If you'd like to read along, which I trust that you will do, if you'll turn with me to Genesis chapter one, verse number 26, we will begin. And this is the third and final time that I will speak to you concerning the creation of man. God created man. Before we read, though, or get into what I trust the Lord will make a message to your soul, would you bow with me as we seek his blessed face? Our Father, great is thy glory. All this bound up in man's salvation, your goodness, your mercy, your love. your tender kindness. And so little we know, but that that we do, we're very grateful to you, Father, for our knowledge here did not come by man's teachings, but it came by the Spirit of God, opening our hearts, giving us ears to hear, Eyes to behold thy greatness here in thy book. Fixed hearts hearing that they might see thee. Run towards and after thee from this day forward. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Genesis chapter one. beginning with verse number 26. And God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 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 of the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and of over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. You can finish reading that, a few verses, hopefully later on. But as I told you, as far as I know, this will be the last time that I will deal with the creation of man, which was on day six, which brings us to the end of the great work of God in creating all things. Before I get into anything new, and I don't think that I can, that I've not already told you, I want to look back just briefly. For the first time ever in scripture, for us, that little pronoun is used. First time that it ever appears, and it is God, the Godhead, seemingly in conference. Now we have created all these things. And now we come to the last day's work, and let us consider it carefully. Now, it does not take a scholar in the Word of God to know that in God there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And though these three have different personalities, yet they all three are one. In reading throughout the Scripture, we're all brought to the knowledge of that truth. God sending His own Son. The Holy Spirit being sent after the Lord Jesus returns back to glory, His work being finished here on earth. And God seeing all that He did, and thankfully, He was satisfied, pleased with the sufferings of his son, for he knew why the son did what he did. Now what the father knows, the other two also know the same, exactly the same, because of the oneness of the Trinity. All of them are equal in knowledge. Now Adam can grow in knowledge as can the child of God grow in knowledge, but not God. He who knows all things cannot have something new come to mind. Knowing all things. Acts 15, 18, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. God knew what they would be. God knew what they would accomplish. God knew all that Christ died for would be brought to the Father. And so the three, of equal knowledge, comprehending all things at once. And whatever knowledge the Father has, you can also say that the Son and the Spirit are equal in knowledge. What power the Son of God has, the other two, the Father and the Holy have equal power, all three the same. Romans 13, one, there is no power but that of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. If God raises up a king, God gave him that authority and that power. If God sets down who he is pleased to do, then that's the power of God. The king's heart, Proverbs 21, is in the hands of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turns it whithersoever he will or he is pleased to do. The only difference here in the power was when the son Coming to earth took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2.7. Romans 8.3, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. And when his work is completed here on earth, and right before he breathed that last breath, That heart in the humanity of God, our Lord Jesus, when it beat its last time and blood no longer flowed to keep any parts of the body alive, he said, it is finished. Cried out, it is finished. And then said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. So the truth as to Jesus Christ setting aside all wisdom, all knowledge, and all power was born as a man, as a human being. His little head and that newborn child had to be stabilized forever how long it took for him to get physical strength to hold it in place. He was dependent upon his mother. He was dependent upon her to provide and care for, and upon her for the nourishment of his body. But when that son was grown, had finished the work, as in that resurrected body when he comes back to speak to the disciples, he said, all power is given unto me. Now he had that prior to his birth, but he laid it aside, emptied himself, became as man, made in the likeness of sinful flesh. though he was sinless. But when his work was done, the Father had placed all power in his hands. Now that truth, I and my Father are one, eliminates the necessity for a pause in creation, where the Godhead speaking to one another, let us. If either in the Godhead could add one new thought as to the creation of man, then that being could not be God. God infinite in His knowledge. So the reason for what appears to us to be a period of consultation in the Godhead, it is only for the benefit of man. And God would have all of us stop as we come to this sixth day and see that here in that first man, God is declaring the dignity, the value, the importance, and the loftiness, the greatness of that six days work. Man has listed his wonders of the world and things which he has made, and each is magnificent and leaves the viewers in amazement. How was that done? And we stare at the pictures of these