Briefly, briefly, I've got to
finish what I started a minute ago. Briefly. In that chapter, it says, wives,
submit yourselves to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives. Children,
obey your parents. If we do not seek those things
which are above, Where our Lord sits at God's
right hand, these things don't work. They don't work. They only work when we seek the
grace of God to help us submit. Submission with an attitude is
not a submission. Love that's forced is not love.
All right, I'm done with that one. I couldn't let that go. All right, turn to Genesis chapter
3. Genesis chapter 3. When people write history, they
usually have a slant on it, how they see it. Not necessarily
how it is, but how they see it. What we have in Genesis chapter
3 is not a slant. This is not a slant. This is
how it is. This is what happened. In this
world we live in, we did not evolute, we devoluted. We didn't evolute, but we did
devolute. That's for sure. But what we have here is the
truth. of what happened, as it is, as it happened. That's
what we have. And I titled this message, The
Beginning and the End. We're going to see how all this
began, and I want us to see at the end of this message how it's
all going to end. Now to start right, if we're
going to start right, We have to start with God. We don't start
with man and go up, we start with God and come down. If we're
going to start right, we have to start with God. That's what
Genesis does. In the beginning, God. It doesn't say in the beginning,
Adam. It says in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. And then we have the account
of creation. And every time God created, He
saw that it was good. And look at verse 31 of chapter
1. And God saw everything that he
had made. And behold, it was very good. It was perfect. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. Have you ever sat around and
meditated and thought, about the ground
you walk on, the hills that you see, everything
that you see. At one time, this was perfect. Can you grasp that? At one time,
this earth on which we live was not polluted in any way, shape
or form. Every day was perfect. This,
in this life, this world, it's hard to grasp, isn't it? You
and I have known nothing but sin, and even now, the fall of
the year, beautiful time, I love it, I love it, but you know what's
happening? Death. It's dying. The changing of the colors is
like my hair turning gray. It's changing. Death is happening. That's what's happening. But not so in the beginning.
In the beginning, God created everything perfect. Perfect. And when he created Adam, he
created Adam perfect, righteous, innocent. Adam knew no sin. He knew no sin. Adam was created, now get hold
of this, Adam was created in the image of God. Adam, he said, he created him
in the image of God. Now over in Hebrews, it says
Christ did express him in the image of God. He is God. Adam was created in the image
of God. Can you imagine, can you imagine watching Adam walk
stately? Can you imagine just no blemish
in him and Eve, no blemish in them? They walked with their
heads up. They walked in righteousness.
Purity, this is and I tell you what, it's only about 6,000 years
ago, that's really not that long. I realize now that's not that
long ago. At all. Created in the image of God,
he's created sinless and upright. Adam was a real genius. You know,
we don't really have what we would call, I don't think we
do, I don't think we have what we would really call a genius.
We just have people that's smarter than we are. And that means they're
a genius. But Adam named the animals. He
didn't even ask, what should I name this one, or what's that,
what is that? He didn't say, what is that?
He looked at it and said, that's a cow, and that'll be a horse. Here's the reason why. When God
created Adam, He created him a king. Adam was the king. He walked on this earth in that
garden as a king. God told him to have what? Dominion. God gave him dominion over all
of creation. Had he not fallen, he'd still
be the king. He'd still have all that authority. Now, we know
who the real king of kings is. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. But Adam was given all this authority. He named all the animals. He
was a genius. And he had fellowship with God.
Did you notice how God came walking in the garden in the cool of
the day? Adam had fellowship with God
in the garden. Nothing stood between him and
God. There's no sin. No sin. This really happened. This really so. There was no
fear. Can you imagine that? No fear. No shame. Whatsoever, no shame. Did not
know shame. M and E did not know shame. No
guilt. Oh, man, what's that word? No
guilt. This is how God created him.
