Let me read again these last
several verses, beginning with verse 24. And
God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after
his kind, cattle, 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,
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 of 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. And God blessed them,
and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of
all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of
a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air,
and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there
is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so.
And God saw everything that he had made. And behold, it was
very good. And the evening and the morning
was the sixth day. But on the sixth day, God made
both beasts, creeping things, and man. There is something significant
there, and I don't know how to bring it out. I went through
and chose a few scriptures for you, but I finally settled on
this. Perhaps God made man and the beast on the same day to
show the difference between what bears his name and what doesn't. Because all through the scripture,
you find Satan represented as the beast, and you find fallen
men represented as beasts. couple of scriptures concerning
that. In Psalm 73, David saw the prosperity
of wicked men. He looked around in the kingdom,
and he saw men who didn't walk with God. He saw ungodly men,
and they They had no morals about them. They had no justice about
them. They misused and abused their
employees and so on for gain. Just typical businessmen. And it upset David. He said,
I saw these men, I've known these men all my life, and they go
to die. And he said, there's no bans
in their death. They just die a good death, you
know. They don't die with bands in
their death. They don't die these tragic,
horrible deaths. It seems like these guys just
go out smiling. And it upset him. It upset him. He said, until I entered into
the sanctuary of God. And then God made me to understand
their end. Now, David is observing man,
he is observing his habits, he is observing his evil, and he
goes into the sanctuary of God, and God begins to make David
understand what man is about. And David applies these things
to himself, and this is what he says. So foolish was I, and ignorant
I was as a beast before thee." As a beast. You see how the Scriptures
identify a fallen man and sinful man with the beast. In Daniel
chapter 4, that great king Nebuchadnezzar, who was the Babylonian monarch,
and he built Babylon, Babylon, the big city, the city of the
king, the city of the kingdom, the capital. And he built in
his day a hanging gardens as a present to his wife that now
stands as one of the seventh wonders of the ancient world.
And I can just about picture him. The Bible doesn't say where
he was when he said this, but I can picture him sitting up
there on those hanging gardens and among all that beauty and
all that stuff. And he began to speak out of
pride and just self-pride. It's not this great babbling
that I built for the power of my name, the glory of my name,
the glory of my kingdom and all this stuff. He was just full
of himself, up there worshiping himself, happy with himself. That's in Daniel chapter 4. And
then God got a hold of him. And he brought that proud rebel
down. How did he do it? It says that
he made him to experience life as a beast. His hair grew like
birds' feathers and his nails like birds' claws until seven
times passed over him. I don't know how long it was.
I don't know. But until God convinced him of
what he was, that's how many times passed over him. And God
left him there to experience life as a beast, to be as one
who had no idea of who God is, no glory about His name whatsoever. He was full of the glory of His
name until God brought him down, and He showed him there was no
glory in His name. There isn't but one name that
has glory, and that's God's name. And man lost that in the fall. And God caused him to wander
around like a beast. And then at your leisure, sometime
you go over and read in Revelations chapter 17, and you'll find an account in
there where he talks about the beast. And then think about this over
in Romans chapter 1, when Paul talks about that man on whom
God lifts His restraining hand. Here's man, and he gets all full
of himself, and he begins to consider. See, God restrains
men. He does it with means. He does
it through marriage. Take a young man, 19 years old,
18 years old, and he's married, and he's here, and he's got a
job, and he's moral in his obligations and things. He's settled down. He's got a child. He's got all
these things. But he gets drafted. Like they did back in my day,
they had a draft. And you got drafted and you got
sent off to Vietnam. And you got taken out of these
common restraints. You got taken out of the home.
