Refuting the Social Gospel..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We're going to continue with a series of Bible studies that we started last week. I said that we're going to be doing four weeks of Bible studies, explaining or giving a little bit of clarity, biblical clarity, I think, on the situation and the and the things that are taking place and happening.

Last week, I started or we started better speaking about the word of God and the truth of the word of God. Today, I want us to meditate upon the value of humanity, the value of humanity. And I'm just going to call your attention to Genesis chapter 11, and that's going to give us a little bit of a couple of thoughts for us to start with this Bible study. So Genesis chapter 11, this is the story of the Tower of Babel. So let's read it together.

Chapter 11, Genesis. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and build them thoughtfully. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar.

Then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people. and they have all one language.

And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they purpose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel.

Because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, And from there, the Lord disperse them over the face of all the earth. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, as I said last week, we are living in very confusing times, times of uncertainty. We have said a couple of times that these are unprecedented times, times, times that we have not seen before in a life spam or the time that we have been on the earth very A confusing times.

There is conflict. There is a pandemic. There is a social crisis. Countries are in rumors of wars and they're all type of situations that are taking place. And one of the things that I said last week was that this should not be surprising because this is the result of sin.

This is the result of a fallen humanity, of a humanity that it is the victim or not the victim, but rather the death is in them and through them and are sinful by nature. This is the result of that. But it is very interesting to see in the current situation, all the things that are happening, not only what I said last week, that the church is being taken by some of those things. But what is also very interesting to see, brothers and sisters and those who are listening, is that the world, it is coming to a point in which they are defining a new standard of morality or righteousness. They're calling that which is evil good and that which is good evil.

And the Bible speaks about that. The world is coming to a point in which they're coming only together, and they're defining a new standard of morality or righteousness, their righteousness, that which is evil. They're calling good and that which is good. They're calling evil. Now they're speaking, they're putting words in their mouth that belong only to the righteous standard of God.

They're speaking of injustice. They're speaking of unfair treatment. They're speaking of inequality. They're speaking of some race or gender or people mistreated by others. Speaking of things should be equal, of justice and fairness.

Things that belong only to the righteous standard of God. They are creating in and of themselves, coming together to build, to create this standard of good and bad. And it's upon that man-made, man-made standard, creature-made standard, that now they wanna come together and redefine that which is good and that which is evil. And from there, try to find a solution to a problem that can only be solved by God. You see, righteousness or goodness or evil, all of these things can only be dealt with the divine words, with the divine statues.

But now society, in the midst of their wicked and unrighteous way and their fallen ways, are coming to discuss that which is just, that which is unjust, that which is fair, what we should do. And not only that, but now they are trying to come together to find solutions of social justice equality and giving people what they deserve or actually finding equal outcomes for everyone because that is the standard that they are creating. It is like societies coming together to rebuild a system. Now the thing is, brothers and sisters, that in this world, in existence, there are only two ways. The ways of men and the ways of God.

And the ways of men are always going to be in complete utter opposition to the ways of God. When men, even with the best intention in their falling and sinful nature, come together to try to do something that seems to be good, the only thing that they will always do is unrighteousness and wickedness and everything but righteousness and something that is good. The mind of men is fallen. The heart of men is sinful. The soul of humanity is unrighteous.

And therefore, even if they have labels of something that is good or something that is just or something that is fair, everything that fallen humanity will do will always be in the side of wickedness and unrighteousness and in complete opposition to the ways of God. You see, the coming of the kingdom of the Lord to earth, or the coming of the kingdom of the Lord, in a sense, is just simply to bring into alignment the wicked, unrighteous, and fallen ways of men into the ways of God. That is what the psalmist says in Psalm 119. Sometimes I think, and I meditate upon this, that he says, oh Lord, direct my heart, or direct my ways to your ways. It is like my ways are opposite or in a different direction to your ways, Lord.

So if I'm going to be like you, I need that my ways, that my heart will be aligned, directed to your ways. Because humanity, even saved, redeemed humanity with the flesh and unrighteousness that we have, have different ways than the ways of the Lord. different ways to the ways of the Lord in opposition to the ways of the Lord. So that means that when humanity comes together and when they try to make all of these efforts to be able to come up with something that seems to be great and seems to be of honor, they're actually doing what they were doing here. They were trying to build a name for themselves because humanity, falling humanity, is seeker of self, is seeker of the glory of men, is walking in the ways completely of men and not in the ways of God.

