Why Responsibility — Stephen Kaung

Will you please turn to Genesis the book of Genesis? Chapter 1 we read from verse 26 through verse 28. Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 and God said Let us make man in our image after our likeness and Let them have dominion over the sea of the fish of the sea over the fowl of the heavens and over the cattle and over the whole earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth and God created man in his image in the image of God.

Created he him male and female created he them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and feel the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens and over Every animal that creepeth on the earth.

The book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 5. We begin with verse 7 7. Tonight who? That is our Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh having offered up those supplications and entreaties to Him who was able to save him out of death with strong crying and tears and having been heard because of his piety though he were son he learned obedience from the things which he suffered and having been perfected Became to all them that obeyed him author of eternal salvation.

Let's have a word of prayer as we get it here. In thy own name we sense that we are Already living in eternity. We praise and thank thee that thou art our God and We are thy children. We look to thee Lord To open thy word to us and bring us into That which is according to thy will.

Lord we are all here speak Thy servants hearing. We ask in thy precious name. Amen we thank God for gathering us together again this time. I often feel that Such opportunity is very rare especially as we are approaching the end.

The time certainly Is a head so we just desire that we will not miss such an opportunity. I personally feel that I will not like to preach to you or Preach at you. I would rather ask all of you Both the old and the young To join with me in meditating on the Word of God.

In other words There is no speaker nor hearer here. We are all before the Lord together Seeking to know his heart and Desiring that he may have us for himself. Now the theme for this conference is Taken from Revelation chapter 1 verse 1.

Through verse 3 it is revelation. Realization and responsibility and all these three are Related to this matter of time. Why is it revelation so urgent? Why is realization so needed? Why is responsibility has to be fulfilled because the time Is at hand very close is the revelation the realization and the responsibility.

Then dear brothers and sisters When we shall stand before him Who loved us and gave himself for us and our heads in shame? Or can we look up to him and see his glorious face. Brothers and sisters revelation is Absolutely necessary.

Revelation, Realization, and Responsibility

With our revelation we are spiritually dead. Revelation comes From God. We do thank God because he is the God who reveals himself. And it is his good pleasure To reveal his son in us, but what is revelation now realize in our lives?

It would be just theory Theology. It doesn't help on the contrary it condemns. Because the more revelation you receive The more you are responsible to it. So dear brothers and sisters We need revelation.

We need to see God. We need to see God's purpose. We need to see God's Son. We need to see what God Intends to work in us. We need to see all these things and not only to see them But to realize them by the grace of God by the working of the cross.

That revelation will be our vocation. That it become real in our lives and out of such revelation and realization we are able to fulfill the responsibility That God has caught us into. So brothers and sisters This is a very serious time.

We have no time to lose. We need to really be before the Lord and Ask him that he will not allow this time to slip away. My responsibility is on Responsibility people do not like to hear even the word Responsibility for brothers and sisters if we really know what responsibility is.

Responsibility as a Privilege and Honor

Why is it that God should? Responsibility upon us. Then brothers and sisters We will see responsibility in an entirely different way. We will see that it is a privilege. It is an honor. And it leads to glory.

So I hope brothers and sisters especially young people Do not be afraid To hear this word Responsibility it is a glorious word. Who are we that God should put responsibility upon us. Brothers and sisters, we should be most thankful That God should ask us to bear responsibility With him.

We would like to approach this matter of responsibility On three sides very simple why? Responsibility what? Responsibility How? Responsibility thank God His truth is simple now brothers and sisters in anything not only Spiritual heavenly things.

Even ordinary common things. If you really want to understand what it is, you cannot begin With yourself because if you begin anything with yourself you miss The whole picture because you are not a beginning.

So when we talk about responsibility Why? There is responsibility. Why is responsibility put upon us? You cannot begin with yourself. We have to begin with the very beginning. And dear brothers and sisters Who is that very beginning?

Except God himself. In the beginning God. That our responsibility you have to begin with God. You have to understand What kind of God is he? Then you will begin to understand what? Our responsibility Is.