things wondering. But in the natural world, man has listed seven wonders in the world that occur naturally. Nothing man can fix, build, or do can compare with the wonders of God. There was a time prior to evolution becoming a scientific fact. Now it is. When the evolutionists first appealed to the authors of science textbooks. All they wanted was just give us a little space along with creation that you're teaching. You do not have to list this as a fact. You can list it as a theory. Well, guess what happened when they got their notes in the science book? Creation is now a theory and evolution is a fact. But before the evolutionists were given that space in a book, creation remained a fact and man looked at the things in the world and immediately his mind went towards the Creator. No longer is that true. You list God's wonders, though these are not included, the Rockies, Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon, the oceans, the sun, the moon, the stars, the constellations. List them all. view them all, think of the great power and wonder. But after all these that God created, then God paused and said, now we come to the greatest, let us make man. So he's saying to every child that he has here on earth, our last day's work is so magnificent It towers above everything that the Godhead has created. Now the reason that fact is so is due to the image and the likeness in which God created man. David was out keeping watch over his sheep when he had moved them from the winter shelters back to pastures, when all the cold and the winter rains and the snow had given way to springtime and the grass was now putting forth because of a new year. David was out there like the shepherds in Luke 2. The shepherds were in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. So was David. Now the shepherds, or that darkness, though it was a natural darkness, it also has great spiritual significance. Israel lay in darkness. God had not had a word for that nation by way of a prophet for 400 years. And so Israel was in the dark. But David, back to David now, David was under the heavens and the darkness was covering his world and it being all over the world that David was in, it brought out the brilliance of God's created work displayed in the sky. This with greater detail because there were no lights around, no artificial lights. But now this same David, Psalm 8, verse number 3, he said, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars that thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Well, preacher, you just said that man was the greatest creation in all of God's six days of work. I did, and it is true. But keep in mind that David is only considering and looking at man in his fallen, depraved nature. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Although he was a new creature in Christ, His greater awareness was in that old sinful nature that he possessed. He knew very little of man in his first state, in his first condition, coming from the hand of the Creator. Very little of that first man Adam's original beauty and magnificence and glory. He's reflecting on himself. He is full aware. I am a sinful creature. And Lord, I'm looking at all your creation and then I know what I live with, my old fallen nature. And I wonder, what is man? What is that compared to everything you've created that thou art mindful? that you would stop long enough to consider little finite creatures. Now, though Paul was not on the scene yet when David was writing the Psalms, nor were there any of the New Testament writings, yet he was well acquainted with the apostles' language in Romans 7, when I would do good. I find that there is a law in my old members that prevents me, keeps me from doing good. So the good that I would, that I don't do, I can't do. But that that I would not do, I want to serve God with all my heart, mind, soul, strength. That that I would do, I cannot do. So David knew that language. It was not in print. But that's the difference in the six days work and the structure of man in God's own image and very likeness. On that sixth day, God took clay and He molded it and shaped it in what we see in each other. A man with arms, legs, eyes, ears, feet, body systems working together for the good of all. a little pump within supplying blood to every part. And when all this was completed, that lump of clay that God took, there was A man. Scripture calls him the first Adam. And he stood in the image and likeness of what Christ is called in the New Testament, the last Adam. But now when God finished making man, molding him and shaping him, he's got one other greater work. to perform in man. And that will make Adam like unto the Lord Jesus when he came to dwell in this old body that the Lord had prepared for him. Now I would ask you to consider with me. Jesus had a body. That body was of flesh. It was not sinful, though it was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but the Lord of glory was in that body. The real you is not who we see when we're looking at you. The real you is that inner being. What would you do if you could get away with it and no one would ever know about it? That is reflective of who you are. We've been told, don't curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind. Well, a blind man couldn't see if I did that. Or if I cursed him, he couldn't know. God said, no, he might not. You've heard the old expression, a little bird of the air? Told me. God's that little bird that'll make sure the real you comes out. Now, look with me at Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 6, But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. God was not working with dry dirt or clay. God was working with moist clay, that dew going up, watering the whole face of the ground. But there's