And God gave Adam one command because none is above God. He said, I will give you one
command. Don't you eat of that tree as
a knowledge of good and evil. That's it. That's your only one
command. But that didn't last long. I
don't think it lasted long. Adam was sinless. He had no fear. He had no shame. He had no guilt. He had fellowship with God. He
was able to walk with God. And then we have his fall. We have the reason of all the
sin and all the sorrow, all the heartaches, it all happened right
here. It all happened right here. Satan enters the garden, and
he does not come at Adam, he comes at Eve. And it says Eve
was deceived over in 1 Timothy. Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter
2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, and look in
verse 12. 1 Timothy 2.12, But I suffer not
a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence. For Adam was first formed in
Eve, and Adam was not deceived. Adam knew exactly what he was
doing. He's the federal head of this race and he knew exactly
what he was doing. His rebellion was on purpose.
His rebellion was with his eyes open. He knew what he was doing. But the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. She was deceived. Satan deceived
her about God. Took the Word of God and put
a twist on it. And he deceived her. But not Adam. Adam knew what
he was doing. And I believe Adam loved the
creature more than the Creator. Christ said, he that loves mother,
father, sister, brother, husband or wife, son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me. Is not worthy of me. And he brought
that fruit. He looked at her, and I don't
know what all went on. I do know this. He loved the creature.
He loved himself. And he loved Eve more than he
did God. That's involved in it. I believe
that's involved in it. And he rebelled against God's
command on purpose. To be like God? Let me say something
here. Is there anything wrong with
being like God? Did he not say, Be ye holy, for
I'm holy? Does he not say, Be perfect as
your Father which is in heaven is perfect? Brethren, it's not
being like God, it's being God. It's trying to be God. It's wanting
to be God. It's wanting to be a sovereign. It's wanting to
take that place that belongs only to God. I want to be holy. You want to be holy like God
is holy? Be righteous as God is righteous? But to usurp authority,
to take the throne as the sovereign and call the shots? Now that's
rebellion. That's rebellion. And we see
that in ourselves? I tell you, it's a... Servants
submit to your masters. Is that easy? There's a nature
in us that doesn't want to do that. There's a nature in us,
we want to be the master. That's just what we want to be
in. Adam rebelled against God with
his eyes wide open and the result was death? No, it wasn't power. It didn't reign anymore. Death. Death. I've been to several funerals
over the last couple of years in my own family. Death. Every time you go, death. That's
why the scripture says, it's better to go to the house of
mourning than the house of myrrh. Because the living will lay at
the heart. Who are the living? Those who've been given life
in Christ. And every time you see death, you understand what's
going on. And you understand in a little
while, that would be you laying there. your body. Death happened, evil, sorrow. Well, we could save this world
a lot of money spending on trying to figure out what our problem
is. Someone said you could empty half the psychiatric ward if
you just get rid of guilt. If you can just get rid of guilt.
Well, there is a way to get rid of guilt, but you can't take
a pill for it. There's no pill that you... Now,
I know they'd like to come up with one. It would be a big seller. The only way to get rid of guilt
is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. The only way
to quiet a guilty conscience is not drinking in a way, is
not popping pills and trying to get away, is not going to
a psychiatrist. It's going to God in Christ. It's looking to
Christ. Now that's the only way you get
rid of guilt. That's the only way. And no other way. No other
way. You can go to doctors and treat
symptoms, but you can go to Christ and treat the problem. And this flesh can only produce
death, sorrow, Man is born of a woman, it's a few days and
he's full of trouble. Full of trouble. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death by sin. And sin has passed upon all of
us. We've all sinned to come short of God's glory. You say,
I wish Adam hadn't done that. Well, you would have if he hadn't. Now, would you like to have that
guilt on your conscience? I mean, I had the sin of me on
me. But when Adam fell, when his
son killed, when Cain killed Abel, you know he had to look
at that and say, that's my fault. When he saw the first animal
killed for its living, and you see a lion kill a lamb and tear
its throat, that's my fault. Did you ever feel like that?