This is what we're seeing, brothers and sisters. We see a society that it is removing God from the picture, removing God entirely and redefining that which is good and evil. and trying to come with the standards of righteousness and justice that are completely man-made and therefore wicked already in substance and in nature. What is the gracious response to the coming together of humanity from the Lord? Simply divide.

That is the easiest and the best thing that the Lord could have done for these men. Instead of continue to come and build in their unrighteous ways and their unrighteous and wicked purposes, what the Lord does is simply divide. Separate, give them different languages so that will not come in there in one mind with their wicked hearts to conceive and to build their own. but rather separate and divide, which seems to be harsh and difficult that people are spread and divided, but the Lord came to divide. Because everything that is built upon a different foundation than the righteousness of God given in Jesus Christ and upon his word will always be wicked.

Men cannot accomplish by his own ways and with his own standard and his own thoughts, what can only be accomplished by the ways of God. So brothers and sisters, we should never be confused about these terms of social justice and equality and men and women and all the 50 plus genders are the same and should receive equality and fair treatment. And the social situation is something that the church should pay attention to and also come with society by their hands to try to find a solution so that these things will be fixed and solved. The unrighteousness and wickedness of the world cannot be solved by the high towers and buildings of wicked and unrighteous society. And the church should never participate in those wicked and righteous things, that they are wicked and unrighteous just because they are not founded and established upon.

God is the creator, and God as the giver of righteousness. This is exactly what is happening, brothers and sisters. And therefore, when men come together in the times that we come, when creature comes together, they find the value of humanity in themselves. So you see, we can come together and we can fix this situation. We can think, and it is a matter of just coming together and creating a bigger institution, giving more power to the government, solving the social difficulties that we have currently in society.

Why? Because we're all equal. We're all the same creatures. We're all the same. We're all the same, and we have the ability to define a better state of current affairs or a better situation for society.

And the thing is that in the evil and in the wickedness of men, that concept where all the same is taken to the extent that it is not only men that is the same as a creature with others, but then animals turn to be the same when men and the environment is of equal importance than the state of men. And everything that has been created is of value and importance in the eyes of this wicked and unrighteous system. removing and taking away the standard of the creator. Every time that human, that the person is going to define the value of man will always come to the conclusion that man is valuable in and of himself. just because we are.

We are sufficient. We can do it. We have the ability, the wisdom to fix, to solve, to repair, to arrange. We have the power to define society in a better way that is going to be established upon the learning of all the mistakes from the past, the mistakes from history, and the things that we did not do. thinking that just with the wisdom of man and with the experience of the mistakes that have been made in the past that man can fix something that it is in nature already wicked and unrighteous.

Brothers and sisters, men and women, humanity will always want to remove the creator from the picture of what society is so that they will be able to build what they consider to be good and righteous. We have to remember that everything that is built upon a different foundation than the Word of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ is always wicked in and of itself. It does no matter the label that it has, even if it's a Christian label, even if it's a biblical label, not only for what is happening in society, but also what happens in our personal lives. Everything that we build inside of us, And as as christian has to be built upon the foundation of the word of god and the righteous standard of god That's why we started last week speaking about the the word of god as being the sum of truth Now brothers and sisters, what is the value of humanity? What is the value of men?

The world would say that the value of men is in men, that we have the power to do, to come up with things and to fix and to arrange and to foresee the future and to come up with better things. But what is the value of humanity? What is the value of men? I mean, men and women. What is the value of humankind?

Well, the Bible gives a very clear answer. And that is the answer that we're going to be meditating upon tonight. And that is that the value of men, or the value of humanity, is not established upon men himself, but rather The value of man is derived from the one who created him and the purpose that the creator had for the creature. You see, apart from the creator creating the creature, and apart from the creator giving the creature a purpose, then, the being, the human, humankind, will be without value at all. We do not find our value in and of ourselves, but rather, value is given to us because the one who created us.

Let's go to Genesis chapter one so that we can see this here. Genesis chapter one. The value of men according to the Bible. And that should be the value that we see in men. Let's read Genesis chapter 1.

Brother Bernie, if you can please, brother, help me. We're reading Genesis chapter 1. Yes, please. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning the first day.

And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning the second day.

And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants, yielding seeds, and fruit trees, in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.

