Adrian Rogers: Jesus Is God’s Plan For The Body of Christ

God created man and woman to have dominion—to rule over this Earth. In this message, Adrian Rogers shares how this dominion was legally lost by Adam, but rightfully regained by the Second Adam, the conquering Christ.

Pick up this morning’s newspapers I’ve already done and read. Read about the disease.
Read about the death. Read about the hate, the war, the crime, the sorrow, the disappointment, the despair, and the frustration that is everywhere.
And ask yourself, if God made man to have dominion, what has gone wrong and what can be done about it?
That is the crux of the matter this morning.
Profound Truth simply stated. This is love worth finding with pastor, teacher, and author, Adrian Rogers.
I would like you to find, please, Ephesians chapter 1.
In a moment, we’re going to begin reading in verse 15.
Now there was a truth that Paul wanted the church at Ephesus to know and I’m certain that God wants the church in Memphis to know and the church around the world to know.
And so it was this truth that motivated the apostle Paul to pray the prayer that he prayed for the saints at Ephesus.
I want you to listen to this prayer. It begins in verse 15.
He says, wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
Now, he’s talking about his prayer life for the Ephesians and here’s the prayer that he prayed.
It begins in verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
What he is saying is this.
I am praying that God will open your heart to something incredibly wonderful.
He goes on to say, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
Now Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, listen to it.
And God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness.
And listen to this, and let them have dominion. That’s the key word.
Put in your margin, Genesis 120 6. Let them have dominion. Did you hear it? Dominion.
What does dominion mean? To rule.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, every bug, every insect.
Adam and Eve were to have dominion over. Man was given rule over this earth.
He was to control and master its resources. When God created man, he created him to have dominion.
Man was designed for dominion. He was made for mastery. Got it? Man was designed for dominion.
He was made for mastery. God gave Adam and Eve all that they needed.
And put this verse in your margin. Psalm chapter 8 and verse 6.
Again, God reiterates why he made man and why he made woman to begin with.
The Bible says, thou madest him to have dominion over all the works of thy hands.
God made man to rule. Adam was king of the earth.
Now, what has happened? Well, it’s obvious today that man doesn’t have dominion.
Man doesn’t rule today. Man’s not in charge today.
It’s very obvious that Satan is in control and not man.
Pick up this morning’s newspaper as I’ve already done and read. Read about the disease.
Read about the death. Read about the hate, the war, the crime, the sorrow, the disappointment, the despair, and the frustration that is everywhere and ask yourself, if God made man to have dominion, what has gone wrong, and what can be done about it?
That is the crux of the matter this morning. There are 3 things.
I pray God, the Holy Spirit, will etch upon your consciousness and write indelibly upon your soul this morning about your lost dominion and how to regain it, how to get it back.
Because through our conquering Christ, we can retrieve and have restored what Adam sold and signed over to Satan so long ago.
What are these three truths? What are they? Number 1.
When Adam lost his dominion, it was legally lost. Got it?
Dominion was legally lost.
Now if if you gave your son something and your son sells it to someone else, or even gives it to someone else, and signs it over to him, no matter how much you paid for, if he legally gives it to someone else, even though it might break your heart, it’s legally lost.
Now look in Ephesians 2 and look in verses 1 through 3.
He talks of those of us who were once lost, and he says, you have he quickened, who were dead in trespass and sins.
Wherein in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.
Who is that? Satan. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation.
That means our behavior in times past and the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.
Now, how did all of this come about? Put these verses down.
Romans 6 verse 16, know you not to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey.
His servants are ye to whom you obey?
You have the right to turn yourself over to someone else.
Adam had the dubious right to yield himself to Satan and he did.
Listen to the verse again, know you not?
That to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants, ye are to whom ye obey.
Whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. Adam had a choice.
And rather than yielding in obedience to righteousness, he yielded to sin unto death, but he did it, and he became a slave of Satan.
Now, when Jesus was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, you remember the 3 temptations, The devil showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of this world.
