It's one of the sure ways to miss the truth of
God and to go to the Word and seek something other than salvation
by grace, free grace. One of the main causes of that
is that we forget or men don't know how ruined we became in the fall. Ruined. Just completely, absolutely
ruined. Totally ruined. Romans 5.12 says, So death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. I want to look at three things
from this passage and then another verse here close, but first we'll
see some scriptures where God says that all are totally dead
in trespasses and in sins and were born into this world the
first time. We think we're alive because
when we get old enough to walk and talk and move around and
get a little freedom to do things on our own, we think we're able
to do everything that we want to do. But believing on God and
knowing the true and living God is something that no man can
do except by God's grace, by Him creating a sinner anew. because
of the false. We'll look at some scriptures
where God says all are totally dead in sin. We'll look at some
scriptures that tell us what this man, this one man Adam,
did. And then we'll look at some good
news. Some good news. Romans 5.12, Wherefore, as by
one man, this one man's Adam, by this one man, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all
men, for that all have sin." Well, let's look at some scriptures
where God says all are born in sin the first time. Turn over
to Psalm 51. Look at verse 5. David said, he's speaking about
when he was conceived in his mother's womb. And he said, Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Look at Psalm 58 and verse 3. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. What does that mean? Read the
next line. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. That's the fruit of what, of
how we were conceived in the womb. We go astray, that's the
result of it. Go astray as soon as we be born.
Look at Jeremiah, to your right there. Jeremiah. 17. Well, you say, but I don't, I
don't think I've ever been that dead. I don't think I'm that
dead now. Well, I wonder how, how come
a man would think that? Look at Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Who can know it? Now, look back
at Job 13, back to your left, Job 13. I'm picking out some scriptures
to read to you, but if we read the Word of God, honestly, read
the Word of God, we'll find out that death is what all men are. We'll find out. I'm just taking
this out of context. This is the context of the whole
Word of God. Just as some men will say, well,
you seem to just preach Christ in every text and take it out
of context. The context of the whole Word
of God is Christ. That is the context. That is
the context. Alright, Job 13 verse 23. How
many are mine iniquities? He said, make me to know my sin,
my transgression, and my sin. This is so, brethren, we have
so many sins and so many transgressions. Look at, and we have to have
God to make us to know them. He has to make us to know them,
or we don't, we're not, we won't be honest with ourselves. We
will, be turning to 1 Corinthians 2, and I'll tell you this. I
was watching something this week on television, and there was
a young girl who obviously had done something that resulted
in the death of some people. And the first thing that they
began to do was commend this girl's character, what a good
person she was. And she justified herself in
court, had a defense attorney that tried to justify her and
say that she didn't do the crime. And it was, I mean, it was just
Evidence was totally against her. And the girl got up in the
end and said, the family just wanted her to say she was guilty. They just wanted her to say,
and I believe the family would have shown her mercy. And the
girl said, I can't say I'm guilty. I don't know what you mean. I'm
not guilty. The heart's desperately wicked,
desperately wicked. We need God to teach us what
we are. Look at 1 Corinthians 2.14. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Who's the natural man?
What is a natural man? That's how we're born the first
time. You hear me say our nature. What
is our nature? Well, here's our nature. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. What are the things of the Spirit
of God? This book right here. Everything this book teaches
is the inspired Word of God given through the Spirit of God. Man,
natural man won't receive them. He will pick out some things
and receive them. If they say he's good and he can do something
good and he can bring himself to God, but not if he says he's
dead and God's got to do the work for him. Now look, for their
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. Because they're
spiritually discerned. They've got to be taught by the
Spirit of God. That's what the Lord said. A
man's got to be born again. He can't see the Kingdom of God
if he's not. That which is flesh is flesh.
That which is spirit is spirit. Now how did this come about?
Let's go back and look now at the second point. Back at Genesis. Turn back to Genesis. It said,
Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered the world, and death
by sin. Let's go see what Adam did back
in Genesis. Genesis chapter 2, verse 15. The Lord God took the
man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. Perfect place. No sin, no death. Perfect environment. And this
man has no sin, he's just there to keep and dress this garden.
And the Lord God commanded the man, we're talking about Adam,
and he said this, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. 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. or dying, thou
shalt die. Thou shalt surely die. Well,
verse 18, the Lord God said, it's not good that the man should
be alone. I'll make him a help me for him.
