Who, What, and Why is Man?

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Certainly good to be with you here today. Good to see all of you. I want to welcome those who are listening in on the web as well. You're part of our services here today, and we're very glad to have you with us as well. Thank you, Mrs. Dunkel, for that beautiful music. I'm learning, as we hear, all the talent that's in this area. It's very, very nice. Very nice to have special music. Every week is not something, as I've mentioned before, the local areas, many local areas have. So very nice to have that as part of our services here. You know, as we live in this world, if we're watching what's going on, we see a world that is changing in so many ways. Many of the ways that we talk about and highlight are very obvious. They're very obvious ones. But there's a lot of things that are going on behind the scenes, and a lot of things that are happening subtly that can kind of just change our world ever so slightly, and then one day we'll wake up and it's a totally different place that we live. One of those ways that we see the world changing has come about over the last, oh, I'd say eight to ten years. We've watched society change, and over the years you've heard about how capitalism has gotten out of hand, and we have people who have just gotten inordinately rich. And I mean inordinately rich. With more money they can ever possibly spend. And over the last three or four years, we've seen, begun to see how that's changing the world that we live in. Some people have so much money, so much money, that they actually are beginning to take command of the world that we live.

Used to be, and all of us grew up in a society where the presidents of nations were the ones who had the power, but what we see beginning to evolve in the world around us are the men with these inordinate amounts of money that have power. And as they have power, like the kings of old, or as they have money and think that they have all these resources, and they command, they command many of the avenues of our life. I can give you some names, and you can, all names that we've all heard of. People like Bill Gates, who has more money than he knows what to do with, and he's involved in where the world is going. He's involved in things that he never has been trained in, and he sets the course of so many things as we listen to him, and he thinks that he has the ideas of where the world could be, should be, and how the world's population should live. We have men like Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg, who commands huge communication vehicles, and he's got a lot of money, and he thinks, you know, what he believes is right, and he can kind of control that vehicle that he has, and have people believe what he wants and stop the conversations that others might have.

We have people like George Soros, who has accumulated a great deal of money, and we hear reports on how he can contribute to political candidates for whatever purpose he has in mind, and for whatever background he has in mind. And so all of a sudden we see these men of renown, these people who have all these resources, who are even, you know, overseeing what the leaders of the world do, and they're beginning to write the course of the world. We wouldn't agree with everything that they have to say as we see this begin to happen, but as the world goes on, and you read behind the scenes of what is happening, you see that in these men that have this enormous power in the world, that more and more will hear their ideas, and they believe they should set the standard for the world around us. It's very much like the kings of old. The kings of old in ancient times, they commanded all the wealth, they had all the wealth, and it was like, what we believe you should believe. It's going to be our voice, what we say is going to be what the people believe, and that's the world we see ahead of us when we look at Revelation 13, and we see the autocratic control, we see the beast power that's there, and he's going to dictate what everyone believes. Well, there are all these men, and there are some who don't agree with everything that is going on that also have enormous wealth. One in particular has been quite vocal in some of his actions over the last few years. He's gotten a lot of attention, and as I think as he looks around the world, he says, he's thinking, I don't really like where I see the world headed. I don't think anyone who really sees what's going on would like where the world is headed. It's not a pretty place when you look down the road, but this man, Elon Musk, seems to have decided and is looking at things a little bit more clearly and is using his wealth to counter some of that. You've read about the various things that he has done, some of the acquisitions that he wants to make, some of the comments that he has made, and I don't make a habit of listening to everything he has to say, but I have heard him on some interviews, and he seems to be a little bit introspective as he looks at what's going on. Of course, he came from a very meager beginning, and it's in this culture and in this environment that he has made wealth, and I'm sure he wonders why are all these things happening. And he's become quite philosophical in some of the interviews he's given, and he said some things that people everywhere should be asking. Let me read from you of one of the articles that was written about him. It appeared in businessinsider.com back in April on April 16, 2022. It's an article written by Grace Kay and Dominic Reuter, and the title of the article is quite revealing. It says, Elon Musk explains his motivating philosophy and how it revolves around a series of questions about the meaning of life. And if you've heard little sound bits on him, you'll see that he's kind of changing some of his outlooks on things, and he's asking questions that the world should be asking. Let me just read a few excerpts from this article. One that says, Musk said he wants to expand the scope and scale of consciousness, biological and digital, and learn how to better ask three questions. Why are we here? What is man doing on this earth?

