I go to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 2. This will
be a very, very basic, simple gospel message. And even the
youngest child in here should get something out of this. And a good way to learn something
is to answer questions. I'm going to ask three questions
this morning, three very basic questions, and questions about
man, about God, about salvation, and I hope you can answer these
questions. But your answer reveals something
of your understanding of yourself, about the Bible, about salvation. Are you with me? OK. I'm going
to ask three questions. Number one, what happened in
the garden? Number two, what happened at
Calvary? What happened at the Garden of
Eden? What happened at Calvary? Number
three, what happens in here when God saves somebody? What happens
in the heart? What happened in the garden? What happened at Calvary? What
happens in here? All right? And amazingly, you
see these three things. You see the purpose of God. You
see the redemption of Christ. You see sanctification by the
Spirit. All right, number one, what happened in the Garden of
Eden? What happened in the beginning of human race? What actually
happened to man? The answer to that reveals why
things are the way they are right now. The reason this world, we read
it in 1 Corinthians, that they don't have a clue why man, you
know why there's so many psychiatrists and sociologists and psychic
hotlines and all that stuff, you know. Well, you know why
this is a growing profession? Because people are trying to
figure out why people are doing what they're doing. I'll tell
you why they're doing what they're doing. God will tell you. It
all started. We have to begin where God began.
That's what the book Genesis means. That's what Genesis means,
in the beginning. All right? What happened to the
first human beings? Now, I'm talking to a group of
people. In here, I hope, I really hope
everybody in here believes that all human race did come from
a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. You do believe that,
don't you? Because if you don't believe that, go to the Christian
scientist place or wherever. All right, there were two people,
a man and a woman. Only two persons on the face
of the planet. God created a man and a woman.
He called them both man. All right? All right? Genesis chapter 2, verses 15
through 17. God created this man. We'll look
at chapter 1. Let's look at chapter 1 first,
all right? Verse 26, God said, Let us make
man in our image. after our likeness." Now, here's
a little sermon within a sermon, people. I've never seen this
before. God's a spirit. God doesn't have
an image. And whose image is He making
Him in? Huh? There's one who has
the express image of God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of God in a body." It must have been somebody, a body, in the
beginning, the image of God. Let us make man in our image
to look like God, Son of God. All right, read on. That's just
a little message without a message. No charge, Stan. All right, verse
27, so God created man in his own image, and the image of God
created him, male and female, blessed him, put him in a garden,
told him to do it and have dominion over it, and so on. All right,
chapter 2 now, chapter 2, verse 15. Everyone in here knows this
story, but do you know the answer to
that question? What happened here? Chapter 2, verse 15, the
Lord God took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to dress
it, to keep it. He was a farmer. All right, the
Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat. How many trees do you reckon
were in that garden? How many trees are there on planet
Earth now? I bet you there was one species
of each, or one genus, or whatever. One type of every tree in that
garden, of each, and oak, and hickory, and locusts, and on
and on, every tree imaginable. All right? What a garden. What
a garden. No thorns, no thistles, no flies,
no skeeters, no nothing. Beautiful. Oh, you ought to be
happy right on. So, you may as freely eat, verse
seventeen, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It's
one tree. Thou shalt not eat of it. One tree. Someone says it's not
fair. You should have given, not fair. All these trees, here's one.
Don't eat of it. In the day, now look at it now.
You've got to know this. You've got to know Genesis 2,
17. for Genesis 3, verse 15. In the day you eat thereof, thou
shalt surely die. All right. Now God made man,
male and female. Man was a higher life form than
the animals. He talked about God breathing
into man and he became a living soul. Animals don't have a soul. All right? God created man in
the image of God. He looked like, thought like,
acted like God. Not an animal or an ape. God. Beautiful. Glorious. Irrational. Able to
think and reason. And God brought all the animals
to Adam. Adam named all the animals. Think
about the brilliance of that man. How many thousands of species
of Adam? Adam named them all. This is,
whatever, horses, you know, this is caddis, doggus, and on and
on, you know. Named them. A brilliant, rational,
reasonable creature. He could reason and think, and
the life of God in the Spirit of God, the life of God is in… Well, how can you describe the
life of God? holiness is what it is, goodness, uprightness,
righteousness, dignity, honor, glory, genius, just a glorious
creature in the likeness of God, a God, small g, walking the planet. Now, at that point, Man had a
free will. He was able to choose anything. He had a free will, all right? But there was nothing to choose
but good. God hedged his will, he said.