one other greater work, and that is verse number 7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and marked this well, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. A piece of clay that could exist Because in that body, God had formed all the cells, all the systems, all the organs to work together. But there could be no knowledge of God until God breathed the breath of life, and therein man became a living soul. Remember the Lord told Adam later on in this chapter, of the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For the day that thou eatest, thou shalt surely die. Now most folk in our day keep proclaiming that man is a free will moral agent. I will agree with that. He can choose what he knows that he likes and turn down his dislikes. In his realm of life here below, he's free to do and go, be whatever he wants to be. But now when it comes to choosing God, he has not that ability. not by the will of flesh, nor of blood, nor the will of man, but of God, you become a new creature. So it was the life of God. If Adam died the day that he ate the fruit, how was it that he walked out of the garden? The only thing that died, the part of Adam that died, was the greatest work of God, breathing in his nostrils and Adam becoming a living soul. Do you know what salvation is? It's not you making a decision. It's not you praying some little prayer that someone has told you to pray. it's nothing less than the Creator in the same power that brought forth that first man. Salvation is nothing less than the power of the great Creator at work again. Now I've quoted this verse to you several times in this, but would you look again with me to 2 Corinthians. We'll read it this time. Salvation is not a decision. Salvation is not you letting God do something. Salvation is God giving you life and that life within always running back to its creator. In 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul said, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Same word is used, creation, and also building. If any man be in Christ, God the creator has performed the work of creation again within that man. All things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God. I don't know why we can't read that and let it be as God has said. All things are of God. Do you think that Adam had a desire to be created? No, he was clay. Do you think that Adam had a desire for God to perform a new work when his soul had died the day that he ate the fruit. No, he did not. He was running from God. He was hiding from the Lord. He and Eve both, and both had sewed fig leaves together to make them a covering of their nakedness. God had to call him. God had to provide a covering for him. And by the slaying of two animals, he covered their naked skin. And by the blood of those animals, God pointed him to the blood of the last Adam. that and that only can save you and bring you back to me. So all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now, folks, what are you going to do with people that end up in hell? Well, they went there because they didn't choose Christ. They went there though Christ died for them. No, those in heaven will be those that God himself did not impute their trespasses unto them. Those in heaven will be those that God took the trespasses of all there and put them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the scriptures alone let them say what they say and are what they are. In Ezekiel 36, the Lord told Ezekiel, he said, a new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. I'll take away the stony heart of flesh and give you a new heart and give you a new spirit. Are you seeing why and how man was the crowning work of the Creator on the last day of his work? Do you know how God elevated that man above all things created, this world, the other worlds, that which seems in space goes on and on as infinite. You heard about the new telescope. It'll outdo the Hubble scope. I don't know by how much. I don't remember that. But they've peered into worlds out there. And one of the great scientists said, we can get all the way back now to the origin of man. That's what they think in looking at space. The child of God looks at it and says, great is the work of my Father's hand. All the constellations and the stars that are light years away, they're still all within God, yet being outside all things. You know what prairie is? It's not you saying a few words or you repeating the Lord's prayer. It is that new heart's cry, Abba, Father. Prayer is that communion of the spiritual life in your soul with the author of that life. Prayer is the breath of divine life returning to the one that breathed it in you to begin with. So the only time we honestly are praying is when we are praying in the Spirit. He is directing our words. He has gathered our mind and our heart and centered them in the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ. And from those hearts that the Spirit of God has worked, we breathe out of divine life within, that back to the one that breathed it within us. This man in the very image and very likeness of the creator, now with a living soul, that living soul always takes him back to the one that gave him that new heart, that put a new spirit within him, that breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and man became a living soul. Also in this first Adam, he has a mind. His mental capacity is far beyond even that of Solomon. The queen of Sheba came down to visit him, and in leaving, she said, I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now I've seen, and the half of thee has not yet been told. So it is of Christ. So it was of Adam, that first man. He had knowledge above all nuclear physicists. Put them all together. All chemical engineers. Put together all department