Taken out of that obligation with your children. Taken out
of that environment. And they put you over here with
a bunch of men in a jungle. And they give you a gun. And
you're out there in that thing. It's root hog or die. Kill or
be killed. And they bring those men back,
and they have to take them somewhere until they can get them readapted
to society. They'll do things over there
they never dreamed of doing here, they'll do over there. And this
is what happens. Men mistake God's restraining
hand for their own personal righteousness. Well, I'd never done that. Well,
you never had the opportunity. You'd have done it. Yeah, you
would. You'd have done it. You'd have done everything and
anything that any other man ever did. If you don't see that, you
don't know sin. What was in the worst of those
men in Sodom and Gomorrah is in your heart, according to the
Word of God. That's just so. And the only thing that restrains
you and keeps you from having already done it is the hand of
God. Who maketh thee to differ? Ain't
that what the Lord said? Well, when God lifts that hand
of restraint for men in Romans chapter 1, and he's talking there
about the heathen, he's talking about these men and women raised
up over there in the jungles and raised up over there in rank
idolatry and heathenism. He said when God lifts his restraint
and he lifts his hands, he said they change the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image. They become vain in their imagination. And they changed the glory of
the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto themselves
and like unto birds. Now listen, four-footed beasts
and creeping things. Now, I believe that is why God
made man and beast on the same day. To manifest the difference,
we are an animal the same as that beast. What makes us to
differ? the purpose of God that has determined
to declare his image in us. There is only one thing that
separates you from a cow or a hog or a horse or a dog, and that
one thing we lost in the fall. We lost it in the fall. David
set out this life. He said, when I understood, he
said, I spread in my reign. And my heart was disturbed. And he said, I confess, he said,
I am a beast. I am just a beast before thee. And then an unruly man, and we'll
look at that here a little bit over in Revelation 17, he likens
unto a beast. Those men and women in whom Satan
rules and reigns and uses, he uses them to his own end. Maybe God created these things
on this day to show the excellency of His name in man above all
others. Well, I'm going to give you five
things tonight, and I want to go back to a theme that I used
last week. And I want you to see that in
this old creation, there is a picture of the new creation. He goes
so far as to use the same words. He goes further than that. He
goes on past that and uses the same phrases. When he talked
about that rest over there in Hebrews chapter 4, he said it
was said in this place, and we're going to look at that maybe next
week or week after next whenever we get to it, that seventh day
of rest. He said, God said in this place,
he rested from his labors. He rested. Well, this is way
over here in the New Testament. What in the world has that got
to do with anything? Over here, he's talking about that new creation.
He's talking about that new work of grace in their hearts. And
he's beginning to talk to them. And he goes all the way back
to creation and gets this picture of rest. And he brings it down
to where the types and ceremonies and pictures was in the law. And when they come up to Canaan,
and he said, because God said, As I live, saith the Lord, you
are not going in there. You are not going to enter into
my rest. And you are not going in because of unbelief. And he
takes that rest and he applies it to this. So he said, there
remaineth therefore rest to the children of God. And I say that
to you tonight so that you can get an idea of how the scripture
works. It starts back here. God declares
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I'll
do all my place. And he does it by picture, and
he does it by exhortation, he does it by just straight out
commandments, he does it by promises, he does it all through the Old
Testament. To him, give all the prophets witness. And that began
with Moses. And when he began to tell his
disciples and talk to his disciples about this work, And they were
so confused and didn't understand what was going on. It said, And
beginning with Moses, that's Genesis. He went back to Genesis. And he told them all those things
concerning himself. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. So I hope tonight
as we go through these things, you'll look at these things and
just try to stay with me. I'm doing the best I can do.
