united with him before the foundation
of the world, that we were found in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And so we see here Adam was created,
although he stood alone as one, His seed and His bride was in
Him, and all the blessings that God give to man, to Adam, everyone
that was in Adam received that same blessing. They were blessed. Eve was blessed because she was
in Adam. Now, Eve had not come forth.
It had not been made manifest. She was not there standing with
Him when God blessed Adam. She was not even brought out.
God had not retched in and made Eve a living person
out of Adam. Eve was derived out of Adam from
the life of Adam that God created Adam. Eve was created in the
same natural way that Adam, the same natural life that Adam had.
So Eve was in Adam, blessed, even though she was not manifested
yet, had not come forth had not become a living person, so to
speak, had not become a living person at all, she had been blessed
because she was united in her husband, Adam. And it's in this
likeness that we see the Lord Jesus, the second Adam, that
all of his seed in him are truly in him. That's where we get the
term eternal vital union. See, some people will say, well,
we're united with Christ, and they believe that that happens
sometime in time, whether we believe, or whether when we're
born again, or whether it was at the cross we were united to
Christ. But brethren, the Bible says
that we were in Him before the foundation of the world. And
this union is not only a true union, meaning that we are one
with Him, that's what union means, that we're one with Him, But
it also shows us that that union is eternal because it began before
the foundation of the world. So that life that we have as
the seed of Christ, which I would say has to be a spiritual seed,
it's not a physical seed, but anyway, we see that that life
is an eternal life. And truly, if it is life that
is given to us, then it's a vital, it's a real, true union. It's
a living union. Not just something in the mind
of God, but it is a true union. Now that union comes in its life,
and I don't want to use the word force, but in its life substance. When Adam was blessed and was
created and then even whenever adam felt all of his seed all
of the life that would ever come from adam was all affected in
that right every person that has ever been born from the time
adam was created are all natural are all unable to keep the law
of god are all uh... sinners are all Just physical people, right?
So that has passed down. Now, same thing on the spiritual
side. In Christ Jesus was His life,
the substance of life. Matter of fact, the Bible says
in Him is life, right? He is eternal life. He is life. And that life we had in Him before
the foundation of the world. But I'm kind of getting ahead
of myself a little bit on that. The principle here is everything
reproduces after its own kind. And so, in the natural, Adam
reproduced after his kind. Therefore, that's why we have
a world full of sinners, natural men, women, children. In the
spiritual, the second Adam has reproduced. With your hand there
in Genesis, go back to 1 Corinthians. I know there may be some there
that's listening that says, what do you mean that Adam wasn't
created a spiritually alive person and that what the fall was? I
would say, no, I can't find that anywhere in scripture that Adam's
fall. Well, number one, we never hear
anywhere where the Bible calls what happened with Adam the fall.
That's just a theological term that we have used, not saying
that there wasn't something that happened there. But what happened
whenever Adam fell, if you want to use that terminology, is he
fell into sin and death. That's what happened in the fall.
Adam didn't fall from a spiritually live person to a spiritually
dead person. The Bible says that he is a natural,
physical person of the dust, of the earth earthy, that this
man was created in that way, already spiritually dead, to
the things of God, yet it had not been made manifest yet. Okay? It hadn't been made manifest.
That's why Romans chapter 5 says, the law came in that the offense
might abound. The law came in to magnify or
to show forth, manifest, that which was already in Adam. James says that we are drawn
away, whenever we are tempted, we are drawn away by our own
lust, and whenever that lust conceives, it brings forth, or
whenever that lust conceives and we are tempted, whenever
we are tempted and that conceives, that brings forth sin, right?
Well, that's exactly what happened with Adam. Adam brought forth
that which was, or excuse me, the law brought forth that which
was already in Adam that had yet to be seen outwardly but
was already there. The fact that Adam could not
keep the law of God. He had lust within his heart.
He desired that which was forbidden. He was drawn against that. Whenever
that temptation was presented to him, he lusted after it, it
conceived in his heart, he followed after it, and whatever he did,
he fell into sin and he fell into death. The Lord said that
in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam did die. And the Bible
says in the wording there, in dying, ye shall die, is what
that word means. in dying you shall die and a
lot of people say well there you go that's he died spiritually
because in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die
in that day so he didn't die physically so it must have been
a spiritual death well it didn't say he died a spiritual death
so how does it have to be that? I mean I can say that you know
he died to sugar cookies you know he didn't want to eat sugar
cookies anymore That's just as much evident as
saying he spiritually died there. I mean, you can't find that anywhere.
