Brother Barron was reading that
scripture, and as he was reading toward the end there, he said,
there is no other God that can deliver. I want to hear about that God.
I want to hear about the God who is in heaven and earth. I need to hear about Him every
time. I need to be reminded every time
that there is hope, salvation in none other. Just a few minutes,
I'd like to bring a message. Basically, I'll be preaching
out of Genesis. But I want to read a verse of
Scripture, and I've actually taken this verse of Scripture
as the passage for this message, even though I'll be mostly in
Genesis. But Romans 3 23 says this, For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That word all is inclusive. That
means me, you, everybody. We've all missed the mark. That's
what comes short. You've come short of the glory
of God. You missed the mark. One day I'm going to stand before
God and you are too. And we're going to hear his word
of acceptance or rejection, of us being one excepted of him
or being a reprobate. His word is final. Now the scripture declares that
all have sinned I pray that God teach me something
of that and my need of salvation. I'd like to make a few comments
tonight out of, and I'm gonna be mainly in Genesis. You turn
to Genesis one, we'll go a few other places. But in Genesis
chapter one, The scripture declares that man, being created of God, placed in this world, placed
in a garden, something happened in the Garden of Eden. Something
happened, and I truly believe happened very quickly after man's
creation. But that's, that's not the issue
this evening. Man was created. I'd like to know, first of all,
how was man created? Yep. Let me, uh, let me take
the scriptures and turn over to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. How was man created? Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse
29. Here's what the first part of
Ecclesiastes 7, 29 says, Lo, this only have I found, that
God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many
inventions. Now, how was man created? How did God Almighty create man? Well, Genesis 1, Genesis 1, verse
26 to 28 tells us something. Now listen to the scriptures. Genesis 1, 26, and God said, let us, now here is God Almighty,
one God, the tri-unity of His being, saying, let us make man in our
image, after our likeness, Let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over
the earth, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth. So God created man in his image, his own image. The image of God created him,
male and female, created he them. God blessed them. God said unto
them, Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it,
have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air,
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. God Almighty created man upright. What does that mean? Well, according
to the meaning of the words, man was created straight. He
was correct. He was right. He was proper.
He was pleasing. God Almighty created man and
man was a wonderfully created being. And God blessed him. He had dominion. over the creation
of Almighty God. What does that mean? He had dominion.
Let him have dominion. That's what the Lord said. Let
him rule. Let him rule in this dominion. Man created by God walked with
God. He walked with God in fellowship and in the meaning of the words.
Man was created as a rational being. He thought rightly. He thought honorably concerning
God. He was as rational as a created
being can be. There was no irregularity. There
was no fault to be found in man. Why? Because he was created in
the image of God. He was a created being. Created
in God's image. I thought about that. What is the image of the invisible
God? When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, He came setting forth God's image for man. That's how He looked. Let us
create man in our own image. We were made in His image. He
didn't come into this world and take on our image. Who had it
first? Let us make man in our image. There was an image first. And man was created in God's
image. The invisible God. Man was as pertaining to creation. glorious creation of God. God created man. But man, though created upright,
obviously he was a fallible creature. He was susceptible to fall, because
he did. Created in God's image, Susceptible
to fall from the position that Almighty God had placed him into. A position of innocency. A position of right and straight
and honorable as a man. He was created, he was a man,
he was a man. Created in the image of God.
But fallible, fallible. And there was a warning given
him. God gave man a warning. You want to read it? It's in
Genesis chapter 2, verses 15 to 17. It was a warning that God gave
this creature, this created man, of the tree of the knowledge
good and evil. You can eat of everything in
this garden, everything, except one thing that you can't do.
You cannot eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The day you eat of that, what's going to happen? Let's see. But
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. God Almighty took man, He created
man, He created him upright, straight, honorable. A man that was innocent. Put him in the garden of Eden,
Scripture says to dress it. And this man had liberty over
everything in the garden except That which was forbidden of God. God Almighty created this innocent
creature. Upright. Honorable. That man had a limit placed on
him. This was the limit. In the day
you eat of the fruit that I have forbidden, you're going to die. According to the Word of God,
Adam, with his eyes wide open, did that which was forbidden
of God. There was a fruit that his wife
Eve had taken and had eaten. And the Scripture says that she
gave the fruit to Adam. When Adam ate, their eyes were
opened, and they knew that they were naked. Adam's wife was beguiled. She was deceived. Adam disobeyed God, knowing exactly
what he was doing, and from this one act of disobedience, one
act. Here's my question. What happened in the garden?