Did you ever feel that way? When you see a grizzly bear attack
an animal and eat it up, did it ever bother you? No, it didn't
bother you, but it bothered Adam. I'm sure it did, because he knew
it was his fault. I did it. I did it. I caused all this. And if he hadn't of, we would
have. We would have. So what would have happened if
only Eve would have ate it? I don't know. She wasn't fed
royally. I know when she did eat it, nothing
happened. Nothing happened. But when he ate it, it all happened. It all happened. And you know
what? I see the wisdom of God in this.
Don't you? Because in Christ, In Christ,
our head, by His one act of obedience, by His obedience, many are made
righteous. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Because I couldn't
do one thing righteous. I can't think of a righteous
thought. I'd pat myself on the back for thinking it. And that'd
be a mess. I'd just mess it up one way or
the other. I'd have to tell somebody about it, brag about it. As if
I actually had it. Now look what happens. Here,
oh my, my, here is God's creation. God comes walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. And Adam, the chief of God's creation,
is hiding. He said, I was afraid in verse
10. I heard your voice and I was
afraid. And we've been afraid ever since. I like what David said, what
times I am afraid, I'll trust in thee. I believe that's Psalm
56. I'll trust it. I won't hide from you. If I do,
I'll hide in you from you. That's the best place to hide. I was afraid and then shame. I hid myself. Hiding from God?
This genius, look how ignorant this man came so quickly. This
man's a genius. That fast he became the most
ignorant fool in existence. Hiding from God? Adam, are you
that ignorant? Have you become that ignorant
so quickly that you can hide from God behind a tree? There
ain't a tree big enough to hide you from God. God said, who can
hide from me? The day, the light of the darkness
is as light before me. I was afraid, and it's a shame
I hid myself. And we are ate up with these
things now continually, aren't we? We are such a, oh we're so,
from the tiniest age, from the littlest age, we're afraid, afraid
of the dark. Afraid of this, afraid of that.
I mean, we're afraid of everything. I was saying last night, it's amazing
what a little mouse running in the room makes you do. Afraid. Afraid. Does any of you in here, you
don't have locks on your door, you don't have locks on your
window, you don't have those, do you? Every one of us. Every one of
us have locks on our doors and windows and we check them at
night before we go to bed. Why? What are you afraid of? How many times did our Lord say
this? Why are you so fearful? Why are you so afraid? But He followed that up with
this. It is I. Be not afraid. You're just as safe in the hottest
battle on earth as you are sitting here right now. You are. We're ate up, we're ate up with
fear and shame and guilt. Sin has marred, it has marred
our minds. There is, to me, there is nothing,
there is absolutely nothing more fascinating than the mind. We
haven't, I do believe, we have not even tapped the power of
the mind that God's given. Look who our creator is. Jeremy
was telling me this the other day. He's working on a project
and he's talking about how fascinating he was, you know, the way this
thing was, he's into this computer stuff. How it's made. I said,
son, if you consider who created us, We should never be amazed
at anything that we do. If you consider the Creator,
why should we be surprised if God gives an Einstein a little
bit of knowledge of some formulas? Really. If a monkey created me,
we ought to be astounded. We ought to be absolutely astounded,
and I'm surprised that man is not just, well, he is, he's proud
as to be, because he doesn't know the Creator. But if you
see who God is, you realize how stupid we are, how stupid we've
become, how stupid sin has made us. It shouldn't amaze us that we
can fly to the moon. If God so willed, He can make
us fly to the furthest star away. Look at our Creator! God! God! Paul said, and I think Paul
caught this, Paul said, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. There's nothing that I can't
do. There's nothing that's impossible if the Lord so will it. And strengthen
me. Look who your Creator is. Actually, we should be ashamed
that we do so little. Because we don't expect nearly enough
out of Him. Our thoughts of God are too human.
They're too human. But sin has marred our minds,
it's marred our bodies. Adam and Eve, they were stunning.
I believe they were absolutely stunning. But when I look in
the mirror, it ain't stunning, it's disappointing. As the years go by, you just
watch it drop. Really? You just watch yourself
just fade. Our bodies, our attitude? We
should never have an attitude. Bad attitude. We should never
have a bad attitude. Ever! Why? Christ has finished the work.