It said that in dying, he shall die. What happened whenever Adam
ate of the tree? Well, number one, he died to
his innocency. He died to the fact that he had
not yet sinned. In that day, he died to everything
that he was up to that point. He died to that and now sin and
death had entered in And in that dying, he began to die physically. And also in dying, he brought
forth death upon everyone else. In dying, you shall die. Your
posterity is gonna die. Everyone in you is going to die. And brethren, if that's not the
experience of everybody that's ever come from Adam, I've not
met anybody except for a couple men who the Bible claims that
never died. Every man has died. The moment
that we are born, we are born dying. In dying, we die. And so yes, we are dead
in trespasses and sin. We are dead to all things that
is righteousness and holy. We're dead in all that. We cannot
provide anything. We cannot do anything. We are
not anything. And so Adam, whenever he sinned,
that sin, whenever it came in, brought forth death. And that
is in a physical way. It's a physical thing that we're
talking about here. It brought forth a physical death. Why? Because he was of the earth
earthed. He was made natural. He wasn't
made spiritual. Now, again, I know some people
may disagree with me on that, but I, again, I will challenge
you to look. There is no scriptures that says
that he fell spiritually, but we do have scripture that says
he was not made spiritual. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
in verse, It says, and so it is written,
the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. How be it that was not first,
which is spiritual. So no matter what the argument
is or the theological construct that you might have, It clearly
says here, and I'm going to have to go with what I see clearly
and not rely on what is given by tradition. It says, that was
not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural. And
after that, which is spiritual, the first man, Adam, is of the
earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. This goes back to that first
principle. That everything has its seed within itself and it
reproduces after its own kind. The natural man was made natural
and was made to die. The natural man was made natural
and was made so that sin and death would enter into the world.
Go back to the very purpose of God. What was the purpose of
God and the declaration of God before the foundation of the
world? Before the foundation of the world, God chose a people. And by the way, I'd like to make
this very clear. God chose a people in Christ. He didn't choose a people in
Adam. The infralapsarians, if you want another smarty-pants
word, the infralapsarians are those who believe that the election
of people happened after the fall. That's what infralapsarian
means. It means that God chose people and elected people to
salvation after Adam fell. We, on the other hand, would
be the other smarty-pants word, superlapsarian, meaning that
God chose the people before the fall. So if God chose a people
before the fall, He chose a people that would fall, right? He chose
a people before the fall, but God also chose the fall. God
chose the fall to happen. It was in His purpose. But if
God chose before the foundation of the world a people to save,
and had a Christ already prepared and brought forth from eternity,
had brought forth this Christ, brought forth this surety, This
mediator who took upon himself that people, because the Bible
says that thine they were and thou gavest them to me. They
were the fathers before they was the sons. And the father
gave them to the son. And at that point of giving them
to the son, he became their surety, their mediator. And from that
point, he became the one representing them in all things. Well, brethren,
that representation was a representation based on union. We were united
to him. So everything that happens to
that man is happening to these people. Why? Because we are in
union. Just like Adam, everything that happened to that man happened
to his wife because she was in him. All the blessings. And so
this is an eternal thing. This is a spiritual as far as this union with Christ.
But look if you would there, it says, how be it that was not
first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after
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. We derive our natural life from
Adam. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit
of God, nor can he know of them, for they are spiritually discerned.
That's one of the things that we inherit from our first Father,
Adam. As is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. The Bible says that that seed
that remains in us is holy, created in true holiness and righteousness,
and cannot sin. That's what we get from our spiritual
Father, Christ Jesus. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
See, this tint that is on the outward that we got from the
first atom, it is going to dissolve and go away. It's going to perish. Matter of fact, it perishes every
day, right? The outward man perishes daily,
but the inward man is renewed every day. The inward man continues
on. The inward man is forever. It doesn't go. Why? Why is the
inward man like that, by the way? The inward man is like that
because the inward man is eternal. That inward life that has been
put in this outward vessel is eternal. That's why I've mentioned before
that the people of God have a vital eternal union with Christ and
that life is in seed substance that goes all the way back whenever
Christ was brought forth and we were given to Christ in union,
that was a true vitalness that just as much as Eve was in Adam,
we were in Christ. But let me do this. This will
blow your mind. This blew my mind. Listen, we
are as much united in Christ before the foundation of the
world as Christ is in Jesus prayed, I pray that they are one with
me as I am with you. Well how much real is that union
between Christ and the Father? That union is close because there
is only one God. And Christ is the image of that
invisible God. And Christ is the fullness of
that God. So there is the one that you
cannot separate Christ and God. There is no separation in that.