How did we get here? And what in the world is going on? Three very good questions when you look at where the world is headed. He also went on and talked about his interests in physics, and of course he's very well known for his space expeditions here and technology that he's been involved with there. Musk also speculated that his condition might have played into his innate curiosity and drive to build Tesla and SpaceX. Quote from him, I was just absolutely obsessed with truth. I studied physics because physics attempts to understand the truth of the universe, Musk said. Nobody made me study it, he added. We should fight for the things that make us excited about the future. The future cannot be just about one miserable thing after another, solving one sad problem after another. Now around the same time I was hearing these bits that I would come across in interviews that he did, other people would begin saying the same things. What is man doing here? What is the purpose of life? Why are we here for 70, 80, 90, however many years God put us here? Of course they don't say God put us here. What is it all about? What's the meaning of all of this? They don't know. But someone like Mr. Musk here appears to be looking for the truth and makes the comment, all my life I've been interested in the truth but just haven't found it. And as I see the world changing around me, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? What is life about? It leads me and makes me think of a very interesting verse back in Luke. So if you'll turn with me back to Luke 10.

Christ, as he's speaking to disciples after he had sent them out to preach the gospel, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, they came back. They came back and they of course were very excited about everything that that had happened as God led them and directed them. And in verse 23 of Luke 10, Christ, after he thanks God in the few verses before then of what God has opened those disciples' eyes to see, he says, he turned to his disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and they haven't seen it, and to hear what you hear, and they haven't heard it. Many and many more will desire to see what you and I see, to hear what you and I have heard, to know the truth about what man is doing here, to know where the truth really is, to know why man is here, to know what how he became to be here, and to know where things are going. That's something God has opened your and my eyes to see. There's a lot of comfort and there's a lot of peace in that.

We may just take that for granted sometimes. We know the answers that Mr. Musk and others don't know, but we have an opportunity and we have a responsibility to let them know what that truth is. So today I want to talk about the why or the who, what, and why that man is here, and in the process answer a few other questions for those that are listening that may be seeking that truth as well. And in the process, I hope that you and I, as we as we are listening to these words, may feel the motivation, the truth, the zeal, and be reminded of what God has called us to, and that that will drive us to become even more to become closer and closer to him to do his will. Because his truth should motivate us, and so many times in life things can try to just get cast aside of the cares and concerns of this world, but that shouldn't happen. That shouldn't happen for you and me. So I want to talk about that. Let's go back to the beginning and find out an answer for those who are looking, what is man? Why are you mindful of him?

Now the natural place to go would be go back to the book of Genesis, but I don't want to start there. Let's start in the real beginning of the story of man and why he is here and what God is doing with mankind. We'll turn to John 1 and read about Jesus Christ, very familiar verses.

But mankind and the plan for mankind started long before man was put on this physical earth God created. In John 1 and verse 1, it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, clearly two God beings, one who would later become Jesus Christ, but two God beings together in the universe from the beginning of time.

It tells us that the Word, all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. There's quite a statement there. All things were made through the Word who later became Jesus Christ.

Now you heard in the sermonette about the law of two or three witnesses. God often says in the Bible the same thing two or three times so that it is established by two witnesses. We won't turn to Colossians 1 around verses 16 to 22 and 23 and there, but the Apostle Paul says the same thing. He repeats, all things were made through Jesus Christ. All things in heaven and earth were made through Him. So we have that established.

We have who we know today as God the Father and Jesus Christ who was the Word, both God beings in the beginning long before for eternity, dating back beyond anything that our minds can fathom. Verse three again, all things were made through Him. Without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. So we learn that where the one who became Jesus Christ is there's light and there's life.

That's what he's about. Verse five, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness didn't comprehend it. You know, it's interesting when you look at the word comprehend in the Greek, it can mean that the darkness didn't perceive it, they didn't understand it, it can also mean that the darkness didn't overcome it. There would be this attempt to overcome and blot out the light, but the darkness does not overcome the light.

It doesn't comprehend the light as so many people don't know the truth of God. They know of Jesus Christ, but they don't know Him. If we drop down to verse 14 then, it tells us what God did as part of this plan for mankind. Says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He became flesh. He became flesh. Now, we don't know for sure, but you have to wonder in the history of infinity, if I can use that term, was there ever flesh before?

Was it always spirit beings? What was God doing when the Word became flesh? Why would God, very God, need to become flesh and dwell among us? This is a plan that was not written at Genesis 1. It was a plan that was there long before. We're told that in a few places in the Bible, so let's go back to the very last book of the Bible, Revelation 13. Of course, Revelation 13. You'll remember that discusses the beast power, the mark of the beast, all those things that are coming upon the world as we transition from what you would call a democratic state, we call it today, to a very autocratic state that dictates what you will do, what you will believe, and who you will worship, or at least attempts to do that.

But in verse 8 of Revelation 13, it talks about this beast power and how the world will have to kowtow to it. Because then in that, things are hopeless, but this beast power rises out of the sea and provides some answers that the world is looking for some physical answers. Verse 8 says, all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.

So from the very beginning, before the foundation of the world ever occurred, the foundation of the world that you and I know today that has all the physical features that God has given us, the animals, the plants, the trees, the weather, the water, everything that God has created so mankind could live on this beautiful planet, before that ever occurred, it was determined the lamb, Jesus Christ, would be slain and that would be before the foundation of the earth.