Look down at verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his
ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib
which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and
brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they
shall be one flesh." We saw a week or so ago, just out of Ephesians,
when we talked about Christ and His bride. A man shall leave
his wife and be one flesh. This is the picture here. Christ
came. The Lord said it's not good for
him to be alone. He gave him a bride before the world began.
Chose a people and gave them to him that makes up his bride.
And Christ came and was put into a deep sleep. He went to the
cross and laid down his life. And out of him, this woman is
born. And she's born of his bone and
flesh of his flesh. But now look here at verse 25.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed. They were just naked, and they
weren't ashamed by it. There was nothing to be ashamed
about. There was no sin. They didn't know sin. They had
no understanding of this thing of good and evil. Everything
was good. There wasn't any evil. Everything
was good. Chapter 3, verse 1, the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. The Lord God made this one. He wasn't doing anything.
He's a creature. He wasn't doing anything that
God didn't permit him to do. He's doing what God is allowing
him to do for the purpose of glorifying his son. And he said
unto the woman, yea, hath God said you shall not eat of every
tree of the garden A woman said unto the serpent, we may eat
of the fruit of the trees of the garden. Notice he came to
this woman. He didn't come to the man, he
came to the woman. And he's using the woman to trick the man. He's
beguiling her, tricking her to use her so the man will give
himself for her. And he says here, there's a picture
of Christ in that. You see a picture of Christ in
that? Christ gave himself for his bride. He willingly plunged
himself into sin to save his bride in obedience to God. Adam
does it in disobedience to God. Now watch this. The woman said
unto the serpent, we may eat of all the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden. God has said you should not eat of it, neither shall
you touch it lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. You won't die. For God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil. This is the doctrine
of devils. This is the doctrine of the devil,
and this is the doctrine of devils. Don't believe what God said.
Is that what you think it says? Let me tell you what it really
says. And it's always something that glorifies man, makes man
big and God small in man's eyes. That's backwards, that's upside
down. The scriptures show us God is,
he's all and man's nothing. That's what we're seeing here.
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, she just looked at it at first because
he pointed her to it. He pointed her to it. A tree
to be desired to make one wise. It seemed like this was going
to have a good result if I ate of it. She took of the fruit
thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her.
And nothing happened when she ate it. Nothing happened when
Eve ate it. Because she's not the representative. She's not the federal head. The
man was made first. Because Adam's a picture in representation. He's a picture of Christ, the
bride. is the one who's in subjection
to Christ. Just as a bride's in subjection to her husband,
it's for this reason. Because the bride, the church,
is in subjection to Christ. We don't tell God what to do. God tells us what to do. We don't
try to order God around. God tells us
where to go, what to do. And we obey Him as His bride,
not the other way around. The other way around. Now look,
Genesis, but now look at verse 6, and he did eat. Now Adam eats. Now what happened? And the eyes
of them both were opened. You think, well that's not such
a bad thing. The eyes were open. What were
their eyes open to? And they knew they were naked.
And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. The
first act of man, as soon as he saw his sin, was to try to
cover up his sin using something that was not made to cover up
his sin. The fig leaves weren't made to
cover up his nakedness. That's not what God made them
for. But he took those leaves and he used them for a reason
God didn't give them for. And the first thing a man does
when he goes to this Word of God is to take this Word to try
to sow him out for himself an apron of fig leaves to cover
his nakedness. And that's not why God gave this
Word. God gave this Word, His whole Law, to teach us that we're
naked, that we're undone, and that Christ is the one and only
robe of righteousness that covers the nakedness of His people.
Alright, let's see what happened. Verse 8, And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
Have you heard His voice? Have you heard His voice? When
you hear his voice, you're going to do one of two things. When
you hear his voice, if the voice goes forth in a general call
and it hasn't come into your heart, you'll do what Alvin Eve
do next. But when the voice comes and
it comes and it speaks particularly to you, we're going to see that
in the next hour. When it speaks particularly to
you, you're going to You're going to fall down. You're going to
bow and come to Him in the heart, in the heart, the motion of the
heart. Look, but here's what they did. They just heard this
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Well, why'd they
do that? They had sold themselves a covering. They were covered
up. Why did they hide themselves? If God sees the covering that
you and I have made, we're goners. If God sees a covering that's
been made by me or you, that's it. That's it. God won't have
it. God won't have it. And there's
no covering we can make that God will have. So they hid themselves
amongst the trees of the garden. God knew exactly where they were.
The Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art
thou? Has he asked anybody here that question? Where are you?
Where are you? Ah, if he asks us this question,
he's not asking it for information, he's asking it so that you come
out and say, I'm lost and I'm undone. Lord, save me. Save me. But here's the fruit of sin.
Here's the fruit of sin. Adam answered verse 10 and he
said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because
I was naked and I hid myself. And the Lord said, who told thee
thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? Have we? Have we eaten of the tree God
commanded us not to eat? And the man said, Yes, Lord,
I've eaten of it. Please forgive me. Cover me in
the robe of your righteousness. Make me righteous. He's dead
in sin. He's dead in sin. So what does
he say? He justifies himself. And he says, the woman whom you
gave me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. It's your fault,
God, and it's this woman's fault, but it's not my fault. That's
what he said. But it's not my fault. And the
Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And she said, the serpent begot
me and I did eat. Well, let me ask you a question. Adam couldn't see he was dead.
Adam couldn't see what happened. He didn't know what had happened,
because he was dead. And all he could do was try to
justify himself. And all he could do was try to
hide himself. And all he could do was try to
cover himself. But this sin, This disobedience,
this one disobedience, that all was the fruit of this one disobedience. And if anybody's sitting here
this morning, and we're hiding, and we're justifying ourselves,
and we're trying to say, that's not me. It's the fruit, the effect,
the result of being stone cold dead, just dead, dead. That's the evidence. Self-justification. John 3.19. Let me show you something. John 3.19. Now this is the condemnation.
The scripture said that the condemnation came upon all men. Now here's
the condemnation. John 3.19. This is the condemnation that
lights come into the world, Christ the light. And men loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. Now this is
the condemnation. This is the result of what Adam
did. For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. And
that's everybody born of Adam. Now, back at Romans 5, back at
Romans 5. Let's read it one more time and
then we're going to see some good news. Romans 5, verse 12. As by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. Now, let's look at some good
news. Here's some good news. And the
good news has to do with representation. Representation. That's a big
word. That's a huge word. You won't
ever get over it. If you ever get a hold of how
big this word is, you won't ever get over how big this word is.
Representation. Remember how nothing happened
to Eve until Adam ate? It was because Adam represented
Eve. She represented the bride. And
that's the case with Christ. Christ is the second representative,
and he represents his bride. just as Adam's disobedience brought
judgment and condemnation unto everybody he represented. Likewise,
the obedience of Christ justified everyone whom he represented. All of them. He justified all
of them. All of them. Read it again. Now let's go down to Romans 5.18.
Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation. Judgment came upon all men to
condemnation by Adam's one transgression. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. Well, there it is. Everybody
without exception. No. Not at all. We're talking
about representation. Listen to this. Those words,
the free gift came upon all, the free gift, that's added by
the translators, but let me ask you this question. When's the
last time you went out and bought a gift for nobody in particular
and just brought it home and set it on the shelf and hoped
somebody'd stop by and claim it? When's the last time you did
that? I know department stores advertise they're giving away
free gifts, but they're just getting you in there and saying,
sell you something. God's not selling you and me anything,
and we don't have anything to purchase anything with. He bought
a gift. Christ bought something. He bought
something. The price he paid is his blood.
It's his life. And he bought something. He bought
everyone God gave him. And when he bought them, when
he died, He justified every one of them. The wages of sin is
death. When he paid the debt, he paid
the sin. He paid it for everyone he represented
so that if God pours out justice, everything he did, he did because
God is righteous. That's why he came. Behold why
Christ came. He came because God's righteous.
He came because God will by no means clear the guilty. But God
determined to save some. He determined before the world
began to save some and to make them to behold this glory of
Him in saving His people. And He determined, He purposed
how He would show it and how He would bring it to pass and
how His Son would come into the world and lay down His life as
the righteous mediator for his people,
and bring us to God. And he accomplished paying the
debt that was owed. He completely accomplished it.