Therefore there is no separation between His people. and him.
We are united to him in a true living life. The Bible says,
and again, I'm kind of getting way off track here, but in 1
Corinthians 15, we see that Adam was not made spiritual, but Adam
was made natural and all those who come from him come in a natural
way. But Christ, who is the spiritual
man from heaven, has a spiritual seed just like Adam has a physical
seed. Christ has a spiritual seed.
So turn with me now to Psalms chapter 22. Psalms chapter 22. And I want us to
look and see if that principle of light begetting light follows
throughout Scripture. And is this a spiritual thing
or is this a physical thing? Psalms chapter 22. And look down with me at verse
30. Now speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, it says, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. Now that word generation there,
as I've mentioned before, that word generation can mean different
things. A generation can talk about a
specific period of time, right? We have Gen X, we have Gen Z,
we have the millennial generation, we have all, you know, we talk
about, and it's an allotted period of time. I think, what is it,
70 years is considered a generation or something like that? I might
be wrong on that, but anyway, so generation can be used for
an allotted amount of time. Generation can be used in the
way that it means to start or create or to begin, right? Generation can be that. Like
if I generate energy, what is that? I create energy. Right? Generation also can be used to
specify a lineage. A posterity, if you would. My
children are my generation. We begat them. They received
life. In every one of my children is
a substance of mine and my wife's life. The life of my children, and
then their children's children, and their children's children's
children, all will have the same derivative of life that came
from me. But every one of us has that
life derivative that goes all the way back to Adam. But whenever
we're talking about Christ here, and this is what's in view here,
it's talking about Christ having a seed And it says, a seed shall
serve him. Now, remember, brother, Christ
Jesus never did marry. Christ Jesus never did have physical
offspring, right? I think we'd all agree to that,
unless you get off into some cultic books and cultic churches
that might say differently, okay? To much chagrin of a lot of people,
Jesus didn't get down with Mary Magdalene, okay? He didn't have a physical seed.
So this seed that is being talked about, that is Christ, that's
going to serve Him, if it's not a physical seed, then what kind
of seed is it? It has to be a spiritual seed,
because there isn't really nothing else, is there? It's either physical
or it's spiritual. But it says here that this seed
shall serve Him, and it, that seed, that people In him, it
says here, shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
This is his generation. This is his posterity. This is
his children. That's what children are, right?
It's my posterity. My children are my posterity.
My children are my generation. Okay? So here we see the Old
Testament does teach a spiritual seed a spiritual children, a
spiritual people. Of course, we've already learned
that these spiritual people are the ones who are counted as the
children of Abraham, the true Israel. It's these spiritual
children that are counted for the promise. Look, if you would,
at Isaiah chapter 112. I'm sorry, not Isaiah, Psalms 112. We are going to go to Isaiah
here in a few minutes, Psalms 112, in verse 2. Well,
let's start at verse 1. Praise ye the Lord, blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his
commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon
the earth, the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Now, who is the upright? Well, there's only one person
who is truly upright. as far as righteousness is concerned.
Now, men in the scriptures are called upright. I think Noah
was called upright. Job was called upright. There
may have been some other men in the scriptures that was called
upright. But in that sense, they were
upright in the way, in the fact that they honored God and they
believed God and they followed after God. They were upright in that way.
