Now go with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is, as
promised, the text this morning, the continuation of what we began
Wednesday night. Verse 22. Let's read 1 Corinthians. Let's read a few verses, verses
21 and verse 22 together. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. As for as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now read with me verse
45 and verse 47. Verse 45, ìSo it is written,
ìThe first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last, Adam,
a quickening spirit.î Verse 47, ìThe first man is of the earth,
The second man is the Lord from heaven. Two Adams, two men. Now, my pastor one time used
this illustration. that if you go into a jeweler's
shop and you're looking for a pearl or a jewel of some sort, the
way in which that jeweler will display that pearl or that jewel
is on a black background. the jeweler will bring out a
dark cloth, black or dark blue, in order to show just how brilliant
that jewel is, that pearl. Well, Christ is called the pearl
of great pride. He is called the altogether lovely
Son of God. And He is not known, for that
is His beauty, His glory. He is not appreciated, He is
not desired until we first see the blackness of sin. Yes, of our own heart. God's
Word talks about sin in this way. the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. That is, the utter wickedness
and awfulness of sin. And I'm talking about, or we're
talking about, what we're born with. What man is born in and
has in him by nature. And the consequences of this
thing called sin are horrible. It's called death. Death. And all of its horror
and fear and finality, death. We just read in Romans 5 how
that because of this thing of sin, death passed upon all men. Paul wrote in another place,
the whole creation groaneth and suffers because of this thing
called sin. Everything dies. And so God Almighty's Word from
the beginning paints not a fairy tale or a fable, but a true story. of the utter blackness called
sin. And then God's Word reveals the altogether lovely
Son of the Most High God, who is life and light and love and
glory and honor and so forth. Goodness personified. Alright,
here's salvation in a nutshell, okay? Sin has so corrupted mankind that God already once destroyed
a whole planet full of persons. Yes, persons. And God is going to someday,
and I believe it's very soon, permanently destroy this world
and all in it. But God, here is salvation. But God in mercy. Mercy means
not getting what we deserve. God in mercy to some, not all,
but some. And in love to some, not all,
but some. You see, none deserve mercy.
That's by definition. It's undeserved. None deserve
love. Scripture says there's none good,
not one. None righteous, not one. No one
is lovely, but one. But God in love and in grace. Grace means a gift. And if it's
a gift, it's sovereign. Has to be, by definition. A gift is not something you earn.
It's something someone bestows upon you. Didn't have to. They
did. Salvation's a gift. 100%. And God in mercy and in love
and in grace chose to save some of these corrupt creatures. And the way he does this, who is sufficient for this? The
way in which he does this is by doing something for them. and doing something to them.
You've got to have both. And the God I'm talking about
who did this, his name is Jesus Christ. It says by this one man. Well,
he was more than a man. He's a God man. It's by Jesus
Christ doing something for us on our behalf. to God, and by
the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Christ, doing something in
us. A new creature. All right. Let's look at this
whole story in Adam All Die. We looked at it, the first part
of it, Wednesday night. Go back to Romans
5 with me again. Romans chapter 5. in Adam all
die. God Almighty created one man.
You and I were not created as it were. We weren't created.
We were born from someone. You and I came forth naturally
from our parents. Everyone in here came from this
man named Adam. We are called the sons of Adam. Is this important? You can't
understand what he's talking about here if you don't understand
it. In Adam, all die. If you're in Adam, if you come
from Adam, you die. If you're in Christ, you're made alive. This is what
this is talking about. Two persons, two Adams. First
Adam, second Adam. God Almighty created one man,
Adam. Adam and Eve. Male and female
created He them, but they were both called man, mankind. God
Almighty created this beautiful, glorious, sinless creature called
man, and his image, brilliant, beautiful, pure, innocent, loving,
in mind, body, and soul, sinless, made by God to live, live forever, to live in purity, holiness,
naked, Which was beautiful. Except something happened. A
man was created in this way. Purity, holiness, happiness.
To live unto God, to live with God, to live for God. To live
forever. But as I said, something happened.
Look at verse 12. Romans 5 verse 12, "...by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Sin. What is sin? Several years ago
in the Roanoke Times, they did a survey of what people thought
was sin. They asked the question, what
do you think is sin? And maybe you read that, but
it was absolutely ridiculous the things you know what people
come up with this and that and the others. Touch not, taste
not, handle not, and so forth. Well, Scripture says, our God
says, sin is the transgression of the law, meaning breaking
God's law. What law? Any law. And God said to offend in one
point, guilt of it all. Isn't that what he said? You read it for yourself, you
know it. But it's not just outwardly either. God doesn't see his man's sin.
