Gene Edwards – The Eternal Purpose – UCLA 1969

You may be seated. Here we go again.

The old man left the garden. He still bore something of this replica, this ripped, torn, tattered image of his creator, and he still had something in him that he wanted to do good. Do you know why he wanted to do good? Do you know why he wanted to do good? Because he ate of the tree of good. But he also does evil because he ate of the tree of evil. He doesn’t want to do it, but he does it.

Let me tell you something, being in the church and being a Christian has absolutely nothing to do with being good. Friend, that’s right off the tree of knowledge. Good is from Satan. Life is from God. And brother, we don’t live by being good, we live by life. The tree of life. And that’s all we live by.

But anyway, this man, this old man now, born and broken in the image of Adam, leaves, and he goes out. And Cain builds a city called Enoch. And here a man begins to do his little building. He’s going to try to continue to be something for God. But he’s doing it all. And you remember Lamech, who killed two guys, twice as many as Cain. I can’t even find this, and I sure don’t remember their names. But this guy, I believe, had three children. Two boys and a girl. And I believe Lamech was strong with war. And another one was great with music. And another one had a lovely home. And this is the beginning of man’s building.

Now, I want to talk about the old man just a second. You got him. I’ve got him. But praise God, I’ve got the new man in me, too. Now, I’ve got to choose which one I live by. The old or the new. And I intend in the body of Jesus Christ to live by the new man, that’s the only way I can live by Him, in a corporate way. Otherwise, I’m bound to live by the old. But the old man who wants to do good is upon this earth, and he’s in you, and he’s in me, and he has certain characteristics, and God hates those characteristics. The old man is nothing more than your human capacity, your human life. He is Adam life. Fallen Adam life. I gave you my testimony a while ago. I gave you a testimony of Adam life. I gave you the testimony of sweat and work. I gave you the testimony of hours a day of letters, of sermons, of grit, and gum, and printing presses, and money, and finances, and all of these things, human life trying to build for God on this earth. And I believe that the brothers who stand in this podium here are trying to communicate to you the reason they pulled out of things they pulled out is because they have realized that they were living by the other life and serving God by the other life, by the sweat of the brow they have tilled the earth. This is by the human life. This is by the human system.

Okay, what are these three things Lamech and his brother and sister built? Lamech was war, another one was recreation, and another one was home, building. And that’s about all there is to the world system if you understand it. The world system is nothing but the world, it is nothing except ordinary good things that enslave us. They have become perverted, like marriage.

In the church last year, a brother and sister came to the meeting. They said they want to get married. The meeting ended, and they were sitting there, and they pulled out the contract, and they signed it, both of them. And someone said, Praise the Lord, hallelujah, amen. Someone else prayed a little bitty prayer, and the meeting ended. They were legally married. There was no system to that. That’s just beautiful. That’s the greatest marriage there is. Utter simplicity.

But what is the world system of marriage? It is weeks of sweat and labor. It is hundreds…no, no, no, no…I’m talking about the ceremony itself. It is invitations being sent out. It’s poor Papa who’s got a daughter spending hundreds of dollars on gowns, candles, and flowers. And all of this is a big, beautiful system that captures you.

And the same is true of recreation. We work so hard to rest. We’re utterly captured by it. And the home. Listen, the home is nothing. The home can become the most absolute bondage. The mowing of the lawn. The keeping of the dust out, you know. And I know, I have owned a home. I don’t anymore, but I’m sure that our expenses ran $50 to $75 a month keeping that place up, and that’s beside the note. The bondage of the tent, the house. This is the world system.

And today there is another one. I’m sorry that this isn’t mentioned right here. I really feel that something got left out, and that’s transportation. The bondage of an automobile. The absolute length and breadth of that thing, and the expense and the agony of keeping that thing moving. No, listen, that’s a system that captures man from his simplicity.

This was the beginning of the old man’s way of doing things. It has nothing to do with the new man, and it bears nothing of the image of the new man. It has nothing to do with, and this is, well, I’m moving ahead of myself, but listen, this is what makes men see God. It’s when they see a body of believers that don’t look like anything on this earth.

When you have a church that has a pastor and a board of directors and a bunch of people sitting out like you’re sitting out, and this is really wrong, this is an abomination for me to be here and you to be there. This looks just like General Motors, the president of the board of directors, and those who do the work. This is the system, and it bears, it has no scriptural basis whatsoever. I trust that doesn’t shake you up. It just doesn’t. I’m sorry, it’s not there.