The creation of the physical universe and the creation of man manifests the wisdom of God, the greatness of God, and the power of God. And his creative ability in physical things speaks to us of his creative ability spiritually. You know, if someone says to us that the things that exist are to be traced back to something that just kind of accidentally happened, we'd say, that's not true. If some fool said, you know, the creation of all things, it had to do with man doing something or other, we'd say, that's crazy talk. God created. Well, that's how crazy it is for somebody to say that we're saved by our willingness or by our power or by our decision.

That's why we're Christians. Now, we don't believe in evolution as is taught in the Darwinian theory. We don't believe in evolution of things physically, and we don't believe in evolution of anybody spiritually, because salvation's of God. And just as surely as God had to create the heaven and the earth, so God creates believers. So in 2 Corinthians 5, the Lord has made us new creatures in Christ Jesus.

We're a new creation, Ephesians 2. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created. That's what it says, created in Christ Jesus under good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Christians don't... We don't become Christians by decision. We become Christians, we become believers by the creative wonders of God's grace. That's how we come to believe. It's not of your will, it's not of my will. Of his own will, James says, begat he us with the word of truth.

We're created by the Lord himself. Here we read in verse 17, male, or verse 27, male and female created he them. And anybody who is a believer, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus. We didn't make ourselves physically and we don't make ourselves spiritually. We're not self-made people. We're God-made people. And if you believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a God-made person.

You're a God-made believer. That faith is not of yourself. It wasn't as I heard a man yesterday morning. I got up very early. Some of the men meet for breakfast, and I was up quite early, and I turned the television on, and this preacher said, Every one of you have a little spark of faith within you And if you'll just fan it, God will give you more faith. That isn't true. You don't have a spark of faith. You don't have a spark of life. You're spiritually dead and trespasses and sins.

If anybody is made to live, it's by God himself. You'll notice there in verse 26, The Lord said, God said, let us make man in our image. That expression is not used on any of the other days of creation. And it's not used with regards to anything else within creation. When God said, let us make man in our image, that was Him alone stating a fact of the plurality of the Godhead and that the Godhead was fully involved in the creation of man. Because you see, this is a picture of a spiritual creation. God said back in old eternity, Let us, Father, Son, and Spirit, make man in our image, spiritually.

God chose a people unto salvation before the world began. I love that doctrine, don't you? I'm not ashamed of that at all. The Father chose a people unto salvation, and the Son of God came. He stood for us in the covenant of grace as the surety of the everlasting covenant. And He came because it was His will and the Father's will and the Spirit's will to save a multitude that they had numbered back in old eternity.

Let us make man in our image. And in order for us to be spiritually made in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, He had to come down here. It's the only way we could be saved. It's the only way we could be reconciled to God. God had to do something for God. That is, God the Son had to do something for the Father and the Spirit. When our Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross of Calvary, first and foremost, He died for God. And then He died for us. He died for our sins, is the way the Scripture says it. Let us make man in our image. The Father chose us, the Son redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit quickens us.

He is the breath of God. In the second chapter here of Genesis, look at verse seven. And let me tell you this, the second chapter of Genesis is really an amplification of those things that happened on the sixth day. You got that? He's just going into more detail. Moses, led by the Spirit of God, goes into greater detail in the second chapter about the things that happened on the sixth day.

And it says in verse 7 of chapter 2, and the Lord God formed, and the word formed, the root word is like a potter, like a potter. He formed man of the dust of the ground. He made man according to his own will. The Lord said to Israel, I'm the potter, you're the clay. Romans chapter nine, that is virtually repeated. The Lord as the potter, he makes some vessels under honor and some vessels under dishonor. And the reason we look as we do today, the reason God made Adam as he determined to make him, is because God formed him as the potter. He formed that piece of clay into a man.

But still, man wasn't living. And so therefore, the next to last expression of verse 7 is, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. You see, when a person passes away, they still have the characteristics of a person, of a man or a woman. They still have all their organs. And maybe death has just taken them. There may still be a touch of rosiness in their cheeks. But there is no life when there is no breath.

Do you remember in Ezekiel chapter 37? The Lord took Ezekiel out to a valley of dry bones. There'd been a great battle there. And many warriors had died. And over the years, the sand, the wind blowing the sand, had bleached the bones. And God said, Ezekiel, go out there and preach to those bones. The Lord asked me, He said, Son of man, can these bones live? Thou knowest. That's how He responded, Lord, thou knowest. And Ezekiel was told, prophesy, preach to them. Preach to them. And then the Lord said to Ezekiel, now prophesy to the wind.

Blow upon these who've been slain. They died in a battle. Let me tell you something, we died spiritually in a battle. And Adam was the general of our army. And he represented the whole human race. And we went to war against God Almighty. And we got killed. We died. We died. What's got to happen?