But upright does not mean perfect. holy and a lot of people say
that Adam was created upright therefore he was created holy
that word upright doesn't mean holy in this in the sense that
they are without sin or without the ability to sin or with perfection
or righteousness because the Bible says and we can't let I
mean this is where it comes down to brother and I know I got a
lot of stuff going on in my head and I hope it's not coming out
in as convoluted a way as it feels but For somebody to, and I've just
lost my train of thought. The whole thing about the seed
and it being a spiritual seed and the physical seed being a
dichotomy is the fact that whenever the spiritual seed is being talked
about throughout scripture, it's always being talked about in
a singular way. Notice it said that it was the
generation of the Lord, not the generations of the Lord. but
the generation of the Lord. It was one thing. We are one
body. We are one people. We are the
elect of God. And we are one fold. We are one
flock, right? So we see that all this is in
a singular way. And I'm sorry, I lost my train
of thought in what I was actually saying. But the upright, I was
getting back to the upright. We have people that say that,
you know, the upright is Adam without sin. But yet the Bible
says that there is none righteous, no, not one, that all men hearts
are evil continually. And so we'll say, well, wait
a minute. That was after Adam sinned. That's after Adam sinned. Adam wasn't like that before
and everything. Well, again, brethren, where
did the lust come from? How was he drawn away and tempted
if he didn't already have lust in him? Okay? So that uprightness
is not talking about holiness and righteousness in and of himself
because the Bible clearly says there are none righteous. And
I believe that included Adam. There is none righteous. There
is only one who is righteous, the righteous one, and that's
Christ. Christ is the righteous one.
So any man who is upright, they are upright in a sense of walking
before God in honor to Him. Or it's talking about they are
upright as it pertains to their imputed righteousness that comes
from Christ alone. But it says here, His seed shall
be mighty upon the earth, the generation of the upright. So
I think this upright is talking about Christ. Because it says
His seed, Christ, the Lord's, His seed shall be mighty upon
the earth. The generation of the upright
shall be blessed. Who are the ones who was blessed
in Christ? That's His generation, His seed, His people. Now turn
with me, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 53. You've heard me say quite often that
I love Isaiah 53. Isaiah is my favorite book in
the Old Testament. Isaiah 53 is probably the quintessential,
one of the quintessential, if not the quintessential chapter
in all of Isaiah, in my opinion. It's all God's
word, so it's all profitable and good. Isaiah 53, look with
me if you would at eight, verse eight. It says, he was taken
from, now remember, Isaiah 53 is speaking about Jesus Christ
and his work as the anointed of God, as the Messiah, as the
Christ, right? He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? See, that was the question that
was being asked by Isaiah. If this Messiah is to come, this
anointed one of God who is to be the Savior, to be the one
who is to take away our sins, And he comes and as we learned
here that he is going to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised
for our iniquities and chastised that peace was going to be upon
him and that he was going to by his stripes heal everybody.
If his death is coming, then who's going to declare that generation?
How is these people, this spiritual people, going to come forth that
this man is going to die? How is His name and all the greatness
of who He is going to happen? Who's going to declare His generation
if this takes place? He says, Who shall declare His
generation? For He was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of My people
was He stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet, and here it
is in verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had
put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin. He shall see his seed. That's us. He shall prolong his
days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
So we see here that the generation of Christ will be declared. Why? Because he was bruised for
their iniquities. See, he wasn't cut off out of
the land of the living forever. Even though He was cut off from
the land of the living, He was resurrected from the grave. He
lives forevermore. And because He lives, we live.
Because His life is eternal, our life is eternal. Now that's
not talking about in a physical way, right? It's not talking
about that. So the generation that is declared
that is Christ is a spiritual generation. It is not a fleshly
generation. Let's go back to the New Testament
and go to 1 Peter. Now, this generation derives this
existence, this spiritual existence, from a spiritual life. It's a
spiritual life that we receive all of the blessings of Christ. See, it isn't a physical thing
that we are in Christ Jesus, but it is a spiritual thing. The blessings that we receive
in Christ Jesus are spiritual blessings. He had blessed us
with all physical blessings in Christ Jesus. Is that what Ephesians
says? No, it says He has blessed us
with all spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Matter of fact,
keep your hand there in 1 Peter, because I don't want to misquote
this. But in Ephesians it says this. Some people say, well,
that's the determining mind of God. It's not actually before
we were ever created and everything. But look what it says here. It
says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us, hath blessed, past tense. Hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings, so not one was left out. Any blessing
that we receive is a spiritual blessing and that spiritual blessing
was given to us in Christ Jesus. With all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What kind of blessings?
Spiritual. Where was it given to us? In
heaven. How is it given to us? In Christ. But look how, or on what grounds,
and when that blessing occurred. According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world. Election is the point in when
we receive and are united with Christ. We are elected in Christ
Jesus. We are elected and united to
Christ. The election of God of a people
is when we were united to Christ Jesus and blessed. Whenever Christ was brought forth
from eternity, And there are several verses in the Old Testament
that we can go to that shows that Christ was brought forth
from eternity. Before the mountains were made,
before anything was created, He was brought forth. Matter
of fact, John 1.1 says that in the beginning was God. In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was
with God. Same was in the beginning, with
God. He was with God. Christ was there
with God from the beginning, in the beginning, before the
beginning. He created all things. If He as Christ is the creator
of all things, then that means He precedes everything, right? So hopefully that's enough to
establish the fact that Jesus was brought forth from eternity.
