If you would now, turn with me
to Psalm 8. Psalm 8. I titled the message this morning,
Why Would God Think on Man? This is the question that David
asked in verse 4 of Psalm 8. What is man that thou art mindful
of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? Now, David
is asking this question in amazement. What is man that you would be
mindful of him? Why would God be mindful of me
at all? David's just amazed that God
whom the heavens cannot contain would bother to ever think on
man. Now, in order to understand why
it is David is so amazed, yeah, I think we have to see three
things. Number one, we have to see who God is. Number two, we
have to see who man is. And number three, we have to
see the result. What results from God thinking on man? Well,
if we're gonna understand this question, David's amazement at
it, we've got to have some understanding of who God is. God is the creator. He created everything that is
just by speaking. He created it and everything
gets its being and its existence from God. God is self-existent. God doesn't need anyone else
or anything else to keep living. He's self-existent. God is holy. He can't look on sin. He cannot
sin. Everything God does is holy.
It's sinless. God is just. He cannot do wrong. Everything he does is right.
God is wise. He cannot make a mistake. It's
impossible for him to make a mistake. God is all-powerful. He always
does His will. None can stay His hand or say
unto Him, what doest thou? He always does His will. There's
never even a bump in the road in His will. God is omniscient. That's a great big fancy word
that just means God's everywhere at once. He's everywhere at once. I mean, you think of that. He's
everywhere at once. God is eternal. He doesn't have a beginning and
He doesn't have an ending. God is immutable. That's another
great big word, immutable. Just means God never changes. And why would he change? He's
already perfect, isn't he? And God is good. Everything God does
is good. We don't understand it oftentimes,
but everything God does is good. It has to be because God can't
do evil. He can't do something bad. It's not in his nature.
His nature is he's good. God is love. It's not just that
God loves. God is love. His character is
love. God can't do anything hateful.
God is merciful. He's gracious to those who sin
against him. God is forgiving of the wrongs
that have been done to him. God has been nothing but good
to man. God's eternal, man's just existed
about 6,000 years. In all that time, God's been
nothing but good to man. In the whole solar system, God
made one planet, one, that's habitable, a place for man to
live. God gives life to men and he
sustains that life. He gives us air to breathe, water
to drink, food to eat, and God made man brilliant. I know man,
we'll get to man in just a minute, man is spiritually dead, spiritually
blind. But boy, in worldly things, man
is brilliant. God made man to be brilliant
in the arts, in math, in the sciences, so that man can invent
things to help mankind, to make life better. Just all the things
that men do, the science and the medicines that men create,
the art that they create, just for nothing but beauty, just
to look at. God, he created man brilliant. And God is so high above man. It's really indescribable. But
scripture tells us something, gives us a mighty good clue.
God has to humble himself to look on things in heaven. You
think how high heaven is above us, how much better it is, how
much more glorious. God has to humble himself to
look on things in heaven. But how much does he have to
humble himself to look on us? To think on the likes of us?
God doesn't need anything from man. He doesn't need anything
from anybody. It's a good thing, too, God doesn't
need anything from man, isn't it? Because we don't have anything
to contribute. We can't do anything for God,
so it's a good thing he doesn't need anything from us. Basically,
From what I see about who God is, man is just a drain on God's
resources. Yet God thinks on man. That's
who God is. A second, if we're going to be
as amazed at this question as we should be, why would God think
on man? We have to understand something about who man is. And
I know I'm talking about who man is, what the nature of man
is. But let's remember, this is who we are. This is us. This is everybody out there.
