In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of creation and the different types of lightness that exist. They explain that there is a natural lightness that covers our personality setup, and a moral lightness that makes us moral creatures. They emphasize that only humans have a moral consciousness and a sense of right and wrong, while animals do not. The speaker also mentions the importance of abiding in Christ and the symbolism of the tree of life throughout the Bible, highlighting the need for redemption and the role of Jesus' blood in it.

There is eternal praise and worship offered to thee, continually saying, holy, holy, holy. Oh God, we thank thee that it's in our hearts to unite our little part of it, so simple, so fragile, so frail, that oh God we pray that it may be from our hearts that what we have to offer in the way of worship may be all that we have, the whole self-giving, the whole surrender, the whole lifting up of all that we have, bringing it back again to thee, that thou mayest have the glory of thy creation. Thy heart satisfied, the pleasure which you had in mind in creation, that you may find at least a little of it in our hearts and in our lives. There shall be a continual thanksgiving unto God. A means of giving thy heart pleasure, reflecting again thy glory. So we praise thee this morning that thou art being worshipped and adored this morning, eternally before the throne. And yet thou art mindful of us in our little travelings, coming and going, occupied with so many fleeting things, which in time will perish, vanish, and even never come to our remembrance. The former things shall not come to our remembrance. And yet we are occupied with them as though they were the greatest things in the world. Today we pray that thou would again speak to us in the message or any way that you find good, breaking upon our inner hearts and lives, and minister to our spirit. We thank thee for these times of quietness before thee and looking into the word. We'll have all the other days when we leave here for the activity of church and service and singing and clapping and preaching and testifying. We can have that later. But we are always grateful for just even a few hours that we can get away as it was with thee. Your heart longed for it and even said to the disciples, let us go away into a desert place and be alone. And you continually showed that to us, Lord, how necessary it was to to detach and get back again into the presence of God and life and light and communion. Then move out in the energy and in the strength of it to live. So with us. Bless those who are on their way just now, moving through the rain and the roads are not very safe. We pray, Lord, you'll give them journey and blessing. Let thy good hand be upon them. Let there be protection and safekeeping. Remember, may it be those who may be coming. Make it convenient that they shall come. Blessing all of our activities, our coming and going, reading, studying, writing, doing the housework, whatever occupies us. Lord, teach us how to keep it a consecrated matter before thee. And you can enter into our hearts and lives through these ordinary, plain, humdrum, everyday means. You can come to us through them and we can offer it all back again to thee, sanctified by thy spirit and by thy blessing. Be with us as we have our little study again this week. Good morning. Maybe we'll find something fresh and new that may be helpful to us. For Jesus' sake. Amen. While I was sitting here, we were thinking about worshiping. I'm always encouraged in my heart for two activities in the heavens. Eternally moving. Two activities. We're occupied with so many things here. And we're so dissipated. I mean, they're confused. God is not condemning us for it because that's a part of the setup that we're in. He doesn't expect us to sit over here and be like that all day long. God has good common sense. He doesn't expect that at all. So while we're very busy with things, I'm always glad that there are certain activities that are continually moving. Now, in the heavens, toward God, toward the eternal, toward God, there's a continual activity of worship that's going all the time, moving. A vibration of life and light. The angels, the cherubim, the seraphim, the whole heavenly host, all the angelic. They're occupied with this moving before God in worship. Well, when Christ has his eternal attitude both to God and toward us, whoever liveth to make intercession for us, well, this morning, before we were up, the Lord was praying for us. Before we were up, before we were conscious enough to make our little prayers and our little supplications and our little requests to the Lord and, oh, Lord, help, and, oh, Lord, oh, Lord, long before that, before we came back into our conscious state, Jesus Christ as my high priest, eternally, before the throne of God, offering to him the blood, the sacrifice, the redemptive scheme, all that which has made it possible, he is offering that back again to God, accepted in the Beloved. We are only accepted through that offering which he has made. Therefore, the blood is so precious. He's taken it through the heavens because it says the heavens in his sight were unclean. Everything needed the touch of redemption, not my little heart. That's a very slight thing. That was needful, but all the whole universe needed the redemption that fell in the blood of Christ, that blood of Jesus. We've spoken of it before. The curse is upon the earth. God never cursed man. He never cursed man. He said, Cursed be the earth for thy sake. Cursed be the earth for