God looks on the heart. And he said, I say unto you,
he that has looked on a woman has committed adultery. Now, who can say he's without
sin? Ever. Sin is the transgression
of the law. But it's more than that. Sin
is everything that is evil and wicked and filth. As I quoted,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And I'm not able to describe
sin in the way it really is, the way God sees it. God who
is holy. None of us have ever really seen
sin as God sees it. Most men and women think it's
too severe for God to destroy. people or to have a hell and
put people in because they don't see sin as God sees it. They
don't know what real holiness is. Men think they do. They try
to look like they are holy, and they try to come up with some
kind of standard of holiness. It's not God's standard. God says there's one thing that
can be done with sin. Kill it. Sin is the opposite of everything
holy. And again, men don't really have
a clue what that is. Holiness came into this world.
His name was Jesus Christ. Holiness personified walked this
earth. The only man who ever lived who God approved of. The
only man whom God was well pleased for his righteous to say, that
is, his holy life to say. The only man with clean hands,
a pure heart, and never lifted up his soul under vanity or swore
deceitfully. The only man ever. But he didn't look any different
than anybody else. And nobody recognized him for the holiness
that he was. And what did man do? Man that
is corrupt. Killed him. Our Lord said this, if I hadn't
come, they wouldn't have had a cloak for their sin. They cover
themselves and cloak themselves and go through this charade of
holiness, but holiness walked this earth and man hated it. And they killed it, according
to God's purpose. The word holy itself means other
than. God said, Thou thoughtest I was
altogether such a one as Thyself. God is something other than man. Sin is the opposite of holiness.
Sin is the opposite of all that is pure and good and clean and
right and just and true. Sin is evil. Sin is a bad nature. Sins are the offshoot, the actions
of, the thoughts of sin, you see. Sin is a nature. Sins are the
results of that nature, the fruit of that nature. Sins are murder,
rape, violence, hatred, envy, jealousy, lies, deceit, and so
forth. Well, our Lord said here in verse
12, by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
Death. What kind of death? Physical
death? Yes. But that's not the first
kind of death that came upon man because of sin. Spiritual death is the first
thing that happened to mankind. And Adam all died spiritually. Spiritual death. Adam in that
garden, when he, and Adam, listen to me, Adam was the only man
who's ever lived who had a free will. Only one. Offered a choice, if you will.
If you want to use the word offer, though it's not in scripture.
but offered a choice, good or evil. What did he choose? God or self? God's will be done, God to reign
and rule, or you reign and rule. What did Adam choose? Self, evil,
will not have God, I'll be God. Now Adam was created with the
life of God. Adam walked with God. Adam talked
with God. Adam thought like God. Adam looked
like God. Creating the image of God. And we saw that's Jesus Christ. But now, after he rebelled against
God, this thing of sin entered him, and he no longer looked
like God. His countenance changed. He no
longer thought like God. He no longer thought on God.
He was hiding from God. Before he ran to God, now he's
running from God. Before he wanted to see God,
he loved God. Now he doesn't want to see God.
Before he was unashamed, he had nothing to be ashamed of, no
sin. Now he's guilty, he's ashamed. Until he became more like an
animal than God. And all of these things, fear,
guilt, shame, hate, bitterness, anger, he blamed his wife, she
blamed the servant, they blamed each other and they were ashamed
and so forth. It's a spiritual death. And it
says, by this one man, death. By one man's sin, death passed
upon, the spiritual death. And all of our children are born,
Scripture says, conceived in sin. That is, they're born in
sin. We get the nature of our father
Adam. We come forth, David said, from
the womb speaking lies. Our children aren't born speaking
the truth. They're born speaking lies. And
we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them to tell the
truth. They're born doing evil. They're born hating. They're
born loving self. They're born dead and trespassing in sin. They
don't think about God. You have to force them to come
to church to think about God. You have to force them to thank
God. Sing, honey, sing. I don't want
to sing. You've got to force them to do
that. It's not their nature. It's sin. It's spiritual death,
that's the point. Amen. And we can't blame Adam. He went on to say in Romans 5,
we can't blame all this on Adam because we've sinned just like
him. We do it willfully, by choice, by nature. Well, not only did
that sinful nature pass upon Adam. Now, why do we labor this
point? And, you know, someone once told
one of our ladies, said, you all talk too much about sin. Well, Scripture says that. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. God's going to destroy this whole
world because of this thing called sin. Man, by nature, is like a mad
dog. The only thing, one thing you
can do with a mad dog. It's a true story. Years ago,
this man had a dog named Shep. It was a family pet. He had children, the man had
children, and one day one of the youngsters came in and said
to their father, Dad, something's wrong with Shep. I went out to play with him and
he growled at me. And he said, and Dad, Shep, he's
just got this funny look on his face. And he's foaming at the mouth,
Dad. Something's wrong with Shep. And the father immediately knew. And he went to the fireplace
over the hearth where he kept his gun, got his gun down, opened the chamber and put a
shell in. And the little child said, Dad,
what are you going to do? He said, son, Shep's a mad dog. I've got to kill him. If I don't
kill Shep, he's going to kill you. That's an illustration of what
God has to do to man. He's got to kill us. Or at least show
us that we're dead. See, Christ, unless we see something of the
awfulness of sin, what we are. Repentance is repentance toward
God for what we are, not just what we do, but what we are that
makes us do what we do. The man died spiritually, and
not only spiritually, but physically, physically. Adam walked out of that garden.