Well, here's the first thing if you take a note. Here's the
first main point of the message. When Adam came into being, he
possessed by the gift of God all the ability that he needed
to hear and see and comprehend the glory of God. He didn't lack
one thing. In the new creation, when God
calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light, When you're
born again by the Spirit of God, you're given every faculty, all
the abilities that you need to see and to hear and to comprehend
everything in this book. He said the princes of this world
didn't know these things. They strived to know them and
didn't know them. Ain't nobody wanted to know this
worse than Herod did. He called those chief religious
men of the Jews down there and counseled with them on where
the cross was going to be born and all that stuff. They all
wanted to see it. They all looked into it. He said, You search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of Me. And he said, You won't come unto
Me. The princes of this world longed. They longed to understand
these mysteries. But he said, none of them understood
it. If they understood it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord
of Glory. But he said, he hath revealed
them unto you by his Spirit, yea, even the deep things of
God. So when a man is born into the
kingdom of God, he's born with all the faculties he needs. to
hear and to see and perceive the glory of God in Christ. It's opened up to him. Now, it's
hidden to him in unbelief. It's hidden to him in the fall.
It's hidden to him when he's in his sins. It's hidden to him. You can stand and preach and
beg and argue and talk and just pile promises up like a mountain
around him, and it won't have any effect on him whatsoever.
They'll take the one thing that you say in your message, and
they'll take it out of context, and they'll go home, and that's
the only thing they'll hear. I mean, you can stand there and talk
about Christ dying on a cross, God giving His only begotten
Son, being justified before God. You can talk about imputed righteousness. You can talk about God's love
for man. You can just go on and on and
on. Say one little thing about a church or a doctrine or somebody,
pow! That's the only thing they hear. But not so when that man is born
into the kingdom of God. You can stand here and talk about
churches and religion and all these things all day long. It
doesn't bother them one little bit because their eyes are open
and they can see. They can see it for themselves.
Their ears are open and they can hear it. And their mind can
perceive it. God gives them all the ability
that they need. All those abilities. God gave
thanks to the Father in Colossians. Chapter 1, verse 12, he said,
which hath made us meet. That word means able. He made
us able to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
life. Man has to be made able. He has got to be made willing. He has to be made righteous.
He has to be made just. You know, all the creatures,
the trees, the plants, the herbs, the fish, the birds, all the
creatures, it says, and the waters brought forth, and the earth
brought forth, and the beast, it brought forth the beast, it
did all these things, but not man. God took his own hands,
John, and reached down and picked up the dust. He picked us up
out of nothing. right out of the dust and formed
man. He made man with his own hands. Now, you think about that. That's
a picture of the believer. That's a picture of a man who's
been converted. That's a man of a picture born
into the kingdom of God. He's been made! He's been made! We are his workmanship, he said,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before
ordained that we should walk in them. You are going to walk
in them because you have got eyes and ears and a heart and
a mind. God has made that man able. Oh, he was able. He walked out. He didn't grope around. He just
walked right out there, right into creation, a full man. Think
about it. He wasn't no baby. He was a man. Adam was. He was a man. And when a man is converted,
he has everything within him that he needs to enjoy and to
receive. You say, well, why do you stand
up and tell men to believe? Why do you stand up and tell
men to receive? Because with the commandment
comes the ability to do it. That's why. Seems like a paradox to a natural
man. You stand up here and say, man
ain't able to do anything, and then you give him something to
do. I still remember old Brother
Barnard telling me, and he said, God will save man against his
will with his full consent. And that's the truth. Salvation is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shall with mercy.
But my people are going to be made willing in the day of my
power." Oh, yeah. Seems like a paradox, don't it?
How can that be? Oh, our Lord said, If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. Turn with me to Colossians
chapter 3. Adam entered into a kingdom finished, glorious, everything
he needed to receive it and walk in it. God gave it to him. Look here in Colossians chapter
3 verse 9. He said, Lie not one to another,
seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man. What new man? How do you put on a new man?
Huh? We accept Jesus as a personal
Savior. Is that how you did it? How do
you put on a new man? Listen to this. You put on that
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. That's what he lost in the garden.