And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kind, and tree-bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning the third day. God said, let there be lights in the expanse of heaven to separate the day from the night, and let there be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so.

And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, let the water swarm the swarms of living creatures and let across the expanse of heavens.

So God created the great sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, to live livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.

And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the living or the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life, I give every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, and the sixth day.

Amen. Thank you so much, brother. Brothers and sisters, that we may not get tired to read the story of how everything started, that we may not be stopped to be amazed of how everything that exists, it was just created out of nothing by the Word of God. And how in that whole process of creation, the apex, the climax of the creation of God was men different to the rest of creation, not equal to the rest of creation as the world might want us to think, but actually different. The apex, the climax of creation.

When the Lord was creating everything, as the brother were reading, he said, let there be light, let there be an expense. He spoke and it was created. Let there be waters and lights. Let there be waters to swarm and let the earth bring forth living creatures. He spoke and everything came into existence.

But when it comes to men, he, the triune God, it says in verse 26, He says, let us make men in our own image after our likeness. In a very clear way, the creation of men, of humanity in Adam and in Eve, it is in a different level with a different approach of what God had done. And God is now given more interest or a particular way of actually creating humankind. We are told, brothers and sisters, The men and women that humanity were created after the image of God in the likeness of God. And we see that the creation of humanity is not only different from the rest of creation in the way that men and women are created of humanity are created.

But we see that these difference is also seen. in what humanity is owed to do or what they are supposed to do and what they receive from the Lord. It says that the Lord blessed them and that he says that they were supposed to be fruitful and to multiply. He says to humanity that they are to have dominion over the rest of creation. These are things that were different to the rest of creation.

We're also told inverse chapter number two in the other narration of how they were created. If you go there, it says in chapter number two verse five, when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord had not caused it to rain on the land. And there was no man to work the ground. And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the men of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became a living creature. The mouth of the Lord was open. and the other creatures came into existence. Then the Lord says, let us make an almost trinitarian statement. Let us make God and let us make men.

And this man is made after the image and after the likeness of God. And this man is given this blessing to be fruitful and multiply. And he's also given this command of having dominion over or rule over the creation. This man receives the life that is breathed from God himself and is made a living soul, a living creature. This is the apex, the climax of creation.

Brothers and sisters, the value of humanity, it is not found in who we are or the abilities that we actually have and who we are as humans, but it's found in what the creator did, created us, and the purpose that he had for humanity. It is clear, and we know. And these are times in which, even though we know all of these things, that the Church has to be more established upon the truth of who humanity is or who we are in God, our Creator. We were made after the image and likeness of God from the breath. God breathed into us life and made us a living creature.

He gave us this command or this blessing of be fruitful and multiply, and we were to rule and have dominion. Not only that, brothers and sisters, but creatures or humans, they would set apart. All the planet was created, but God planted a garden, as he said in chapter two, and that he planted a garden and he put men into that garden to have a special communion and fellowship with men set apart from all other creations removed so that God will have a special fellowship with humanity. Not only that, brothers and sisters, but also in that garden, men receives from the mouth of God. In chapter two, in verse 16, it says, And the Lord commanded the men saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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. From all his creatures, God decided to reveal himself and his will to humans, to humankind, and to give his commandment to humanity to tell them what they were supposed to do or better what they were not supposed to do. The Bible said that men was create upright and that they were given this commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In other words, to remain. you are and whom have I made you because you have been made upright and that you're not to depart from those ways in which I have made you.

Brothers and sisters, you already know this story many times. We have read it. We have explained it many times. But the value of humanity is established in the creator who created us and the purpose that he had for us. Because brothers and sisters, we know the story of what happens, and then sin will enter into the world.

And we are told something very interesting in chapter 3, verse 22. Go to chapter 3, verse 22. that when sin entered into the world, when death entered into the world, would Adam and Eve disobey and actually they eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then we're told in verse 22 of chapter three, then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us, ignoring good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore, the Lord sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the men, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Now, the surprising thing, I don't know if this happened to you the first time that you read Genesis or the first time that you read Genesis. But the surprising thing to me was that the Lord has said that the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then that day you will die. Yet when I continue to read the Bible for the very first time, I was surprised to see that He or Adam and Eve did not die, but rather something just simply different happened.

They continue to live and they were rejected. They were removed from the presence of the Lord. And that was very surprising to me that he had said that these people were going to die, but they did not die. They continue to live, according to my understanding. And the most surprising thing was actually what happens in chapter number four.