He has saved us by His grace. He's taking us home. He's controlling
all things. All things are of God. Everything's
happening to me is the will of God. Is that not right? What's
my attitude about it? It's more our attitude. God does
not answer our prayer the way we would have him to answer it.
We have to fight an attitude. Desires. There was one time that
Adam desired God. And now we have these evil concupiscence,
evil desires that we have to fight. We have to fight. Well, this is what happened in
the fall. But it doesn't end there. Boy, if it ended there,
the Bible would only be three chapters long. That would be
the end of it. We have Adam's call. And God
said, Adam, where art thou? Now, God is asking this information
here to inform Adam. He's going to reveal to Adam.
He's going to make Adam see, not that he's behind the tree,
but that what he is now before God. Now, you and I have to recognize
what we are first and where we are, what we are and where we
are, before we'll ever appreciate Christ. Adam's going to have to realize
he's lost. He's going to have to realize something of his depravity. Adam, where art thou? He's now
hiding from God in the garden. And God comes to where he is.
There's grace. There's grace. God comes to where
we are. like that demoniac. The Lord
got in the boat with his disciples, went all the way across there,
got out of the boat, healed that man, got back in the boat and
left. God comes to where Adam is. That's
what he does. And he comes walking in the garden,
in the cool of the day. It's calm. It's calm. And the reason it's calm is because
of the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
We'll see that in a minute. That's why it's calm. It's not
that God's going to excuse you sin, like we do our children. I'll get you, then we don't,
then we'll get you, then we don't. No, He already took care of this
matter. Listen, God prepared a garden
and put Adam in it. Adam didn't prepare anything
in that garden. And God has prepared salvation, and Christ said, I
go back to prepare a place for you, and you and I are not preparing
anything in it. He's going to put us in that
garden, that place, paradise, just like He did Adam the first
time. And you and I are not going to contribute one iota to it. Nothing. It's all going to be
on the second Adam. So he comes to Adam where he
is. God's going to make Adam realize. He's going to make him
confess where he is. He says, I'm behind a tree. No,
no, it gets worse than that, buddy. No. You're not just behind
the tree. You're away from God. You've
fallen. You're dead. You are dead. We have to come to this place
where we're lost. God exposes Adam. He exposes
fear. These questions are not just
random questions. These questions are on purpose.
God's going to reveal to Adam and to us where we are. He said, where are you? He said,
I hear you. I was afraid. Well, that's where you are. Why
are you afraid? Because I rebelled against you. I'm not afraid of the devil.
I didn't rebel against the devil. God. God. I rebelled against God. My Creator. They will mourn when they look
on Him whom they pierced. He's going to expose Adam's fear,
his shame, his rebellion, and his hatred. This woman, this
woman that God took out of Adam's side,
took a rib and he created him a woman, a beautiful, perfect
woman. And you know what the first thing
Adam does? He's going to reveal Adam's hatred
here. Adam's hatred is going to be revealed. His nature now. This is the nature of Adam now.
Fear, rebellion, shame, guilt, hate. He said, the woman you
gave me, you gave me a flawed woman. Was that the problem? Did you notice here, did you
notice as he read this, how everybody started pointing fingers? Everybody
started pointing fingers. Well, the woman you gave me,
she said, well, the serpent did it. Everybody start pointing
fingers. We have to shut up and say guilty. I did it and quit blaming my
ancestors, quit blaming genetics for your problem. It's me. You know, I may have genetics
that may predispose me to something, but you know what? I still have
a choice. And I'll choose evil every time. I choose to do evil. Would you just accidentally do
something wrong? No, we know what we're doing.
We know what we are doing. He said, the woman you gave me,
Lord, really, it's your fault. Really,
it's your fault. Don't blame God. Have you ever
done that? Every one of us have. Every one
of us have. At one time or another, you have to fight it off. Because
that old nature right there is still in us, isn't it? If I hadn't
been put in that situation, I wouldn't have done it. David, in Psalm
51, does not say, God, if you hadn't let Bathsheba be down
there at that time, I wouldn't have done this. I wouldn't have
fallen. But he says, against thee and thee only, if I sin,
then it's evil in thy sight. All excuses have to be removed
in order for us to come to Christ and be saved. No more excuses. It's my fault. It's my fault.
