Our subject tonight is the most
important subject that you could preach on. And so I want everyone
to pay very close attention. The subject is the two atoms. The two atoms. Now, if you've
been here for a while, like most of us, you have heard this. preached. You've heard me preach it several
times. But especially our young people,
I want you to take your Bibles along with the grown folks and
I want you to turn with me in the Scriptures. I want you to
follow along here. This is so important. So very
important. Let's begin in 1 Corinthians
15. If you want to mark Romans 5, you can go ahead and mark
it as well. 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5. Let's begin reading in verse
21. 1 Corinthians 15, 21. Since by man came death, by man
came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Look down
at verse 45. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. Look at verse 47. The first man
is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we, speaking to believers, we also, we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly. Now here's the point. This is
the main point. As in Adam, all died by Adam. Even so, in Christ, shall all
be made alive by Christ. Now, this is the truth of federal
headship. This is the truth of representation. There's two Adams. There is the first man whose
name is Adam and there's Christ. He's called the last Adam because
Adam was a picture. Adam was a type of Christ. So
you have Adam and you have Christ. Two federal heads. Now this is
the truth. What I'm going to declare tonight
is the truth whereby God empties the hands of His people. entirely takes all the work out
of our hands before, during, after conversion. He takes the
work out of our hands and shuts us up to Christ alone. And that's what I pray happens
tonight. I want you to be shut up to Christ, to depend entirely
upon Christ. Not say you depend on Him, but
yet be looking to yourself for something else. I want you to
depend entirely upon Christ. Now, here's the first point.
In the first federal head, all died. Now, let me show you this
in verse 21. By man came death. Verse 22. In Adam, all died. By man came death. In Adam, all
died. Now, it pleased God to begin
the human race with one man. He created one man named Adam.
That's how it pleased God to begin the human race. And that
one man is what we call a federal head. That means he represents
everybody that is in him that will be coming from him, being
born from him. For instance, Adam and Eve had
a son named Seth. That was Adam's child. He was in Adam before he was
yet born. And you go all the way down the
line to everybody that's born into this earth, to you and me.
We were all back there in Adam. And we all came from Adam. So
that's what we're talking about as a federal head. He represents
all that was in him and all who would come from him. When you
read here, the word all. In Adam all died. In Christ shall
all be made alive. When you read the word all, when
it refers to headship, it's referring to all who are in that federal
head and all who will be born from that federal head, by that
federal head. For instance, in Adam, All refers
to the whole human race because we all were in Adam, we all came
from Adam. So there the word all refers
to all Adam's race. The whole human race came from
that one man, Adam. So he was the federal head of
all men without exception. Men, women, children, all without
exception came from Adam. God created Adam upright in a
garden. God does nothing, He creates
nothing sinful. Everything He creates is right
and holy and perfect. He created Adam out of the dust. His name means of the red earth,
Adam. And he was made from the dust.
Created. God breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and he became a living soul. That's where it
says as it's written the first man was a living soul. Made a
living soul. It comes from Genesis chapter
2. Adam was made a living soul by God. And he put him in a garden
that was perfect. No sin was in it. Looked nothing
like the world looks now. Looks nothing like it looks when
you look around now. What we're seeing right now is
death. We're seeing the fall. We're seeing the leaves come
off the tree. That's death. There was no death in the garden.