Because then, once they had been removed from the garden, once these fallen creatures, sinful creatures, now these disobedient creatures have been removed from the garden, now in chapter four we're told something very interesting. It says, Now Adam and Eve, Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain. Now, the people who had received the commandment not to eat from the fruit of the tree, lest they will die, they were going to die. They not only did not die, but also now they are fulfilling at least one of the blessings of what had been said in Genesis chapter one. When they were in the state of obedience, when they were upright, they said you will be fruitful and multiply.

And now what I have here in chapter four, my surprise was that that these falling humanity who deserve to die were actually fulfilling one of the purposes that they had been given in chapter or in chapter one or two. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. These sinful people now are multiplying with the help of the Lord. And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground.

Then they were having dominion over the animals and they were working the fruits and the land. They were actually ruling. the world, these disobedient fallen humanity who had disobeyed the Lord and going against what he had said. Now I find them here in Chapter four, not only multiplying, but also working with the animals and working the land and bringing offerings to the Lord. Verse three, in the curse of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.

And Abel also brought of the first of his flock and of their portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and he's counting until his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry?

And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and it desires for you, but you must rule over it. Now, brothers and sisters, the surprise is even bigger because now these falling people here are not only being fruitful and multiplying and having kids and working, having dominion over the land and all of these things, but the Lord still has a relationship with them. And not only that, but he still holds them accountable for something that they should do.

And as you know, and the story continued, Cain is gonna kill Abel, right? He's gonna kill, and then he's going to be accused and judged by God. So the surprise is even bigger. This fallen humanity now is held accountable by God. The most surprising thing for me when I was reading this for the very first time was that this was taking place outside of the garden.

The God was dwelling with these people in the garden. The God had given them all of these promises and all of these blessings in his presence when people were upright and went in was not in them and that he has said that I'm going to remove them from the place of my dwelling. So lest they take of the tree of the fruit of the tree of eternal life and they may live forever. The surprise to me was And now it was not only Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel that were outside of this place, but it was God outside of this place with them, having still a relationship with these people. Humanity is not valuable because who they are.

But humanity is valuable. They have value because what God did for them, created them, and the purpose that God had when he created them. You see? The purpose of God was not to bring complete justice in that particular moment as we thought he would have done based on what he had said in Genesis chapter 2. that the purpose of God was greater for humanity.

The purpose of God was greater for these fallen creatures. And this is glorious. Brothers and sisters, we should never stop being amazed from what is taking place here. The just thing to do at this particular point without understanding of what comes after is that he would have destroyed completely Adam and Eve. And you know that Adam means humanity.

That means that he was fair and just for God to execute complete judgment on that particular moment. And there would not be humanity at all. Justice would have been completely satisfied by just executing what he had said. If you eat of it, you will die and all humanity will die. Yet he did not do it.

But not only that, he continued to have a type of relationship with humanity because he had a greater purpose. Now this greater purpose is in light of what now humanity is, brothers and sisters, fallen humanity. We are told in Romans chapter five, the disobedience or the sin entering into the world through the disobedience of one man. And from that disobedience and that sin, that death enter into the world. And then that death spread through all people because all people sin.

You see, when humanity, when Adam and Eve were ejected from the garden, it was not only that they were removed from the garden and the immediate presence of God there, and He was manifesting His holiness and purity there, but also that death and sin was in the world. And that which God had created was no more. That which God had done in purity and uprightness was no more. Go to please to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7, here the author says something very important.

Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 29. See this alone I found, that God made men upright, that they have sought out many schemes. Here, the Bible tells us that God was created in a particular way, and then men changed. The God was made upright, and then they sought the many schemes and devices. That is, the man was created straight in the way that he was supposed to be.

And then men moved, removed from that straight way. And he was the way that he was created, changed the direction. And that is exactly what happened with the four brothers and sisters. That these men that had been created after the image and likeness of God, that these men who had been given a command to be performed and conducted a blessing, to be conducted and performed in a brightness and in holiness as God had created them, these men was no more. Adam was not the same anymore.

And what is the beauty about that? It is not so much to understand the fact that Adam was not upright anymore, but is that God decides to continue dealing with humanity under those conditions. You see, if you go to Genesis chapter five, if you go back to Genesis chapter five, we are told something very interesting now about the offspring of Adam. Go to Genesis chapter five. It says, this is the book, this is the book of the generations of Adam.