What happened? What happened? God had created
all of this. He created the animals, He created
the trees, He created the fish, He created everything. And the
last thing He created was man. And He put man in this garden
to till it, to dress it, to watch over it. gave man complete liberty except. There's one fruit. What happened? What happened? Man did exactly what God told
him not to do. What happened in the garden? Here's what happened. Romans
5.12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world. By one act of disobedience, sin
entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. What happened in the garden,
in this paradise, in this place of beauty and wonder and plenty
and unbelievable blessing? Everything,
everything was there that man could possibly desire. And there was one thing that
man couldn't do. don't eat of that fruit. And he ate. And that one sin,
one sin of Adam, plunged the whole world into sin. One sin made mankind now liable comes forth from Adam's disobedience
and from one man's disobedience. What happened? What happened?
One man disobeyed God. One. And you mean to tell me
that one man's disobedience caused this whole world to be now liable
to the penalty of sin Yes. One act of disobedience. And
now the whole world is born into this world bearing the guilt
of Adam. What Adam did, we all did. Why? Because we were all found in
him. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And now, by that one act of disobedience,
All mankind wears the crown of total depravity. Total depravity. What does that mean? There is
nothing good about man. From the crown of his head to
the sole of his foot. What is it? It's putrefying sores. They've not been bound up, not
been mollified. They've not been dressed. No
ointment. What happened? What happened? One man was pinned. And everybody
that was in the loins of that one man, all of them, now came short of
the glory of God. being born in Adam, now dead
in trespasses and sins, every man, every woman comes forth and can do nothing acceptable
of themselves to please God. I was looking at this passage
of scripture in Proverbs. Proverbs Chapter 21, verse 4. Now listen to this. And high look
and a proud heart. Oh, I can see where that would
be. That'd be sin against God. High look and a proud heart.
Oh, yeah. I can see that. And the plowing
of the wicked is sin. You mean to tell me that a man
that's out here doing honorably, working hard, you mean to tell
me that that is sin too? He said, without me you can do
nothing. There is nothing. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. How much of that do you
think covers mankind? All of it. There's nothing that
we can do. One man's sin. Romans 5, 12 says,
wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. You say, well, Marvin, you're
trying to, sounds like to me you're trying to make this look
kind of bad. It's bad. It's bad. It's bad. I know man, by nature, tries
to make sin out to be, you know, kind of a, you know, well, we
got a lot of white lies and we got this kind of categories and
degrees and stuff. A one man's transgression, scripture
sets forth, sin and all of its results, death, disease, separation
from God, everything that you can think of, entered into this
world and therefore into all men. When Adam sinned and fell
from his place of uprightness, all mankind fell with him. All of his guilt was imputed
to all of us. And the nature of sin was imparted
to all of us. There's none good. No, not one. There's none good. What happened
in the garden? Man, this wonderful creation,
created in the image of God, created by God, according to
God's wisdom, That creation, fallible in itself, to prove
something to all of us right now, there is nothing that we
can do to save ourselves, to merit ourselves. Scripture says, because of one
man's sin, about that man that plowed, even
the plowing of the wicked, Men out there doing the best he can.
There's enough pride in what he does. When I was young, my dad did
his best to try to teach me how to plow in a straight line. And he gave me the instructions.
I could hear. I mean, I could hear. I perceived what he was saying.
We'd stand at the end of a row And he said, now, I want you
to pick out something at the other end of that field right
there, and get your eyes on it. You looking? Yes, sir. All right. Now, I want you to go straight
to that object right there. And buddy, here I'd go. Man,
I'm going as straight as I could possibly be. And I'm telling
you the best I could possibly do. Under his scrutiny, those
of you that's ever tried to do this, let your dad look at it. Most of you got dads like that.