thy sake. Therefore, the old earth, which was his creation, which was God's creation, wasn't man's. Man had nothing to do with it. It was God's thought. It was God's world. It was God's earth. It was God's plan. All of this was God, and yet he says, I'll put the judgment on that for your sake, and I will make a means of getting you back again. And so he has subjected all creation, Paul says in Romans, all creation is subjected to it. It's put under its power. And here's this judgment of God about it. And not that it willfully chose to be, but God said in his economy, he did it. Well, the first thing that felt the judgment of God was the earth, because that's where he placed the curse, the judgment. And when Jesus dies to bring us back again to redemption, through redemption, to restore and recast it and bring us back into him, the very first thing that ever received the touch of the blood of Jesus Christ in redemption was the earth. For it trickled down out of his hands and feet and went down on the earth long before it ever touched me, long before the blood ever touched you for redemption. It touched the first thing which was under the judgment. Cursed be the earth. And that old curse has been there until the first blood of Jesus that trickled down in his obedience, the first recipient of the blood, the very first thing that received its touch was the earth. Then after it, he takes it to the heavenlies and all that. But it was according to exactly what he said. Cursed be the earth. Redeemed shall be the earth. Of course, the earth didn't instantly respond to it so that we see it all restored, but it was the token of its redemption. We see not all things in subjection to man, but we see Christ. I was reading that somewhere this morning in my Bible, I was having a little reading, and I thought afresh. All things were made foreign by him and are to be subjected to him, but it says we see not yet all things in subjection to him, meaning mankind, but, alternative, but we do see Jesus Christ, and when we see him, we see the answer, and the fulfillment is in him. Those are what we call judicial truths, judicial statements. They are not objective yet. They are judicial. Judicial. And so there's a bit for our encouragement. Now let me help you with a word. That makes us hopeful. We live in hope. But you see, our English words change, though. Our English words change, and a word which meant one thing when this Bible was translated into English, the word that they used meant a certain thing, but in all these hundreds of years, the word has changed its meaning. Now, for instance, the word hope. Today, when we use the word hope, it carries with it an uncertainty, and therefore we say, I hope it will be. I hope it may be. I hope so. Well, what do you mean? The thing is uncertain, but my desire, my wish is that it may be. I hope. I hope. Well, that's never the use of the word in the Bible. The New Testament doesn't use that word in that sense at all. Not at all. That's the degeneration of a word, and our use of it, blurring the truth that's in there. Now, in the New Testament, wherever you see that word hope used by Jesus or by Paul or by any of the writers, wherever you see that word hope, it doesn't mean an uncertainty that they hope something might come. It is a truth as true as our salvation. It is already a subtle fact. Already a subtle fact. Just as sure, just as sure as any of the truths which we have, but it has not come into its realization. And that's why it is called a hope. It is a truth yet to be realized. It is a fact, a truth yet to be realized. But the fact, the thought that we say it hope doesn't mean it's uncertain and we don't know if it will come to pass. It is a hope that we know will be manifest. Now, the second coming is called what? The blessed hope, isn't it? But why? Because we don't know, but we think it would be wonderful if he would come back. No, he is coming back. It is the hope which we entertain, but it is unrealized. It has not come into its fruition. It has not come to pass. We are saved by hope. What does that mean? I don't know if I'm saved? No. The hope is the security. We are saved by his salvation. We are saved by his salvation. We are saved by that glorious hope. But the fullness of the salvation has not yet come into its realization. So always remember in the New Testament, when you use the word hope, it's not used with a sense of uncertainty as we use it. We say, I hope. Oh, I hope it doesn't rain. I hope to do. I hope, hope. Not in the Testament. All the way through the Testament, the word hope there is not an uncertainty. It is a fact, a truth, eternally settled, but not realized. That's why we use the word hope because it is a truth not realized. A lot of other truths we perfectly are conscious of. We have the fulfillment of them. So remember that because sometimes people say, well, the Bible says I'm saved by hope. You remember people always crawling out under that to say, are you a Christian? Are you saved? I don't know. I hope so. Oh, you mustn't hope. Well, the Bible says we're saved by hope. I hope so. See how they crawl out under that? That isn't the thing at all. Not at all. We are saved by hope, but it's well, a hope which is already finished in the redemptive verse of Christ. But it hasn't come into all its fruition. I want to talk a little while with you this morning about this creation business. If you want to use your Bibles, you might want to take notes on some of the verses or look at them, and I'll help you with the verses as we come to them. We were dealing with