Whatever God was going to do on this planet had something so magnificent in mind that God would come to earth, be born as a fleshly, weak, fragile human being, and give his life for it.

What did God have in mind? Well, we can get a glimpse maybe of something else that happened before this time when we look back at Ezekiel 28. Before the world was formed, the worth that we know today that was created that you and I could exist on it, we see something that happened well before all of that. There was another being in heaven that created some uproar and disruption in the heavenly realm. In Ezekiel 28 in verse 12, God, you know, inspires Ezekiel to write, says, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, say to him, thus says the Lord God. And he's speaking, speaking to a being that was maybe we could say is almost the pinnacle of what what Christ would would create. Remember, all things were created through Christ. You, it says, you were the seal of perfection. You were a tremendous creation. Christ would say, I created you. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were a tremendous specimen. I gave you everything. I gave you your talent. I gave you your appearance. I gave you your position. I gave you everything when I created you. You were in Eden, he says, the Garden of God. What does that say about Eden? What does that say about Eden? We know later Adam and Eve dwelt in the Garden of Eden and later were expelled from the Garden of Eden. You were in Eden, the Garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. The sardius, topaz, and diamond, barrel, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.

Again, you heard in the sermonette, here's these stones. These stones were part of the Urim and Thumen. Not long ago when I spoke, I talked about living stones, and God compares us to living stones. When you look in Revelation 21 and you see the Bride of Christ coming down, it's adorned with all these stones. What does God have in mind? What is he telling us about this created being that's adorned with all of these stones, all of these precious stones? The workmanship of your chimberos and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You, he says in verse 14, you were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. Fiery stones that emanate where God is, where God is. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. Now, I know we know the story of Satan, and we know that what his sin was. We could turn back to Isaiah 14. I'm not going to do that right now. You can look that up later if you're not familiar with it. But pride became the downfall of Satan. Along the way, as we read these words that God writes about the one who became Satan, who we know is Satan today, they're words that he reminds us as well. I created you. I gave you the talents. What you do is not about you, it's what I allow you to do and what I've given to you. So none of us have to worry about, you know, I'm so great or I'm so smart or I have all these talents and God needed me. No, we all need God and he provides what we have. So none of us should ever become like Satan, who became so full of himself and thinking, look what I've done. He didn't do any of it. God created him. God provided for him. And that pride that Satan developed over the course of time, looking at himself, it disrupted heaven. Whatever God had in mind for this anointed chair of the covers, that ended it all. That ended it all. Pride did that. The sin was in it and then that sin led to Satan being completely dismissed from heaven. Is it any wonder why Christ, when he looks and talks to you and me, that he is so, that he reminds us often that we need to be humble people. That pride can't be part of our existence. That pride destroys.

That pride disrupts. That pride causes problems. And that pride can take us right away from the plan of God, whatever he has prepared for us or for a plan for us. He had something in mind for the one who we know is Satan today. But that pride and that sin ended it all. Verse 16, By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned. So I cast you as a profound thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. No longer walking with them if you stand up against me, if you forget who created you and made you who you are, all that promise, all that potential ends. Quite a message for us. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. God says, I cast you to the ground. Now the Hebrew word translated ground there, elsewhere is translated earth. Translators could have used the word earth there. I cast you to the earth. And yet we know that this happened long before mankind was created for earth. So here we have this heavenly being that sins against God. He is cast to earth. I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you.

So when we look at these words and you and I know what God's plan is, we know things that the kings of the earth and the mighty men of the earth and the very rich men of earth and the very brilliant men of earth don't know. It's not because we're smarter than them. It's not because we're better than them. It's because God has given that to us. So let's go back and let's look and see because that being was in Eden. So Eden draws us back to Genesis, but on the way to Genesis, let's take a stop in Isaiah 45. In Isaiah 45, the book of Isaiah has so much meaning, so many prophecies, so many things in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is one of the major prophets. It's worth the study. It's worth the study, but it takes some time to really delve into the book of Isaiah and understand what is in there. Isaiah 45 and verse 18, God records this. Thus says the Eternal, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited.

God did not create the earth in vain. The Hebrew word, maybe you haven't heard for a while, translated in vain there is tohu, t-o-h-u, means he didn't create it to be chaotic, confused, waste, empty. God doesn't do any of those things. He doesn't create things to just be wasteful and empty and void as the word would be. 1 Corinthians 14, 33 says God's the author of confusion. He's the author of... He is a God of order. He is not the author of confusion.