This is us. This is who we are. Man is everything
God is not. When Jonathan read to us there
from Romans 3, that description of man, that's us. Now, that
describes our nature. Go back and read this afternoon,
but just don't say, man, this is who I am. That describes us. That describes our nature. God's
the creator. Man is just a creature, and we're
a fallen one at that. God is self-existent, but man
can only exist unless God gives us life and supports it. I mean,
God is self-existent and there's nothing more dependent in God's
creation than human beings. God is holy and he cannot sin. Man is sinful and cannot do anything
but sin. We cannot ever do anything holy
or righteous. God is just, he can't do wrong. Man is unjust and can't find
it in ourselves to do anything right. Just everything we do
is wrong. God is all wise so that he cannot
make a mistake. Man is spiritually ignorant so
we can't do anything right. Everything we do spiritually,
everything we want to do spiritually, everything we think spiritually
by nature, it's all a mistake. It's all wrong. God is all powerful. God always does his will. Man
has no power to do anything unless God allows it. If you want that
proved to you, just make a plan for something this week and see
what happens to it. God is omniscient. He's everywhere
at once. Man's just in one place and we're
hardly there most of the time. Our mind wanders and oh my goodness,
we're a mess. God's eternal. He doesn't have
a beginning or an ending, and man is so finite. We're here
for such a short time. Scripture calls our life a vapor. God never changes. Man changes
every time the wind blows, and we never change for good, do
we? God is good. There's none good but God. Everything
he does is good, and man is evil. Everything we do in the sight
of God is evil. There's none that do it good. No, not one. In case you're thinking,
well, there's none good but me. No, not one. No, not one. God is love. Man is hate. Man is hateful about everything
all the time. That's never been more true in
the history of the world, I think, than it is today. Man is hateful,
just hateful about everything. God created man in his own image. And man quickly fell and died
spiritually in open rebellion against God. Adam sinned in open
rebellion against God. Eve was deceived, Adam went to
siege. He went that thing with his eyes wide open. Open rebellion
against God. And Adam did that after God had
never done anything but good for Adam. I mean, you think about
Adam. God gave Adam everything the
heart could wish for. God gave Adam a perfect garden
to live in. God created all those fruit trees.
Can you imagine what them oranges tasted like? When I was a boy,
we'd go visit my grandmother down in Florida and she had these
tangelo trees, three tangelo trees in her yard. Man, I'd climb
up there and sit in them trees and I'd eat those tangelos till
I had sores all around my mouth, you know, just. Oh, those are
so good. Can you imagine what the oranges
in God's garden tasted like? And God told Adam, eat of all
those trees you want freely, except for that one. God made
a wife for Adam. God formed her with his fingers
from Adam's ribs. Now, you know, that woman was
wise. She was beautiful. This almighty
God made her for Adam. God gave Adam dominion over all
of God's creation. Adam, it's all yours, you have
dominion over it all. Adam had nothing to worry about
and Adam had nothing to fear. Yet first chance he got, Adam
declared war on God. Took that fruit and ate it that
God told him not to eat thereof. And when Adam did that, Adam
and everybody who would ever descend from Adam's loins died. They spiritually died. They became
what I just said a little bit ago. This is what man is. We
don't have any wisdom. We don't have any power. We're
so finite. We can't do anything good. We
can't do anything holy. We can't think anything holy
or righteous. All that happened. All that is what our nature became
when Adam fell. That's the only nature Adam had
to pass on to us. The whole human race died when
Adam sinned. The whole human race became sinners
when Adam sinned against God. That's why when God looked down
from heaven, he saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. You know why that was? Why did
God see that? Because that's our nature. That's what happened
when Adam died. And that was true before the
flood of Noah, and it's just as true today. That's our nature. All right, that's a situation.
That's who God is. Oh, he's so high lifted up. Human
language can't lift him up high enough. And that's how low man
is. Human language can't put man
low enough. Now, you just think of God's
creation, everything that there is in God's creation. You know,
we know some things about our solar system. They tell me there
are many. solar systems, all the the vastness, we have no
idea how vast God's creation is. And man, it's just a speck
of dust in that thing. I mean, you think how small and
insignificant we are. In light of God's creation. Isn't
it amazing how full of ourselves we get? We're nothing, I mean,
nothing, just a microscopic blob In God's creation, you wouldn't
be surprised if God just got out his feather duster and wiped
us out. Just like you see dust in your living, you get your
feather duster and wipe it out. Wouldn't be surprised if God
did that to us at all, would you? But God hadn't done that. God
hasn't done that. Because man is something special
to God. God spoke. all of the world into
existence. Let there be light. Let the firmament
appear. Let the dry land appear. Let
the dry land be divided from the seas. Let the animals appear.