He had a—everything around him was good, and he had the—all
he chose was good. All God was with him. God talked
to him, spoke to him, good, upright, holy, all right? But he was able
to think, he was a rational creature, able to make decisions, all right?
God is God. Absolute ruler. God's creator. God put one thing in this garden
to remind man of this needful thing, that God is the
and you're the creature. That I reign and I rule and all
over I've given you the earth to have dominion over and you're
a little ruler as it were, I rule you. I'm the creator, you're the creature. I'm the ruler and make the rules
you abide by. I'm sovereign what you have you
received. All right? One tree. One tree represents
that I'm God, you're man, I talk, you listen, I say do, you do,
I say don't, you don't do it. That's fair enough. God's God. That's fair. It wasn't unreasonable
at all. God has a right to be God. And
he absolutely, man, expects man to be subservient. All right? Okay. God's sovereign right to
give, and look at what all he gave him, or withhold. What did
he withhold? One thing, one little trait. All right. And God warned the
man, the day you eat thereof, you'll die, didn't He? And the scripture says, dying,
you shall die. There's two deaths. All right,
chapter three. Chapter three, verse one. What
happened? What happened in the garden? Now, if you don't know this,
you'll be wrong on it all. You'll be messed up everywhere.
You won't know what happened at Calvary. You won't know what
happens here. Chapter 3, verse 1, "...a serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." Who made
the serpent? "...a serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." Who made
the serpent? You'd be wrong there, you're
wrong on it all. Satan's not God. Never has been,
never will be. All right? He said, this serpent
said unto the woman, Hath God said, yea, hath God said you
shall not eat of every tree of the garden? All right, what's
happening here? What happened here? She said,
look, question mark. He quoted a verse of Scripture,
but it was with a little question on the end of it. I know it says. That's what that question mark
is, a but. All right? He sowed the seed
of sin by putting a little question on God's Word, and he's still
doing it today, in the hearts and minds of men
and women, questioning whether he even is the Word of God or
not. I know, has God said, did God
really write this? Did he really say this? Is this
really the Word of God, or just dead sea scrolls? Is it? Did God say that? Now, we know, you know, the devil
believes there's one God in Trimble. We know there is a God. But did
He say that? Is this what He meant? Is that what He always
said? What did He mean by that? All right, the woman, he was,
the woman said, verse 2, the woman said, and she shouldn't
have been dealing with a serpent without her husband, but, and
then she begins interpreting. She then interprets God's Word.
Is this important? She didn't just quote what God
said, she began to interpret it for herself. What's going
on with her today? What happens when you quote the
Word of God to somebody? What do they say? Nearly every
time. Well, that's just your interpretation. Nearly every time. Just quote
it. King James Bible. Well, a woman said, Well, we
may eat of the fruit of the tree. Her words, you know, she first
gave her words, her little interpretation. But of the fruit of the tree
in the midst you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch
it lest you die. All right? She added to it. Added her own
version of it, interpreted it. This thing's bad, boys. It's
already, that's where it started. Question on God's Word, and she
began interpreting it for herself. All right? Verse 4, the serpent,
after he cast doubt in her mind on God's Word, now he completely
denies what God said. Verse 4, the serpent said to
the woman, you won't die. you shall not surely die." He flat out denies the Word of
God, tells a lie. Now he lies on God, doesn't he? And people, this is the greatest
denial today, and this is where everybody misses it. This is
where it started, and this is where it's now. This is Nobody
believes man died in the garden. Satan's telling himself, you're
not dead. No, God has a wonderful plan
for your life. You're not dead in trespass and sin. God loves
you. Oh no, you have the spark of life. You're creating the
image of God. God loves you. God doesn't want you. You'll
not die. You're not dead. What did God say? I hear what
you're saying, Mr. Serpent, Mr. Smooth-talking Devil.