And here God says, I didn't create the world. I didn't create the earth to be tohu. I didn't create it in vain. Yet when we go back to Genesis 1 and verse 1, we see the world and we're introduced to it in exactly that state. Genesis 1 and verse 1, we have another in the beginning of the earth that occurs after the beginning of what we read in John 1 and verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, that's exactly what we read. Of course, the word translated God there is aloim. It means more than one God being. So when you see the word God, it's two God beings, the word and the Father, as we read in John 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form. There's the word tohu. It was. God said, I didn't create it to be in that shape, to be void, waste, confused, chaotic. The earth was without form. It was void. Bo-hu means the same thing, tohu and bo-hu. The earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. Well, God didn't create it that way. So when was the earth created? We could ask that question and leave it unanswered for now. If God didn't create the earth in vain, when was it created? Was it created right here in Genesis 1-1? Because God is looking down on the earth and here it is in a state that is nothing that God would create in that way. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Darkness was on the face of the deep. Well, Christ isn't darkness. He's light. We read that. In Him is light. In Him is life. And here we have a very dark and a very dead and a very foreboding and frankly ugly earth that we see here. Darkness was on the face of the deep and then the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. God looks down on this earth that's there in a state in which He didn't create it. And then we go through the creation account. Let there be light. God provides the He separates the earth and creates the heavens, the sun, the moon, and the stars that are there that we see and that provide direction to mankind. Remember the reason that He created those two lights for times and seasons and that we would use those to know when God's appointed times are because He had a plan for mankind there was something that He was doing that He put those up there. And so He goes through. He creates the fish of the sea. He creates the birds of the air. He begins to create the animals. And He does it in a very orderly way. If we drop down to verse 22 in Genesis 1, as God is creating these things, He says of these animals that He's creating, says in verse 22, God bless them saying, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the waters and the seeds, and let the birds multiply on the earth.

So He built into it the process of reproduction, that these physical things He's creating would be able to reproduce themselves, that they would be able to fill the earth. It's a miracle in itself as God created human bodies and animal bodies and what we do and how we would fill the earth with what God has given us in the physical sense. And then in verse 24, He begins to create the animals. It says, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, cattle and creeping thing and best of the earth, or beast of the earth, each according to its kind.

And it was so. God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind. He repeats it again. Everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And so He created species. And those species stay within themselves.

You can't breed a cow with a horse and come up with an animal. It's just not going to happen. You can't breed a horse with a dog and expect anything to happen. It's not going to happen. God created order. He created species kind after its kind. You see it in the creation that He did. And down in verse 26, He comes to the sixth day when He's going to create mankind.

God said, let us, verse 26. There we have the two God beings. Let us make man in our image.

Not like cattle, not like horses, not like dogs, not like whatever else it would be. Let us make man in our image.

Well, that's kind of a revealing thing for God to say. Here we're going to make man, and when we do this, we've prepared all this other physical earth and all the things that you and I live and enjoy and see around us. God made it all. And then He creates man, and He says, let's make Him in our image. Well, what does God look like? You know, we have a few glimpses in the Bible of what God looks like, if we can use that term. In Ezekiel 1, I'm going to give you a few things, a few places that you can go. In Ezekiel 1, we read about the one who sits on the throne, and he looks like a man, Ezekiel says, under inspiration of God. We can go back to Revelation 1, where God in the Spirit puts the apostle John, and he talks about the God with white hair, a waist, legs. What does God look like? Well, the Bible gives us a few glimpses, and here in verse 26, when He makes man, when He makes man, He says, let us make Him in our image. Let Him look like us.

Let us look like us. Why would God say that? Let's make Him according to our likeness, and give them dominion over the fish of the seas, over the birds of the air, the cattle, the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. I'm going to give Him the earth. It will be, He will be over this entire planet that I have now recreated, if you will, for man to live on, man who we are making in our own image. And so verse 27, He repeats, again, for emphasis, God created man in His image. In the image of God, He created Him male and female. He created them. Well, it makes sense that God would create male and female, that there would be two forms of humans on the earth, and that those two would later on in chapter 2, marry and become one flesh, because if He made man after His image, we have two God beings. We have the one that we know is God the Father. We have Jesus Christ. They are perfectly united as one.