And he said to Jesus, he said, if you will bow down and worship me, he said, I’ll give it all to you.
And then he said this, he said, because it’s been delivered to me. Remember that?
It has been delivered to me. Luke 4 verse 6.
All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it.
Satan says it’s mine. Now Jesus did not say, Satan, that’s not yours. He never disputed Satan.
Because Jesus knew that Adam had yielded over the domain to Satan.
He had yielded himself a servant of righteousness, and Satan now has dominion.
And Adam has become Satan’s slave. Adam lost all of his legal rights to rule.
And now, who is the god of this world? Don’t say Jehovah.
Now, he’s God over and above this, and, ultimately, all the minds of them which believe not.
Who is the the blinder? Satan himself. Listen to Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 12.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, our enemy doesn’t have hide and hair and sinew and corpuscle and have.
Our enemy is sinister and spiritual.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
The rulers of the darkness of this world, Satan is in power. Why?
Because God made Adam to have dominion and Adam willfully, sinfully, deliberately turned it over to Satan.
Uh, and it was legally lost. Got it? Good.
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Man’s dominion was legally lost. Here’s the second thing you need to understand.
Man’s dominion was rightfully recovered. Rightfully recovered.
If it was legally lost, it had to be legally regained. This is God’s mighty plan.
Look again, if you will, in Ephesians 1 verse 17.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
Skipping to verse 20, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Uh, and verse 22, and have put all things under his feet.
Now what is all of this talking about? This tells how Jesus got it back.
What was the reason for Christmas? Why the incarnation?
Why did the son of God step out of heaven and come to this earth, walk the dusty shores of Galilee, sweat blood in Gethsemane,
die in agony? Why?
To rightfully regain what Adam had given. Remember this. It was legally lost.
God runs the universe by divine law. It must legally be regained.
If God just stepped in and snatched it all back and gave it back to Adam, it would make a farce of divine judgment and divine justice.
Now, God owes Satan nothing, but God owes his own righteousness everything.
God is going to be true to his principles of righteousness and justice.
If God were to snatch it back and give it back to Adam, then sin would have ultimately won and God would have tumbled from his throne of holiness.
Now here’s the key. The dominion was given to a man, Adam.
It was lost by a man.
It must be regained by a man.
A member of Adam’s race must be found but a member of Adam’s race must be found to gain it back on whom Satan has no claim.
You see, Adam became a slave of Satan. And what are the sons and daughters of slaves?
They are slaves also. So there needs to be someone to come into this world.
It was lost by a man. It needs to be regained by a man.
Therefore, he must be of Adam’s race, but he cannot be a son of Adam.
That, my friend, is the reason for the incarnation. That’s the reason God became a man.
That’s the reason God stepped out of heaven and walked this earth in sandaled feet.
Put these verses down. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 21 and 22. Are you listening?
For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.
By man came death, Adam. By man came also the resurrection of the dead, Jesus.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Now put this verse down. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, that’s what he calls us children.
We we do like little children. We have flesh and blood.
He also himself, Jesus, took part of the same. That is Jesus took flesh and blood.
Now listen to this. That through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death.
The devil. Satan has so much dominion that he has the power of death.
He he holds life and death over his slaves.
But Jesus, in order that he might destroy him that had the power of death, the devil, he had to become flesh and blood.
God could not snatch dominion away from Satan as God. He has to do it as man.
But he has to be perfect man. Put this scripture down.
Galatians 4 verses 3 through 5. Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage.
We’re slaves. We are slaves in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
You see, in order for God to redeem us, he has to have a man to redeem us.
But this man has to be a perfect man.
He cannot be a fallen son of Adam because then he would have been a slave.
But he had to be made of a woman to be a member of the human race.
And so, there stepped into history the second Adam from above, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, Satan knows he’s up against it.
For a while, it looks like everything is going his way, but now, something has happened.
A child has been born
of a virgin. He has no sinful nature.
He has no itch that Satan can scratch.
Satan says, what am I going to do?
I must get him to sin.
If I can make him sin, if I somehow can get him to fall, then I won.