Let the trees appear. Let the grass appear. But when
it came time to create man, God made the man out of the dust
of the earth with his own fingers. Almighty God made a man. And speaking into existence,
he made him. And he breathed into him the breath of life.
and he became a living soul. Man's the only thing God did
that with in his whole creation. And here's the reason that God
did it. God knew exactly what Adam was gonna do. God knew what
Adam was gonna do because God ordained for him to do it. He
was gonna follow. And God set all this in motion for this reason,
so that his son, will get glory in redeeming fallen sinners out
of Adam's race. Well, that brings me to my third
point. What's the result of God thinking on man? I know from scripture, Almighty
God thought on Adam's fallen race, on mankind. God thought
on man, and this is what God determined. I'm gonna save a
people out of Adam's fallen race. Now he thought this. This was
God's thought. This was his purpose before he created anything. God
didn't have to come up with this plan after Adam fell. This was
God's thought before he created anything. Adam's gonna fall,
and I'm gonna redeem a people out of Adam's fallen race. That's
what God thought. Now if you can think of anything
that shows more amazing love and grace and pity for sinners
than that, I'd like to hear it. Here's how God determined to
save sinners. It's by his son. That's what
verse five tells us. For thou has made him a little
lower than the angels, has crowned him with glory and honor. Now,
if you look over Hebrews chapter two, I know beyond a shadow of
a doubt that David there is talking about God's son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know that so because the writer
to the Hebrews removed all doubt and told us that's who David
was talking about. Hebrews chapter two, verse five. Unto the angels hath he not put
in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in
a certain place, David, testified, saying, what is man, that thou
art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou
visitest him. Thou made him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest
him with glory and honor, and sent him over the works of thy
hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.
For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that
is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him, but we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. We see him now crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. That word should have been interpreted
son, for every son. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause? He is not ashamed to call them
brethren. So the writer to the Hebrews
tells us for sure David here is talking about the son of God.
Almighty God visited men. He visited this world where the
Son of God became a man, took on him human flesh, and for a
little while, he was made lower than the angels. For a little
while. You know, the angels are more
powerful, more glorious. They're a higher being than we
are, aren't they? Well, for a little while, Christ
was made even lower than those angels, made just like us. He
was a real man. And God did that. God's son became
a man so that there would be a redeemer for fallen men. God
thought on men, determined to be gracious to them. God didn't
do that for the angels that fell, did he? No, the angels, they
don't have a redeemer because the son of God did not take on
him the nature of angels. Look at, in chapter two there
of Hebrews, verse 16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
God took on him the nature of sinful flesh, yet without sin,
for this purpose, to save his people from their sin. The Son
of God took on him flesh and he became a man so that he could
be the representative of men, mankind, men and women in the
flesh, so he could save them from their sin. See, when God
thinks on man, I know God thinks on man. That's what the scripture
says. When God thinks on man, you know what he thinks about?
Two men. Two representative men. Adam,
the first Adam, or the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. When
God thinks on man, that's who he thinks on, those two men,
those two representative men. God sees the whole human race
in one of those two representative men. Now in the first Adam, God
sees hell-deserving sinners, because that's what their representative
is. Adam sinned against God, and all men did what Adam, their
representative, did. So God sees everyone in Adam
as a dead, hell-deserving sinner who's been thrust out of God's
presence, the same way Adam was thrust out of the garden. But
in Christ the second Adam, in Christ the second representative
man, God sees sinless, righteous, justified people. All those people
are sinless. Now that's the way God sees them,
so that has to be the way they really are. They are sinless
because that's what they're represented to make them. When Christ obeyed
the law, so did his people. So they're righteous. They've
never sinned. Anyone who's in Christ has never
sinned because Christ our representative never sinned. that you cannot understand the
gospel. You can't understand the gospel of God's grace. You
can't understand how it is that God saves sinners and how God
deals with people until you understand this matter of representation. Representation is at the very
heart of the gospel. And I'm telling you, just like
all the rest of the gospel, it's good news. It's good news. If someone says, I got this from
Brother Todd Nyberg, and I like this. I wish I could say it like
Todd does, but people say, well, that's not fair. I didn't get
a chance to obey God. I didn't get a chance to not
eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I didn't get
a chance to obey God. Todd says, well, how you doing
now? How you doing so far? Not very good, are you? Representation
is good news. Oh, this is the good news of
the gospel. If one representative man can make us unrighteous,
a second representative man can make us righteous. If one representative
man can make us unholy, another representative man can make us
holy. If one representative man can
make us dead in sin, another representative man can give us
life. If one representative man can separate us from God, another
representative man can bring us back to God. Oh, that's the
good news. See, the representation, this
is how God thinks on men. And that takes all the pressure
off, doesn't it? You don't have to try to keep
the law in order to make God happy with you. If you try to
do that, all you're going to do is make yourself miserable
because you can't keep it. The burden of the law is too much.
