WEBVTT 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:15.039 Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:18.480 Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delaney, Florida. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:31.280 Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:34.159 Now here's your host, Pastor James W. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:34.960 Knox. 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:49.200 And good day. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:52.320 Thank you so very much for that kind word of introduction. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.880 We appreciate very much having you join us today for the preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:05.359 I'm Brother James, and I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is, of course, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:07.760 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:10.879 There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:15.680 If a man should say that he is without sin, he would simply deceive himself. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:17.359 The truth would not be in him. 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:25.120 For the truth of Scripture is that there is not a man born among uh among men. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:34.239 There is not one single descent of Adam on the face of this earth that is without sin in his nature, without sin in his practice. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.159 And that's why Jesus said, You must be born again. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:44.799 You have to have a second birth, a new birth, and this is possible only through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:52.159 As many as received him to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:02:06.079 This is the fifth broadcast in a series of programs in which we are discussing the earth as the center of God's universe, as the stage upon which God is watching man act out this great drama. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:16.319 God is directing this great program of uh the battle for supremacy, the battle for glory, the uh battle for eternal life. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:22.479 We have talked about the fact that the earth is the only planet capable of sustaining life as we know it. 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:51.680 We discussed the creation of the earth, the great uh catastrophe which took place when Satan uh rebelled against God and uh the great destruction that was wrought thereby, and then we talked on the last program about uh the reconstruction uh that took place in Genesis chapter number one as God took uh what he had already created, reformed and refashioned it into uh the earth as we know it, and yet he added some things, he created a specific act of creation. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:01.120 God created mankind to replace in his order of things the angelic race that rebelled and sinned against him. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:07.199 We want to talk today on the program about Satan's regaining of the earth. 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:09.280 Satan's regaining of the earth. 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:13.919 As you recall, Satan was the anointed cherub that covereth. 00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:17.759 He was uh set by God, placed by God upon planet earth. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:24.960 He had as his sphere of dominion in the world that then was, that was overflowed with water and perished. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:31.599 He had as his sphere of influence a place of dominion, a place of leadership among the angels that inhabited this planet. 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:53.520 And of course, when he sought to exalt his throne above the stars of God and ascend up to the sides of the north, ascend up to heaven and uh overthrow God and be, in fact, uh the supreme ruler of the universe, not uh simply content with the dominion that God gave him over the earth, but when he desired to be the ruler of the universe, of course he was deposed and cast down. 00:03:53.680 --> 00:04:01.360 The earth was thrown into the great catastrophic state, God reformed it, refashioned it, and then created the man, Adam and the Mrs. 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:02.479 Mrs. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:07.840 Adam, and gave the man uh dominion over the earth that Satan once possessed. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:16.560 And uh, as you know, uh if you know anything at all about the devil, he's not going to be content with a subordinate place of any kind. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:27.759 Now no one must infer that because man was created in a more lowly estate than angels, the reconstructed earth was any less perfect than the original creation. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:37.120 Although of a different nature and designed for a different creature, the same master hand molded it and passed upon it his approval four times. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:48.000 In the process of his work in Genesis chapter one, the creator observes that it is good, and finally upon its completion recognizes it as being very good. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:56.480 Into this beautiful place, very unlike the earth of our present knowledge, were placed the first human parents. 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:01.199 The climate of their lovely home was delightful, subject to no violent change. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:11.600 The productive soil yielded to their light labor, nourishing fruits and grains which satisfied their appetites, their perfect organisms knew neither disease nor fatigue. 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:15.120 The lower animals lived in peace around them and acknowledged their dominion. 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:18.480 There was no mutual fear, for there was no conflict. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:24.319 And truly this must have been a glorious and wonderful life. 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:29.600 The obligations of religion, obedience, and self-denial were as simple as their characters. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:34.160 They had no necessity for prayer or petition, for God had supplied every want. 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:42.240 They had no pity to implore, no anger to cast off, no sacrifice was required, for there was no sin for which to atone. 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:49.600 Nothing was wanting to complete their joy, save the certainty that it would be lasting. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:55.600 On this point they probably felt no fear, for what suspicion had they of the power of evil? 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:01.120 How could they read in all the beauty that surrounded them the evidence of mightier creations? 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:04.079 They knew not the secrets of the ground on which they trod. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.759 They rejoiced in the flowery garden, they saw not the ruins of a world beneath the surface. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:15.279 They dreamed not that the blue sea was rippling over the vast prison house of sin. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:26.000 Little did they suspect that the heavens above them were swarming with fallen angels and exiled spirits, who had been cast out from this beautiful sphere, they now regard it as their home. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:34.319 But a dark day approached, and the gloomy shadow of this day is projected upon the fair page of all future time. 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:45.839 The fateful hour draws near when Satan gains permission to prove to God that his new creation, man, is unworthy of the place and the prestige to which he has been assigned. 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:49.839 In the temptation of Job we are admitted to the councils of heaven. 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:58.240 May we not believe that just such a scene was enacted before the fall of Adam and that Satan insinuated Adam's inability to resist evil? 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:06.000 Doubtless he argued that such a weakling who would fall before temptation would not be a fit subject to take an angel's place. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:15.360 And just as God gave Satan permission to try Job, he also gave him opportunity to test, to try, to prove Adam. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:23.519 The plan of Satan showed that God had not yet deprived him of his wisdom, though he was no longer using it for high and noble purposes. 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.920 Satan decided he would not make his assault upon man with power and terror. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:37.759 That would drive the creatures into the arm of their protector instead of driving them away from him, and their earnest cries for help would quickly call down God's wrath upon him and his hellish cohorts. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:54.879 No, he would present himself in the form of a familiar animal, from which they would never suspect harm, and he would very craftily and very carefully suggest that God's words could not be trusted. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:57.439 That's what he did. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:11.040 All his ministers to this day have operated in the very same way, casting doubt upon God's word, criticizing God's word, suggesting that certain verses or tenses or words or passages cannot be trusted or believed or verified. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.680 This was his method of operation. 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:19.759 And sad to say it worked in Eden, and it is still working to this day. 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:30.399 It's not necessary to dwell upon the disastrous fall of our first parents and the subsequent wreck and ruin wrought upon their pros uh posterity, not prosperity. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:35.279 They had the prosperity and they lost it for their posterity. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:50.080 By appealing to the same pride and flattery which had caused his own undoing, the enemy of God and the adversary of man so exalted human conceit that it forgot its humble origin and the goodness and grace that brought it into existence. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:09:00.000 The point to be noticed in this connection is that man's failure to prove his worthiness to have dominion over the earth once more brings it back into the possession of Satan. 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:09.840 There are those who will dispute the fact that Satan is the present God of this world, but in so doing, they set themselves against the words of Jesus Christ Himself. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:23.519 Three times the Lord Jesus Christ referred to Satan as the prince of this world, and in his temptation he clearly acknowledges Satan's claim to all the kingdoms of the world. 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:30.000 He didn't challenge it, he didn't repudiate it, he didn't say that Satan was a liar, that the kingdoms were his to give, because they were. 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:41.440 It is needless to add that there would have been absolutely no weight to the temptation if Satan had not the power and possessions to make his offer genuine, it wouldn't have been a real temptation, but it was. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:52.720 What we have to deal with is not so much with the entrance of sin into the world, but with its unhappy consequences. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:55.200 Adam and Eve they fell. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:57.279 They believed the serpent's lie. 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:00.960 When he said that God didn't mean what he said, God meant just exactly what he said. 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:03.360 In the day they eat thereof ye shall surely die. 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:04.960 They ate of the fruit. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:07.759 Death entered with sin. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:10.639 Death entered as the result of sin. 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.120 Always been that way, always will be that way. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:23.919 And Adam and Eve have fallen, and as in remorse and shame they go out through the entrance of their home in Eden, the first volume of Earth's history is closed. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:27.120 Innocence, happiness, paradise. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:29.440 They've all passed away. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:58.080 The deepest roots of our modern problems and perplexities were all laid bare in the doom of the world, and it is wonderful to reflect how the first drama of human life left the indelible marks and irrefutable proofs of its occurrence, the sliding serpent upon the ground, the travailing woman, the sweating laborer, the thorny hedge, all stamp on the physical realm a constant proof and revelation of what happened in Earth's earliest days. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:29.840 To reason backward from this fourfold curse, the serpent on the ground, the woman in travail, the laborer sweating uh for the uh food that he must eat to live, the thorns, the briars, the thistles fighting uh against him, the earth being uh less productive and less fruitful as a result, all of these bring man to the place where he must accept the prehistoric fall of the human race, even if he ventures to relegate it to the realms of mythology. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:44.960 As so many of the tribes and races and kindred and people have attempted to do, the fact of the matter is, everywhere you look there is proof that the Genesis account of the fall of man happened exactly as God wrote it and recorded it in his word. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:48.480 The first part of the Edenic curse fell on the serpent. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:50.960 It is an utterly changed creature. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:12:02.159 There is no other animal which shows so sharp a contrast between its keen intellectual powers and its creeping, writhing degradation and deformity. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:16.240 Be wise as serpents, the Lord instructed his disciples, but though wise because they were the instruments of Satan, they can no longer hold up their noble heads as the leaders of the animal creation, they are cursed above all cattle and every beast of the field. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:22.320 Our very horror at the sight of a snake is an unceasing echo of the fall. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:25.840 The second curse fell upon the woman. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:31.919 This was no mere prophecy of woman's subordination and tragic degradation through the ages. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:39.120 But as the first of Earth's transgressors, the woman now walks first in the train of earth's mourners. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:41.600 Sorrow grips the very birth of man. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:46.399 And in the woman the curse falls upon the whole realm of emotion. 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:54.960 She feels hurt more deeply, she feels sorrow more fully, she feels loss and shame more greatly. 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:58.720 She feels need and loneliness more intimately. 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:01.840 The third curse fell upon man. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.879 His was to be a life of labor and a doom of death. 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:20.000 All the economic problems, all the fret, all the turmoil of the labor world, all slavery, all class wars, all industrial revolutions are rooted right here in the garden. 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:23.759 Ever since that hour there has been a struggle for bread. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:39.440 We may not realize it in the God blessed land and country where we live, but famines in India, famines in China, famines in Russia, famines in Africa constantly speak of thousands of dying and tens of thousands who never know what it is to get enough to eat. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:45.279 The human race feeds upon an accursed soil and daily renews its dying frame. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:54.240 But the repair is never equal to the exhaustion, and in only a little time the machinery of life gives out, and the dust returns to the earth as it was. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:57.120 In Adam there is nothing but death. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:02.159 We never see a corpse without seeing the curse. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.519 The fourth curse was upon the earth. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:13.600 Man's tragedy is not due to his being made of dust, but the dust's tragedy is due to man's being made of it. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:16.960 Man is not cursed because he's on the earth. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:22.159 The earth has been cursed because sinful man is working his wickedness upon it. 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:31.200 As the veil of vegetation was first prepared for man's reception, it was the first to be tarnished with man's disgrace. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:36.720 God said to the guilty pair in the garden, Cursed be the ground for thy sake. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:41.600 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:48.960 We are not to suppose that he who was appointed to dress and keep the garden was to live a laborless life. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:51.759 Nevertheless, his work was not to be burdensome. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:15:01.200 While it was free from all forms of opposition, the essence of this curse was the multiplication of thorns and thistles until they became noxious to man and beast. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:04.320 Elsewhere in Scripture they are spoken of as calamities. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:09.120 Job and Isaiah alluded to them as judgments of God. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:36.080 In Job chapter 31, the Bible says very clearly, starting at verse 38, Job 31, beginning at verse 38, if my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain, if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life, let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley, the words of Job are ended. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:48.000 Again in Isaiah chapter 7, and verse 23, it shall come to pass in that day that every place shall be where there were a thousand vines and a thousand silverlings. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:16:15.840 It shall even be for briars and thorns, with arrows and with bows shall men come thither, because all the land shall become briars and thorns, and on all hills that shall be digged with a mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen and for the treading of lesser cattle, the thorns, the briars, the thistles, the weeds, the stinging plants, the tearing fronds. 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:25.519 All these are testimony to you, my friend, that the earth has been cursed because of the sin of mankind. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.600 The Lord speaks of them as injuries in Matthew 13, 7. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:39.919 You see, they're a token of God's original displeasure against sin, so that the sight of them should recall to us the sin in Eden and God's continual hatred of iniquity. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:45.759 There's one peculiarity of weeds that really bears out this terrible truth. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:47.120 Now listen, think about this. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:54.000 To the thoughtful mind, the question must occur Have the plants we call weeds always been weeds? 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:55.840 If not, where did they come from? 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.879 Did you ever notice, and it's true? 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:04.000 Let me give you the truth, and and then you will notice it, you'll think about it, you'll be aware of it. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:09.839 Weeds are never found on ground that has not been disturbed by man. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:14.319 They are never discovered in woods, they are never discovered in wilds. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:31.920 They follow in the train of man and show a peculiar and particular interest, a peculiar and particular predilection for the places where man dwells. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:42.079 Let weeds grow in soil that has reverted to its original wild condition, and they will soon be overpowered by the surrounding vegetation of mosses and grasses. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:52.160 It's evident then that thorns and thistles have been a noxious appendix to the movements of man from his earliest hours, and the years of development have not enabled him to shake it off. 00:17:52.720 --> 00:18:00.000 As easily as evolutionists would have him dispose of his ancient environments, man can't get rid of the weeds. 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.920 And when the man leaves, soon the weeds are gone. 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:04.640 It's a curse. 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:10.880 It is a definite, deliberate act of God to make you sweat for your daily bread. 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:18.000 Accounts of the fall of our first parents and the sorrows that followed it are to be found among the records of nearly every nation. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:33.119 In fact, traditions of paradise lost are almost universal in the human family, while there is not so much as a suggestion that the human race reached a higher level by a process of development in any tribe or tongue or peoples on the face of this earth. 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:45.200 It's most interesting to note that so forcibly did the first great epochs in the history of man impress the earliest inhabitants of the earth that they tried to picture these awe-inspiring events as appearing in the heavens. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:56.079 When we look up into the sky, we have a hard time seeing the figures of the constellations and the pictures that they are supposed to represent, because all the stars are out of course. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:04.720 The Bible says things have changed greatly in the universe for one cause or another, and we talk about some of these as we go on in our study. 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:18.319 But the truth of the matter is that these constellations, as the ancients mapped them out and marked them out, were in many ways memorials of the events recorded in the first ten chapters of Genesis. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:27.359 Those who have had access to an old star chart, you've probably seen the fanciful figures that the ancients imagined were outlined by the various groups of stars. 00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:35.200 Of course the figures were imaginary, but note the great underlying facts that prompted the ancients to commemorate in this way their occur their occurrence. 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:43.920 This is interesting in view of the fact that astronomers still identify these constellations by name described to them twenty seven hundred years before Christ. 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:56.319 Professor Maunder, M A U N D E R, has pointed out that more than one third of the constellation figures appear to have a close connection with the chief incidents recorded in the first ten chapters of Genesis. 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:11.759 Now, if we include, he says, uh, the hare and the two dogs as adjuncts of Orion and the cup as well as the raven together with the hydra, then twenty-two out of forty-eight constellations are directly or indirectly so connected. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:18.880 In this picture gallery of the constellations, no event is reiterated more frequently than the garden scene. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:28.880 The presence of the serpent and the promise of the redeemer are suggested by such constellations as Ophicus, Hercules, Draco, Scorpio, and Hydra. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:32.559 You have the serpent holder, you have Hercules the Conqueror. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:39.519 They are distinct memorials of the immortal son of the woman, the seed of the woman who should crush the serpent's head. 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:52.799 It's evident that those who use the stars to outline the great epochs of history considered the promise of the deliverer, the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head so significant that they devoted the largest part of the sky to its commemoration. 00:20:53.039 --> 00:20:53.359 Dr. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:59.039 John Kito, in Biblical Illustrations, has collected some remarkable records of the fall of man. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:11.279 The ancient Persian book called Budash, B-U-D-E-H-E-S-H, Buddhash, is the story of the fall of man through the temptation of a serpent, very much like the Genesis account. 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:24.000 The Chinese believed that man was originally innocent, happy, and dutiful to the gods, but a desire for knowledge and the temptation through his wife overcame him, so that he lost his self-control in spiritual life. 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:31.440 The lower animals then became his enemies, the length of his life was shortened, and spontaneous production of the earth ceased. 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:48.079 The Hindu sacred writings represent the tree of life as bearing the fruit of fire, but when Kali, the devil, tempted man to steal the fruit and thus learn the use of fire, their god, enraged at their impiety, shortened their lives and subjected them to innumerable evils. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:59.599 There was a remarkable ceremony in the worship of the Roman deity Bacchus, where the god in a chariot was drawn by lions and other wild beasts, while many attendants with serpents in their hands waved them frantically. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.400 Shouting, Eva, Eva. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:17.519 Upon antique bas relief and gems is chiseled the scene of a man and woman standing disconsolately under a tree, and at a little distance a majestic appearing person sitting upon a rock strangling a serpent. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:22.799 According to the Greek records, man was created sinless and happy. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:26.720 But Prometheus stole fire from heaven, and man learned its use. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:37.920 Prometheus was punished by being chained to a rock, where vultures daily fed on his liver, which is perhaps typical of God's curse on the serpent and the temporary chains with which he will be bound in torment. 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:50.079 Man was punished with the gift of Pandora in her mysterious box, which curiosity prompted her to open in disobedience to a specific command and thus let out all the evils and troubles which now pervade the earth. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.920 Pandora managed to slam down the cover in time to preserve hope. 00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:58.400 What was this hope that the Greeks believed the woman still retained in her mysterious box? 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:02.799 Was it not the marvelous message that God gave to Eve of the coming Redeemer? 