The election of the people of God and the uniting to them happened
at that point. We were given to Christ. Now,
what derives that union? It's a spiritual life, a spiritual
seed. The life is in the seed. Every
seed that comes, whenever that tree out there, that oak tree,
whenever it drops a seed or acorn down in that ground and it falls
into that ground, what does it do? It produces life. The life
is in the seed. Unless a grain of wheat fall
on the ground and die, it abideth alone. But what happens if it
dies? There's life that comes out of
that seed. Christ died and the life of the seed came forth,
right? Christ died and the life of the
seed comes forth. The Bible says that Christ stood
as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. in Him
was His seed. The Bible says in Him was life. That spiritual life came as a
spiritual seed. That seed was planted if you're
a child of God. That seed was put in you. That
seed was put in you. That seed was put in you. That
seed was put in you. That seed was put in you. All
those who are the children of God are children of God because
they are a seed or a life from or a generation, posterity from
the original source, which was eternal life. Colossians chapter 3, 3 says,
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Where does our life come from?
Well, our natural life came from Adam, so we can't say that it's
talking about our physical life is hid with Christ in God. So
what's that talking about? It's talking about our spiritual
life. It's talking about that life that is not of this world.
It's eternal life. The life that we have in Adam
is just as the earthy is earthy, just as the natural is natural,
and just as death passed upon Adam, death passed upon us, that
physical life is going to end. But that spiritual life never
ends. It began and was always in Christ, and it's given as
a derivative of life to each one of his children, And those
children's life that was eternal as God is, will continue on through
eternity as we are made manifest, just like a harvest is made manifest
of all the seed that was planted. Just as that one tree was made,
and out of that tree all the other trees of the world came,
and all the seeds and all the fruit and everything that came
from that, it was always there, but it had never been made manifest.
The life of Christ was always there, the life of God was always
there, but His spiritual children had never been made manifest.
But now, we are being made manifest. His children are being manifested.
The children of God are being manifested. As God brings forth
that life in His people, as He brings forth, as we are born
of God, born from above, that life begins to manifest, the
children of God. In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse
23, Being born again, not of corruptible
seeds. So we're saying, we're not talking
about Adam's posterity here, even though we are a posterity
of Adam in the flesh, that's not what we're talking about.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed. We are born again of an incorruptible
seed. That's what that second birth
is. That's what that birth from heaven is. It's an incorruptible
seed that is being brought forth. Now, there's only one who is
incorruptible, and that's Christ. And therefore, His life is an
incorruptible life. His seed that comes from that
life is an incorruptible seed. And we are born of an incorruptible
seed by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Which,
by the way, that's not talking about the Bible or the Gospel.
That's talking about Christ Himself. We are born again of an incorruptible seed by the
Word of God, Christ, which liveth and abideth forever. How do I
know that? Look at verse 25. But the Word
of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached to you. Who's preached in the Gospel?
Christ the Word is preached in the Gospel. It doesn't say, but
the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word
of God which by the Word of God is preached unto you. It's talking
about Christ. incorruptible seed, and Christ
is the one who liveth and abideth forever." Does this word live
and abide forever? Absolutely it does. But this
word right here can't give life. This word right here, as 2 Timothy
1, 9 and 10 says, this word here only brings life and immortality
to light. This is the record and the testimony
of life. It's not the giver of life. The
giver of life is the incorruptible seed. The giver of life is Christ
Jesus Himself. The Bible says that He's been
given power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as have been given to Him. Eternal life, the new birth,
being born from above doesn't come from the preaching of the
Gospel. It comes from the soul work of the Holy Spirit coming
upon the person and putting that seed that is eternal, that has
been hid with Christ in God for all eternity, that seed being
sown into the heart, being sown, or not sown into the heart, but
sown into the vessel of clay, and that seed that is incorruptible
being made manifest in this jar of clay, in this vessel of clay.