They are one in mind, in purpose. They are not the same being, but they are united in purpose, in mind, in plan, in everything they do. And God's will for these humans that He has created male and female, what's the purpose? They become one, just as God and man is one. In the image of God, God created them male and female. So we begin to see, as we trace the history, where did man come from? What did God have in mind? He's got something in mind, because man is the crowning creation, if you will, that is going to be on earth, because God says, done it all for you, prepared all this for you. And you know, I know we think that in a second, God created the earth. And yes, He did. He was able to just say, let it be, and it was, but there was a lot of planning, and there was a lot of thought that went into this, as God the Father and the one who became Jesus Christ planned the earth. Who knows how many years, if we can put it in that term, because with God, there is no time, that He just did it perfectly, and everything was perfectly thought out that it would work according to His plan. He knew everything. Even He saw and He studied what happened with the one who became that we know is Satan. How did He react? What did He do? What was His response? And He knew that if that influence was on earth, He knew how mankind would respond because He knows that, and He knows you and I, or you and me, I should say, better than we know ourselves. And He tests how will they react? And if we act inappropriately or wrongly the next time with His Holy Spirit, do we choose to do things His way? Well, I'm getting a side here. Let's go back to the Bible here. Verse 28, God blessed them. God said to this man and woman, male and female, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And in verse 31 it says, God looked at everything and He said it was very good. This is exactly the way I wanted it. The plan is now in effect for whatever the purpose of mankind is, that God took all this time and all this attention to put man on earth. Down in verse 7 of chapter 2, it says, tells us that God formed man of the dust of the ground, right there from the physical substance of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Now, just for record, of course, that is living soul, and I think the Old King James Version of the Bible comes from the Hebrew word nefesh. It means it's a mortal soul, one that can die. That's the subject for another whole sermon. There is no immortality of the soul. Immortality isn't something that God built into human's life. He built them as human and created them as mortal human beings that can die. And God put them, it says in verse 8, he put man and woman in the garden of Eden. A beautiful, spectacular place. We probably can't even imagine the beauty that was there. It's a special place of God.

God said that one who became Satan was there, and he's there, you know? I didn't ask the question, or didn't pose the question of how did the world become so chaotic when God said he didn't create it that way? Could it be when this being was cast down to earth, as it tells us in the Bible, that the world became dark and desolate? Because that's what sin does to us. Sin, iniquity, opposition to God, resistance to God, rejection of God, it never brings life. It never brings light. Things get darker and darker and worse and worse as men move further and further from God. And here in this Garden of Eden, God built choice into it for this newly created mankind. And in verse 15, it says that God put them in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it, and He commanded the man, saying of verse 16, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Now again, I can't speak for all of the infinity back to whenever it was, but I wonder if there was ever death as part of anything before. Was there death before, or when God said to Adam and Eve, You will surely die? He was telling them something that they couldn't grasp, didn't understand exactly what that meant. Or maybe they did. Maybe He was very clear with them and told them exactly what it meant, that their life was not everlasting, that it wasn't going to go on forever. And He gave them a choice, and He said, Don't you eat of this tree? Don't you become like one of us? Don't you take it upon yourself to determine what's right and wrong? Don't you determine for yourself which way you're going to go? I am God. I formed you. I created you. I know the answers to what life, joy, peace, and everything good will be, and I command the blessings upon those who will just follow Me because He's a good God who wants the best for all of mankind. Don't you choose another way? Somehow or some way, the one who became Satan chose the other way, and God saw the devastating effects of that on heaven, on the plan that God had for Him, and it wiped Him completely out of that slate. And He didn't want man to do that, and He warns Him, Don't do it. But when we come down to chapter 3, if you know the story, there is another being in Eden. You know, it's a beautiful verse when God says He walks into the Garden of Eden, and He's looking for Adam and Eve, but there was another being in Eden. There was the serpent that was there, the serpent that was going to talk to Eve in all of his subtle, cunning ways. And so He starts with this concept of death. Did God tell you you would die? What is death? What has ever died? The serpent might have said, you know, I don't even know what death is. I'm still alive. I challenge God. Whatever He did, it will be interesting when we find out what words did He use to lure Eve into turning against God. It's kind of an amazing thing, but tells us how clever and subtle Satan is if we don't have God's Spirit leading us and guiding us and watching what it is that we do. So in chapter 3, you know, we know the story. Eve caves. She gives in. She hears all the arguments of Satan. I said, okay, forget it. I'm going to eat. That tree looks really, really good. I'm going to eat of the fruit. And when she does, her eyes are closed, and they see themselves in different ways, and they all of a sudden see themselves apart from God, because that's what iniquity does to you and me. When we choose to reject God or resist God, it closes our eyes. It closes our eyes, and we no longer feel close. In verse 13 of chapter 3, she says quite an interesting thing. The Lord God, it says, said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent. The serpent deceived me, and I ate. The serpent deceived me.

You know, that same serpent is still alive. That same serpent is still alive when we get to the book of Revelation. In Revelation 12.9, it says, The serpent deceives the entire world. The entire world is led astray. God is, they're cut off from God. They don't get it. They don't understand what is going on around them. They don't understand the plan of God. They don't even know why they're on earth. What are we even here for? What are we doing for 70, 80, 90 years? We live, we die, we accumulate all these things, and then all of a sudden life changes, and we have absolutely nothing, no control over it. Where is this all going? What is the truth of this? Why are we even here? And so we find Eve saying, The serpent deceived me. The serpent deceives the whole world.