When God created men, he made him in the likeness of men, male and female, he created them, and he blessed them and made them Adam, or men, when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The offspring of Adam was now after the image and in the likeness of a fallen Adam. Adam had been created after the image, and after the likeness of God, and after the disobedience of Adam, and after sin entering into the world, and after death entering into the world. That death is going to spread, brothers and sisters, not through the sin that people will commit, but through Adam and his offspring.

You see? We are unrighteous and wicked because we sin, but the unrighteousness and wickedness that we have has been inherited from the offspring of from Adam, who is our father. So. Through the disobedience of Adam, sin entered into the world and through that sin death and death spread to all people because all people sin. Now, brothers and sisters, we don't have a greater picture of what unrighteousness really is for us to be sufficiently amazed with the fact that God allowed all of these things to continue and happen.

God is holy, perfect, righteous. There is no stain or wickedness in him. Yet he allowed not only that judgment will not be executed in full upon the moment of disobedience, but the death unseen will continue to spread. that more offspring of Adam will be created and they will be born in the image of a fallen Adam, of an Adam that was a disobedient person, of an Adam that was a rebel, an Adam that had been removed from the immediate manifested presence of God. This is the greatest thing that we can actually think and meditate upon through the story of creation, brothers and sisters.

Why did God do that? Of course, because the value of humanity, brothers and sisters, is much greater than what we think we value and we have in and of ourselves. The value of humanity is derived from what God did, created us, but also the plan that he had for the creation. And this is the glorious plan that he had for us. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, please.

1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 22. Now, please pay attention to this that we're going to do here. Verse 22, chapter 15. For us in Adam, in Adam, all die.

So also in Christ shall all be made alive. in Adam, all humans, all people die. Yet in Jesus Christ, all shall all be made alive. Our natural organic union or better natural union that we have with Adam gives us death. But there is a better union that will give us life.

Now I want you to go to verse 45. There is a more qualifiers that the apostle will give. Verse 45, in that comparison of the union that we have with Adam and the union that we have with Jesus Christ. Verse 45, it says, thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. He received the breath of the life given from God.

So the first Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life given spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second Adam, or the second man, is from heaven.

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Now please stop there and pay attention to that verse 48 before we move on to verse 49. It says, so as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. So as man, Adam, is of the dust, all others are of dust.

So also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Now verse 49. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Brothers and sisters, the value of men, it is not established upon who we are, because who we are is actually fallen short of the glory of God.

Sinners who deserve death, unrighteous people who are or have borne the image of Adam, who is fallen and who was disobedient, who broke the law of the law given to him, and for that reason was removed from the garden. But the value of men is not found in who they are and what they have, but rather the eternal plan that men, or that God had for men, which was to renew humankind, not after the image of Adam, not even in the garden, but rather to renew and recreate humanity after the image of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God, who is the firstborn among many brothers and who gives the purpose of salvation for those who are in him to be conformed to his image. You see, brothers and sisters, that the value of humans is not established upon their intellect, their righteousness, what they actually know or say or do, the places that they go, the things that they build, but actually their value is only derived from what God intended for them from eternity past into eternity future. And that purpose for some is that they will bear the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. That image, brothers and sisters, is not the image of Adam who in the garden was vulnerable to imperfection.

That image is not the image of Adam who was in putting the possibility of falling short from the standard of God. That image is not in the power of a creature that will have the potential to fall and to disobey and to be removed from the presence of God. But the image that is given in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the image of the son of God who unites us to him. and then gives us an image that it is unchangeable, that does not change, that always and lasts forever. Go please to Colossians chapter 3.

The Apostle Paul will speak about the image that we have in Jesus Christ. Colossians chapter 3. Verse five, pay attention to this, speaking to Christians. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.

In these you, too, once walked when you were living in them. Once you walk in those things. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, And I've seen talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, the new man, which is being renewed, acknowledged after the image of its creator. The old self was bearing the image of the fallen Adam with no knowledge of God, or a knowledge that is suppressed in the unrighteousness that was natural to him and to all humanity.