Representation takes the burden off. If Christ kept the law for
you, you're righteous. If Christ shed his blood for
you, Justice is satisfied, it will never come looking for you,
never. See, that's why Christ came.
Christ came to undo for his people everything Adam did to us. That's
why Christ came. He came to restore to his people
everything that Adam lost for his. See, by man came death. By another man came life. By
one man came sin. By another man came righteousness.
We were made sinners by the disobedience of one man who had our nature.
And God's people are made righteous by the obedience of another who
took on our nature too. That's the gospel. And the father
thought on his son. He was always mindful of his
son. He was so mindful of the obedience
of his son. that he announced for the whole
world to hear, I am well-pleased with my son. I'm well-pleased
with him. You can trust him. I'm telling
you, if the father's well-pleased with him, you can trust him.
And the father, as he thought on his people, he was mindful
of his people's need for a sacrifice for sin. Now, God set his love
on those people. God determined to redeem those
people, to bring those people into his presence, but something's
gotta be done with their sin. Only God cannot accept us as
we are. And the father saw a need for
sacrifice. So you know what he did? There's
only one in all of God's creation who's a suitable sacrifice. It's
God's own son. And God sent his son into this
world to be the savior, to be the substitute, the sacrifice
for his people. He sent him into this world to
become the perfect lamb of God. to be the sinless sacrifice.
And after about 33 and a half years on this earth, he'd established
righteousness. As we talked about in the lesson
this morning, he was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin. This is the perfect spotless
name of God. Then the father visited his son
again, and he made his son sin for his
people. All we know is sin. We have no concept of the horror
that that was for the Savior, the spotless lame of God, to
be made sin for his people. And then the Father visited him
in justice. The Lord said he's gonna visit the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
under the third and the fourth generation. At Calvary, the father
visited his son in justice for generations of sin. And by his sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus Christ put that sin away so that it does not exist. The sacrifice of Christ was successful. He satisfied God's justice That's
how he made his people righteous. His blood washed their sin away. He gave them eternal life by
dying in their place. And he glorified his father.
I tell you, you want to see the glory of God, tell you the place
you can see, the Calvary. He glorified his father. He satisfied
God's justice and God's mercy at the same time. Isn't that
something? He satisfied God's hatred of
sin and satisfied God's mercy all at the same time. Christ
died, satisfied God's justice to make it right for God to be
merciful and gracious to his people. And because of that,
look back in our text, Psalm 8, because the son glorified
the father, because he did everything that the father gave him to do,
the father gave the son dominion. over everything. Which is only
right, isn't it? That the Son had dominion over
everything. David says in verse six, thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things
under his feet. Now I don't know how many years
it was from David to the Apostle Paul, but the Apostle Paul wrote
in Philippians chapter two, gave us the full explanation of how
this was fulfilled. The Father's given the Son a
name which is above everything. that in the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow. Every tongue should confess, he's Lord. All
that's fulfilled. Now Christ. Christ is a man,
a man. The Lord Jesus Christ sits on
the throne of glory, ruling over everything. There is nothing
that can happen in this creation. I mean, as far flung as it is,
to write down to as narrow as you and me, Nothing happened
to us, nothing happened anywhere in God's creation that is against
the sovereign will of Christ the Savior, because everything's
under his feet. Everything. Everything. Are you included in everything?
Is what happened to you this week part of everything? Then
that's under Christ's feet. It's under his rule, it happened
because that's his will. And God made his son to have
dominion over everything. He put all flesh into his hand
so that our all-powerful Savior could rule to ensure the salvation
of the people he died for. Now that's what happened when
God thought on man. That's the result of God thinking
on man, the redemption of his people by the sacrifice of his
son. That's so great. I feel foolish even trying to
talk about it because you just. The grace. In the pity. And the love of Almighty God
for a dirt clod in his creation. It's just more than the mind
could ever comprehend. But I want to end like I started,
talking about our God, who God is. Our God is great. And like I said, I can't express
it, but I might have something to give us a glimpse of it. If
we could get a glimpse of his greatness, it'd be enough to
humble us, wouldn't it? You're the greatness of a person.