In 1 John, the apostle, he says, The whole world is under the sway of Satan. In 1 John 5.19, the whole world is under the sway of Satan. Paul seconds that when he says in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, Satan is the God. He's the one who, the God of this age. This is who they're listening to. They're apart from God. Eve set the standard. She chose for mankind, rejects God, I will do things my own way. I must be wiser and better than God. That's what I have made the decision to do. The same thing that the one that we know as Satan did way back when. I know better than God. I should be him.

Eve somehow so quickly had forgotten she was a created being. Everything she had, everything that she was living with, everything that she used was provided by God. And yet she was allowed, she allowed herself to be deceived by Satan and thought she was so great that they didn't really have to do that. And that would they really die? What was this concept of death anyway?

And so in verse 22 of Genesis 3 it says, you know, God says, Behold, man has been like one of us. Doesn't mean he was equal to God. It means he's taken upon himself that he wants to say what's right and wrong. He wants to choose his own way and not follow us. And so you have that, you have that going on and he's ushered out of the Garden of Eden. No longer in God's place, but now out in the world apart from him. And so we read in the New Testament about this attitude that man has that Eve had. In Romans 8-7 it tells us the carnal mind is enmity against God.

Eve and Adam, by their choices, turned against God. And so the natural state of mankind without the Spirit of God is enmity, resistance. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to believe it. I don't want to do it. I'd rather do things my own way. I think I'm smarter than God. I think the words that I have are better than the words in the Bible. It's okay if I change things just a little bit because God will understand all these little compromises and all these little allowances we make for ourselves because it's part of our natural mind. And yet the Spirit of God says, leads us to truth, leads us to understanding, leads us to obedience and learning in the course of our lives how to obey Him completely, earnestly, diligently. All those things that those of us who God in His mercy and blessing has called to know the truth, we understand. The world doesn't yet.

One day they will. Maybe some who are listening today will begin to see what the purpose of mankind is. If we go back to Luke 10, where we were a few minutes ago, and Luke 10, and this time in verse 21, after Christ is thanking God for the men whose minds He's opened, who followed His commands as they were sent out to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons in His name. In verse 21 of Luke 10, it says, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. Thank you, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent. They don't know. But you've revealed them to babes. You've revealed them to the base and foolish things of the earth, Paul says in Colossians 1, 26. They know. I see what you're working. It's not for mankind to know everything now. They will know in their time. But you have chosen a few who will know. And they will go out and do what I ask them to do, just like these 70 who have returned. They will go and they will preach my gospel. They will do your will because their eyes are opened. And they'll do what we ask them to do. Thank you. Thank you, Father, for that. You know, a few weeks ago when I spoke, I went to Ephesians 3 and verse 10, where it talks about the mystery of the church and what God is working in the church. And how in that verse it says that even the angels in heaven are looking to see what is God doing with man? Here's man. What are you doing with him? He rejected you. He's this weak, weak, meaningless thing in the face of the earth. You could wipe him out and who would even know? But what are you doing? And as they watch what God is working as people go through the church and work through the church, follow Jesus Christ's lead, develop in the way that he wants him developed. Even the angels are looking at that as that mystery of what God is working is there. Peter says the same thing. In fact, let's just turn back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1.

In verse 12 here, Peter is talking about how the prophets of old didn't understand that Jesus Christ would come, that he would die. They didn't understand really what the Holy Spirit was and that God would pour it out on the firstfruits, if I can call them that, the group of men that God calls in this age, but later for all of mankind. In 1 Peter 1 and verse 12, Peter says, To them it was revealed that, and he's talking about the prophets of old, to them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. Even they're watching. What is God working below?

Is it going to work? How can you reclaim mankind who rejected God and make whatever you plan to make from him?

In Psalm 8, Psalm 8, David, a man after God's own heart, used on some of the very questions we're talking about today. In Psalm 8 and in verse 3, as he's looking up into the heavens and looking at the stars and the moon and all those things up there and thinking, how magnificent is this? God created all these things. He says, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars which you have ordained, what is man? What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? You've made him little lower than the angels, yet you have crowned him with glory and honor.

What are you doing? I'm just a simple little mortal being who could die in the next second.

What are you doing, God, when I look at the magnificence of everything around me and here's man and we are not following you. We are not as mankind worshipping you, giving you the honor and glory you do. Why do you even waste your time with us? And so God answers that question.

We go back to the Gospel of John in John 3 16. He says something the world all around us can quote. You can go to any football game and see this banner. You know, John 3 16, you can drive through some areas and see that on, you know, sitting on banners over expressways and whatever. The whole world knows this first, but the true meaning of it is completely hidden from them. They don't get it.

You and I do. Why does God love man? And why does he love it to the extent that we him, to the extent that he says here in John 3 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish, but should have everlasting life.