The Lord must breathe into our spiritual nostrils the breath of life, and then we'll become living souls. So God said, let us make man. The Trinity's involved in the Savior, in the salvation, rather, of sinners. It's a work of God. As a potter, Forms a piece of pottery according to his own will so God forms us To be spiritual vessels There's only one reason why you believe and love this gospel of sovereign grace Is because you're an object of God's saving mercy You wouldn't believe the truth if it weren't for the fact that God has operated on your heart and given you a willingness to believe him. You're a vessel of mercy.

Now, let me give you six points, and I'll give them to you briefly. And the last one, I'm only gonna mention it because I'm gonna carry over to next Wednesday night and deal with that. Let me give you a little outline here about man. Number one, the creation of man. It says in verses 26 and 27 of chapter 1, and God said, let us make man in our image.

There's the plurality of the Godhead, not three gods. Please, please hear me. Not three gods. three persons in the Godhead of one mind, of one purpose, of one will. There never has been, there never was, there never shall be any disagreement within the Trinity. That would be impossible.

Let us make man in our image after our likeness. The image of God, what is the image of God that we have? Well, it includes volition, we have the ability to choose, we have a will, we have the ability to reason, we have the ability to weigh out various decisions, things that The animal world, the rest of the animal world, they don't have that ability. They're not made in God's image, but we are with intelligence. And we can do things on purpose or not do things because we choose not to do them.

We have a high degree of intelligence. I know that sin has marred the depth of our intelligence, but still, there's a tremendous degree of knowledge and intelligence that we still have, though that knowledge does not extend to spiritual things, but it does extend to scientific things.

You know, once in a while, well, probably more than I would like to acknowledge, I get upset with my computer, but I don't know how it works. I'm glad somebody was smart enough to come up with something like that. And a lot of other things. I was talking to a friend of mine who has an airplane, and I said, you know, I am still amazed when I see a jet take off. And he said, well, if you understand aerodynamics, you'd be amazed if it didn't take off. He said, the way they're made, they're made to fly. They're made to lift off.

There are lots of things that we can't comprehend. Whatever, perhaps you have a special job or special talents in some field, but It's God who gives that intelligence. He didn't give it to other creatures. But he gives us spiritual abilities. And since God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, there's coming a day, I know that's all marred now. And let me also say this, all men have a God consciousness.

They don't know who God is, but they recognize there is someone who is over them because even in the remotest parts of the world, people who've never seen a Bible, people who've never seen or heard the gospel, they know something about a future judgment, though they don't know the details of it. And somebody says, well, I'm an atheist. What's the old saying? No atheists in foxholes. Deep down everybody knows there's God. God is. Don't understand God? No. Don't appreciate who God is? No. But there's a God awareness deep down in the soul of everybody and that can't be erased. It can't be erased. But it's been ruined. Sin has ruined that. But there's coming a day for the children of God when we're going to be totally conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now won't that be wonderful?

My greatest problem in this world As I look around the world, and I know there's a lot of filth in the world, a lot of ungodliness, but that which troubles me the most is me. I have some inkling of the depth of my depravity, and I so long for the day when I'll be free of it, when I won't have any more sin. And I'll be, I'll arrive at my predestinated state, which is total conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. He died to save me from my sin. And one of these days, I will experience the fullness and the glory of that salvation in a manner that I don't experience right now, because I can't, I can't.

Here's the creation of man. Male and female, the Bible says, created he them. And with those words, we have a simple declaration of the glory of God in creation. God fashioned man in his own image. And chapter 2 gives us more detail of that. So first of all, here's the condition of man, number 2. Or first of all is the creation of man, number 2. Here's the condition of man. He became a living soul. Out of all of God's, the vastness of God's creation and the tremendous multitudes of His creatures, There's only one creature who can have fellowship with God, and that's a newly born again man or woman or boy or girl.

You see, we were all made to glorify God, any catechism. that you read that's of any worth whatsoever, any confession of faith. It begins this way, what's the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's why we were made. And that's why we've been remade in Christ Jesus. That's why we're new creatures in Christ Jesus, to glorify God, to magnify His grace and His mercy and His salvation and enjoy Him forever.

And one of these days, we gonna enjoy the Lord like we, as if we hadn't ever enjoyed Him down here. But we do enjoy Him down here. We enjoy times of worship of our Lord. But in heaven, we're going to enjoy him and have an awareness of God that we don't have now, but we will have.

So there's the creation of man, there's the condition of man. Here's the third thing I wanna give you, the location of man. God put him somewhere. He put him in a garden. The Lord who created man and give him a condition with abilities and intelligence gave him a location in which to live, Eden, a well-watered paradise.

And that's typical of the condition and the location in which we find ourselves now in Christ Jesus. We live in a well-watered environment because Christ is the water of life. And whoever you are as a child of God, whatever your feelings, your troubles or trials or whatever it is, the water of life is always available to you.