He's seen best in how kind he is to the less fortunate. True
greatness reaches down to help people who have less than we
do and can't do anything to help us. If you help somebody and
they cannot give back to you no matter what, that's really
true greatness. True generosity is giving without
truly hoping for anything in return. Someone who has great
riches, I mean great riches, They can afford to give it all
away and still not be poor. I watched a show one time on
the History Channel about the men that built America, and there
was two of them, if I remember it right. Carnegie and Rockefeller,
they were in this race with each other, see who can make the most
money. And then they got a little older and they got a race with
each other, see who can give the most away. I don't know how long it
took for them to give away all that money. Maybe they never
did. I don't know. But true wealth is seen if you
can give it all away and still not be poor. That's our God. That's our God,
as he thinks on me, thinks on just the specks of dust in his
universe. God thinks on men who are his
natural born enemies, who are born hating God. who never say
thank you for all the things he does for men. God is so great,
he's been feeding ungrateful men for 6,000 years, and he's
still got plenty. Our God is so great, he has been
heaping material blessings on men for 6,000 years, yet he's
still rich. I don't care how much God gives
away, He's still rich, because his riches are infinite. But the greatest display of God's
greatness is his mercy, his love to his people. Look at verse
one, Psalm eight. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth. Thou has set thy glory above
the heavens. Now did you notice how David
begins this psalm? Oh Lord, our Lord. That tells me the Lord
has a people. There's somebody who can call
the God of heaven and earth our Lord. Now how can just a speck
of dust like you and me call the God of heaven and earth our
Lord? How can he be called our God?
Well, for three reasons. the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Because the Father chose a people to save. That's
what election is. The Father chose a people to
save. And those people can call the Lord our Lord because he
made them his when he chose them to be his. Number two, God the
Son. He came in the flesh for this
purpose, to suffer and die for those people. And the blood of
Christ bought those people, he redeemed them from their sin.
He redeemed them and bought them back from the law and made them
his. If Christ died for you, you have
every right to call him my Lord because he bought you, lock,
stock and barrel with his blood. And thirdly, because of the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to those people and gives them
life. They hear the gospel of Christ preached And for some
reason, unknown to them, they believe it. They don't just hear
doctrine, they don't just hear words, they hear of a person
and they believe it. Now, you know why they do that?
The Holy Spirit gave them life, gave them faith to believe Christ.
Scripture says the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart so that
you're the temple of God. Well, if the Holy Spirit dwells
in you, you belong to him, don't you? If he's in your heart, he's
on the throne, I promise you that. then you're his, and it's
just fine for you to call him my God. See, God thinks on me,
and God's not like us. I can't tell you how many things
I've thought about, but haven't done. Just recently, I thought
about going on a diet, but I decided not to do it. I thought about
doing some work around the house yesterday. We started in January
doing a little bit of spring cleaning. Well, I thought three
or four things. This would be good. I'd like
to do it. Well, I did one of them. They're things I thought
about. I didn't execute. But God thinks
about his people. He doesn't just think about it.
He does it. He redeems them. He saves them
from their sins. That's God's greatest glory,
that he thought to visit me in mercy so he could save them by
the sacrifice of his son. I'm like David. I'm amazed, aren't
you? I'm amazed that God could think
on the likes of us, but I sure am glad he did. I sure am glad. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, our tongues can express our thanksgiving. We can express our awe and amazement
that you would humble yourself to think on the likes of us,
that you'd send your son to take our place, to suffer and die
the death that our sin deserves, that we deserve because of our
sin. that you'd be pleased to reveal yourself to us by the
preaching of your son, the preaching of your gospel. Father, how we
thank you. And how I pray that you'd cause us to leave here
this morning, that you'd be pleased to give us faith that we can
leave here this morning trusting in Christ our Savior and being
utterly amazed at your mercy and your grace. Father, how we
thank you. Father, I ask you, take this
message. It has been preached in the weakness
of human tongue, and you cause it to shine forth to the glory
of your son. Father, it's in Christ's name. It's for his sake and his glory,
we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.