I hear what you say. I know you've got an evil motive
behind it, but what did God say? He said, the day you eat, you'll
die. You'll die. Die, and you shall
die. All right, verse 5, God doth know, here's what he said,
he went on, the serpent, God doth know the day you eat thereof
your eyes will be opened. You'll be as gods, knowing good
and evil. Wait a minute, he's already like God. How's that? He knows good. Why
does he need to know evil? Huh? He's already like God. If you're like God, you're perfect,
you're good, you're upright. Why do you need to know evil? You'll be as God, knowing good
and evil. God doesn't know evil. He can't look on evil. He knows
what it is. Now listen to this very carefully. What Satan's saying here is,
you have a right to choose. God has a right, and you have
a right. Do you have free will? Make a choice. You want to be
as God, don't you? Want to be a little God? Verse
six, So the woman saw that the tree was good for food, lust
of the flesh. She saw it was pleasant to the
eyes, lust of the eyes. A tree to be desired to make
one wise, right of life." She took it, ate it, gave it to her
husband, and he did. What happened? Verse 7 says,
"...where the eyes of them both were open." Wait a minute. God said they'd die. It says
here their eyes were open. All right, what were their eyes
open to? Look at it. Their eyes were open,
but they knew that they were naked. Wait a minute, what's
wrong with that? What's wrong with naked? Let me ask you, why would somebody
take all your clothes off right now and walk outside? Well, you
wouldn't dream of it, would you? Huh? You'd be embarrassed, you'd
be ashamed. Why? Why? Well, because I'm naked. What's wrong with that? Why are we embarrassed
to be naked? Eyes are open. What to? What's
all this about? You ever thought about that?
Why am I embarrassed to be naked? This is the way God made me.
I was born naked. I wasn't embarrassed then. But then, oh, you're getting
more ashamed. What do you think of it? Their eyes were open. They were
naked. Their eyes were open. Now listen,
their eyes weren't, oh, this wasn't enlightenment. Their eyes
were open to sin. They knew they were knowing evil
now. They were knowing sin. And what
you're going to see is that man now knows only sin. He doesn't know good. See, their
eyes weren't open to know good and evil. From here on out, their
eyes were open only to know evil. Everything they see is evil.
They were naked before, and they saw each other. Hello, Eve. Hello,
Adam. Good! There's nothing wrong here.
And all of a sudden, their eyes are open. Oh, get something on! Can't cover up? Why? What's evil about it? See, their eyes were open.
Now they know sin. Shame! Why? Sin. Now their minds and hearts are
There's this creature that knew only good, and he looked at,
Oh, Adam said, Day, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Oh, look
at this body, this glorious body, and in sin sets in. Oh, cover up. Matthew Henry said, Isn't
it proof of man's depravity that he takes glory in his covering,
which is a symbol of sin? Man didn't even need clothes
before sin set in. But now, what covers our nakedness,
man glories in it. Look at it, isn't it beautiful? Oh, he's ignorant, isn't he?
Blind. Scales. His eyes were open, yet now scales
went open. Nothing wrong with his body.
Sin. That's strange, isn't it? His being became engulfed with
this sin, this body called sin. All right? Now, everything he
sees and thinks and feels is going to be sinful. He died. The life of God is holiness and
righteousness. To the pure, all things are pure,
he said, the Scripture said. Nakedness. God, the Son of God
walked this planet, and women could have paraded before Him.
He did see them. He didn't see right through clothing. That
meant nothing to Him, you know. Pure, righteous, holy, but to
a man now in sin, lusts, animal passions. His eyes were open to see what?
Sin in everything, even nakedness, what God created. Look at the
next thing, verse 8. Oh, verse 7, we can't leave this
out. The first thing he did was what? He tried to cover himself. He sewed a fig leaf, an apron,
a little thing of fig leaves. Do you know why that happened? What he's doing here? What that
represents? Do you know that when the Lord
Jesus Christ, God, came down to this planet, He cursed one
thing on this planet? He cursed one object on this
planet. It was one thing. The Lord God from heaven, when
he became a man, came down to this earth and walked up to a
big tree and cursed it. Why? This is a picture of man trying
to cover up before God. He's sinful, he's naked, he's
sinful. He's trying to cover his sin
in something he does. And he got him some fig leaves.
Now, all we let the leaf wither. Our goodness, like the leaf,
is going to fade away. Whatever we do, our little works
of righteousness, to try to make our good look good now, don't
we? It's going to fade. It's not going to last. Christ
came down here and said, that's a symbol of man's works. Curse
it. You can't be covered up with
leaves. It's going to take skins. It's
going to take a skin. Bloodshed. Now, it's going to
take something serious to put away what you've done now, Adam. Interesting that when he went
out of the garden, one of the first things he saw was bloodshed. Well, he saw it in the garden.