heads and every professor in the universities of every subject. Botany. Zoology. Geology. anatomy, put them all together and it would not come up with what Adam knew. But now in verse 18 in Genesis 2, God looked at Adam and he said, it's not good that man should be alone. He's got nothing to express his being to. In the image of God, not only that mind, greater than any that has ever been, was in Adam, but also a heart. Unknown to us today, yet longing for a greater revelation of Jesus Christ in our hearts. The heart was in Adam, but as great as his heart and his mind was. Let me read to you. If I can get back. In verse 18 of Genesis 2, and the Lord God said, it's not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help me for him. Do you think that the next thing that God said was that he put Adam to sleep and took a rib out of his side and made the woman? No, no, no. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field. in every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of the air, to every beast of the field, but in all these Adam still got a heart that he could not find in anything God had created. One wherein his heart could be expressed. You see the mind of Adam. He didn't randomly throw out names. Well, the donkey's the donkey, cow the cow, that's a dove, that's a mockingbird, that's an elephant, a giraffe. No. He, over how long a period of time, we will never know, at least here, it took him to name the animals. He studied their characteristics and he named them. God brought them to him and he randomly, no, no, not like you naming your pet, just picking out a good name. Adam looked at the features, studied the characteristics and named each according to that. That's the mind. But the heart was as great as his mind was. But he had nothing and no one to express that heart to. Turn with me, if you would, please. This is the last place I think I'll ask you to turn. Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews 3, beginning with verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, insomuch as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. Every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God. The mind of Adam. great, the heart of Adam, large, but it could never be as large or as great as was he who built the house, that old body of clay. So in the likeness of our Lord, why are you here on Scientists look at the new telescope and they see evolution at work. And we look at the pictures and say, how great is our God and how magnificent. For what purpose were you created? Did God create man because there was some little void in the Godhead? No. No. But our Lord, Adam in his likeness, had such a heart, God said, okay, it not being good that he'd be alone, God made woman. Now when he looked at her and her beauty, that was the beginning of the fullness of Adam's heart being expressed. His heart can now be expressed to that woman that God made for him. The bride, the beloved of the Lord Jesus, she could not be as Eve without sin. That would have limited the fullness of his heart being made known to her. For her to know the depth and the height and the breadth and the width of the love of God that passes knowledge, for her to know of the great mercy, infinite mercy of God, eternal mercies of God, the goodness of God. It didn't begin with you the day God saved you. Surely goodness and mercy shall go with me all the days of my life. What kept you till you got to Christ? Surely the goodness and mercy Kept me all those years when I did not know Him. I did not care to know Him. Those years that I loved me. The mercy of God. The grace of God. The forgiveness of God. When did God forgive you? You say, well, when I ask him to. No, that's when your heart experienced forgiveness with God. God forgave all his people when Jesus Christ was made sin. Everyone in the Old Testament was saved looking forward to the cross and the finished work of God. They had so many types and symbols, so much to teach them, but not as much as we. We look back. Old Testament saints were forgiven. when Christ died. New Testament saints forgiven when Christ died. So for the mercy of God and the grace and the fullness of God to be expressed, Christ could not be as Eve without sin. She had to have a fallen, sinful nature. That's why the creator of Adam and Eve stepped away, solely for the purpose of Eve being tempted. There all alone, no counsel, no advice, out from under the covering and the head that God had given her, the serpent, being more subtle than any creature of the earth, beguiled her. He deceived her and she ate. Now the heart Adam sees, she offers the fruit, and he looks and he considers, but that heart filled with such love, he must go with her, he must be as she was, and come to the aid of one dead in trespasses and sins. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can tell. It goes beyond the high star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bow down with care. God gave his son to win. Adam with a mind, second only to that of the one that built his house, the Creator. He knew full well what eating that fruit would do to him. Adam, in the day you eat thereof, you shall die. Now Paul said to Timothy, chapter 2 of the first epistle, verse 14, Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Adam knew God cannot lie. God is faithful to do exactly what he said he would do. And if I eat, I die. But his heart was so large, so full, It overcame the cost of dying. And he ate to be with the one he loved more than life itself. There's no female ever known such love. And it's getting rare today from men. But none as great as any man or a group of men put together in one man's heart, as great as that might be, it can't compare to the love that Adam had for Eve. Now, do you see the