That's what he gains. That's what he gains in redemption. In Colossians 1 verse 13, it
says, He delivered from the fire of darkness and translated into
the kingdom of His dear Son. Here is the second thing. Here
is the second main point. When Adam stepped into this world,
he stepped into and walked into a finished work. Now, I went
into that last Tuesday, and I am not going to elaborate on that
too much. But listen to this scripture
here in Romans chapter 8. It says in Romans 8, verse 19,
and you're just going to have to take my word on this because
I know you don't have a Strong's Concordance or anything with
you. But you can turn to any other version in the Bible, and
this word creature is translated creation. It means creation.
So let me just read it that way. For the earnest expectation of
the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God." Now, get a picture in your mind. There is nothing out here but
chaos and darkness, and God commands light, and a
light comes on. And what is visible there? There
are no creatures created yet, but what is visible there in
this purpose? Is the Spirit of God moving on
those waters? And then God begins to speak.
He begins to give us the revelation of Himself and of His purpose
and of His design, and He begins to speak. And He creates all
these things on all these days that we've already talked about
and discussed. And all of those things, the last thing that He
makes is man. The whole of creation in the
beginning was waiting on the manifestation of the Son of God. That what it said? Of the Son
of God. They were waiting for the air.
Creation wasn't, it didn't just come about by chance and circumstance. God created with a purpose. And
that purpose, that air was Adam. He sent Adam in. That was the
crowning glory of his creation was Adam. He created Adam in
his own image. And he set him out in this finished
work. He set him out in this earth.
And that man had all the abilities and all the senses and all the
faculties to take it all in. He was a brilliant man. Brilliant
man. He stepped into and walked in
a finished work. All creation, just imagine that,
stood there in its splendor and all of its glory and all of its
purpose, and it waited for the sixth day. And even so now, in
its falling condition, polluted and corrupted, filled with filthy
contamination, it says it waiteth. It waiteth. What's it waiting
on? Why don't God burn this place up? Why don't God destroy this
place with all of its evil? Look at God's creation. If we
just take redemption aside, just look at creation. Look what man
has done in creation. You can't see a third of the
stars for the pollution in the air. Man drives from here to
Taylor. You can fill a dump truck up
with cans and bottles and sacks and junk that people throw out
the windows of the car. Pollution everywhere. Corruption,
disease, go on and on and on. It actually speaks there in Romans
8, if you'll read through those several verses, it talks about
creation groaning and prevailing in pain with us. But it says it waiteth. Creation
waiteth. What's it waiting on? What's
it waiting on? Well, not too long ago, Jesse,
you were sitting there in the pew looking up counting ceiling
tiles. And you were pretty much glad when the service was over
and you'd go back there and maybe get a free meal out of it and
go back to the house. You pleased your mama, pleased
your daddy, everything was good and you were ready to go. But
one day God spoke to you and God called you. That's what He's
talking about in Romans chapter 8. All creation waited for the
manifestation of the sons of God. That's what they're waiting
on. They're waiting on the appearance of this man that's going to bear
God's name. That's what happened when Adam
stepped out into a finished creation, John. The glory of God in the
form of a man. And that's what happens in the
new creation in Christ Jesus. Here's a man. Here is a man that
far surpasses anything Adam ever stood for. And he steps into this world
and he does what God sent him to do. He accomplishes that will
of God and he rises up and he sits at the right hand of God.
And all his children, because of his accomplishments, are going
to be called. And they are going to be manifested.
And they are going to manifest that name. That's what creation
is waiting on. And when the last one of God's
elect is called out, it's over. It's over. Could be right here.
We might come in here, bless God, one morning and somebody
will step in here to visit and God will quicken their heart
and they'll come down that aisle. Pow! God will wipe this whole
place out. It will be over when the last
one comes in. Just think about it, all creation
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Oh, I tell
you, this creation of man, it was glorious. It was glorious. This is God's crowning glory. Man stepped out on earth. And
I say that that you might understand when we get into it, the fall
and what he lost in that fall. Oh, I tell you. And then thirdly,
I don't want to stay too long on this point. Thirdly, Adam
opened his eyes to a world filled with light. Boy, I tell you, I'm so ignorant,
I'm dumber than dirt. I've sat in church my whole life.