Carnal man, disappointment to God that he chose the way he did. And yet God so loves him that the word who became flesh was willing to be born flesh, suffer, die a horrible death, because whatever God had in mind for man was so important. So important that he was willing to do that. Which of us would do that? Which of us would? Which of us? Wow, okay. It's not fun to hear yourself.

So, you know, which of us would do that? Probably the end of us would have said, you know, okay, hopeless. Let's start over again. Now there was too much time put into the plan before the foundation of the world. God knew what was going to happen. And there was a plan in stay at the plan in place in Christ as the world, most of the world, at least the quote Christian world, would say, oh, we know that Jesus Christ died for our sins. They don't know the whole story, though. It's been clouded. It's been hidden. They don't know what to do.

And if we go to 1 Corinthians 15, we begin to see, as Paul, and we could go to other places as well, but let's look at 1 Corinthians 15 because Jesus Christ was born as flesh as the plan was. He was slain from the foundation of the world as we read. And as God opened the truth to more people in 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul, inspired by God, writes this about what happened and what has gone on. Verse 1, he says, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, the gospel of the kingdom of God, the very same gospel that Jesus Christ said that He commissioned this church, you preach the gospel to the whole world.

You teach them to observe all things I have commanded you, which you also received, and which you stand, by which you also are saved. If, always that big word if, I say, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, I delivered to you, first of all, that which I received.

Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. It was all there in the scriptures, the truth of God. Every single word in the Bible is truth. When people say, where's truth? An increasing question, or that we're going to hear more and more, only one source of truth.

It's not this man's truth or another man's truth. The Bible is truth, and it tells the whole plan of God. He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. He was seen by Cephas, Peter, then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. When the Bible talks about falling asleep, it means death. Of course, we know that death happens to all mankind.

Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed to all men once to die. Eve, Adam and Eve, by their choice, they made that decision. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Last of all, Paul says, he was seen by me also as one born out of due time.

They knew that Christ lived. All those witnesses, all those apostles, spoke of his life. They all know that he died. They saw it. There were witnesses. They saw him resurrected back to life. Many, many, many. It cannot be doubted. God made sure there were plenty of witnesses there to say exactly what happened. If we drop down to verse 19, Paul says, if in this life, this life that you and I are in right now, this physical life that we have that lasts for however long God determines, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. If this is all it is, then Elon Musk and the host of others who are asking questions are thinking, yeah, what's it all about?

What's the purpose? What's the use? Why try anything? If things can change and can go whatever way they are. If we are that, if this is only this life that we have, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead. He's become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He's the first man. He lived his flesh. He died. He was resurrected, as many witnesses will say, and the Bible says, and now he has eternal life and sits at the right hand of God.

The apostles in Acts 1 saw him ascend in the heaven. They touched him after he was resurrected. It is crystal clear he was there. He, as it says in Hebrews 6, verse 20, he was the forerunner for mankind. The forerunner, when you look and see what it was, he was the one who set the path. He set the course. He went before so that he could show it can be done. This is the way. This is the life. This is the truth. Here's how you navigate from where you are through this, the twists and turns of life to eternal life, to the kingdom of God. Christ did it.

And he set the example for us. He's the forerunner. And here in verse 21, or verse 20, that's what Paul is saying. Christ did it. He lived his flesh. He died. Yes, he had the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that God gives to you and me when we truly believe. And many of you have heard when I say often when I repeat the word believe, go back and look at what the Greek word pistoial means. It doesn't mean, oh yeah, I agree with that. It means that it changes you and cuts you to the core when you really believe who Jesus Christ is and what he did for us. Christ has risen from the dead. He's become the firstfruits over those who have fallen asleep. He set the pattern. He was man. He paved the way for us. For by man, or since by man, came death.

Now there's death that Eve didn't want to believe that Satan neither doubt God. For since by man, by the choice of Adam and Eve, came death by man, the man, Jesus Christ, who lived and died as a human, also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, all die.

They all die. Even so in Christ, all shall be made alive. There's a physical life. The book of Corinthians, this chapter goes on to talk about. There is a physical life. We die, and if we have God's Spirit, but for all of mankind, there is another life coming. All men will be resurrected. They will all live again. Christ himself said that. You can mark down John 5, 25, 28, and 29, where he said, there's a time coming when the dead will hear the voice of God, and they will be resurrected. Some to everlasting life, some to eternal death, some to condemnation.

Well, let's go over to Hebrews 1, because in Hebrews 1 and 2, we find the answer to what David was talking about back in Psalm 8. Hebrews 1, it's, well, let me just read the first five verses here of Hebrews 1. I was going to try to cut it down, but you know what, let's just do it and complete this the way it should be done. Verse 1 of Hebrews 1, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past, to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom he made the worlds. There you go again. Colossians 1, 16, John 1, 1, all things were made through Christ, who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, died that our sins could be forgiven so that we could have the opportunity of repentance and eternal life, if, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my Son, today I have begotten you? Christ, flesh and blood, made a little lower than the angels, but now higher than the angels, by virtue of what he did and how God led him.