I did it. I did it. Quit blaming each other. Blame yourself. Blame yourself. I think that's amazing. It's
just amazing to me that God made this beautiful woman for him,
and he so quickly turned on her. He was ready for God to annihilate
her. Adam, where art thou? He reveals this. All this goes
on right here. This is what happens when God
saves us. He's got to reveal to us who we are, what we are.
And then you know what He does? He reveals the seed of the woman,
the cure to the problem. Over here in Genesis chapter
3. He says this, he said in verse
15, and I'll put enmity between thee and the woman and between
thy seed and her seed. Who is that seed? That seed is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know why God, as I've
already hinted at, could come walking in the garden in the
cool of the day and not thunder and lightning and threatening
and death. And you know why all that didn't
happen at that time? Because it happened 4,000 years later
at Calvary. The death, the anger that was
deserved at that time fell on the second Adam. It fell on the
second Adam. And he paid for the sins of all
God's elect right there. Took care of it all. Took care
of it all. And right now, sitting right
here, right now, you and I can have fellowship with God again.
We can have fellowship with God again. Because the second Adam,
who is the Lord from heaven, put away our sins. They're gone. They're gone. He
put them away. He dealt with them. He's the
Lamb. He's the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world. God cast Adam out of that garden,
but he went out with the promise of the seed of the woman. The
seed of the woman. The Lord Jesus Christ. The true
King of Kings. Here's the end of it. Here's
the end of it. The true King of Kings. The true
Adam is Jesus Christ. The first Adam failed, but the
second Adam, the Lord from heaven, he cannot, he shall not, he will
not fail. Satan attacked him. Now, Satan attacked him in the
wilderness after 40 days and 40 nights. And every time, you
know what he did? He quoted the Word of God properly.
He handled him with the Word of God and he handled it properly.
And then sent him on his way. Sent him on his way. He's already dealt with him.
He's not going to fail. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
and I'll close. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to show you
exactly what's going on right now. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at verse 24. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 24. Then cometh the end when he,
the Lord Jesus Christ, shall have delivered up the kingdom
to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule
and all authority and power." That's what he's doing right
now. Right this very minute, the Lord Jesus Christ is putting
down all rule and all authority, and he must reign. And that's
exactly what he's doing. He's reigning right now. He's
not going to. He's doing it. He's doing it. There's a man. There's a man
in glory that's reigning right now. The second Adam. And he must wait until he has
put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet.
But now, when he says all things are put under him, it is manifest
that he has accepted the Father is not under him, which did put
all things under him. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, all that God has purposed, all that God has
created, When Jesus Christ has subdued all these things, then
shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all
things under him, that God may be all and in all. That's what
the second Adam is doing. And he shall not fail. He shall
not, can not, will not fail. Go read Isaiah 42. My servant
shall not fail. That's good news. That's good
news. You know, the Bible doesn't spend
much time on the fall. You don't see it repeated over
and over in the Bible. But you know what you do see repeated?
Christ. The Savior. How we're redeemed. How we come back to God. He just
gives us this brief period of exactly what happened. Why things
are as they are. And then we've got the rest of
the Word of God telling us all about Jesus Christ. Our Lord,
the Lord from heaven, the second Adam, the second man. That's good news. Now, I'll leave
you with this question. Where art thou? Where are you
at? I didn't just give you a good
story. I didn't give you a history lesson this morning. Not just
a history lesson. It's there. Where are you at? I know you're sitting in the
pew in front of me, and I'm standing here. But in your relationship
to God, where are you? In Christ or out of Christ? It's one or the other. None can hide from God. None
can hide from God. Adam, where are you? Where are you? Oh, Lord, let me be in Thee.
Let me hide myself in Thee. All right.