I couldn't tell you any more of what the first five or six
verses in Genesis had to do with anything. I couldn't tell you
anything. None of it made any sense to
me. I tried to read it. I just didn't really hear it
make any sense. The only thing that made any sense to me was do this
or don't do that. That's the only thing I got out
of the Bible. And I'd read these stories and they just didn't
make any sense to me. And I'd go down to church and
I'd see folks come down the aisle and make professions and then
go out the back door. About two or three months, six
months go by, gone. Had a big revival meeting, a
whole bunch of them come down and join the church. Thirty or
forty of them come in. Church will be filled for about
a week or two. And they start fading out the back door. Pretty
soon, you're right back where you started from. Right back where you started
from. Why? Because when the blind lead
the blind, they both fall in the ditch. When Adam stepped
into this kingdom that God prepared for him, he walked into a kingdom. When he opened his eyes, this
world was illuminated. He looked up, and the skies were
filled with stars, and there was a sun, and there was a moon
by night, and there was light. I don't care what the time was,
night or day, there was light. It was illuminated. When that believer, when he is
born of God, he comes forth with eyes to see. Our Lord said, Blessed
are your eyes, for they see. Blessed, He said, are your ears.
For they hear. They hear. Oh, he stepped into
a fully illuminated kingdom. Oh, John said over in Revelations,
he said, The holy Jerusalem had no need of the sun, neither of
the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the lightbearer. Oh, when a man sees the glory
of God, I don't care where you put him, he's got light. Old
Job sat out on the ash hill, covered with bowls, lost everything. His wife left him. Everybody
left him. Lost all of his children, all of his wealth, his home.
He lost it all, Russell. He had nothing. He sat out there
on an ash heap with a piece of glass or something and scraped
the bowls on his arms. And his three friends who didn't
know which end was up came out. He called them miserable comforters.
And they come out and charged him constantly with sin, with
sin, with sin. But in all that time, Job was
the only one in the bunch who had any light. Huh? Satan took everything naturally
away from him, but he couldn't take that light away from him.
The light of God Almighty and the light of the Lamb shines
in that city. They don't need a sun. They don't
need a moon. Adam appeared on this earth to
fulfill the purpose of God in redemption. Go back with me now
to Romans chapter 8. Are you understanding where I'm
coming from with this lesson? Are you following with me? I'm trying as hard as I know
how to try to show these things to you. Adam appeared, was formed, put
here by the hand of God on purpose. He's not the result of circumstance
and evolution, run amok. He's not here because of Mother
Nature. God formed him with his own hand,
picked him up, just nothing but a Nothing but a form in the clay
picked him up and breathed, God breathed his own breath in his
nostrils. His breath, that's the Spirit
of God. That's what he's talking about.
He put in him the Spirit of God. He made him an eternal living
soul. And his soul ain't going to die.
His body might die. It's going to die. But that soul
ain't going to die. It's not going to die. Oh, I tell you, look here in
Romans 8, verse 20. I want to read this before I get down
to verse 28. Here in Romans 8, verse 20, for
the creature, that is, the creation, was made subject to vanity not
willingly, but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope. Now, I want you to think about
that for a minute. Creation is subject to vanity, it's subject
to the pollutions, it's subject to the harm, to the disease,
to the corruption that man's brought about on it by his judgment
with God. Think of the disaster, think
of the flood of Noah, completely covered the earth. Think of the
disaster, think of the things that God has caused to come upon
this earth because of man, because of man. And here Paul said it
didn't subject itself. It wasn't its idea. It didn't do it willingly. But
it was subjected by reason of him who hath subjected the same
in hope. And you go through and read those
several verses out there and you'll see what that hope is.