creation and we got partway through, and I want to move along a little bit farther with this. We'll get into the actual acts of creation. Where did we leave off? Well, I won't take this up because it's a little complicated, but it's very interesting. People have found the remains of these early creations. You remember the fossils and all this formation of the animal moving from one period of its development into another. And they like to make a premise and feel that that should give them a guarantee to think man must have come the same fashion. But we said the other day the reason why we can't accept it as Christians who have faith in the thoughts that God has brought us forth and the creation was from him and not an evolutionary process. We said that it was due to the fact that their data, that is the material that they use, is not complete. They're only every little while finding some fresh material to add to it. Their data is not complete and it is only a tentative system that they're working on. And we can't make a premise that is sound and good when anything has that character to it. We can't. And so we don't accept those theories of evolution that they have because their data is not complete and it is only tentative. It's changed every little while. But what we have in the word is already a settled statement. Now it's for us to trust God to give us any life that we need to have which is necessary for us on the basis of what he has given. We said the other day that the questions that we have concerning our creation and all this business it's not a question of life and death. It's merely something that would be interesting to know. God will never judge us on the basis did I know about all the intricate parts of his creation and all this. He won't. Because he has purposely put it in a remote, distant path. We only know parts of it which are for our good. Well then, personally, I'm not disturbed about it. I don't get too enthusiastic nor am I unduly disturbed. I just know that's a veiled thing. If God had wanted me to know for my welfare it was good for us to know he could have revealed it. But if he hasn't revealed it I'm not to be judged for that fact. I will only be judged upon the light which I do have. That's always thought to come. I am judged according to the light or the little revelation I do have. He can't judge me over conditions that I have no knowledge. He's a very fair God. He has to judge us, and Paul says so too, about the heathens. He says they are judged according to the light which they have. God can't come down and say to some creature that lived thousands of years ago before there was any revelation of anything did you believe in Jesus? Well, the poor spirit has never heard nor been, go to hell. You see, it's so ridiculous that's ridiculous. Paul says so. He says every spirit shall be judged according to the light which it has. And here with the question of these theories which are propounded we don't know, we just say this is the way it looks. This is the way it appears in the record and I'll take it from that. But it isn't for especially that I get more into God about it. There's plenty of people who know an awful lot of theory in doctrine. He has so much doctrine. But you can have all that doctrine and not know God. You can have all that and not know God at all. Look at the theologians today. Writers and propounders they give great commentary built on it and yet if you face them as far as a real special, specific relation to God they are ignorant. Now I put those two little reasons down why I can't accept it. The way that our old teacher Dr. Olin Curtis he was my professor in theology and doctrine and seminary and he was a very wonderful genius but in spite of it he was a lovely Christian. He was the sweetest old Christian He was an old man. I think our classes were the last classes that we were ever privileged to have him to lecture and to teach. He was a writer and author. The message that he knew God. He had such a devotion to the Lord and such a desire that we should see Jesus Christ from the human aspect as well as the divine aspect. That's one thing that helped me started me off years ago on a deeper appreciation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is continually presented from that one side. He is the divine revelation the divine Son of God which he is and people all the time forget that he had a human side. They forget that. Now the reason is they are so determined to keep the divine and the deity side that they emphasize that and the other side doesn't get it. It's to be counterbalanced. He is Jesus Christ. Why do you say Jesus Christ? Because Jesus is the divine side meaning Messiah or anointed one. Christ is. And Jesus is the human side. He is the God-man not God and man. He is the God-man. He is the God-man. One thing in our Methodist church that I didn't like well he's gone now as a pastor that's why I go to this other church because they are still orthodox but here was my lovely old Methodist church that I was well brought up in and then they had this communist in there preaching. He was the pastor of the church and a higher critic. Had no place for the supernatural or anything like that. And one Sunday he got preaching and he said now when we talk about Jesus Christ get all those ideas about deity and divinity out of your mind. Just like that right from the pulpit. Why he says Jesus Christ is the man such as we are. But you see he began to attain unto a higher life and he attained unto a better level and attained unto an understanding of the things of God and God