No death at all. There was no sin, so there was
no death. It was a perfect place. And in
that state of innocence, Adam was innocent. He had never committed
any sin whatsoever. And everybody that was in Adam
You and I, all of us, were innocent in Adam in that state of innocence. If Adam had never sinned, we
would have remained in that state of innocence. We would have never... Because he's our head. You recall,
I showed you this before. Eve was the first one to take
of the fruit that God forbid. Nothing happened. She wasn't
the head. Adam was the head. It wasn't
until Adam ate that they fell. But He put them in this garden,
this spotless, clean garden. The animals didn't fear death. The animals didn't kill each
other. They would walk up to Adam. Adam named them. God brought
them to Adam. Adam named them. He could walk
up to a lion, a roaring lion, pet him, and walk around with
him. And that lion had no thought
whatsoever of harming Adam. None at all. And God gave Adam
one law in the garden. Just one command. He said this,
The Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat. I don't know how many that was,
but it was a lot. Plenty to eat. You can freely
eat any tree in this garden. Of any tree of this garden. But
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die. Thou shalt surely die. And by
that one law what God was doing was He was declaring that He
is the authority, the creator, the authority, the God to whom
man is totally dependent and to whom we owe all honor and
all gratitude. And as long as Adam obeyed God,
he was owning God to be his creator, his authority, his benefactor,
the one who provided everything for him. And that's how it was
as long as he obeyed God. But Adam disobeyed God. Just that one command he had
in a perfect garden And then in an upright state, God allowed
Adam to have his will to do what he would. And with a perfect
will, upright, Adam sinned against God. He transgressed against
God. And by transgressing that law
of God, he then owned he was going to be independent from
God. He was saying then, I don't need God. I can provide for myself. I can live of myself. I can do
for myself. I don't need God. That's what
he was saying by transgressing against him. That's, you know,
when you're a child and you're under your mother and your father's
roof and your father gives you a rule and says, gives you a
command to do this or that and you don't do it. What you're
saying is I don't need you. I can provide for myself. I can
do for myself. I don't need you. And that's
what Adam was saying to God. I don't need you. Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. So there's one law and he transgressed
against it. That's the one law that he had
and he transgressed. And so when he did that, the
moment he transgressed, Adam sinned. And when he sinned, he
died exactly as God said he would. God said, the day you eat it,
you'll die. By man came death. By man came death. Men like to
say, you know, accuse God of letting evil come to pass and
this and that. It's man that sins. Adam sinned. God didn't sin. God did nothing to make him sin.
He sinned on His own. And men sin on their own. The
evil you see in the world is of man. It's not of God. God
overrules it, but man does it of his own accord. It's his will
to do it. So by man came death. Now go
to Romans 5.12. Hold your place here and go to
Romans 5.12. This is what we read here, Romans
5.12. It says, Wherefore, as by one
man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Now, right
now we're just talking about Adam. Adam died spiritually. He died spiritually. He became
guilty before God, unrighteous, because he broke the law. That's
what righteousness has to do with obedience to the law. He
became guilty. unrighteous. And also his heart,
his nature became corrupt because God removed his spirit. And it became corrupt, unholy,
defiled, full of enmity, hatred toward God. He lost all fellowship
and all communion with God. And he also began to die physically
that very moment. Now you just imagine Here's Adam
and Eve. God created them and God didn't
put any clothes on them. They were naked. And they weren't
ashamed of that because there was no sin. But the moment they
sinned, they became ashamed. Can you imagine just in that
moment, all of a sudden, the shame that must have come over
them? You know when you've ever been ashamed? You know when you've
been ashamed of something? The shame that just came over
them. They'd never experienced anything
like that. And then all of a sudden too,
just imagine this. They suddenly became afraid of
God's voice. They were walking with God and
talking with God and now they're afraid of His voice and ran and
hid from God. Imagine now watching those lions
and those bears and all the different animals. Watch them. They're
running from Adam now. They don't have anything to do
with him. And they're wanting to kill each other now. It affected
everything. Sin affected everything. Death
entered when he sinned in the garden. And imagine this. Imagine when they saw death for
the first time. They'd never seen blood shed
and they'd never shed blood. The first blood ever shed in
this world. You know why? God slew an animal
to make a covering for Adam's nakedness. That was the first
blood shed. Picture Christ to cover their
nakedness. Imagine what they thought when
they saw Cain kill Abel, their two sons. And they watched one
of them kill the other one. Adam had to think, this is because
of me. I did this. Now listen carefully. Since Adam
was the federal head, now he's the federal head of the whole
human race, therefore all Adam's race died when he died. When he sinned, we sinned. When
He died, we died. Look here now. Hold your place
there in Romans 5. Let me read our text to you.
It says, "...and Adam all died." Now look here at Romans 5, 12.
"...wherefore as by one man sin entered the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
in Adam all have sin. Now, since Adam was the federal
head and the representative of everybody, whenever he sinned,
we all died. We all sinned and we all died.
Now, to show us that we were made sin by Adam, to show us
we were made sin, really made sin by what Adam did, and to
show us that God imputes charges, accounts to you only what you
really are by a prior act. He only imputes what you are
by a prior act, by something that happened before that made
you what you are. God's imputing is a just imputing. It's like accounting. If you
have ten dollars in your wallet, And you account $10 to it. You're
not putting the $10 in it by accounting to it. You account
it because that's what it is. It has $10 in it. He only imputes
what you are by a prior act. Now to show us that, God didn't
give a law, another law, until Moses. From Adam all the way
to Moses. I don't know how many years that
is, but it's a long time. Well over 500 years. And from Adam to Moses, he didn't
give a law. And yet, he imputed sin to people,
and they died. Now watch what he says here.