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:11.119 Was it not the Messiah who in the fullness of time would be born of woman and deliver the human race from the bondage of sin and Satan by crushing the serpent's head? 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:18.240 Both men and angels have now fallen from the estate in which they were created. 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:20.000 Now what will God do? 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:24.559 He will punish pride with greater grace. 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:33.119 The fallen angels, as well as fallen humanity, will be punished by an exhibition of grace to be manifested in Jesus Christ. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:38.720 It's well for us to ask the question, why did not God pardon the fallen angels? 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:44.160 Perhaps you would reply that their sin was greater than that of men, but would this be entirely true? 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:53.920 Their guilt is great, and their audacity to be first to rebel against God, and their ceaseless activity to draw others into their condemnation, but these fallen creatures know nothing of mercy. 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:59.680 Justice has cast them out, and no Savior, no gospel, no place for repentance have been given to them. 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:02.079 Isn't this a thing of wonder? 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:08.000 Satan never rejected free grace and dying love. 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:13.200 He never struggled against the Holy Spirit, he never refused the pardon of God. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:25.440 These supreme pinnacles of wickedness are reached only by men who are the hearers of the gospel of Christ and have cast its precious message behind their backs. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:33.680 It is a marvel that God should deal in mercy with men who act so wickedly and yet never granted mercy to the angels. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:39.440 Again, it is evident that God did not turn from angels because they were less valuable than men. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:46.319 If God had wanted one of the two races to be employed as his servants, the best would have been chosen, and these are not men but angels. 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:53.200 In their intellectual faculties and extent of their power, angels are far superior to men, and their downfall must have made a great gap in heaven. 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:58.640 Angels can do infinitely more for God than men, and yet God has not chosen to restore them. 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.640 Nor can we say that the angels would be less lacking in appreciation. 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:10.160 Men have never known heaven and consequences consequently cannot feel the loss of it, as can those who have been there and have fallen from it. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:20.799 We are like poor people who have always been poor, but the angels have been in glory, and therefore like wealthy persons who have been impoverished, hell to the angels is simply to be out of heaven. 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:26.079 Furthermore, we cannot say that God turned away from the angels because they were less dangerous. 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:30.480 If the Almighty had been intimidated, he would have offered pardon to his greatest enemy first. 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:38.240 If heaven was in danger of being overthrown by the principalities and powers of darkness, God would not have made overtures to mere flesh and blood. 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:47.200 Bad as men are, and great enemies of God as they have become, they are not capable of the mischief and violence of these invisible immortal creatures. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:52.960 And finally, we cannot say that God turned from the angels because it was more difficult to pardon them. 00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:59.200 To restore angels was far more easy and agreeable to the plan of salvation than to exalt fallen man. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:03.440 The plan of salvation could have been carried out much more easily with the angels. 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:21.920 For Christ to become man was far more humiliating, far more degrading than to descend to the plane of angels, and yet, involving as it did the incarnation of the Son of God and his death to make atonement, the infinitely gracious God condescended to have compassion upon men and not fallen angels. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:26.000 Oh, it's mysterious, it's a it's marvelous, such amazing grace. 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:30.160 He took not only the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:31.680 Hebrews 2.16. 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:39.119 The manifestation of God's grace in making the earth a universal scene of punishment is the only explanation of the meek and lowly Savior. 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:45.920 It was a wonderful thing that out of a multitude of heavenly bodies God should select this one as the sphere of his special interest. 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:50.400 It was even more wonderful that God should condescend to dwell with man upon the earth. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:56.720 But the greatest marvel of all was that God should become the lowliest embodiment of humility. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:13.359 Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled himself, took upon himself the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:26.960 Philippians chapter two, as the children which we are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.440 Lucifer said, I will ascend. 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:40.000 Christ, although a member of the Godhead, condescended to be despised, unesteemed, rejected of men, to say of himself, I am meek and lowly in heart, learn of me. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:46.640 Satan's promise to our first parents as a reward for their disobedience was, Ye shall be as gods. 00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:57.920 The Son of God who was obedient even unto the death of the cross said again and again, Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.319 Choose the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:02.799 Refuse the lie of Satan. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:07.359 Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and he shall lift you. 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:16.720 Thanks for tuning in today. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:22.559 Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:29.759 For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:38.799 Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptist Land, or our website, Bible Baptistoland.com. 00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:44.640 Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.