blessed him with this inflow and we can have the same. Oh crazy you know. Just spoiled the whole thing. Hadn't any idea that Jesus Christ had this miraculous birth as a man that he came into. Well I went as many Sundays as I could but it all disturbed my spirit. I don't like to sit in a meeting in a church and have somebody parading that and I felt bad about it and I said to the Lord oh where can I go to church for some fellow can hear something and he says you don't need to go there anymore to be insulted. He says you don't need to go there to be insulted. And another Sunday he got up and he says you will find quite a pink street in my teaching. What do you mean pink street? He said it right from the pulpit. One sermon the last sermon I ever heard him preach was just before Christmas and I thought I must go. No because the nativity season is on and oh I felt just like I wanted to be all washed off when I got home. I'd heard all this trash and I wanted to say oh Lord wash me quick clean me all off of this stuff that's got on me. Isn't that a miserable thing to think of? Go to church and have to come home and be washed. But I mean it is. So after that I didn't sit here and learn from the previous man. Well my old professor in seminary he did have and this question of evolution of course naturally came up and the question of creation. Now this is the way he explained it to us I don't know if I can make it clear to you or not but maybe I can. He used as an illustration our ABC A B C D so on. How many of you have a series right away? It isn't just A but you have A B C D a series in the development of my alphabet for my use. Well now this was the question. Did A in the beginning in the arrangement of ABC did A have something dynamic in it that A in a process produced B then how many of you can catch on then B had in its own possibilities some you know potential power that it produced C and finally got ABCD through that or was there another method he called the method. Now there is one method. Here is another method. The alphabet ABC is necessary but it is not complete with A but we must have distinctly something in B to finish the thought of A do you get me? A will not be complete without the B such that A does not of itself in its dynamic power produce it but it is added to to complete the arrangement then C has to of necessity be produced to complete B how many get me? Well now in your first in your first arrangement you have the seed thought of an evolution didn't you see it? the seed thought well now you are in metaphysics that's metaphysics that is causation A caused B do you get me? A caused B. A had it within its power to produce the B and B has it within its power well now that's causation how did you think what was the cause of it well now when you start in causation you are in metaphysics now go back again to ABCD the alphabet if we take it from the second way is purely a natural arrangement just a natural arrangement to complete the thing you had to have it because of the nature of the alphabet you had to have the B to complete the meaning of A and you had a C to complete the meaning of B having come from A alright you go along now you are nearly on a natural basis it's not metaphysical at all we are not talking about causation we are talking about the relationship one to another for what it sells for what it brings the causation isn't there now in in nature when you find these remnants and you find these fossils and you find these strange evidences in archaeology of a race or of mankind having lived thousands and thousands of years ago when you find these I can accept them and you can as well a necessary following in the producing of some form of creation that God wanted such as the butterfly for instance it was God's original plan that this butterfly should come from the arrangements which he had made which was the worm then it is necessary that it should take another form because it has to become yet a butterfly and must go through these stages and so in creation everything had to come not animated things but inanimate for instance the shaking up of the earth there had to be a convulsion a disturbance a manifestation of power to even produce the layers of the feathers in your creation well it is only a series of things which we discover to show that God in his desire to bring it forth chose that pattern to produce it but he didn't give it as the causation for the creation but it is a pattern which he uses and they are never complete you see we don't know how far back they go they are never complete they are pieces so to pick up a partial a partial the data that isn't complete a partial all I can say well that's a part of something that God had in his creation it went in a series now it stopped I don't know where it brings out again it may bring out here I can't use that and say this caused the other no one is necessary for the other it's necessary to have these necessary to have these but one didn't make the other they are only added to in the building of this chalet that we are in when you made the foundation for this did you have all this other structure hidden away in that foundation and finally it develops this no it didn't it did not how did we have it we had to have a series a foundation then the superstructure then all the interior what is it it's an addition of one portion to another to complete the whole the chalet isn't complete with the foundation it's not complete with even the superstructure it has to be made complete by the addition addition to what they have not one evolving out of the other