So that everyone that he died for must be given eternal life. They must be given spiritual
life. The scripture says, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also
justified. He did the justifying. Faith
doesn't justify anybody. It doesn't. Faith is the gift
of God, which is the fruit of God justifying His people in
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Faith is the gift
of God to receive that which is wrought by God. And faith
receives that which is completely accomplished by God. And faith,
by faith a man is justified. In that sense alone, it's accomplished
by another. Faith's always shown to us in
scripture as being just, and when we say, when it says justification
by faith, it's juxtaposed against works. And it's saying there's
nothing we do. There's nothing we do. And if
faith is something you did to justify you, then a man's looking
at faith as a work. And faith is a gift. It's just
like the entire salvation of God is a gift. It's not a work. It's a gift. And it receives
that which God has wrought and accomplished. Now, everyone that
he did this for, 1 Corinthians 15, 22, just as Adam Adam, when he sinned, this condemnation
came upon all men. But as yet, nobody was born.
But when they were born of him, they were conceived in sin in
the womb, and they came forth as strange as soon as they were
born, and they wicked sinners. And that's all of us. But just
as this free gift came upon all whom Christ represented under
justification of life, they're going to have to be born again.
They're going to have to be born of the seed, the holy seed, the
incorruptible seed, the seed of God. They're going to have
to be born again, born new. 1 Corinthians 15, 22, for as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Each of them represented Adam. All those Adam represented died
and all those Christ represented will be made alive. Look down
at verse 45. 1 Corinthians 15, 45. So it is
written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last
Adam was made a quickening spirit. We looked at the first Adam.
That was Adam. He was made a living soul. And
his conception was a natural conception. And you come forth
right here, natural sons and daughters of him. The second
Adam, Christ, He's a quickening spirit. And He quickens. Verse
46, Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that
which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. In time,
an estimation of time. 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.
As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
What did you have to do with your first birth? How much do
you contribute to it? That's how much you contribute
to this new birth, this being born again, just that same amount.
They were born again and given faith to receive Him. Let me
show you one place here where that justification by faith is
just the most clear place where it's juxtaposed against works. One of the clearest places, Galatians
2.16. And if your translation doesn't have this, I'd change
it because there's a difference between a lie and the truth.
Galatians 2.16. This is what we know who've been
born of this Spirit of God. We know that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
by what he did, by his work, by his faithfulness. It's the
faith of Jesus Christ, his fidelity to the Father. That's where in
the righteousness of God is seen in what Christ did, not what
me and you do. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ. We put all our trust in Him because
He did all the work. He did it. That we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, by what He did, and not by the works
of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. There's a difference. The faith
of Christ is that which He accomplished. the faith in Christ wherein we
just trust Him to have accomplished all the work on our behalf. So
you see how that faith is juxtaposed against works. It's not by works
we've done, it's by the work Christ did, that His people are
saved, and that's what we believe. All right, now, verse back in
Romans 5, 19, and we'll conclude with this. Let me ask you something. I preach from this many more
times than from here. And I've preached it from here
a number of times, I know, and I've preached it to the children,
to them in the Bible class several times as well. And every time
I look at this, I have to sit and study it. Because when I
first go to it, It's like this. Oh, I know that.
But the more I sit and look at it, and the more I sit and just
meditate on it, my heart just overflows. It just fills me with
joy, and it don't ever get old. It don't ever get old. I'm going
to be singing about this forever. This is going to be my one song
forever. This is going to be my one tune
that I sing forever. How long do you think, on average,
people listen to one song in this earth? Not very long, or
they wouldn't, or the music business would be out of business. But
there, we're gonna have one song, and it won't ever get old. It
don't get old for the believer now, because it's new, made new
every day by the Spirit of God, by the Spirit of God. So here's
the conclusion, verse 19, 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 that
the offense might abound. 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. Oh,
I hope he speaks right now. I hope he does. I hope he speaks
and asks these important questions. Where are you? Have you taken
over the fruit of this tree and caused you to come forth and
lay down at his feet in your heart without moving a finger
or a toe? And just pour out your heart
to him in confession of what you are, and find peace for your
soul, that by his grace, the righteousness of Christ had been
made yours, and you complete in him. What good news. What
good news. Amen.