Bloodshed. And he went out, he saw his own,
his begotten son's blood dashing. We'll look at the next thing,
verse eight. They heard the voice of God, the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. They heard the voice
walking, the voices walk. The voice of God did. The Word
was made flesh and walked among us, dwelt among us. Yeah, the
voice of God, the image of God walked in the garden that day. He was in the garden. He's the one who's going to skin
that lamb. I believe it's Him who with His own hands that killed
that innocent lamb in that garden to cover this first sinner. And God's lamb skinned the first
lamb. Well, the voice of God came walking in the garden. Now,
before Adam and Eve ate this fruit, you know good and well
that He came walking in the garden. Adam, yes sir, here we are, Eve,
it's the Lord. Adam, it's the Lord." And they walked through the garden.
Oh my, what did they do? The Lord instructed, look here
Adam, this is, look what I've done here, this is, try this. They walked arm in arm. Now the
Lord God comes walking in a, what do they do? They run high. They don't want to be around
the Lord. Adam, where are you? Adam? He calls. They don't want him. Not interested. Not interested. What's happened
here? He loved the Lord before. Loved
the sound of his voice. Wanted his presence. Now he's
not interested. hiding in a bush. He's dead. He's dead. He died. He died. He's not interested
in God? We're going to talk about God
this morning in here. How many of we got in here to
come hear about God? To hear the Word of God? God's
going to speak here. We're going to hear about God. What's man doing? Not interested. turn away their ears from the
truth. I didn't hide. What's man, what
happened? And then verse 9, or verse 10,
Adam said, I was naked and I hid myself. Who told you you were
naked? Have you eaten of the tree? Have you eaten of the tree?
Have you eaten of the tree? God knew he'd eaten of the tree.
Have you eaten of the tree? Answer. Did he say yes? What'd he say? He didn't take
the, he didn't confess, he didn't, the woman. It's that woman. No, he didn't say, yes I did,
I'm guilty, I'm sorry. It's that woman. No, I wouldn't
have eaten it if she hadn't have given it to him. He started lying,
he started making, taking, putting, casting the blame on, it's that
woman. If you hadn't, this, she's all about trouble, right there.
If you hadn't Who is he placing the blame on? It's that woman
that you created. If I'd have been fine without
her, it's her! What's happened to this man?
When she first came in, bone in my bones, flesh in my flesh,
look at what God did. Oh, I love her. Oh, my lovely,
beautiful wife. I love her with all my heart
and soul. It's that woman! What's happened? She's dead. He's a dead man. He's not like God at all. He's
nothing like God now. He doesn't even resemble God. Woman. Thought she loved her. And the
woman denied it. What has happened? What happened
in the garden? Why are there people like this? Man, woman
getting married, oh, they're walking down the aisle, they're
just, they're going to live to death. Do we pardon? Six months
later, they're ready to kill each other. What's wrong here? What happened in the garden is
what's wrong. These babies you bring forth,
and they're cutest, they're all rosy pink, and you have all the
hopes and the, and the, the, for these babies, they're just
going to be, oh, they're going to be, they're going to set the
world on fire. What they're going to do is set
it on fire with hell. They might be the absolute scoundrel
of the planet, you know. And the first thing they're going
to do is lie to you. First thing they're going to do is lie to
you. They're going to come forth from the womb speaking lies. My precious little darling, what's wrong here? We were born in sin. Every creature,
you see, every person that came after Adam and Eve were born
from Adam and Eve. We were born from the seed of
Adam. We came forth from his loins.
We now have this loathsome disease filling us up, and man lives
now 7,000 years later, nearly. This is the reason dying shall
die. Brother Henry, Adam lived 930 years. And man progressively began to
live less. Now he's down to 70. Except by
strength, God gives him 80. All right? He used to live nearly
a thousand years. Now he's down to 70. What is
it? Dying? You shall die! He died in sin,
and now his body is going to slowly decay around until he's
down to about 70 years. Why? Because that's all he can—he
can't get into any more meanness. He's got it all. He's just absolutely
a walking, polluted, filthy creature. He's dead, everything he does.
In Genesis 6, it says, God saw that the wickedness of man was
evil from his youth up, and it repented him that he made man.
