chapter. I'll read that seventeenth verse
again. But 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. Before Adam fell from this high
and lofty state, the Scriptures imply that Adam walked with God. Now, I don't know exactly what
all is involved in walking with God. I know to walk with Him,
you've got to know Him, have some understanding of who
He is, and it indicates or implies that
He walked in obedience to God. Now, to walk in obedience involves
hearing. Obedience is exercise through
submission and compliance on what is heard. He walked with God. He heard
what God had to say. And he was submissive, obedient
to God. So you can say, I believe, before
the fall, before he fell, he heard all that God said and he
observed what God said. He was submissive to God. He was obedient to God. He was
teachable. He was manageable. But the question
arises here, Why did Adam obey God? Why did Adam walk with God? Why was Adam keen to hear the
voice of God? Why was that? Well, the first
reason, I believe, is this. He had no
He had no reason not to obey God. No reason given here why he should
not obey God. No one suggested that God be
obeyed, so Adam never even thought of it. I remember telling you one time,
thinking about this, that the babysitter who was watching this
little child, two, three years old, and so she said to the child,
said, I'm going into the house for a little bit. And while I'm gone, don't you
put any of those rocks in your mouth." Well, she never thought of putting
any rocks in her mouth until it was suggested to her. And so then she complied and
put rocks in her mouth. Well, why did Adam obey God? He had no reason. not to obey
none whatsoever. No one suggested to him that
he ought not to obey God. Now, God was Adam's father. That can only be said in regard
to Adam in the physical realm. He is our Father, our spiritual
Father. We have been adopted into his
family. Now, God was Adam's father, and
Adam loved his father, and he trusted his father. Now, when
one does not love another, then one cannot trust another. So love and trust and obedience
go together. Also, when one does not feel
loved by another, then they have a hard time trusting and obeying
another. Now, Adam, before he fell, had
no root of self-will in his nature. He was what we call a free moral
agent. That was the state of his moral
nature. It was not affected like our
nature is affected. was not affected by sin. So the will of God was his will. He loved God and trusted God,
and whatever God's will was, was his will. And no one, of
course no one there too, apart from his wife, no one forced him or threatened
him to obey God. He did so freely, willingly. He chose to do so. Adam did before
the fall. He did it willingly, freely. He never thought of anything
else but loving his father, obeying his father. He never wanted,
as far as I can determine, He never wanted to do anything else
but walk with God and obey God. That was before the fall, before
sin entered in, before he disobeyed. Now, before sin entered, before
the fall, Adam and Eve were perfectly comfortable and happy with who
they were. There was no grumbling about
situations or circumstances. They were happy and loved one
another, Adam and Eve. Now Eve was happy to lead and
she was happy to follow. A perfect union. Where would
you find that nowadays? He willing to lead and she willing
to follow. But that's the way it was. He
loved her with all of his heart and she knew this and lovingly
she reverenced her husband. and submitted to it. There was
no struggle, no quarrel, no domination of one over the other. Adam was Eve's king and Eve was Adam's queen before
the fall, before the fall in paradise. That was the environment
a whole lot different than the environment that we're in now. Oh, in this wild and woolly and
wicked world, a world of sinners, a world that's in out-and-out
rebellion against God. But the environment of Adam and
Eve, Garden of Paradise, Garden of Eden. But sin, you see, is
a great destroyer. Sin is a great divider. Sin separates. Sin is a monster. You see, man was innocent before
the fall. And in that second chapter, in
verse 25, it tells us that. It says, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were
not ashamed. Now, there was nothing about
Adam that embarrassed Eve. And there was nothing about Eve
that embarrassed Adam. They were both naked. and they were not embarrassed.
It says they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they
were not ashamed. Now, we associate innocence with
ignorance. What one is ignorant of, one
is innocent of. But this is not the intended
meaning here in this second chapter of the book of Genesis. Now,
Adam and Eve had no sin within them before the fall. Not only did they not have any
sin within them, they had no knowledge about sin. They had never experienced it
before the fall. The feeling of guilt from doing
wrong has its root in the wrong being. That is, when one has
no sin within, there cannot be no guilt without. Now, this is not simply a matter
of being ignorant of sin, for Paul tells us there in the book
of Romans chapter 2, he says that the heathen there felt guilt
even though they had no written or established law. to direct them. Now, this can
only happen because the heathen, though they were ignorant of
many things, are nevertheless, Paul said, they are not innocent,
they are guilty. Now, Adam and Eve were innocent
in the sense that they were created without sin. Adam came directly
from the very hand of God. That defies explanation. God, the Creator, took the dust
of the earth and created a man in his own image. breathed into
his nostrils and he became a living soul. They were created without sin.