Well, before he walked out of the garden, God Almighty illustrated
this thing to him. You know, the first death on
this planet was caused, God Almighty did it. The first death on this
planet, God did it. When God told Adam and Eve, you're
going to die the day you eat their love, they didn't know
what he was talking about. They didn't even know what death meant.
They'd never seen it, didn't know what the concept was. Death.
Cessation of life. What do you mean, death? Well,
when they sinned against God, God Almighty, I believe in the
person of Jesus Christ. I believe it was Him in the garden.
God Almighty, Christ Himself, took a lamb which was perhaps
a pet of Eve, perhaps, an innocent, spotless, harmless, beautiful,
lovely lamb. Harmless. God Almighty, Christ
took that lamb right before the eyes of this man and woman, these
rebels now. And He took that lamb and took
a knife and slit its throats to their horror. And they watched as that once
alive, innocent, beautiful, spotless lamb, now this blood, this red,
they didn't know what blood was, this red blood, the life of this
flesh came flowing out of this lamb and it began to kick and
kick and finally until it quit kicking and he laid it down there. It's dead. And they watched in horror at
this. And I believe God explained to
them what that is. This is the only way from now
on that you can approach me. The blood of an innocent victim.
The only way you can live from now on is for something to die
for you, but rather someone. And God made that promise over
in verse 15 of chapter 3 of Genesis. He said, the woman's seed. Someone's
coming. There's somebody coming. You
know, death now has passed upon you. Sin, spiritual death, physical
death. Adam, you're going to live 930
years, but then you're going to die. And they walked out of
that garden, and the first thing they saw not long after there
was their son's brain mashed out because of this thing called
sin. Then they knew a little bit about
the exceeding sinfulness, this nature that had come upon all
of their posterity. But God in mercy and in grace
and the gospel is what this is. God Almighty told them, somebody's
coming to get you out of this mess you've got yourself in.
Somebody's coming. You're dead and you're born dead
and all your children are born just like you, sinful, sinners
like you are. Without God, without hope, but
somebody's coming. Here's the good news. Here's
the gospel. I'm sending someone, another
man, to this earth. A holy man, really holy. I'm
coming. God was manifest in the prayer. Oh yeah, a child is born, but
the Son, the eternal Son of God is given. Call His name. What do you call His name? God. Immanuel. God with us. God was
in Christ. The second Adam, and, oh my, again, who is sufficient
for these things? It says, in Adam all died, but
in Christ shall all be made alive. We're born dead, we're born without
God, we're born without hope, we're born without the ability
to know God, we're born without the ability to come to God. Christ
said this, you will not come unto Me that you might have life.
He said, no man can come unto Me except the Father which has
sent Me, draw him. Man is dead. Dead means dead.
Graveyard dead. To God, stinking dead. No matter
how you clothe it, no matter how you cover it up, it's flesh.
God said that which is flesh is flesh, and it's abhorrence
to God. But God came in flesh, put on
the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. As I quoted
in Psalm 24, the only man who ever lived The only man who ever
lived whom God said, I'm well pleased with this man. God could not contain himself
from heaven, but Christ said it, I'm well pleased with this
man. This man and this man only. He didn't say it about Moses.
He didn't say it about Abraham. He didn't say it about Job. He
didn't say it about anybody. He's not saying it about anybody
now. But he said, this man, well pleased. Look at him, holy, righteous.