Romans 5.13, For until the law, sin was in the world. Until the
law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there
is no law. God's just. He will not impute
sin to a man unless he's really broken the law. Well, there was
no law. How could God be just to impute
sin to him then? Look, nevertheless death reigned
from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression. In other words, death reigned
and sin was imputed to them who had not sinned by breaking an
express commandment that God gave. Like Adam. Adam had a commandment
in the garden. He saw it. He knew what it was.
Don't eat of this tree. And he sinned. Well, these others
didn't have an express command. From Adam to Moses, they didn't
have one. And God won't impute sin to somebody
unless they've transgressed the law. How then could God be just
to impute sin to them? Because they sinned in Adam.
When Adam broke that one law, that's when they broke the law.
And so God justly imputed to them what they were, sin. And
they died because they sinned in Adam and died in Adam. So
that's the federal headship now. And I get what that's saying.
I want you to get this. Now, not only are we not made
righteous by our obedience, by the obedience of our hand, we
weren't made sin by the disobedience of our hand. We're made sin by
Adam. Look here, Romans 5.18, Therefore
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Verse 19, For as by one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. And that's what our
text is getting at. In Adam, all died. See, I didn't have to put my
hand to the law to be disobedient. Adam made me disobedient. by
His hand, by His doing and His dying, I was made to sin and
to die. Now, somebody might hear this
and if any person hears it, they say, well, I don't believe I
was made to sin by Adam's hand, by what he did. Well, I ask you
this then. Here's the Word of God that has
survived. By God's grace, it survived since
this world, He started putting it into writing. How come you
disagree with this word if you weren't made sin? That's what
I'd say to a man that disagrees with me. How come you disagree
with God then? What is it that's causing you to get fired up and
get angry in your heart if you didn't sin in Adam? What's causing
that? But now hold on, stay with me
because I got good news now. Here's the second thing. There's
another federal head. Did you see there at the end
of Romans 5.14 where it says, it says, Adam was a figure of
him that was to come. Where is it? Romans 5.14. Who
is the figure of him that was to come. Adam, the reason God set it up
to have federal headship by Adam was because that was a picture.
God was giving you a pattern of how Christ would be the federal
head. That's why it's such good news
to know we sin by another's hand. Because now we're fixing to see
how we're saved by another's hand. Now look, Romans 1 Corinthians
15, 21, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. You see, just as it pleased
God to represent all Adam's race in Adam, it pleased God to represent
all Christ's race in Christ. He's the federal head. Christ
is the federal head, just like Adam was a federal head. It pleased
God to make Adam the federal head. It pleased God to save
all who God saves in one federal head, Christ Jesus. Now, it pleased
God to make Christ the federal head and representative of all
Christ's race. When it says all there, remember,
it refers to All who are in that federal head and all who would
be born from that federal head. All who were chosen freely by
God's grace and given to Christ in eternity by God is the all
that's represented there. We know that doesn't mean all
men without exception because it says all shall be made alive
by Christ. And there's lots of folks who
go through this life dead in trespasses and in sins who hate
God's word and never bow to Christ. It refers to all who shall be
made alive by Christ. His people. That's who the all
refers to there. It's not all men without exception.
It's His elect. It's His people. Only His people. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places according as He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. And He predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. And
in Christ, we have redemption, forgiveness of sin by His blood,
by the rich, rich, rich grace of God. That's good news. When
you find out, when God reveals to you that you sinned by the
hand of another, and that all you are is sin, it'll be good
news to know God in His grace, just pure free grace puts you
in Christ before that ever took place so that Christ comes forth
now to represent you. Nobody in their right mind will
fight against that. Nobody in their right mind does
fight against that. Only people that aren't in their
right mind fight against that. Alright, look. Now let's see
what happened. The Son of God took flesh. This
is the Son of God. He took flesh because it was
fallen people. His fallen people were flesh.
It says, since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. A man came to save us. And that's
the God-man. But Christ wasn't like Adam.