That life was something that was already there and we are
born not of a physical seed, But the children are born of
a spiritual seed. So here again we see this generation,
this seed, this people is a spiritual people, not a physical people. Look if you would at John chapter
17. John chapter 17 in verse two. Verse one, these words faith
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, The hour
has come to glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify
Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as, to as many as, that's
a quantifier there, only as many as been given to Him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast Sin. Jesus Christ is eternal life.
And everybody that's given to Him is given to Him. And the
reason that He's given to them is that they might know eternal
life. That they have eternal life. Isn't that coinciding with
what Paul preached in Corinthians? When he said that we have been
given the Spirit, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us? That we might know Christ and
the power of His resurrection? That's why we've been given the
Spirit. That's why we've been given these things. And listen,
we have been given eternal life so that we might know Him. That
we might know who our Father is. My children are made manifest
and they know who I am. How do they know? Because I have
given them life. Look if you would with me at
1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1, and if you would,
look at verse 1. That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
of the word of life. Now brethren, does anybody here
think that that's talking about the Bible? That's talking about
Jesus. We have heard, we have seen,
we have looked upon, and with our hands have handled it. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that
eternal life which was with, wait a minute, that eternal life
which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Now here
we see that eternal life is given or personified, right? Eternal life is now personified
in the man Jesus Christ. That's why the Bible says that
He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is life. Who was it that was with God
eternal life? Is that not what that says? for
the life was manifested, meaning that it's talking about that
life which is in God was manifested, but how was it manifested? It
was already there. It already existed, but it was
manifested. And how was it manifested? It
was manifested in the Word of Life, in the man Jesus Christ. It was manifested, and we seen
it, we heard it, and we handled it. It was a person. He says, for the life was manifested
and we have seen it. Matter of fact, that word it
there is not in the original language. It's added for clarity
of speech, but that would say we have seen and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us,
and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full." So here again, we have been given
a picture of eternal life as it's personified in the man Jesus
Christ. He is eternal life. Therefore
the life that is in him is eternal and therefore all the seed that
comes from him comes as a derivative of that first seed. It goes back
to Genesis 1 again. That everything reproduces after
its own kind. That everything has its seed
in itself. Christ being a spiritual head,
being a spiritual man, having a spiritual seed, producing a
spiritual people, and that spiritual people make up a spiritual servanthood,
and that spiritual servanthood serves in a spiritual kingdom. While you're in 1 John, let's
go over chapter 5. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life." Now it says there, he that hath not the Son of God.
It didn't say, he that believes not on the Son of God. It says,
he that hath not the Son of God. Meaning that He that has not
in possession the Son of God doesn't have life. Well, how
do we have the Son of God? We have the Son of God in seed.
That spiritual life that's been put in us. If I would say Zach, who is my
son, if I would say, if you do not have Mike, you are not of
him. He that has not Mike is not of
mine. That would be Daniel. Daniel
is not of Mike. He's not my son. I wouldn't have a problem claiming
him as one, but he's not my son. Zach's my son. Zach has that
life derivative for me. Now we're talking about in the
physical here. Okay. Same thing. That's what this
verse is actually saying. He that hath the son dwelling
in him, And how do we have the Son dwelling in Him? We have
the Son's Spirit. The Spirit of Christ dwelleth
in you. It is Christ that is in you,
the hope of glory. Christ indwells us. We are indwelt
with Christ. You say, well, I thought we were
anointed by the Holy Spirit. He's the third person of the
Trinity. You're saying the second person of the Trinity is in us.
No, I'm saying God is in us, and it is Christ's Spirit that
is sent and given to us. Even Christ said that whenever
He was going to send His Spirit as the comforter, He turned right
around after He said that. He said, I will send you a comforter.
Then He turned around and said, I will be with you. He said,
I will come to you. Christ has come to His people.
How has Christ come to His people? Because He is eternal life and
He has given that life to His people that God has given Him
from the foundation of the world who is in that generation that
is in seed substance before the foundation of the world but has
not made manifest in time yet. That's why He says there, He
that hath the Son hath life. Why? Because we have eternal
life who is Christ. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye might
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God." We have eternal life. If that life is
eternal, did it begin somewhere? No. That life is as eternal as
the one who has the life. that oak tree out there that
has life in it right now came from some acorn that fell from
another tree that had life that came from an acorn that had a
tree that let it go that had life in it and all those has
the same life as in the very first acorn so that tree right
there the life of that tree is as old as the very first tree
first sprouted an acorn. You say, well, how can that be?