likeness there between the first Adam and the last Adam? He died, the last item, died, knowing full well the cost for her to live. As far as that, he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. and Eve, in their fallen nature, as the bride of the Lamb of God, the blessed King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that last Adam, The bride's helpless to perform any duties that might assist her in preparation to make her acceptable and presentable unto the lamb at the wedding. God gave her a holy law. Do this and thou shalt live. Do not break these commands and thou shalt live. But in trying as hard as she did, she found there was a bondage in her fallen nature. It kept her from achieving that degree of holiness which would make her compatible with the Holy Son of God. Salvation has been reduced to such low terms and such low teachings. Well, repeat this prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart. Well, now God saves all who repent and all who come to Christ in repentance. But God didn't save them to keep them from hell. He could have kept Adam near Eve and the serpent would not have beguiled her. God saved you. Sure, He's delivering you from hell, but God saved you for a union between you and Christ. Oneness in the Godhead. Oneness will be one day between Christ and His bride. Father, I pray that they might be one. And we will never be God. We will never be incorporated into the Godhead. But we will be the bride having been made one with Christ. But Christ was having a residence in glory was at a height that she could never attain. Either the king's son must come where she was, and in her place keep the holy commands of the law of God, carefully crossing every T and dotting every I. And this he could not do as God. He had to do it as a man acting in faith toward God and doing what he did. He took upon himself the likeness and the weakness of humanity. Romans 8, 3, what the law could not do in that it was weak in the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. He became Jesus Christ what we were. He took our sins in his own body. And the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, like when the Romans would put a man to death on the cross, they would always tack up a paper listing the crime that brought him to such a horrible death. He taking the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, nailing it to his cross. And as His coming the first time was because of the vastness of His love, just like the first Adam, in due time, His time, He came, made under the law, made subject to the law, fulfilled the law, and when all was accomplished, He took that last and final journey up Golgotha's hill one day, voluntarily there in the place of her who had his heart. I lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down. and I have power to take it again." Pilate said, don't you know that I have power to set you free or to condemn? One of the times that Jesus answered him was, you couldn't have any power except it were given thee from above. From that time, that rattled Pilate to such a degree, he kept looking for ways to deliver him. But the old harlot church, Israel, the Jews cried out, crucify him. And on that middle cross was the God-man that had taken all the sins of his people. his church. There on the cross he was not the innocent victim. There he hung guilty, not because he had sinned, but because he took my sins and your sins. Not his transgressions, but taking her transgressions. hung there as a thief, we having robbed God of His glory, all of us living such a selfish life. He stood nailed that day to the cross in our place, having been made guilty. from robbing God. And they send the soldiers to break the legs of the three, because the Sabbath was approaching and they wanted them down off the cross. And they come to the man on the middle cross, after having broke the legs of the other two. They come to the man on the middle cross, and they find he had power to lay his life down and he had power to take it again. They found out he had already commended his spirit back to his father and he was dead. Do you remember the soldier that the enemies of Israel were hunting King Ahab And they couldn't find him for a while. They thought Jehoshaphat was, because he had taken the king of Israel's robes and put it on himself. But when they caught up with his chariot, they saw, and they just left him alone. So they had hunted that day, and one of the soldiers, as the day ends, takes his bow and an arrow, adventure. But God directed that arrow into Ahab. Now there was no reason for the soldier to pierce the side of the Lord Jesus. Did he have such hatred for him that he wasn't satisfied for him just to die miserably like that? I don't know, but we do know this. It was from the side of Adam that God took a rib out and made Eve. That precious hymn, I think, top lady. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side, which flowed, be of sin the double care, the double cure, I'm sorry. Save me from wrath. A folk in our day, that's about all people have an interest in, just getting to heaven. Because Jesus loves them, they're going to live like the devil, thinking they're going to make it in. But the true child of God sees from the side of the Lord Jesus That blood and that water flowed downward. And the old hymn writer said with that, save from wrath, that's the blood of Christ applied, and make me pure. That's the water, holy water of sanctification, making me holy and fitting me to be forever with the Lamb of God. God's greatest creation, the most magnificent of all his works, was there on day six. Present your bodies, dear ones, a living sacrifice. We owe that to our God. May the Lord help each of us with a greater devotion to our heavenly husband. Amen.