He found more fault in that, you know, and I mean, it wasn't
bad, but according to him, it wasn't good either. Let me tell
you what the scripture says. Every man at his best state, every man at that state of doing
all he can do, trying to please, trying to honor, trying to do,
every man at his best state is altogether vanity, empty,
nothing, nothing. Then the scripture at the end
of that says, Selah. Every man at his best stayed. What happened in the garden?
Man fell. And he fell farther than he could
ever get back. He died. Can't crawl his way
back up. First message I ever preached
here. I remember the name of it. How far did man fall in the
garden? Farther than he could get back. Oh, this one I just quoted, Isaiah
1 6, from the sole of the foot, even unto the head. There's no
soundness, there's no wholesomeness, there's nothing, there's nothing,
nothing there. Wounds, bruises, putrefying sores. Because of sin, man, what happened? What happened in the garden?
Man fell from his place of innocency. Now he's a fallen, helpless creature. Dead in trespasses and sins. No ability, no will to change. It can't change. Talk about free will. I jotted
down this, Jeremiah 13, 23. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Leopard his spots. Then may ye
also do good that are accustomed to do evil. According to the scriptures,
Man's fall in the garden left him without any hope in himself. But bless God, I can't stop. I'm going to tell you right now.
In ourselves, we can do nothing. In ourselves, we're hopeless.
In ourselves, we're dead. In ourselves, we're goners. Praise the Lord. Man, mankind is not without hope in
the Savior of sinners. Found within this mess, that's
what we've got, found within this mess, oh, by the grace and
good pleasure of God, the Lord has been pleased. to take helpless
sinners. Now here's what I'm going to
say as I begin to wrap this up. If there is a helpless, needy
sinner, if there's one that can't do
anything for himself, if there's one that knows in himself there
dwelleth no good thing, I got some good news for you. Now if
you've got something you can hang on to, something that you've
done that you think has merited God's acceptance for you, well,
I'm not talking to you. But if there's somebody here
and you're not looking to your profession of faith that you
made 17, 21, 50 years ago, you're not looking
back to that. I've said before, what difference
does it make? What difference does it make?
Well, I gave my heart to the Lord when I was 17 years old.
We're thinking of Christ right now. Right now. Right now. Today is the day of salvation. Today. If you are one that is in yourself,
I have no hope unless the Lord reached down and took me and
saved me, and kept me, and washed me, and cleansed me, and purified
me in His blood. And how would you know that He's
done that for you? I believe Him, Don, I believe
Him. I don't have anything else. I have no merit in me. In the
fall in the garden, I fell. Leave a man to his own choice,
his own decision. I'm going to tell you something.
Man's going to perish. Leave him to trust in himself, where he goes to church, all
the activities that he does. Oh, but thanks be unto God, that
which is impossible is man. It's not impossible with God. You mean to tell me that God
Almighty can take somebody like me, take somebody worse than
you, take me? You mean to tell me that He can
take me and wash me in His own precious blood, give me a new
heart, Luke 137 says, for with God nothing, I love that word, nothing, nothing
shall be impossible. There is a God in heaven that
saves sinners. Now I'm talking about real sinners,
those that can't save themselves. Those that know something about
in me, I know in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. Man is born, as I said a little
bit ago, totally depraved. What does that mean? He is totally
corrupt. Totally corrupt. But there's
nothing that limits the power and the wisdom of Almighty God
who rules in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. Carnal man, because of his sin,
is now limited because he's dead. Pretty good limit right there. But God is the Almighty God who
is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto him. David was moved by the Spirit
of God to say, wherefore should the heathen say, where is now
their God? David said, but our God is in
the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Brethren, laid before us tonight
is the foundation of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the
almighty God. He who receives all the honor,
all the glory, and all the praise for saving fallen creatures like
you and me. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ Jesus does give the Lord all the honor
and all the glory and all the praise. If you have nothing else but
Him, now I'm talking to you that fell, and I do understand, I
know. In this life, we're never gonna
grasp the fullness of our fall. But I know just enough to know
this, I know just enough that without him, I can do nothing. I don't know much, but I know
a little bit about that one. Without me, you can do nothing. That right there is gonna pretty
well include everything that I thought I could do. What happened
in the garden? Man fell. from his position of
innocency. But God, I pray that the Lord
might be pleased tonight to speak to the vessels of His mercy,
sinners like you and me, and save us for His glory and our
eternal good.