the foundation never evolved the post that came up then by and by the post evolved the rafters then by and by the rafters evolved the roof well that's ridiculous that's like creation it's not brought through that but brought by God adding his creation moves in all sorts of fashions so sometimes a little simple illustration like that will help anyone this building didn't evolve because the basis of it had dynamic power to produce some post then by and by the post produced something else no no no they were all added to and yet it was the design of the architect to make it that way that's the way the architect wanted it to come together with his plan to build it that way that was his passion and so were the things in creation we won't go on with that too far but that should help you a little bit keep your provinces right one is a natural province of the method of creation the other is metaphysical and we can't get into that field at all that isn't far he'll tell us about those things later now let's look at this creation especially about man because we come from the human side of it it says here in the beginning God created Adam created man and here's something too that might interest us you see so many times you'll find you'll find Adam called Adam spelled with a capital A the chapter is called the man and the man did this or the man the man well now the reason for that is God hadn't named him with a capital letter A he was called Adam because Adam meant the human not a proper name at all and the word man there is ish is ish but that means man over against animal he was a creation but he was the Adam creation, the ish over against a cow or an elephant no capital letter to it, he was merely he was the animal creation that we call man well in here you'll find every little while he said the man then he'll say Adam and finally he doesn't use the word only by the feminine he'll say ish and isha we'll get into there in a minute so don't be disturbed over it because sometimes he will use one sometimes the other you see in the beginning there are one of course you know that theory don't you man was created male and female in the beginning it says that and created them, male and female as man and that was spoken of as Adam before Eve was ever taken out of his side, you see Eve is a separate creation he created Adam this ish or as Adam spelled with a small letter this strange creature but as he created it, it was male and female it was the possibilities of man and woman were in that in that thing he called Adam he called that Adam and he has a lot to talk about with Adam did you ever notice you may not have stopped to notice it but in the in the garden where the Lord puts up what we call the probationary law of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and prohibits them did he take Adam and Eve by the tree and say now listen don't partake of this fruit you look in the bible Eve hadn't been made yet it was Adam and he placed him in the garden, not them him you see they come forth she comes forth after all that, it was Adam to whom he spoke concerning the tree do you want to look at it just for a minute just look at it for a minute and the Lord took the man this is in Genesis 2 around about 15th verse and the Lord took the man the Adam the Ish he took this strange creature this Ish, this Adam who had the human nature now made in the image and likeness of God and he put him in the garden not them he put him in the garden to dress it and to keep it and the Lord commanded the man he's talking to this Ish, this man this strange creature saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat thereof for indeed thou shalt surely die and the Lord said it is not good that man should be alone I will make him and help me see it follows the garden episode and command, how many get that well how does Eve know Eve has to take the command she has to take it second hand from Adam God never said it to her we don't think of those things we get these Sunday school pictures in our mind of a man and woman standing naked under a tree and a snake wound up on another one and the Lord saying do not eat the apple that's all about it because none of it was like that it wasn't like that at all now this creation of this Eve takes place afterward because God says now he noticed that it wasn't good many people said why was it an afterthought in the mind of God well now there is just speculation if God knew in the beginning it wasn't going to be good why didn't he at the same time take some of the dust and make the woman too it doesn't say and he took dust and made them made him because the her the female is to come out of that he didn't make Adam and Eve both out of dust he made he made this thing called Adam which has the woman in him yet to be brought out in the story of the rib partaking, taking out, closing up now he says I'll make you the help me, do you know what help me is in there in your Hebrew to me I thought was really good it corresponds to the thought of the answer it means the answer and I will make out of the rib the answer to the man isn't that nice that's what it really means in Hebrew I will make out of this rib the answer for the man because the man is the question what is all about, what's the sequel to this what is it and so he says I will make the answer the help me, I will make the answer out of the man and he causes a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he takes this rib and now he creates the woman and of course then they go on in their garden life until they get into all this trouble but you see if