He wasn't conceived of Adam's corrupt seed. The angel said
to Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, the Holy Spirit,
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore,
that holy thing, which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. So God came down and that's when
the scripture speaks of He came down to the lowest parts of the
earth, He came down to the womb and entered the womb of this
virgin and was born holy. So He came forth holy. Now you
consider how much greater Christ is than Adam. He didn't come
forth into a perfect environment, a sinless environment. He came
forth into a world full of sin. And He wasn't made under one
law. He was made under the whole law of Moses. And He walked perfectly
holy and perfectly righteous. And not only that, He came to
fulfill all the Psalms and the Prophets. So he had a much more
tall order than what Adam had. Adam had one law and a perfect
environment. Christ came forth under a multitude
of laws and temptations from Satan and wicked men and sinners. Plus he's fulfilling the law
and the prophets and the Psalms. And then look at what Romans
5 says. Go back there with me. Romans 5.16. Sorry, Romans 5. He's going to show us some differences
now. Romans 5.16, he says, the judgment, the judgment was by
one, by one offense, is what he's saying. The judgment was
by one offense to condemnation, but the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification. Adam committed one offense and
condemned us. Christ came forth and he had
to bear all the offenses of all his people and he justified us. You see, it's just one offense
was committed, but he bore all the offenses. And then look at
Romans 5, 17. By one man's offense, death reigned
by one. Now watch the wording here. By
one man's offense, death reigned by one. Much more, they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Christ Jesus. You see the difference?
By one Adam, death reigned over all Adam's race. But by God's
grace and the gift of righteousness, all Christ's people shall reign. It doesn't say life shall reign
over us. It says you're going to reign
in life. Death reigned over us by Adam.
By Christ, we reign in life. That's the difference. We're
reigning now in life by Christ. By the Lord. Verse 18. By the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all unto
justification of life. By Adam we were condemned. By
Christ we're justified. Justification of life. And then
look. Do you see how often one is used
here? He keeps repeating it even when
it doesn't really need to be put in there. He begins it by
one and ends it with one. He's wanting us to get the picture
that it's by one. By one, we became sinners. By one, we're made righteous.
By one. That's the good news of federal
headship. Just as, now I'm going to reverse what I said before,
just as we were not made sinners by our disobedience, we're not
made righteous by our obedience. We really obeyed in Christ, but
not by our hand, by His hand. Romans 5, 19, For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered. Now,
here comes Moses and God gives the law. Why did it enter? Did
it enter to give you a bunch of stuff to do to try to be righteous
and holy? No. No. We settled that matter
back there in the garden. And He's settling the matter
of how we're going to be made righteous and holy right here
in this chapter. By one. By one. No, the law entered, here's why
it entered, that the offense might abound. That we might be
made to see how offensive we are to God. That's why the law
was given. That you might be made to see your sin and your
guilt when Christ makes you see it. That's why. that the offense
might abound. But look, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you see that? The point I'm
trying to get across to you is, it's only by Christ that we are
made everything we must be made in order to be resurrected into
God's presence. Not by our hand, by His. Now
let me give you a last point here. I want you to see the certainty
of this. The certainty of this. Look back
in our text in verse 22. As in Adam, all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive. Now again, I remind you, with
Adam, we're talking about all his seed, all his race, all that
came from him. That means everybody without
exception. But when we're talking about all, as it refers to Christ,
we're talking about all who come from Him, who shall be born of
Him and made alive by Him. So we're only talking about the
elect, His seed, Christ's seed. Now look, now He says, as in
Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now what work
did you and I have in making ourselves sin? What work did
you have in it? Nothing. Not a thing. Could you prevent it? What could
you do to prevent it? Not a thing. Not a thing. Even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. You have nothing to do with it.
Absolutely nothing. Now what does alive mean? Are
we just talking about the resurrection? Not hardly. We're talking about
being made right before the law. We're talking about being born
anew inwardly, renewed, created in righteousness and holiness
by Christ, renewed in knowledge after the image of God that created
us. We're talking about being in
God's favor, in God's sight, in God's approval all the days
we live on this earth and He's using us to preach His gospel.
And then at last we're talking about being raised from the dead.
We're talking about everything about eternal life. Christ said, I'm the life. I'm
the life. And I'm saying to you now, it's
all by Christ. Every bit of it. Now look at
verse 45. So it is written, the first man
Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. By Adam, we were conceived in
corruption. Had nothing to do with it, did
we? He did it. On down the line to us, we were
conceived in sin. Well, Christ was made a quickening
spirit. And the Scripture says, He said,
As the Father quickens whom He will, even so the Son quickeneth
whom He will. I'm the bread that came down
from heaven to give life, He said. And it's by Him quickening
us in regeneration that we're born again and created anew.
It's by Him that we were quickened, as Ephesians 2 says, and raised
up and sat down with Him when He was raised from the dead.