That tree never existed back then. No, but the life that produces
that tree has been as long as it's existed. And so as long
as this existed, that life of that tree has been in existence. Well, brother, let me ask you
a question. If we have the sun and we have eternal life, which
is the sun, then how long have we had, the children of God that
is, how long have we had eternal life? As long as the original. Now I'm not saying that we're
gods. That's not what I'm saying and that's what people want to
say that I say. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the life
that comes from the eternal one is the life that we had, and
I don't think anybody in the world can contradict that, because
the Bible is very clear, the life that we are given as the
children of God is not the physical life, but the spiritual life,
and that spiritual life is very clearly said to be eternal life,
and that life is in the Son. And so as long as there has been
the Son, there has been life. And as long as there has been
life, The children of God has been in him. That, brethren,
is eternal, vital, meaning it's real. That life is real. That
life that is in him and sees substance is real and it is manifested
in his time to all of his people. And some will say, well, how
can you do that? How can something that hasn't
existed be considered something as real. Well, let me say this. The Bible said that he loved
us with an everlasting love before the foundation. Well, nobody
has a problem saying that. Well, how did he love us then?
How did God love something that didn't exist? Well, God's eternal
and he sees down in the corridor. No, no, no, no, no. He said he
loved us with an everlasting love. A love that has been forever. The Bible says that we were His
children and that we were the fathers and we were given to
the Son. How did that happen if there
wasn't a real relationship? If it was just in the mind of
God. Well, it's just in the life of Christ, is what I want to
say. It's not just in the mind of
God. Yes, God knew all those children that were His. As a
matter of fact, the Bible says that not only did He know them,
He knew what their names were going to be. Not because of what
their parents named them, but because he's the one that wrote
their names down in a book. He wrote their names down. Whose
names were written in the book of what? Life. Wait a minute. You mean there were certain people
who were ordained to, oh wait a minute, that's Acts 13, 48.
All those who were ordained to eternal life believe. So there
is an ordaining to eternal life. So God knew a people, wrote down
their names and ordained them that they would be the ones to
receive what? Eternal life. How did they receive
eternal life and where did that life come from? That life that
was ordained to be given to that person at that specific time
that God chose That life came from Christ Jesus. So, should we really be arguing
whether or not that life is as old as Christ? Is that really
saying something heretical? Saying something that's way out
there, brother, that's way out there? No, that's just saying
what the Scriptures have been teaching here all along. We have
eternal life and that life is in the Son. We are His seed. Is there any biblical evidence
that seed substance is really anything? Anybody ever thought
about that? The Bible says that Levi paid
tithes in Abraham. Levi was born a long time after
Abraham was. But whenever Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek, the Bible says Levi paid tithes unto Melchizedek
through Abraham. How? Because Levi was in his
loins. Now, we all know what loins means,
right? I think we're all kind of grown
up enough. We know that loins is talking about the reproductive
areas of the body, okay? He was in his loins, meaning
that he was He was in him in seed substance. Levi was in Adam
in seed substance. Now, or excuse me, in Abraham.
But let's go back. Let's take that back different.
Do you think that there's anyone out there who calls themselves
Christians who would deny that because we were in Adam that
sin and death has not passed upon us? How is it that we have sin and
death passed upon us? We didn't exist. We didn't sin
initially. We didn't do any of that. Did
we have a real life in Adam? Well, that's not real life. That's just by imputation. Wait
a minute. Has not sin and death passed
upon us in actuality though? Has everyone who has come from
the loins of Adam came into this world with sin and death? Absolutely
they have. That is passed on. Matter of
fact, the Bible says that those people that had come, even that
had not sinned in the transgression of Adam, they still had sin and
they had death. They didn't sin after the similitude
of Adam, but yet they had sinned death. Why? Because they were
in Adam. And when Adam sinned and brought sin and death into
the world, Death passed upon all men. Why? Because Adam. They
were in Adam. His natural, their natural head,
their natural first seed. Well, brethren, is it any more
crazy to say that all the spiritual life and all the spiritual things
could not have existed in real union in Christ Jesus? Especially
when there's so much here that says that that existed. Our life
was hidden in Christ with God. See, it's only hard for us to
grasp these things and to just believe what the Scriptures say
because we are so inundated with theology books, with professors,
with PhDs, with traditions of men. with being grown up, being told
certain things, and not looking and seeing or having the revelation
of God. And it truly is revealed by God.