They prevail in pain together with us until the redemption
of our bodies, until that purpose of God in redemption is fully
accomplished. And then they are going to be
delivered from the corruption into the glorious liberty of
the sons of God. Now, you read this chapter carefully,
because he is talking here all through chapter 8 about walking
in the Spirit and walking by faith. You are not walking by
that old flesh. You are not walking by natural
reasoning. The man of God walks by faith. He walks according
to the Spirit of God. He walks in the Spirit. There
is no condemnation in him if he can do it. God gives him the
spirit and the mind and the character and the ability to do it like
He did Adam. He'd go right out there and start
walking. Who taught Adam to walk? God gave him that ability and
he walked. He walked. Now look down here in verse 28.
And then he goes on in a little earlier verse there. We may get
time to refer back to it, but he talks about us not, we don't
even know what to pray for. Huh? We ain't got a clue. I don't
know what to do about the environment. I don't know what to do about
the white snowy owl. I don't know what to do about
it. Do you? Climate change? I don't know what to do about
it. I don't see anything we can do about it. It's not in my hands
to do it. It's in his. And he finally gets
down here and he says, you don't even know what to pray for. You're
worried about creation. You're worried about jobs. You're
worried about all these things. You don't even know what to pray
for. But he said, ìThe Spirit of God
maketh intercession for you with groanings and utterings which
cannot be uttered.î Then he gets down here in verse 28
and he said, ìAnd we know.î Boy, I hope I do. I hope I can enter
into this. ìAnd we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God.î To them who are called according
to his purpose. That's what I want you to see.
I just want to camp here for a little while. God put Adam
on this earth with a purpose. A purpose. And the purpose was
eternal redemption. And he's setting the stage for
it. He's setting things up for it. He's building the backdrop. He's
setting up this stage on which he's going to manifest his glory. In Ephesians chapter 1, listen
to this. That was the Scripture that Henry
Mayhem was converted on. He was just a young preacher,
and he was sitting down there on the front bench, and Barnard came
to preach. And old Barnard, kind of a skinny
fellow, had them glasses down the end of his nose, and he looked
down at him and he said, young man, can you quote Romans 8.28?
And he said, well, yes, sir. He said, I think I can. And Henry
said, I stood up and he said, and we know that all things work
together for good for them that love God. And he said, and I
sat back down. And he said, old Barnard just
stood like that and looked at him. And he said, do you know
the rest of it? And he stood back up and he said,
all things work together for good to them who love God, to
them who are called according to his purpose. And he said,
I sat back down. He said, that old man screamed. He said, I
swear, he said, I thought the back door was going to come off
the hinges. Purpose, he said, God does things on purpose. And boy, Henry said, it was like
somebody stuck me in the heart with a butcher knife. He said,
that word purpose just permeated my being. He said, I went home,
read every book I could get my hands on that had to do with
the purpose of God. And he said, I found out who
God was. Adam was put here on purpose.
You see that? We know all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. In Ephesians 1, verse 8, we are
told that God has abounded toward us by the redemptive work of
Christ in all wisdom and prudence. Verse 9, having made known unto
us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself. He purposed to make it known.
That's how come we know it. You didn't purpose it. You weren't
even seeking it. God sent you a preacher, and
he told you the truth, and God gave you the ability to receive
it. And that's exactly what he's talking about here. God abounded
toward you, Paul said, in all wisdom and prudence, and made
known unto you the mystery of his will according to his own
purpose. Purpose. Listen to this, verse
10, same book, Ephesians 1, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Now, watch it,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own wisdom. He didn't appear by chance, he
was formed by the hand of God and placed into this kingdom
that was purpose and the creed of God from everlasting. And
that's the way it is with all God's seed. He says back in Ephesians
1, 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. God saves men on purpose. That's
all I need to know. I ought to just be able to stand
up here and say that and have a prayer and go home. God does
things on purpose. Nobody wants to hear what we're
preaching. This world despises what I'm preaching. They despise
it. But we keep calling them in.
Come on in. Don't get weary. Don't get weary. Come on in. Come on over. Sit down in here.