I'm going to give you verses 8 to 10 that you can read. Actually, all of chapter 1 that you can read later, if you are so disposed. But let's move forward to Hebrews 2 and verse 5. Again, the author here says, inspired by God, he has not put the world to come.

Well, that's the kingdom. That's the time when this world and this age ceases, and then the world beyond that. He hasn't put the world to come, of which we speak in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying, What is man? That you're mindful of him. Or the Son, a man, that you take care of him. You've made him a little lower than the angels. We're mortal human beings that can die, that can cease to exist. Today, a little lower than the angels. Yet you have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You've 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 don't yet see all things put under him. There's a purpose beyond this physical life. This physical life has a tremendous purpose. Again, we've talked about that. That's the subject of another sermon. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might test death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. I won't take the time to elaborate on that. You can go home and you can contemplate those verses. And it is God is showing again, Christ showed the purpose of mankind. God had something in mind for man. He had something in mind for the one who we know today as Satan. He completely failed in his calling and his purpose. Completely failed because he turned against God. God has something in mind for mankind. Let me give you Matthew 25, verse 34, where Christ says, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Over and over in the Bible, we read about people, mankind, being the children of God, when they believe in Christ, when they truly repent, when they're baptized, have hands laid on them and receive the Holy Spirit. A Holy Spirit completes mankind, as we read in 1 Corinthians 2. The world at large does not have God's Holy Spirit today. They will one day, in God's own time, if they choose to follow him. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15.

We have the example of Jesus Christ. We have people who live, who die. And we have this world to come that the Bible talks about that we'll get to here in a moment.

In verse 50 of 1 Corinthians 15, it says, This I say, brethren, flesh and blood, that's you and me today, right? Flesh and blood, that was Jesus Christ when he was living on earth. This I say, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Corruption does not inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. You understand it, but to the world it's a mystery. You know what's going on. The world doesn't. They need to know. They need to hear. I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall not all die. Some will be alive at the return of Jesus Christ. But we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised incorruptible. That's a new body, as it says earlier in 1 Corinthians 15. Not the same body you and I inhabit today. And we will change. For this corruptible must put on incorruption this mortal, which can die and which can pass away forever. This mortal must put on immortality. So when the corruptible, this corruptible, has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. That enemy of mankind will die, and the purpose of God will be revealed in those who are resurrected. This is what I have in mind for you. Revelation 20. You've heard me say, well, many of you have heard me say, maybe not everyone here in Cincinnati, but in where I pastored before, God has us in a training program today.

We're here to learn His ways and to become who He wants us to become so that we can, and that He trusts us implicitly, that we follow Him, obey Him, know His truth, and that we would not turn against Him. He will not have a repeat of who became Satan. He will know what's in our hearts, and He will know that we follow Him and love Him and trust Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls. If there's any doubt left in God's mind, then that doesn't speak well of us because that's what we are here to do today, you know, as in the call in God has given us. In Revelation 20, we find the end of this physical earth that was created. It's a beautiful place, but it has its purpose, too, and it's going to disappear when God is done with the purpose for mankind. Verse 14 of Revelation 20, Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. No one wants to be part of that. That means you are extinct forever and ever and ever. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now I saw, verse 1 of chapter 21, a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. This is Apostle John writing, but Peter, another apostle, also another witness saying it's going to disappear. It's going to be burned up. There's a time when the physical earth and the time for physical man is done. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. These feeble, fragile, disappointing men.

That's where God will dwell with them. Those who turn to him, and in the course of this life, learn to turn to him and trust him. The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. They shall be his people. He will be with them and be their God.

Okay. Last verse. John 12. Or, I'm sorry, John 1.

And again, there's an awfully lot. There's sermon after sermon after sermon that could be given. But I hope this is a summary of what God has in mind. I hope it reminds us of who we are, what we are, how we've come to be sitting here in this room or listening to this message, or in any of the congregations of the true Church of God, his body around the world. He's called us for a purpose. Never lose sight of that. Keep it in your mind. Keep it in your heart. Keep it at the forefront, because it's unlike anything. Anything that the world could ever offer. John 1, verse 12. As many as received him. This is what the world has yet to know. You and I have. At one time, if we've been baptized, we told God, wherever you lead, whatever you do, I don't want me anymore.

Bury the old self. He was worthless, useless. You write on me your principles, and I will follow you wherever you go. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. It's not because we wanted it. It's because God opened our minds. God will open the minds of people, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That subject of belief is a subject for another time. But for those of us here, for Mr. Musk, for all of the people of the world who are asking the questions, what is man? Where is life? Where's all this going?

The answers are in the only source of truth in the world, and that's the Bible. You can search and search and search, but all the answers and all the purpose are there in the word of truth.