But the new self, the one that bears the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of the grace and salvation that is given to us, is called to put away of the old man and to put on the new man, which is created. It has been renewed. It's been restoring knowledge after the image of its creator. Please go to Ephesians chapter four. parallel passage that the apostle will use to speak of this, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Adam fell because of disobedience and because of sin. And that which was made upright, sick and found different devices, different ways, was made unrighteous and unholy. And then we are told that the knowledge that then humanity will have of God, that they do have knowledge of God, is suppressed in unrighteousness. It is only salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, that gives us the new self that is bearing the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and that liberate us from the power of death that all humanity is under. It is only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that can unite and bring to the place where they belong, the souls that were sinners and unrighteous and wicked.

Brothers and sisters, the reason why the Lord allowed all wickedness, death, and all of this sin to spread through Adam and his offspring and humanity is because the plan that he had for humanity was that he will choose a people unto himself. who will not bear the image of a man vulnerable to imperfection, but who will bear the image of the Son of God, united to the divine nature, and being united to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, God Himself, then it was then impossible for those creatures to fall, and vulnerability to imperfections will be now impossible, because the righteousness that we have is not the righteousness of obeying and keeping a commandment given to us, But the righteousness, then, that we have in Jesus Christ is the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ, God himself, God-man, accomplished, a righteousness that cannot be removed, cannot be taken, not only a legal righteousness, but a practical righteousness, that it is that we are indeed not only legally transformed or changed from a status of guilty to innocent, but also that we are given step by step, the righteousness of Christ until we are taken up to glory. Now, brothers and sisters, words are limited and thoughts are very limited and ideas are insufficient to communicate the importance of the things that I am saying, because it's only in the new state and the new self that righteousness can be accomplished, not only individually, but also as a world. It is only in the state of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that the world can obtain righteousness. And that full righteousness is only arriving and coming when the kingdom of the Lord is fully established and sin is no more.

Apart from the glorious hint of God modifying, apart from the glorious hint of God, the divine hint, bringing his people onto his kingdom and then establishing his kingdom once for all, sin will always prevail. be on the earth and righteousness will always be on the earth and the solution to solve unrighteousness and wickedness in the heart of sinful fallen wicked righteous Adam image bearing men it is by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that gives the life that we need to be made after the image of the Lord Jesus Christ The gospel is the only way in which people can be united. You see, if you want to think about separation and division, then it is the Lord God of Israel, the one that actually chooses, separates and divides. And according to the standard of the world, then God is going to be the biggest, actually racist and dividing person that will exist in universe, because God is the one that chose from eternity past the people unto himself. Then through history, he chose a people unto himself from the nations.

He separated Israel and said, Do not mix with them. Do not go with them. This is the law that I'm given unto you. But it is the same God that by separating the people, the people of Israel unto himself, He's the same God that through Jesus Christ can unify those whom he had separated them from the Gentiles. So then Paul said in Ephesians chapter two, both Jews and Gentiles are united on the wall of hostility is destroyed.

And now the separation that existed between Jews and Gentiles, now they're made one men. Because when men come together to build their own things and to work their own righteousness, the easiest and the most gracious thing that God can do is separate and divide. Because if men are going to come together and be united and belong to one body, it is only through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that which was separated and apart, Jews and Gentiles separated by the divine commandment that you will be a different people. This was united.

by and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no greater unity, there is no greater coming together, joined together of human beings than what the Lord Jesus Christ does in the church. From every tribe, from every nation, from every tongue, from every single place in the world, from every social status, from every language, from every single type of people and background, They are united in righteousness. Brothers and sisters, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the banner of truth that we have in our hands. And it is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that is able to solve the divisions between people that are caused because of unrighteousness.

And those divisions are solved when those people become brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. That we may not stop to be amazed, brothers and sisters, of the status that we have as sons and children of God through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That once we bore the image of Adam, the fallen Adam, disobedient offspring of death, in Adam all died. But in Jesus Christ, those who by grace through faith are in Jesus Christ, they do not only have life, but they are being conformed to the image of the Savior to be given a communion and union that will not be separated and to be established upon a kingdom. that men cannot destroy and that we always be victorious because God from eternity past determined that this was going to be the end of things.

We cannot solve the world with our intentions and our intellect and our minds. The message that we have is the one that can solve and fix the problems of the heart of sin. And then the Lord is the one that is in charge of establishing his kingdom. And then when he comes for the second time, not coming to save the world, but he will come to separate, to judge the living and the dead. And upon that judgment, they will become the institution and the establishment of his kingdom, where it seemed there will be no more.

And then Christians will be able to behold the beauty of Christ and commune with him in eternity. Amen.