God's Sovereignty and the Ground of Responsibility

Is the great I am. The self Existing one. He is the beginning of all things. He is the beginning and He is the end. Living God is the supreme will in the universe. Purpose according to his good pleasure.

Even before the foundation of the world and whatever he purposes he fulfills He accomplishes. God who promises and he is God Who fulfills all his promises of Responsibility. Responsible to no one, but he is responsible to himself.

So that's why the Bible said he cannot deny himself He is always responsible. Now knowing that God is such a God. You will understand Why? He give us responsibility. So dear brothers and sisters we have to go back To the creation of man In the beginning.

When God created man He created man in his own Image. You know brothers and sisters of all the created beings That God created Man Is special. Before he created man There was a council Among the Godhead The Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and out of that council they created man and in Their own image.

He never did that before. He never did that to the heavens nor the earth. He never even did that to the angels and all the other creatures. He only did that to man. Man is created in God's image. Now, I hope you remember that especially young people.

Humanity in the Image of God

You are created In the image of God. You're special. What do you mean by image? Image in the scripture Does not refer to outward form. It refers to inward quality. In other words You are made according to the inward Character quality of God.

Now that speaks a lot. But this morning we will just concentrate on one point. When God created man in his image He created man with a free will because God himself Is a free will. Anything he wants to.

Perfect freedom in exercising his will and when God created man He created man with a free will. In other words, you have a will. Then you can choose. You can decide What do you want? You can decide your own destiny.

Where are you going? Brothers and sisters This is a great privilege. God did not make you a robot. That you can only do What he wants you to do. He builds you, he makes you, he creates you with a will as free as his own.

He gives you the liberty to exercise your will to choose your own destiny. Now this is a great responsibility. The very fact of the creation of man Involves Responsibility. Why we say a two-born baby has a will.

But he does not have the consciousness the understanding of his will. So that's why we know that babies, whatever they do You cannot hold them responsible. But as they grow up and they came to the age of accountability Whenever they exercise their wills They will be held responsible.

So brothers and sisters In the very creation of man You find God in giving man and free will. Responsibility is already There. You cannot say I'm not responsible. You know sometimes. Especially we who are the Lord's God so loves us, does everything for us.

So where is our responsibility? We just enjoy What he has given to us and that's it. Now is that Christianity? This is the Christianity that you like? You do not understand God. You do not understand God's heart.

You do not understand God's way. He wants you more than that. He gives you a free will. What risk God has taken In giving man a free will. But to God is worth it. He does not want someone to love him and to serve him.

Because that's automatic. There's nothing he could do. That's not love. That's not service. That doesn't give God any glory. He would rather take the risk and make man in his own image. Allow them to make their own choice.

Put them under responsibility. What honor God Has given to man. Number two, after God created man in his own image He blessed man. Man dominion authority over the fowls of the air the fishes of the sea the living creatures on the land.

He gave man power. He put man in the garden of Eden and God said and God it. From the very beginning of the creation man God give them authority and power. Now today people want authority. People long for power.

But do you know what authority and power are really for? Where does it come from? Authority and power Come from God. God is the only authority in the universe. All power belongs to him and Yet he gave man authority Dominion to rule And give him power To do the work.

Dominion, Authority, and the Purpose of Power

Now think of that Adam and Eve in a garden of Eden Is not a small garden, maybe behind your house. That garden of Eden must be like a park and God said guard it. There was no wall to the garden. Adam and Eve they were the wall of the garden.

In other words, they were all almost everywhere. So the enemy had no chance to slip in. Now what power is that? You know the sole power of man Has not even be fully understood. When you think of the power that Adam had is beyond our imagination.

But with that power given he should be able to exercise his authority and fulfill his responsibility. So brothers and sisters if you are thinking of authority and power Think of responsibility. Maybe that will take you away from that ambition for authority and power because Authority and power are given to fulfill God's given Responsibility not only that when God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden God said I have prepared all the trees in that garden.