you read it the way it reads now will come and out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and 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 for Adam there was not found and help me, he goes and calls all these other things but it says for him there was no one that goes with him, here they are but there's no double for him, not good and the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took out one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead of and the rib which the Lord had taken from the man made he a woman he didn't make them both of dust, no no no and brought her unto the man and Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman Isha, why? because man is Ish man is Ish and the woman is the manness of the man Isha means the manness of the man Ish, Isha she shall be called I-S-S-H-A H I-S-S-H-A S-H-A Isha, now how many get them, do you see why when Israel backslides and all that God calls Isha he calls Israel Isha and all that don't you remember how that goes, no longer shall she merely be called Isha, she shall be called so and so, well that goes back to this, because Isha, Isha is the manness of Ish, and man is Ish he calls her that, because that's the origin that's the origin now later when she's called Eve, what's that that's her destiny because Eve means the mother of all living, and Eve means the bringer forth, the fruit bearer she shall be called Eve because Eve means the mother of all that is Oh Hava Ava, Ava sometimes it's spelt with an H, Ava or Hava is Eve meaning her destiny she is to become the mother of all but her first name will be Ish because that's her origin she comes from man, Ish Isha, alright Hava, Eve, now you'll commence to get names, well now names in the scripture are always symbolic of the character anything that is named is named because the name carries its character with it and so she is called Ish because in character she is origin from Ish, Isha alright, now she's called Eve why, because the name Eve means mother of all living things, and she is the one who produces, she is the Eve, she is the Eve the fruit bearer, the Eve well now when he names these animals, let's get this clear, people think of course that all the animals came parading before him, he sat out there one day and a rabbit went by and he said rabbit, and then a fox went by and he named that a fox and then a bear came lumbering along and he says bear no, it doesn't mean that this is an illustration of the high mental intelligence gifts that were in this original name and so as a demonstration to show what a highly gifted and intelligent man this Ish was this Adam God says to him, here are these animals, what does he do, he has a gift of penetration an intuition, an insight a discernment that when he looks at nature in his creation God had made him superior to all creation, to all, all and here is one manifestation of his highly intellectual gifts and powers, what was it that he could look at all creation and name it because he knew it he names the animals because the name which he applied spelled it Carrick we don't do that, we call anything anything Tom, Dick and Harry but not with God not early creation he says he named them that is he was able to discern the character which they spelled and he went by that's why in the Old Testament names that were given to children were always given because they foretold the character which they bore, why did Jacob have to be called Jacob, why didn't she say, oh he's a beautiful little baby let's call him James, no you can't do that because James won't be the character of this child you must give him the name which spells his character why call him Jacob, because Jacob means supplanter crooked one deceiver and that's what Jacob in the natural was wasn't it, absolutely and so the names were given because they speak what they are in their nature we don't do it now because, well we don't have time for anything like that people named them after the grandfather so that he will be remembered and he will we'll name the baby after Uncle George because he has a lot of money and maybe he'll remember well that was a million miles from this but the names spelled the thing, once in a while you know it comes I suppose purely by accident because it's not thought have you ever noticed some people represent their name they certainly do they certainly do I'll tell you a little something very personal you don't have to blab it out and tell anybody but my name wasn't originally John at all they changed my name when I was born I was called Levi well what does that mean join to the Lord join to Levi join to and that was my family name, grandfather it's an old family name and they named me Levi because mother thought she wanted Levi and Levi means join, well my life has really been joined it was like a little prophecy well grandfather heard of it he wouldn't have it, he said I've suffered all my life under that name Levi he says it's horrible I wouldn't name anything Levi I've had to go through life with that and you needn't saddle that name on that little baby either I'd want that saddled on the baby well she says we've named it we'll have to change that and so mother says well father what would you call that little baby oh he says call him John well that was all right so I've been John ever since for which in many ways I'm very grateful I've got enough to bear up beside a name on top of this thing than have a name Levi that was dreadful so I got the name how do you see what I'm getting at sometimes they really do tell I've seen people whose real life and