It has to be revealed by God. It can only be revealed by God.
But brethren, we have the Scriptures that teach us that, and if God
is so kind to reveal them to us, it's there plainly in black
and white. But the reason that we don't
grasp those things is because, again, We go back to our default
self that, well, if you're saying that, then you're saying that
God predestinated all this. God predestinated the fall. Then
that means God predestinated sin. Then that means God predestinated
the devil to be the devil because the devil is the one who did
the tempting. Then you're saying that God has predestinated everything,
including sin and evil, and you're saying that Adam didn't have
free will to choose. That's exactly what I'm saying. And that's exactly what this
teaches. Now, that can hair lift the governor. I don't care. But
I'm going to go with God and every man can be a liar. That's
what the scripture is saying. If you want to put me in a hyper-Calvinist
category, you want to put me in a Fatalist category if you
want to put me in a hardshell category or a heretic category
put me in whatever thing put give me But brethren, I just
I can't I Can't go against what the scripture says. It's just
it's there This life is a derivative from the original just like our
natural life is a derivative from our original head in the
natural way Therefore it's a spiritual. We are a spiritual people and
we're dealing with things in a spiritual level. In 1 John
5 and verse 11 in this record, that God has given us eternal
life and this life is in His Son. Look at verse 20 of that same chapter.
It says, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given
us an understanding that we may know Him, that is true, and we
are in Him, that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ." And
look here what it says. This is the true God and eternal
life. Who is the true God? Christ Jesus. Who is eternal life? And you
say, well, that's a category mistake. You mean, what is eternal
life? No. Who is eternal life? Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is eternal life.
Therefore, eternal life is in Christ because He is eternal
life. That's why we say in the Bible,
the Bible says that God is love. It didn't just say God loves,
it said God is love. Love comes from God, is in God,
because God is love. Christ Jesus is eternal life,
therefore life eternal is in Him, because He is eternal life. has eternal life and gives eternal
life because He is the very embodiment of eternal life. Eternal life
is Christ, just as love is God, therefore God loves. So there we see, brethren, a
clear picture that began with the very, very, very first chapter
of the very first book When God created all things, He set up
the principle. Everything reproduces after its
own kind with its seed in itself. And our natural head and our
spiritual head have both reproduced after their own kind. God is
spirit. And he who worships Him will
worship Him how? In spirit and in truth. on it. Anybody got any questions
or any comments or any corrections and reviews? Challenges about
it? I keep looking at this. I was
looking at this, you know, after talking about this last week
and then looking this week I even pulled down a couple old books
and was rereading some things and everything and re-looking
at some stuff and And I tell you, brethren, the Lord has just
kind of made this more and more concrete in my mind. And the
more people that challenge me on this whole spiritual people
issue, this whole thing about eternal value and union, the
more they challenge me on those things, the more solidified I
get in them. Because it causes me to keep looking, and the more
I keep looking, the more I keep seeing, over and over and over
again. There was several other verses that I didn't get to,
but hey, you know, it's all over the Bible. But again, I think
a lot of times, we're blinded because of our presuppositions
and our upbringings and what all the smart people, smarty
pants, people say. And so, that's why I say with
those books that I give you all today, read them with discernment,
because there's a lot of smarty pants things that are being said
in there as well, that sometimes don't necessarily line up with
the scripture, but there's a lot of good stuff that's in there
as well. But anyway, anybody got anything? Anybody got another
song that you'd like to sing? Father, once again, we do thank
you and we thank you for Christ Jesus. We thank you for the Word
of God. We thank you for the testimony of Christ and the work
that he has done on our behalf. We thank you for the life that
we have in him. And Lord, we just pray that today that you
just might encourage your people by the things that have been
said. The scriptures say, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And
Lord, we pray that each time we bring forth the Word of God,
that it truly is a comfort to those. And Lord, we just ask
now that you be with us as we leave this place today, that
you give us safety in our travels, that you be with each of these
brethren, Lord, that you might continue to sustain them and
keep them, Lord, that you might grow them in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for this fellowship
that we have together and the times each week to be able to
gather in your name and that we might speak on things concerning
you. And Lord, again, we are so grateful
for all the graciousness that's been given to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. for his death for us and the
forgiveness of sin and for the life that we have in him through
him and Lord we just again ask it all in his precious and holy
name.