But if I don’t get him to sin, I’ve lost it all.
I’ve I’ve lost not only in heaven, but I’ve lost on earth. So a warfare begins.
The battle of the ages begins to rage.
One side is the sinister minister of evil, Satan.
The other side is the holy virgin born son of God and son of man, man who has come to redeem Adam’s lost dominion.
The first first skirmish takes place in the wilderness. You remember that.
And, uh, Satan brings all of the artillery of hell against the Lord Jesus Christ.
But now, a second battle begins. Satan is is not finished yet.
Dark Gethsemane. Jesus, knowing that soon he would go to the cross, goes into Gethsemane.
And There he begins to weep and to cry Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me But the silence from heaven said, there’s no other way.
And Jesus said, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.
I wish the first Adam had said that. Thank God the second Adam did.
And I wanna tell you that, nevertheless, is the word that has changed your destiny and mine.
Never unless. Not my will, but thine be done.
And so the hounds of hell are begging for the blood of Jesus Christ.
And they hound him to the cross.
But I wanna tell you, Satan made a tactical error there, my friend, because the Bible says he through death would destroy him that had the power of death, That is the devil.
And Jesus, the darling son of God, was nailed to that cross.
He took our hell, our shame, our blame, our suffering, our separation.
The fires of hell were poured out upon him. It was a battle.
And then he said, You know what that means?
One word in the Greek language, 3 in the King James version, it’s finished.
It’s finished.
It is paid in full, Adam, I bought it back. I got it back.
I paid. Satan has no mortgage against your inheritance. You’re no longer a slave.
I have redeemed you as a man.
I brought it back. But Satan doesn’t give up.
Satan said, yes, he died.
And he’s been buried, but he’s down there in that cold, clammy tomb and he’ll stay there.
There was death. That monarch of terrors, there was death.
And for the first time, death had the look of terror on his face.
And Jesus, with a nail pierced hand, reached up and pulled death from his throne to the floor of that tomb which was to be now death’s dungeon.
And when he did, the crown toppled from death’s head.
Jesus put his heel on the neck of death, reached down and pulled the sting out of death, put the crown on his own head,
took the keys from death and walked out and said, behold, I have the keys of death and of hell.
And he rose for us. But it’s not over yet.
He ascended for us and that’s what Paul is saying.
I hope that these folks can understand.
Look, if you will, go back to the book of Ephesians. Look in verse 19.
He says here, I pray that you understand what is this exceeding greatness of his power to us ward, who believe.
According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him in his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
Folks, that speaks of the wonderful resurrection and ascension of our lord Jesus.
Now, the few moments I have left, let me give you the 3rd wonderful thing.
First of all, this dominion was legally lost.
Secondly, this dominion has been righteously regained.
Thirdly, it is gloriously given. Gloriously given.
God gives it back to those who will receive it. Now, the Bible makes it very plain.
Look in chapter 2, Ephesians 2 verse 6.
The Bible says, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Look in Ephesians 4 verse 8. Wherefore he sayeth, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive.
Who was captivity? Satan. Satan was taken captive.
When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And now, listen.
A new thing has happened. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 30.
The Bible says, for we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones.
Of Jesus. Now, here’s the new thing. We have something that Adam never had. Adam was innocent.
We are righteous. Adam was there in the garden of Eden and he sinned.
But you and I have the Lord Jesus Christ as a part of us.
Don’t think of the church now as an organization with Christ as the president.
The church is an organism. It is a body with Christ as the head.
And what is true about the Lord Jesus Christ has is true about you.
Jesus did not defeat Satan on his behalf, he defeated Satan on our behalf.
And and so we have been co executed, co risen, co exalted, and co enthroned with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here’s the bottom line. He became a son of man that we might become sons of God.
He took our sins that we might be innocent. He became guilty that we might be acquitted.
He was filled with despair that we might be filled with joy.
He took my shame that I might take his glory.
He endured the pains of hell that I might have the blessings of heaven.
And I wanna say, friend, the lamb has cried.