This is a man that lives like us. Command man to live like
man should live. He lives for my glory, according
to my law. He thinks it, he loves it, he
believes it, he breathes it. He loves it, he loves to do my
will. He's not out for self, he's out
for me. This man, to this man will I look, and to all that
look to. Him. All that are in Him by faith. Even so, by Christ, in Christ. Those who look to Christ, those
who are found in Him, not having their own righteousness, but
the righteousness which He made and covered them up. Not the
righteousness of the law, but by faith in Him, which God just
freely gives. I said, try all you want to.
You can't do it. You can't do it. Christ didn't
try. He did it. Who did he do it for? Not himself,
not to show us how, but who can tell us? This is not a how-to
message. This is just how it is. This is not how you can get to
God or how you can be like God. No, no, no, no. This is who. This is who alone
can get us to God. As I said, Christ didn't come
down here to just show us how to live. There's a scripture that says
this, listen carefully now, if righteousness cometh by the law, now would you listen how serious
this is, if we can get to God If God will accept us by us living
righteously, Christ died in vain. That's how serious it is. And God showed us, like that
lamb in the garden, which was a picture of when God sent his
Son to Calvary's tree. And we ought to look upon that
with utter amazement, like Adam and Eve did. Why is God killing
his son? God Almighty is the one that
killed his son. Why? Why did Jesus Christ die? As a martyr? A substitute. As we said in the garden, God
said, I'm killing this land. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. The soul. The soul. That's what hell is,
where souls are sinned. The body dies because of sin.
It has to. It just shrivels up and dies.
Corruption. The soul. Death. Second death. Scripture says God made his soul,
Christ's soul, an offering for sin. Scripture says God made
him to be sin. All those in Christ are made
the right... This is a mystery, and this is
it in a nutshell. What Christ did, he did for God,
to God, to glorify God on our behalf. And here's the mystery. Somehow, God Almighty swapped
places. with his people in Christ. Substitution. So that we get the credit, if
you will, for what he did. Now this is faith. This is what
faith is. We get the credit for what he
did and he got the blame for what we are and do. And when
God saw him, he saw all of his people, sinners everywhere. and
killed him. That's what we deserve. Like
God said to Adam and Eve, this is what you deserve. I really
ought to put you out of my sight, but I'm going to spare you. And God spared us, his people,
whoever they may be, because he spared not his own son. Did I tell it? And Adam all died. Born dead and eventually died
physically. Everything and everyone in this
planet dies. It's all because of sin. It's
a horrible thing. The whole creation groaneth because
of this sin. But the whole creation must have
rejoiced when God walked this planet. I've often thought of
the rapport our Lord must have had with the animals and nature
itself. The fear of man is put in Him,
but they had no need to fear Him. He came to put away death
by His own death. I can't explain that, it's just
a mystery. As I said, this is not a how-to, but how it is,
what it is, who it is. When the Holy Son of God came
to this earth, he came to abolish death, spiritual death. And then
someday, Scripture says he's coming again, God's going to
cast Sin, hell, and death into the lake of fire. This is the
second death. Going to burn up the whole earth and the heavens
and everything in it. When Christ, who is life, comes
and he said, you rejoice in what I create, a new heaven and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And this, I didn't adequately
describe it, this new creature that God creates in us by the
Spirit of God. This new person. This Christ-like
man is going to dwell there with
Christ. It's not something you did. It's something the Holy
Spirit did through Christ. He, as it were, gave birth to
a people. It's called the new birth. The
new birth. And Christ is the one that prevailed.
to give birth to these people. And the Holy Spirit takes this
Christ, this seed, this Word, this preaching of the gospel,
and plants it. This is a mystery, I'm doing
my best. And plants this in the hearts of all His people that
He's chosen, everywhere. And in new life, faith in Christ,
the life of God, a new creature is made in Christ that walks
in holiness and godliness and the fruit of the Spirit and so
forth until someday when this body of death is put in the grave
and then they are clothed with a new body in His perfect image
where they'll live happily ever after with Christ Himself. It's all because of Him, you
see. It's all because of him. We don't do it. We had nothing
to do with our first birth and life. We have nothing to do with
the second. See, under him are the issues,
the glory of life. Okay. Brother Gary, come and
let's sing a closing hymn, if you will. What number? 226? 226. We're going to sing, I'm going
to leave out, I believe it's the fourth verse. Let's stand as we sing 226 without
the fourth verse, all verses but the fourth verse. In your Bible study? Yeah. Yeah,
they just happened to go.