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[0:00] that purpose, he would continue to rule the world in which he was put. Friend, we understand this, that by creative design, man is the best fit to rule over that which has been created.

[0:14] And by clear command, man is told how he can maintain that rulership over what was created. God has given us all places of authority and purpose. Some of us are in places of authority in our homes because by creative design, since God has entrusted us with children, we by design have been given the right. It is a biblical right. This is not a dictatorship, by the way. We have been given the biblical right to lead or to be the authority of our home. Husbands in particular and husbands and wives in general are given the right to rule. The Bible very clearly says to train up a child in the way he should go. We understand that. By the way, that doesn't mean the way you think he should go.

[0:56] That is the way that God has created him, that he should go. You raise up this child in the way he should go. It also tells us that we have the biblical responsibility of operating within that design. Since we are parents, God has given us the authority, but that authority is only as good as we obey God in his commands. Some of us in our occupations are in places of authority and God has entrusted us with those places of authority in occupation. But again, that authority is limited to our obedience to his commands because we can forfeit our right or we could give up our rights simply because we fail to obey.

[1:31] Because that which God has entrusted to us, he can very easily take from us. Because man by creative design was given the keys to this world, but man would maintain those keys by following the command that God had given him.

[1:44] So third and finally, because we are looking at the keys of this world, we want to bring it out. This answers the question of who was first entrusted with the keys. The answer to that is man.

[1:56] Who was first entrusted? But the second question is, who now possesses the keys? Because we do not have to look very long upon the earth and upon the world in which we live to understand man is not really ruling.

[2:09] We have man, some men and women who have ascended to places of authority or places of rulership and governments and places of rulership and world forces around the world.

[2:21] But man really does not rule. Man is not in control. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans that all of creation groans until the day of man's redemption because creation really has authority over man now.

[2:33] Man is not in control of what goes on in creation. Man is not under control of what happens. Man is really just open to all circumstances and he's open to the things that happen to him and rather than being in control of that which happens to him.

[2:47] So that begs the question of who now holds those keys. And that leads us to Genesis 3 and we do not have to read Genesis 3 because we are so familiar with it. But in Genesis 3 we have the fall of man recorded.

[3:00] And the fall of man recorded is simply man failing to obey the command of God. And I want you to see third and finally man's careless loss. Man was created by design to rule and man had a command to follow.

[3:18] But man carelessly lost the keys which he was entrusted with. And I say carelessly because it was an intentional decision to fail to hold on to that which God had commanded him to do.

[3:33] Genesis 3 records for us the fall of man. We know the end of Genesis 2 talks of man being put into a deep sleep and God taking the rib from man, fashioning a woman. And he called this woman Eve and he brought this woman to man and so the two shall become one flesh.

[3:47] And then in Genesis 3 we get the tempter. We are introduced to Satan for the first time in scripture. And the serpent, the serpent of old as Revelation refers to him who is Satan himself comes and tempts Eve.

[4:00] And speaks to Eve and tempts her with this, has God really said? It is a twisting of the word of God. And Eve says, well he said that we shouldn't even touch from it.

[4:10] And that's not what God said. God said don't eat of it, right? And Satan begins to cast doubt into the word of God. By the way, Satan always tempts us with this. He begins to cast doubt in our mind to the reality and the truthfulness of the word of God.

[4:25] He begins to cause a little doubt in our mind to creep in. Is does God really have our best interest in mind? So the Satan, the serpent of old who is Satan himself comes and tempts Eve.

[4:36] And it says that she saw that the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good to eat. So she took of it and she ate it and she gave it to the man who was with her. We've looked at that before.

[4:47] Not only did Adam sin because the two have become one flesh, so whatever Eve did, he did. Adam also sinned because he was standing there silent watching all this happen. He, in his submissiveness, he failed to rule.

[5:02] Because look at this, Adam was entrusted with the keys on this earth. So at that point, Adam had authoritative power over everything on the earth, which would have included that serpent.

[5:14] But he failed to exercise that authority and therefore succumbed to something that was placed lower than him and chose to intentionally disobey the command of God.

[5:26] This disobedience did so much more than cast man out of the Garden of Eden. That is the place of perfection. Because we know that they hid themselves. They saw that they were naked.

[5:37] They clothed themselves with fig leaves. They hid themselves from the presence of God. Now all of a sudden, man is not doing either one of his two things. Because by hiding from the presence of God, he is no longer worshiping him.

[5:47] Because worship runs into his presence. Sin leads us to hide from his presence. And by taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he failed to obey him. So man is no longer fulfilling either one of his twofold purposes here.

[6:01] So man, all of a sudden, is falling even though he had been given these keys. But at the fall of man, something far greater than just being put out of the Garden of Eden takes place.

[6:13] Because the putting out of the Garden of Eden was a representation of the losing of a place of authority. Or the losing of a rightful position of reign.

[6:25] Man forfeited his keys to Satan when he chose to obey Satan rather than God. And you say, well, how do we know that? Well, now we turn to Matthew chapter 4.

[6:37] So turn with me, if you will, in your scripture. I asked you to mark it earlier, but I'll have to turn there. Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4 is a very powerful set of scriptures, as all of them are.

[6:47] But in Matthew 4, we have Jesus being led out into the wilderness for his 40 days of temptation. He's being tempted. We see here, Matthew 4, starting verse 1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

[7:01] And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to him. Now, all of a sudden, we have what happened to the first Adam is happening to the second Adam, right?