Fruit bearing trees. I love fruit all kinds of fruits. Beautiful leaves and God said I have provided all these for you. You may eat and live but in the midst of the garden God planted The tree of life it symbolizes the life of God Divine life, you know when God created man He breathed his breath into man's nostrils and The Bible said man became a living soul.

So in other words Man's life Is a created life came from God and Yet it is a created life. Thank God because man was made in the image of God. So God already had the thought in his heart I Will create a man in my image who has the capacity to receive me My life my uncreated life my eternal life my divine life into him.

So that he may be joined to me in life brothers and sisters. How glorious that is? Oh precious Are the thoughts to man from the very beginning his desire for man Is not only man may live But man may receive his own life and have communion with him Union with him in life To know him not outwardly but inwardly.

Brothers and sisters how glorious. But by the side of that tree of life God planted another tree the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. Some people think that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is an evil tree.

But I personally Do nothing so God will never put anything evil in the garden. The evil one is outside the garden and Adam was called to guard the garden and do not let the evil one slip in. So there is nothing evil in the garden itself.

Then what is The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now I think brothers and sisters this tree does not need to be explained because we all have eaten it. We all know its bitterness Its sourness.

Knowledge of Good and evil That is the supreme knowledge. The world has ever known Knowledge the world knows higher than the knowledge of good and evil. In other words Whether it is scientific knowledge or it is Philosophical knowledge none can compare with ethical knowledge.

No good and evil. That is the highest knowledge on earth, but brothers and sisters without the life of God. This knowledge is death because it makes man Independent of God in that He knows it all. He does not need God To guide him to teach him.

So God purposely put the second best in the garden of Eden and the choice is between the best and The second best. Why is it God? Should do such a thing because He wants men to know That he created man Above all things but Under one and as dominion over the fowls of the air The fishes of the sea the beasts of the field but He is under God only under God.

Will he be able to fulfill? His commission fulfill his destiny. So God put them in the garden of Eden and then God gave a command of all the trees in the garden you can freely eat what a generous God he is but This tree the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For it on the day that you shall eat thereof you shall surely die. A command a law Was given to man in order to put man in his right place. So brothers and sisters Aside from the fact we are Created in his image will a will free.

Aside from the fact that he has given us power and authority and responsibility We find ourselves under the fundamental law of God. You are Under him. You are not a master of the world. You are not even your master.

You have a master you have a God. You have a creator above you listen to him and live disobey him. You die very clear. What is that? Responsibility it is responsibility. So brothers and sisters from the very beginning Responsibility is built in man will help man To fulfill his destiny.

It will bring man into the full purpose of God. And brothers and sisters What we are trying to say here is We need revelation our revelation. We are blind really do not know anything. We do not have revelation from above all we depend is upon the tree of the knowledge and good and evil.

We think we know everything. But brothers and sisters we know nothing but revelation Creates a great responsibility. You cannot separate these two things. Now look at Adam. God has given him so much and how did he respond?

Adam's Failure and the Entrance of Sin

I believe we all know the story There in the garden of Eden. They did not fulfill their Responsibility they allow the enemy of God To slip into the garden in the shape of a serpent and the serpent Deceived Eve gave the serpent.

The ground of Temptation comes from the From Satan from the enemy. Sometimes we provide ground for temptation. Evidently Eve Wandered away From Adam he was she was alone. Brothers and sisters God created us in such a way that we need to be together.

We need each other to support each other and when Eve wandered away from Adam she was alone and Look what she was looking at she was looking at the tree Of the knowledge of good and evil. Isn't that strange?

That she was not looking at the tree of life. But instead she was looking at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Must be going on. In her heart she admired the tree good to look at and then Satan came and said Does God said Of all the trees in the garden You should not eat behind that question God is a heart.

He does not want you to live. He will not allow you to any eat any of the fruit and Man at the time is nothing but fruit. If you cannot eat the fruit you die. God is a harsh hard Hearted God. And then Eve said no no of course that's ridiculous.

We can eat all the trees, but this one We cannot eat. Nor can we touch see. The idea that God is a hard God Began to sink Into her mind. God never say you cannot touch it. He only say you cannot eat it, but Eve Began to accept the temptation of Satan.