We sometimes sing the song, what a friend we have in Jesus. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we don't carry everything to God in prayer. It's available for you. Help is available. You can wallow in the mire. You can talk about how bad things are and, oh, I've got it worse than anybody else or whatever. I got aches and pains and so forth and so on. You can do that or you can look to the Lord of all goodness and all glory. who puts you in situations where you can glorify him even in your pain and agony.

The Lord put Adam in the right location. And I don't know where you are right now in life, but let me tell you something, you're in the right location. you're where God would have you to be. And whenever you come to hear the gospel, you're here, you're where God would have you to be.

The location of the creation of man, the condition of man, the location of man. Here's the fourth thing, the occupation of man. Look at verse 15, chapter two. And the Lord took the man and put him in the garden. the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Man was made to labor. Man was made to work. Man was made to serve the purpose of God. You see, the same omnipotent hand that made you made you for a purpose.

There's a reason that God has put you in the world, in the body of Christ, where you're currently located. And actually, that word where it says, the Lord God took man, it means God caused him to rest. Where God put Adam, He caused Adam to rest there, to be comfortable there, to have joy there. Wherever you find yourself in life, may you find joy there and knowing that God put me here in my family, in my location, in my local church for His purpose.

And we're to be about serving our Lord. Nancy, I think day before yesterday, we were talking about good works. And she said, isn't going to church and worshiping the Lord, isn't that a good work? That's a very good work. See, people think, well, a good work is me being busy doing something.

You're doing the greatest thing you could do right here tonight, worshiping the Lord. It's the time set aside to honor Him. See, God put Adam in the garden to serve the cause of God. And God puts you where you are to serve the cause of God here. You're here on purpose. You say, well, I'm just a pew dweller. I just sit in the pew. Wait a minute, no, you're more than just a pew sitter. You're a child of God, and he has put you in this local assembly. And you're here to serve the cause of God.

I think about a dear lady in England. I corresponded with her quite a bit. And by the way, I heard from somebody new over the weekend from somebody in England who contacted me and told me they were being blessed by the services. But this dear lady, she is now so weak that she can't send out any emails or anything like that. She used to send out Robert Hawker's devotions morning and evening, and she can't do that anymore.

But she said something to this effect, I'm serving the cause of God here on my sickbed. That's a good attitude to have, isn't it? I'm serving the cause of God. Spurgeon wrote about a woman who had been very active in Metropolitan Tabernacle. And then she got to where she couldn't even come to church and all she could do was, she had, I don't know if it was whooping cough or whatever, something, but she coughed all the time. And Mr. Spurgeon went to see her and he put a, mask over his face, as did she, because she was coughing so much. Mr. Spurgeon said, well, sister, how are you doing?

And she said, well, I'm laying here coughing for the glory of God. This is what he would have me do. I'd like to have that attitude when I get sick. I'm here doing what God has purposed for me to do, glorifying him on my sickbed. That's the occupation of man.

You're made to serve the Lord. Psalm 100 says, serve the Lord with gladness, right? I've heard you speak on Psalm 100 before. Serve the Lord with gladness, do it with gladness. And if the serving of the Lord is suffering, so be it. If serving the Lord is enjoying the health that He has given you, so be it. Serve Him with gladness. And then here's the fifth thing, and I've got to really go quick, the probation of man. That's in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 2.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Adam was a representative man. He was a representative of the entirety of the human population. This command was not given to Adam and the woman. The command was given to one man, a representative man. God looked to that one man and, as it were, put him on probation. He would not die provided, provided he obeyed the Lord. Obey and live, disobey and die.

But the thing about Adam, he wasn't here as a private individual. He represented his seed. Because the Bible talks about two representative men, the first Adam and the last Adam, not the second Adam, the first Adam and the last Adam, just two Adams. And they're both ahead of their race.

The first man, Adam, ruined everything. Christ, the last Adam, restored everything for his people. The first man, Adam, broke the law. The last Adam fulfilled God's law. The first man, Adam, failed. Christ, the last Adam, prevailed. Prevailed. And the first man, Adam, was a miserable rebel against God. But Christ, the last Adam, was gloriously triumphant in laying down his life for the sheep.

So here's what we've seen tonight. You got them all, I'm sure you do. We've seen Adam in his creation, in his condition, in his location, in his occupation, in his probation. And next week, we're gonna see Adam and his companion. I won't say that till next Wednesday.

Well, may the Lord bless what's gone forth tonight. Let's sing 351 near the cross. May the Lord keep us near the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 351, 351 near the cross. Let's stand. 351. Jesus, keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain, free to all the healing stream. flows from Calvary's mountain.

In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find Rest beyond the river, near that cross, the trembling soul. Love and mercy found me There the bright and morning star Sheds its beams around me. In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.