character seems exactly what the name befits but they didn't know enough in the scripture to do that that was just a little coincidence that happened you don't have to tell people about it we've had a lot of fun at home no names depict the character the inner life and when he named these Adamo it was a proof or an evidence of the high mental state in which Adam was created now let's go back just a little bit about his creation it says here in the scripture that when he took the dust of the earth to make him, to create him it's good that he took something tangible and from the earth because man is involved in the whole earth system he didn't say now let us make man in our own image and likeness and he reached up into the heavens and got something from the heavenly order no that all has to come later through Jesus Christ and the new man and the new order that's coming later centuries and centuries and centuries down but when he makes the creation and he takes the dust of the earth and he makes this man of the dust, it was to let us know that after all that's all we are after all that's all we are if it were not for the breath that has been breathed into it and how many see the breath is from God the dust couldn't do anything he made it there was the bodily shape, the creature but it wasn't alive there was no response so he makes from the dust of the earth the creature, the Adam I think but there's no response there's no response well why? because that is the earth part and the earth part the natural the man nature, human the natural, the thing has no power we are all dependent man was never made independent, he was made dependent he was made dependent so he breathed into his nostrils, I've given you this before, the breath of lives, it's plural it is not singular it doesn't say he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul no, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives and he became a living soul and that life moved in two directions, life which actuated the physical body and that is a natural life for the for the exercise of the human and life which moved toward God in spirit, he was a partaker of life in two directions God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives and when that was breathed in he became a what? living, he lived alright, he's living how? he's living in two directions he lives Godward and he lives manward, how? because this spirit of life which God breathed into him is plural and it has a manifestation earthward and it has a manifestation heavenward so man becomes the partaker of lives that's the spirit of God which will move in these two fields now when he creates him it says he created him in the image and the likeness of God well if you're not careful you become a literalist right away and you say if we are created in the image and likeness of God God must have a head and feet and body and legs and arms and God must be just like this because it says in the image and likeness well now wait God is spirit so that ends that God isn't some kind of a great big overgrown man sitting up in heaven on a cloud and he has hands and feet and all little children I suppose sometimes get that thing sort of imaginary I used to think that he used to see everything I remember that because we had a little Sunday school ticket and it had a picture of a great big eye on that little ticket and under it says thou God seest me well I was scared the wits out of me so I thought God was a great big something that saw everything I ever thought or did or oh well through a motive of fear kept me out of a lot of devil tricks it sure did that little ticket kept me out because there was oh God now he sees me but you know how many of you know this that by and by you are glad that he is like that I got finally through the spell from the motive of fear thou God pierce me don't you dare to do that don't you dare to do that that's fear motivation well you get out of that then you get into the love motivation and you say oh God I'm so glad you do know now I don't have to tell you everything you just know everything far more than I ever could think how many see now now I love you and I want you to help me not because I'm scared but because if you don't I don't know where I'll be I just love you God the love of God so when he creates him in his image it's not a corporeal body that wasn't it we were created in the image and likeness of God from two angles we were created in the image and likeness of God spiritually and morally spiritually and morally and also in the sense that we bear personality stamps that what we have in the likeness of God is the fact that I have mind and thought and feeling and will and an understanding of God because I am made in his image in that way cows and dogs don't have that no cow dog no creature I don't care how noble and beautiful no cow creature any kind of creature less than man has that only man has it well that was incorporated in the fact that he was made in the image and likeness of God because he has a likeness of God which can correspond and know God and so he breathes into him the spirit and the spirit is the thing with which we deserve God and the things of God so if you want to make a little note of that you could say this image I would say first it's natural likeness it's natural likeness is the fact that we have something yet bearing that image that's the personality stamp natural likeness is the personality stamp because God is in all that we speak of God he is what we find in miniature in us amplified to its nth degree I have knowledge and intellect I have