Go away, rising he justifies,
freely forever. One day he's coming, O glory
of saints. One day the trumpet will sound
for his coming. One day the sky with his glory
will shine. Wonderful day my beloved one's
dreaming. Gloria, Savior, this Jesus is
mine. Living He loved me, dying He
saved me, bearing He carried my sins far away. Rising He justifies,
freely forever One day He's coming, O glory of faith Now go with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is, as
promised, the text this morning, a 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, So it is written, The
first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last, Adam, a quickening
spirit. Verse 47, The first man is of
the earthy, 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. And all of its horror and fear
and finality death. We just read in Romans five how
that because of this thing of sin death. past on all men and
all wrote in another place the whole creation grown up. And
suffers because of this thing. 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 of 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. Goodness personified. Alright,
here's salvation in a nutshell, OK? 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, but
they did. Salvation's a gift. One hundred
percent. And God, in mercy and in love
and in grace, chose to save some of these corrupt creatures. And the way he does this is by doing something for them and
doing something to them. Gotta 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's 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 of the
Spirit of Christ doing something in us. A new creature. All right. Let's look at this
whole story in Adam, Paul, and I. 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 that 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 understand what he's talking about here
you don't understand. In Adam. all that. If you're in Adam,
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. The
man was created in this way. Purity, holiness, happiness.
To live unto God, to live with God, to live for God. To live
for Him. 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. Sam what is saying. Several years ago in the Roanoke
Times they did a survey of what people thought was saying they
asked the question what do you think is. 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
have a lot of. 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. Nobody said you read it for yourself,
you know. But it's not just outwardly either. God didn't see his man said God
looks on the heart and he said I say you he that has looked
on. Now who can say he's without. Ever. Sin is the transgression
of the law. But it's more than that. Sin
is everything that is evil and wicked and guilt. As we quoted,
the exceeding simple of sin, and I'm not able to describe
sin and it's 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 of 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 can
be done with sin. Kill it. Sin is the opposites of everything
holy. Again, men don't really have
a clue what that is. Holiness came into this world.
His name was Jesus Christ. Holiness personified walk 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. The only man with clean hands
a pure heart and never lifted up his soul on the 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 children. Our Lord said this, if I hadn't
come, they wouldn't have 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, according to
God's purpose. The word holy itself means other
than. God said, I'm not 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. are the option to actions of
the thoughts of fear you said. It is a major. Sins are the results
of that night the fruit of that night sins are murder rate violence
hatred envy jealousy lies deceit and so forth. Well, our Lord said here in verse
twelve, 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 spiritual. Spiritual death. Adam in that
garden when he and Adam listen to Adam was the only man who's
ever lived who had a free way. Offered a choice if you want
to use the word offer. It offered a job. Good people
what did you. God or self. God's will be done God to reign
rule or you write a rule. What Adam to. We'll not have got out we got. 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 shamed
and so forth. Death, it's a spiritual death.
And it says, by this one man, death. Now, one man, seeing that
death passed from 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 don't grow, don't,
aren't born speaking the truth. They're born speaking lies. And
we spend the rest of our lives trying to tell, get them to tell
the truth. They're not born doing evil,
they're born hating, they're born loving self, they're born
dead and trespasses 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. 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 sin 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 kill it off. Man by nature 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 ship. 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, put a shell
in him. 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. But 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. 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
verse 15 of chapter three 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 nine hundred and thirty
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 brains bashed out because of this thing called sin. Then
they knew a little bit about the exceeding simple, this nature
that had come upon all of their posterity. But God in mercy and
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 manifesting today. 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? What
do you call His name? God. Emmanuel, 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 love. 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 lives The only man who ever
lived whom God said, I'm well pleased with this man. The only
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 Joseph.
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 are 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. That's a trial you want to. You
can't do it. You can't do it. Christ didn't
try. He did. Who do you do it for? Not himself,
not to show us how, but who can tell that? This is not a how-to
message. This is just how it is. This is not how you can be, get
to God or how you can be like. 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 I want you to listen to how
serious this is. If we can get to God. If God will accept us. By us
living right, 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's killing
his son? God Almighty is the one that
killed his son. Why? Why did Jesus Christ die
as a martyr? As we said in the garden, God
said, I'm killing this lamb. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. The soul, the soul, the soul. That's what hell is, where
souls are sent. 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. 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. What places. with his people and substitution. So that we get the credit, if
you will, for what he did. 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 of the world,
and killed them. 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. Out of my sight. But I won't
spare you. And God spared us, his people,
whoever they may be. Because he spared not his own
son. I tell it. And Adam all died. born dead and eventually die
physically. Everything and everyone in this
planet dies. It's all because of sin. It's
a horrible thing. The whole creation groaned because
of this sin. But the whole creation must have
rejoiced when God walked this planet. I believe, I've often
thought of the rapport our Lord must have had with The animal,
the nature itself, you know, the fear of man is put in him,
but not, they had no need to fear him. He came to put away death, by
his own death. I can't explain that, it's 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
some day, 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 to his life comes,
and he said, you rejoice in what I create, a new heaven and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 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 does through Christ. He, as it were, gave birth to
a people. It's called a 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. It 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
the new body and his perfect image where they live happily
ever after with Christ himself. It's all because of him. It's
all because of him. We don't do it. We have nothing
to do with our first birth and life. We have nothing to do with
the second. See, under him are the issues
of glory, of life. Okay, Brother Gay, 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. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed. Christ died for sinners this
I read. For in my heart I find a need
of Him to be my Savior. that he should leave his place
on high and come for sinful men to die. You count it strange,
so what did I before I do my say? Last verse. Yea, living,
dying, let me bring