They had no sin, so they had no guilt. If you have no sin,
you have no guilt. They were pure within and pure
without. Now, in contrast to this, We are not born innocent, you
and I, but we are born with sin. Although it is hard to think
and to imagine, and it is difficult for one to say in a public audience
that has relatively little understanding of anything pertaining to the
Word of God. It is hard to look at a newborn
child and not think of that newborn child as being innocent, isn't
it? The fact is, Since the fall of
Adam, there is no such thing as an innocent human being. David said, concerning this matter,
he said that he, David the king, whose heart beat with God, David
said that he was safest in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. How could we view a newborn baby? How could we attribute to a newborn
baby sin? How could we possibly think?
What would we see in this newborn baby that would cause us to think
that that baby wasn't innocent? Where is the sin? Well, David
had a handle on this truth. He said that the sin is within. That's where it's at. It's in
our nature. We're born with the nature of
fallen animals. Sin is within, and it's not long
until you see the effects of that sin that is within. That's the truth. The sin is
within, in our nature, woven, warped and woven, in and
out, in our nature. The fact of this is seen that
in the millions and millions and millions of human beings
being born since Adam's fall, not one with the single exception,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was virgin-born. All of these millions
have failed to manifest sinless perfection. They have all been born. and manifested one way or the
other a sinful, depraved nature. Now, before Adam fell, Adam was
a friend of God, a friend of God. He was Adam's father and he was
Adam's friend. And you know the Bible talks
about the Lord Jesus Christ and our relationship to him and his
relationship to us says that we have a friend who sticketh closer than a brother. Adam was a friend of God. God
was his friend before the fall. He was his father. Adam was God's son and Eve was
His daughter. There was a family relationship
with God and His children. It tells us in the Bible that
God quite often came down to the Garden of Eden and visited
had relationship with these children, Adam and Eve, and had fellowship
with them. They were friends. Adam could say he had the best
friend in the world. He had God as his friend. Not only was God his friend,
but God was his Father. He came directly from the hand
of God, God's friend. But there came
a time, I don't know how long it was, but there came a time
when God, as He usually did, came down to the garden to visit
His children, to visit Adam and Eve. But when he came down, something
had changed. Now they were trying to avoid
him. It says here in this Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 8, I believe, the eyes of them were both open
and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves a priest. They knew they were naked. I
read to you in verse 25 of the previous chapter, and they were
both naked, the man and his wife, and were not in shame, were not
embarrassed. But now, God is about to come down in
the cool of the day and walk and talk with His children and
His dear friend Adam. And when He came down, they heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. They heard Him.
I don't know. Maybe He was singing. I don't
know. But they heard Him. Maybe they heard His Maybe that's
what they're talking about. I don't really know. But they
heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves. This is after
the fall. Before the fall, he came down,
and they had this wonderful relationship. And Adam loved God with all of
his heart and all of his strength and all of his mind and all of
his soul, and Eve likewise. But now, before, I'm sure they
listened for God to come at a certain time in the cool of the day so
they could sit and listen to Him. They anticipated that time. They looked forward to that time.
that the family could get together and talk. God would show them
different things, tell them different things. But this time, come this
time, when Adam had sinned against God, and when God came down this time,
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the very presence of God.
What happened? They had such a good relationship,
but there came a time, you see, when the relationship was broken
on Adam's side, not God's. Well, Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the very presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of
the garden, hid themselves. Now they were anti-God. They
were against God. It happened just like that, just
that quick. The moment that he ate of that
fruit, the whole situation changed.
Sin entered into it. Sin came on the scene. Sin is a monster. Sins are divided. Sin caused Adam, who had a happy
fellowship with his father, to be against his father, anti-God,
against God. And he went and hid. He said,
We heard your voice strolling around there in the garden in
the cool of the day, and we was afraid. And we hid ourselves
from you. God said, Where are you, Adam?
Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden, but I was afraid.
Sin makes you afraid. It will scare you to death too.
If sin, if God the Holy Spirit opens your conscience to what
you are, to what I am, make me to know sin and leave me to myself. Afford me no relief from this
miserable condition that I'm in, that I'm in a miserable state. I heard thy voice in the garden,
and I was afraid. I was afraid. Well, why was you
afraid? Well, I was naked. Well, you was naked before, and
you wasn't embarrassed. It didn't bother you before. You wasn't ashamed. You were
comfortable with the nakedness of Eve, and Eve was comfortable
with your nakedness. But now something has happened.
Sin has entered in. And because I was naked, I hid myself. I tried to avoid him altogether. Adam, you see, was created immortal. We're mortals. We're mortals. You and I are mortals. Adam was
immortal too. That is, he was able to die. Adam was able to die. And God
served notice on Adam that it was possible for him to fall
from the state of life into the state of death. He told him,
in the day, in that day, I believe the very second that his teeth
hit that fruit, in that day that you eat thereof, ye shall surely
die. It is a twofold We die physically and we die
spiritually. And that's the reason why the
Bible says, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
in sin. You can't quicken yourself. God
has life and is the giver of life. You can't make God give
it to you. You can't give it to yourself.