that but it's so miniature it is so limited but it's of the same essence as that of God only his is infinite so we say he is omniscient om, om nisca, to know he is all know I am only limited know just a shadow, just a reflection but I am a partaker in my personality setup this is the natural likeness of the very same things that he has only mine are all limited yours are all limited but we bear that image and that likeness from that stamp now the other second way in which we are made into his image is what we would call here the moral likeness what? well man was made without sin man was made holy clear, clean without pain without fault, without flaw without all of that because when God spoke the benediction and approval he said it is good he was acceptable everything was right and good he was a partaker of that same life and holiness that is in God, now that we call the moral likeness one is a natural likeness which covers the personality setup the other is a moral likeness which gives us thought and the fact that we are moral creatures all lower cretion is amoral you have moral, immoral amoral three words, moral immoral is the losing of it less than moral, immoral then you have amoral which means has no moral consciousness at all a cow a dog, an animal is amoral that is they have no moral standard they have no moral standard animals don't live under a standard of right and wrong, creation doesn't move that way, only man the fact that we have a moral consciousness the fact that I have a conscience the fact that I am self-conscious, not body conscious but self-conscious, all those things belong in that realm we are born with a moral sense of right and wrong all of them, the heathen everybody has it there is no heathen without it missionaries go to the most primitive people they always have some scale of what's right and wrong, they all do they all have a religious urge and they all have a manifestation of that religious urge, every one of them because it's innate that we were made, so when you speak of the moral likeness I mean the made in the image and the likeness always remember they are spiritual and moral likenesses now I'll give you some scripture verses for that that you can look up and you'll see exactly what we mean because they give it exactly and restore to the image of God in holiness restore to the likeness of God righteousness how many get it? right away it says what that likeness and image is it says right in the verse, moral it'll say holiness if you want those scripture verses I think I have them here these refer to his intellectual and moral likeness Ephesians 4 23 to 24 Ephesians 4 23 and 24 Colossians 3.10 but in that creation we were made limited and dependent take that up a little later when we talk about something of this man that was made, this creation what did he make when he made a man the fact of his limitation and the fact that he was dependent are not the result of sin he was made that way before there was any sin in the world the fact that he was a dependent creature upon God and the fact that he is limited to move in the realm of what the human spells those are not results of our sin they are actually the things that spell our humanity then sin comes later so don't let that get people confused, they get confused along that line have we anything now in class just stop for a minute have you anything that you can think of in the word that shows even from the very beginning that God wanted Adam to know that he was dependent upon God well you're getting near to it this is high spy now you're getting near to it the food is the key word in there but now come on open it up a little what did God place in the garden what was it called, the tree of life oh good well why did he put a tree of life there and say you have to eat of this as a signal that in him there was no sustenance, no life no power, aside from that partake of this tree of life and live partake of this tree of life and live it was there to keep ever before the mind of humanity of man that in him dwelleth no good thing, Paul tells it again I can of myself do nothing it's all told again in the New Testament in other different forms, but the principle is there, the absolute dependence of man man was made a dependent creature, purposely God wanted me that way his dependence wasn't resultant because he sinned, he was never made that way before he was made this way before it wasn't a consequence of evil it was the thought of God, I will make you a dependent creature I'm the author you are the creation of my own thought and it's my life that breathes into your nostrils I'm the author and without me, without life you can't live and to prove it I'll give you this tree now can you see how Jesus taught, I have come to give you life now can you see that I'm the vine and ye are the branches, how many get it as the branch cannot of itself bear fruit except it abide, so what you must abide in the eternal life, in the Christ see the same teaching it's the same teaching over and over and over, there's always been a tree, the tree of life in that garden, the symbol of the necessity of an abiding in God and sustenance in life from a spiritual order, a spiritual realm follow that tree all the way through what symbol or token did the Lord choose as the scene for the working out of redemption he chose the symbol of a tree, you get it what is eternally to be so in the revelation, in the new order how many know we partake of a tree again that tree is always, it always is a predominant thing, but it is symbolic, suggestive thing it's full of life and hope