And it's by Him that we're going to be quickened and raised our
bodies out of the grave in the inn and be with Him. This is
by Him quickening us. And He had to be the righteousness
and holiness to enter into us and be the righteousness and
holiness within us. Life is what I'm talking about.
Life, life. Righteousness and holiness is
life. You don't have life without righteousness and holiness. You
can't separate these things. Did you notice the scripture
you read, Eric, where it said fruits of righteousness? Our
great intellectual reform people around us would say that Paul's
confused. He meant the fruits of holiness.
No, it's fruits of righteousness. Righteousness and holiness are
the same thing. You can't separate them. One deals with the nature,
one deals with before the law. And you're going to be right
before the law if you're holy in the heart. Ain't no way you
can separate that. And He's the one that quickens
and does it. And then none's going to resist Him or stop Him
because look who He is. Verse 47, the first man's of
the earth, the second man's the Lord from heaven. He's going
to sovereignly do it. That's why it says we shall be
made alive. And then look at this. If the
earthy made us bear His image, you rest assured the Lord from
heaven's going to make us bear His image. Now look here at verse
48. As is the earthy, such are they
also that are earthy. Let me ask you something. You
that have been born of God, you know you have an old nature.
You still got that old Adam nature, that earthy nature with you.
Is it just like Adam? Fallen Adam? Ruined Adam? It
is what he is, isn't it? It's sin. Is it perfect sin? Is there something else to be
done to make your old nature sinful? It's sinful, isn't it? Anything, you need to get a little
more sinful before God can send you to hell? If He left you alone? No, you've got enough of it,
don't you? You're sinful. Well, such are they also that
are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. And
Colossians says we're renewed in knowledge after the image
of Him that created us. 2 Corinthians 3 says we behold
His face as in a glass and we're changed into the same image.
Right now in spirit, when you die and go to be with God, nothing's
going to be done to that spirit. Why? Because nothing has to be
done to it now for you to go in through Christ to commune
with God. It's Christ in you. And nothing
will have to be done to it for it to enter into glory. It's
holy and righteous and accepted of God by Christ, in Christ,
with Christ in you and you in Christ. It's just one. There can't be nothing else to
be done to it. And one day we're going to bear
the image perfectly in our body too. But He said there, look
now, look what He said, such are they also that are heavenly. Right now, Those without Christ,
they are just like the earthy man. They are just like Adam.
And you and I who are born of Christ, there is an old man that
is still just like Adam. But there is a new man. And we
are as Christ. As He is, so are we in this earth.
Everything He is, that is what we are. And we are going to bear
that image Perfectly and the only thing when he's when I say
that I don't mean there's something to be done inwardly I don't mean
there's more to achieve by you. I simply mean one day He's going
to raise us in our bodies and our body spirit is all going
to be perfectly conformed to his image And you're gonna have
as much to do with that as you have to do with all this other
Or you're gonna have as much to do with this other as you
will with that nothing That's the thing. When we put our hand
and have one thing that we have to add, we disannul the whole
work of Christ. All the promises of God are in
Him, yes and amen. And listen to this now. The scripture
says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin,
and in whose spirit there is no guile. The only way I can
have no guile in my spirit is if it's holy. I'm trying to tell
you right now, in Christ, by Christ, with Christ in you, you
are perfect wisdom, perfect righteousness, perfect sanctification, perfect
redemption. You have everything you need
to be accepted of God, you that believe on Him. And I'm telling
you that don't taste and see that the Lord is gracious. fall
on into his arms and see that he has provided everything for
his people. You don't have to put a hand
to the work. That doesn't mean now, the unregenerate man will
hear that and he'll think, you're telling sinners to sin. I'm telling
you to hush, whoever says that. What I'm telling people is, follow
Christ. If He's worked His work in you,
you'll believe on Him, you'll trust Him. And then, that fear
of the Lord that makes you love Him and honor Him and want to
please Him will make you say, is there anything I can do? He'll
say, you don't have to do anything. But I want something. Give me
something. Okay, then go tell others about
me. Okay? And you'll do it because
you want to do it. You won't do it because you feel
like somebody's telling you, you've got to witness X number
of times this week. You'll do it when He opens the
door. And it'll be a natural thing. You don't see fruit trees
out there working hard to try to produce some fruit. They just
do it. That's what fruit trees do. And
that's what God's people do by His Spirit dwelling in them. See what I'm saying? It's not
law. It's grace. It's not works. It's love. And you ever meet Christ, you
know exactly what I'm talking about. You that met him, you
know, don't you? All right, that's enough.