No one else can give you life. You are absolutely shut up to
God for life. And He is sovereign in His giving
of life. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. I will harden whom I will. He's going to die. Death was
not in man. It was not a natural part of
his makeup or his constitution. But death is in disobedience
to the Creator of life. And that's what Adam did. He
disobeyed. And God said, That's disobedience.
And He said, I told you that there's a possibility. I told
you, you being a mortal, there's a possibility. If you break this
law, you're going to die. The day that you eat of it, thou
shalt surely die. Oh, death is in the disobedience
to the Creator of life. God warned him, told him of the
penalty of his disobedience. Surely die. And as I said, that
proves beyond a shadow of a doubt something about mortal man. We all die. That's the reason
we die is because sin entered in. Within, it's in our nature. It's in our nature. seen in what we say, what we
do, how we act. Sin is manifest. We're not born
loving God. I went a quarter of my life not
loving God, not knowing God, not caring for God, not giving
one iota of reverence to His name. had no life of God in my soul,
lost stone-cold dead in the marketplace. God in His sovereign mercy, God
in His everlasting, unchanging love fixed His love upon me and
made a son known to me as my Redeemer. I'll quit here in just a second.
Now the state, the condition of a man as he came forth from
the hand of God before the fall. Now listen to me, if you haven't
heard anything up to this point, I want you to hear this, because
this is essential for your understanding, understanding of Salvation and
understanding of sin are essential to it. Now, the state of man
as it came forth from the hand of God, before it fell, it is
essential to have a biblical understanding
of salvation. It is essential that you have simply because man is not now
what he once was. Can you remember that? Man is
not now what he once was. I tried to tell you what he once
was, a friend of God. God talked with him, walked with
him, had fellowship with him. He loved God with all of his
heart. That's what he once was. Adam and Eve and God in the Garden
of Eden. Man is not now what he once was. And unless this is clearly understood,
you won't understand the nature of sin and you won't understand
the nature of salvation if you don't understand that. So it's
essential. what is called preaching the
gospel nowadays. And I think for the most part
it always has been this way to a certain degree. We did have some old preachers
and writers way back in the 1500s and 1600s who had a hold of the gospel,
and they knew what the gospel was, and they preached it. And they passed that light on
in books and so forth. But nowadays, there's not many that I know
of that has a clear understanding
of salvation and of the nature of sin. And what is called preaching
the gospel nowadays, errs greatly, because it takes for granted
that every person under the sun is in the same state as Adam
was before he sinned. And that ain't so. That sounds
good. But that ain't so. Men are taught that we can do
what Adam could do. And that ain't so. Adam did have
a free will. His will was free to love or
not to love, to choose or to reject. to receive or not to
receive the person and the claims of God in Christ. It is taught
in 20th century preaching that every man and every woman and
every boy and every girl stand before God almost exactly where
Adam stood before God when he stood. as he come forth from
the hands of God. And that is not so. And I told
you, not only was Adam's environment different than ours, the garden
was a garden of paradise. The nature of Adam was unique. No one but the virgin-born Son
of God has been born without sin except Adam. Now, if we are where Adam was
before the fall, before his sin, then the incarnation and the
life of God and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ was all in vain. And there is no
gospel whatsoever to preach to sinners. to understand where Adam was
before the fall is begin to understand how far he fell and how far off
we are from God. We are so far off from God by
nature, so far off, that left to ourselves, we will never come
back. fetch us back. He must come and
go where we are, sunk in the depths of corruption and pollution
and sin, and speak peace to our souls,
to grab us up and to bring us unto the Do you see what I am
talking about here this evening? Men are not in the same state
that Adam was before the fall. They are dead in trespasses and
in sins. They have no free will. Adam
had a free will and he violated his free will and sinned against
God. And so we lost our free will
in Adam. We lost everything in Adam. Everything
was lost in Adam. But bless God, everything that
we lost in Adam is gained in the Lord Jesus Christ. By one
man's disobedience, many became sinners. And by one man's obedience,
many became righteous. We fell in one. even the Lord Jesus. And the
gospel declares that in our natural state we
are far off from God. And the only thing that would
be of any help to us is the Holy Spirit applying the gospel of
the love of God, seen in Christ Jesus, to our souls. And if we ever see God in Christ,
the love of God in Christ, how He loved us, what He did for us before the
world ever was, how He put a seal on us, how He sent the surety
of the Lord Jesus, how He condescended to become a man. And as a man,
restored all that we lost in by providing us with a justifying
righteousness, by being obedient to the law of God, by bearing the penalty that is
due us and against our sins in His own body on the tree. And
He says, He says, Sinner, if you are interested, come to Me. I give you rest. I give you rest,
you see. You come to the truth and live Christ. Come to it.