Sit down in here. Because God has a purpose, and
nothing can thwart it, nothing can stop it, nothing can hinder
it, nothing can change it. He's going to save His elect.
And when they hear, in the day of His power, when they hear,
huh? Oh, that's my hope. That's why
my brother told me one time, he said, I'm telling you right
now, he said, if I believe what you believe about Romans 8, 28,
he said, I wouldn't preach. I said, that's the only reason
I do. If I didn't believe God was sovereign and sat on the
throne, I wouldn't preach. What do you want to preach to
a bunch of dead men for? God took Ezekiel out and showed
him them dry bones, and he said, Can these bones live? Ezekiel
didn't say, Well, let me go talk to them. He said, Oh Lord, God
thou knowest. He knew they weren't going to
live if the only one involved in it was him. He knew they weren't
going to make it. Let me show you something back
here in Romans 8.28. All things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
Look right down under that. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. What's that word
mean? We've been reading that all night.
Predestinate. Predestinate. Predestinate. What's
that word mean? Well, I wrote you out a definition.
I don't like to define biblical terms, but I'm going to give
you one for this. Predestination is God's sovereign arrangement
of all the affairs of time and eternity to secure His purposed
inheritance for His elect in Christ and bring them to be conformed
at the last into His image. That's predestination. I'll never
forget old Henry going down to the Trailways bus. place down
there in Alexandria. One of the members of the church
worked down there. And he'd never been in one. He said, I just
want to go see what it's all about. He went down there, and
we saw it. And that evening, he was talking about predestination.
And he said, down there at the bus station, he said, I notice
when you look up there on the front of the bus, there's a little
window. And up there in that window, a little light comes
on and says, New Orleans. He said, that's where the bus
is going. That's where it's going, New Orleans. And he said, it
may go Lafayette, It may turn around and go over to Hammond,
Louisiana, but it's going to New Orleans. God predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, and He arranges and engages everything
in time and eternity. He predestinates those things
to that end. And He's going to accomplish
it. He's going to accomplish it. Oh, whom He did foreknow. What that word means is foreordained. Some of you have Bibles with
little references over there on the side. It should tell you
over there, foreordained. Look here in verse 30. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. What's that word called mean?
I read these old writers, and every one of them said that has
to do with the effectual call. The effectual call. And it's
okay with me. I'm not going to get upset. We're not going to
have a division over it. But that's not what that word
is talking about. He's talking about predestination. He's talking about eternal things.
He's talking about everything in time and eternity working
together for your good and His glory. And whom He did predestinate,
He also called. That is past tense. He called. He's talking about an eternal
calling. He's talking about when my people
which are called by my name." He called you His own in eternity. That's what He talked about. Actually, the term means named. He gave you a name, John. You
remember old Simon Peter? He said, we're not going to call
you Simon anymore. He said, we're going to call
you Peter. God named you. in eternity. He named you His. He gave you
His name. I can't give you the exact verses,
but it says in, I think it's in Ezekiel. It could be in Jeremiah. I'm just not positive right now.
But anyway, there's two places in there. In one place it says,
His name shall be called the Lord our righteousness. In the
other reference it says, She shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. Talking about his church. Both
of them had the same name. You see, that's what this is
talking about. God called you His. That eternal covenant He
talks about over there in the last several chapters of Hebrews.
Every time He talks about it, and over there in Jeremiah where
He originally states it, He says, And they shall be My people. My people. And I'm going to be
their God. That's that cousin. My people. And so when he says, he also
called, that's what he's talking about. He called you his. My
sheep, my church, my body, my elect. Just go on and on. My bride, my beloved. Oh, we're his. He called us. He called us, and whom He called,
He justified. Think of that. He justified. Justified. Puts you in a place where you
can't fall. Puts you on a foundation that
can't crumble. Puts you in a surety that can't
fail. Puts you in a mediator who is
God and man in one person. Put you in an everlasting covenant,
ordered and all things ensured. My, my, my. Justified. Listen to this. In the predestinating
purpose of God, of the eternal God, we are seated with Christ
in the heavens. Isn't that what Scripture says?