And add to the Word of God. Brothers and sisters You remember your Revelation chapter 22. To the Word of God you shall not add anything nor taking anything away. It is pure. It is the Word of God. Be careful Not to take away anything from the Word of God not to add Anything to it and that's what Eve did.

So Satan got a ground. He came in and she said you know why God does not allow you to eat it. It is because if you eat it Your eyes will be open. You will be like God and ate it. And evidently at that moment Adam came and he gave Adam he was deceived.

But Adam sinned Deliberately that's why sin and taking to the world from one man Adam all about it. But he loved his wife More than God he did not eat he will lose his wife. He loved his wife so much He will rather share that eternal Death which is human love.

That's why even our human life love Has to be purified. The Lord calls us to love him more than our father mother brother sister wife Children even our own lives even our love Needs to be purified. Oh brothers and sisters Adam failed in his responsibility.

He failed to take care of his wife. Do not allow his wife to wander away from him. He failed to guard the garden. He allowed The enemy to sleep. He disobeyed God's command. Deliberately he sinned and the wages of sin.

Is that so brothers and sisters from the very beginning of the history of man? You can see it is a failure of Responsibility, but thank God whatever God says he would do it. Whatever he has purposed he were accomplished.

Christ's Obedience and God's Redemptive Purpose

He is not defeated. Anyway, he delays his purpose, but he has not defeated His purpose. On the contrary out of the failure of man God came in with even something far bigger far greater far glorious Something that will reveal his heart More than anything else.

We never know the love of God until We see him Gave his only begotten son brothers and sisters in the fullness of time God sent his only begotten son the one Who was with him from the beginning. The one who has always Pleasing To him.

The one whom he loved more than anything else. The one home for home. He created all things and yet to show his love to man to you And to me brothers and sisters. He is willing to let go His only begotten son and what a son he is in obedience to his father as his love.

Towards his father he emptied himself. He emptied himself of all the glory and honor of God. He cannot empty himself of his deity. No. Because that's what he is. But he emptied himself of all that surrounds him.

And he came to this world a fallen world a world of violence of corruption of sin and he took up the form of a bond slave as a man. He took up The form of a bond slave. He came as a slave as a love slave Whose years have been pierced.

Who loved his master and will not leave his master's house. Willing to serve his master all his life of our Lord Jesus. When he was on earth throughout his life he obeyed His Heavenly Father. He never did anything on his own.

Never say any word On his own his time Was always in his father's hand. He did not have all the privilege That Adam had. Adam Was put in the garden of pleasure, but our Lord Jesus Was born in a manger.

He was tempted in the desert. He had not a privilege even of a common person. How he suffered, but how faithful he was. Less privilege more responsibility. His Responsibility is much more than what God had given to Adam because he came To save the lost.

He came to redeem a fallen Mankind. He came to show the love of God to man. He came to bring men back to the purpose the loving glorious purpose of God concerning man. He died on the cross to shed his blood.

For the remission of our sins his body was broken To open a new and living way for us to come To the very presence of God. He not only forgave our sins. He gave his own life to us. Eternal life Divine life Alive that has already been proven That can live on earth And fulfill all responsibility brothers and sisters.

And this life Has been given to you and given to me. I'm not worthy. Dear brothers and sisters. Do you know? You have this life in you. It is a life of privilege a life of Responsibility a life that is well able To fulfill all the responsibilities that God may call you to do but whether With such a gift you will fulfill your responsibility or not.

There is your free will to decide all the Potentials are there brothers and sisters all the potentials to fulfill your responsibility That God has placed upon you all the power is there now it is up to you.

Responding to God's Gift and Calling

Will you? Respond. Take up the responsibility for his sake. Will you do that Lord we stand amazed at thy great love. We are overwhelmed but what Thou has given to us in creation and more in redemption.

Lord we are doubly dying. Where can we go? What can we do but what We want to go With you. We want to do your will. We want to fulfill your purpose. Glory glory to God in Jesus name. Amen.