[7:12] The tempter came to the first Adam and tempted him. And now the tempter comes to the second Adam with the same temptation. Now, we're not going to look at everything that happens here. I just want to call your attention on some things, but I'll read it, and then we'll focus in on verses 8 through 10.

[7:27] And the tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

[7:39] Then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

[7:54] Just as a side note here, do you see that the temptation of Jesus is the same temptation of Adam and Eve? It is a twisting of Scripture, right? Satan went to Eve and said, Has God really said?

[8:07] And here he comes to Jesus, who is the Son of God, who is the Word of God, and begins to bring up Scripture and says, This is what it says, so this is what you should do. So it's twisting Scripture.

[8:18] But Jesus said to him in verse 7, On the other hand, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Look at verse 8. Verses 8 through 10 are really where we're going to focus in.

[8:28] Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

[8:39] Then Jesus said to him, Go, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began to minister to him. This is where we see that the fall of man, when man fell in the garden, when he failed to obey God, he failed to worship God, that he did so much more than just bring about death upon himself.

[9:00] He forfeited, or he lost in a careless manner, his right to rule. And he lost that right to Satan. And the reason we know that is because we are told here in verses 8 through 10 that Satan takes Jesus to the pinnacle, to a mountain, and it shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

[9:23] So he's showing him everything this world has to offer. And he says, All of these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me. Now, Scripture says as much in its silence as it does in its audible speaking, right?

[9:36] Because Jesus does not deny, or does not discount the fact that these are Satan's to give. He does not say, Well, Satan, these don't even belong to you. He is Jesus himself.

[9:49] He is the word of God. He is the rightful king of kings and lord of lords. But he never once says, These are not yours to give. These already belong to me. These belong to man. He doesn't say that. And by not saying that, he acknowledges that these were Satan's to give him.

[10:03] Because he said, I'm not going to bow down and worship you. And the reason we know that is because John chapter 12, verse 31, I asked you to kind of mark that now. We're not going to turn there. But in John 12, verse 31, immediately preceding his soon coming betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus makes this statement.

[10:21] And he says, Now, the ruler of this world has been judged. And he is speaking in direct reference here to Satan.

[10:33] And he acknowledges the fact that Satan is the current ruler of this world. The world that was designed and created and entrusted to man has been lost and forfeited and handed over to man's greatest enemy, who is Satan himself.

[10:57] The problem we have is that God created us to rule. We failed to obey. And therefore, we have given up our rights.

[11:09] And by giving up our rights, that place in which we fit the most, that place in which we were to have authoritative power, that place in which we were to have prominent position, now seems to wage war against us.

[11:23] Now seems to be a place that we struggle and a place where we don't belong. And all of this because man designed us for it, but we could not follow and obey him completely.

[11:35] Therefore, we lost it and gave it to our enemy. Friend, listen to me. We no longer possess the keys of this world. We are not in the position of authority in this world.

[11:48] As a matter of fact, the Bible reminds us, the greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. It is not us, but it is Christ inside of us.

[11:59] So this world is no longer our home. We no longer hold the key to it. We no longer have the right to rule over it. We no longer have the place of prominence in it. So why would we strive so hard to make ourselves at home in a place we don't belong?

[12:14] This world belongs to our enemy. Now there is coming a day. We will see it. We've already begun to see it in the book of Revelations where it will be renewed and taken back and captured again. And then we will be entrusted with places of authority.

[12:28] But not yet. Because the keys of this world belong to the enemy of man, which is the great deceiver, the serpent from of old, who is Satan himself. My friend, my prayer and my desire for you is that you would not try to unlock and to possess the keys of a world in which we do not belong, but rather that we would seek.

[12:46] We get the good news next week looking at the keys of heaven. But we would seek that which is above. And we would follow the Lord. We would go back to the purpose of man.

[12:58] That we would go back to cultivating a relationship with him through worship and maintaining that relationship through obedience. Because only then will we begin to walk with any authoritative power.

[13:10] Not in this world, but rather in the heavenlies, as we will see next week. Friend, I'm praying for you. I love you. I want you to know the church loves you. If there's anything at all we can do for you, please feel free to reach out to me and one of the deacons.

[13:23] You can reach out to me on my cell phone. It's there on the website. You can send me an email. There's links on the website. Any way you want to, please just feel free to reach out to me. We'll be praying for you. We'll be reaching out to you in the weeks coming ahead.

[13:35] If anything changes in your circumstances, please let me know. If there's anything that we can do, please let me know. And again, I'm so excited that we have the opportunity to look at what scripture says about the keys of authority.

[13:46] And the keys of this world were entrusted to man, but were given up by man to the enemy of man. And now we seek to follow the Lord our God and set up along in a place that we are no longer at home.

[13:57] Would you pray with me? And then we'll be dismissed. Lord, we thank you so much. Lord, we love you. We adore you. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the comfort your word brings us. Lord, we are reminded, Lord, that through our disobedience, we have given up the position that you have created for us.

[14:13] But Lord, we also know that through your death, through your burial, through your resurrection, there is a greater place awaiting us. So Lord, we pray that our hearts and minds would be fixed upon you, not upon this world.

[14:23] Lord, may we not seek to have places of authoritative power in this life, but Lord, may we seek to have places of seat in the next life. May we be seated around the throne, the King of kings and Lord of lords for your glory.

[14:35] And Lord, we give you all the praise and all the admiration that you deserve. And Lord, we exalt you and you alone. And we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[14:54]  Amen.