That's exactly what Paul says. You read it in Ephesians chapter
2. Listen here in verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. That's what he says. I wasn't
born yet when he wrote that. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. His father wasn't dead yet. Verse 6, "...and hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus." It is a work already accomplished in the purpose of
God, because He leaves nothing to chance and nothing to circumstance,
and predestinates all the affairs of time and eternity. Here is the last thing. Adam
appeared on this earth to fulfill a destiny determined by God who
formed him, and then lastly, Adam was brought from the dust
of the earth to be a king. Don't you think about that. God
reached down and took up some dust. That's all we are. From dust thou was taken, from
dust shalt thou return. We're just dust. We think we're
somebody, don't we? You're just dust. The name means
red earth. That's what it means, ash, red
earth. We're just dust. And He formed this man and breathed
in his nostrils, John, set him out in this finished work, this
glorious work, set him out on this earth fully illuminated,
all the ability to take in the glory. And He says, take dominion
over it. Take authority over it and subdue
it at your will. It's yours. And we sit here and
quibble about stuff and fight and argue. The world's yours,
Paul said. Life and death, it's all yours. We're heirs with Christ. Joint
heirs with Him. Heirs of God. Joint heirs with
Christ. It's all yours. And you're the
only one on this earth with any authority. Now, I'm going to
tell you something. You look it up for yourselves.
We don't have time tonight. In Revelation 17, read about
that beast, that Satan-influencing man. That's what that is. That's
that fallen man, that beast under Satan's influence. And he carries
the great whore. He carries the religious men
of this world on his back. He carries that great whore,
rides around on that beast. And that beast has power. It
has power. I don't know if I wrote that
down in this message. I guess I wrote it down in the other
one. That beast has power to deceive. He has power over the
nations. He has power over a lot of things.
But it says, he has power over all the nations and kindreds
of this earth whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book
of Life before the foundation of the world. He hasn't got any
power over them. Huh? He hasn't got any power over
them. How come? God put them out there and they bear His name,
and He gave them authority. And they can preach and talk
and jump up and down and shout and play music and speak in tongues
and whatever else they want to do. They have no authority to
take that message of God and command men to do anything. They
do a lot of commandments. But not one thing happens in
the kingdom of God until a man who wears God's name speaks. When he speaks, things happen. Now, you go through and check
me out in the Scriptures. You won't find one unbeliever
in there accomplishing anything in the kingdom of God except
in a negative fashion. He gave Adam dominion. He took
him from the dust and made him king. Where did he find us? Worse places than the dust. But,
oh, we had a representative who represented us who was far exceeded
Adam. And that authority that He gives
us, He's made us kings and priests under our God. Ain't nobody going
to come to God apart from a priest. Am I right? We're not the high priest, but
we're priests. We're priests. We take care of
that stuff. We take care of that stuff. And
we're kings. We're kings. And this place is our history.
He said, I've given nations for you. That's what he told that
little band of Jews. He said, I've given nations for
you and people. I've torn down nations. How many
nations have God torn down for His elect? Well, a nation ain't
nothing to Him but it dropped in a bucket. Small dust on the
boundaries. He sacrificed a nation in a heartbeat
over one of His children. Just over one. Over one. He'd overturned China to save
one elect. He turned America upside down
to save a handful. We're kings, I'm telling you,
priests before our God. Our Father, we pray that you'll
take these words and make them more than just words of a man,
but enlighten our hearts and do a work in us and make us walk
worthy of that name. Shine in us that name. If these
lips speak, let us speak that name. Let us speak His name.
Let us honor and extol and lift up Christ. Without Him we are
nothing. We are just dust. Use it for Christ's sake. Amen.