He said, I want to destroy man. He's not worth living 70 years. Not worth putting up with 70
years. let alone a thousand. Dying, you should die. What happened
in the garden? That died. And the thing's worse
now? Oh, you better believe it. This
whole planet now is filled with this loathsome creature called
mankind. And while God destroyed the world by flood and left some
nasty ones, it's all going to I'm going to burn it up, and
not to be recovered." Well, he died. All right, what's the answer
now? What's going to happen? Well, it's—God purposed all this
from the beginning. Yes, He did. Look down at verse
15, all right? I've taken too long to get to
this. Chapter 3, Genesis 3, verse 15, God said, "...and all the days of thy life,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy
seed and her seed, the woman's seed. It, her seed, the woman's
seed, shall bruise thy head, and thou, shall bruise his heel."
What's that talking about? What's God saying here? Do you
know? Huh? Who is this? What's this woman
saying? Do you know? Do you know? Huh? This is the remedy. Man's dead.
God says, now here's what I'm going to do. A woman's seed. Don't take care of it all. What's
he talking about? The seed of woman will bruise
serpent's head, yet the serpent's gonna bruise his heel. His heel,
head, heel, head. What's seed, woman's seed? What's he talking about? Well, let's see what happened
at Calvary, okay? Who is this woman's seed? This
woman's seed, do you know? The Son of God, Jesus Christ,
all the way through the Scriptures, is called the seed. The seed. The seed. This is the first announcement
by God. God preached the gospel at the
beginning of it. He said, the woman's seed. Now listen to me.
Women don't have seed. Women. Men have, the word is
sperma. That's what seed is, sperma.
Semen. Women don't have that. have been
a woman's seed in there. He's talking about a virgin born
man. It's a seed, but it comes from
a woman. Wait a minute, whose seed is
it then? It's got to be, it's got to be,
it's got to be in, a woman's got to be impregnated. You cannot
have a baby, a woman cannot have a baby without a male partner. Well that's, well whose seed
is it? One day, how many years later? Four thousand years later, the
angels announced to a woman of all. A young woman said, The
Holy Spirit shall come upon you, the Spirit of God, and a holy thing will be placed
in you, the seed of God. Not man, no man in it. No man in it. The holy righteous
seed of God. God, holy, shall come upon you
and come in you. And that holy thing shall be
called the Son of God. Not son of Adam. the Son, the
only begotten Son of the Most High, Holy, Righteous God. Yes, man. Not anything like it. Not anything like following me.
No, he's going to be created in the express image of God. He's going to come forth from
the womb speaking truth. He's not going to cry even. Because
this is a baby that never cried. No, he shall not cry. This is a boy who never did any
meanness, never. This is a young man who was always
about his father's business, always. This is a man who always
thought on no one but God. good, holiness, righteousness,
justice, without sin. Never a thought, never a word,
never a deed of evil, nothing but perfection. The Son of God, the seed of a
woman. Now, what's this business about? All right, turn with me to Romans
5. What's this business about the serpent and bruising his
heel? See, it says that the serpent's going to bruise his heel, and
yet he's going to bruise his head. This seed of woman's going
to bruise the serpent's head, all right? Romans chapter 5.
What happened at Calvary? See, the Son of God came, lived
a perfect life, and He did that. Because what he was doing was
he was working out a robe now. He was working out something
to cover somebody with. Not everybody's somebody. He
was working out something with his own hand, and it wasn't fig
leaves. He was going to skin himself. It's the Lamb of God. He's going
to literally skin himself. to cover a naked man with. He's working out this robe, and
boy, God approves of it. It's beautiful. It's a perfect
robe. Beautiful. It won't wither. It
won't fade. Like the leaf. It'll cover. It'll cover. Well, the Son of
God, He did that, and that life He lived, He's going to cover
up naked sinners. Because all God sees that man
does is sinful. Something's got to cover all
that. God's got to see them like your son, you see? God's got
to see them without sin. He's got to see them covered.
That's why Christ lived that perfect life. He wrapped us in
it, robe of righteousness. Now God sees we look like we
did what Christ did. And He hung naked. Why did Christ
hang naked on the cross? He didn't have a little cloth
on Him like pictures say. He was plum naked. Why? He's us, naked. before God. Shame. Bearing it all. All right? Now he hung on that,
he came there and he hung on that cross. Well, what'd he do
there? He crushed the serpent's head. Look at it. Romans 5. Romans
5. Look at verse 12. Now, by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Y'all know
who that's talking about, don't you? Adam. All right. And so death passed upon all
men. What kind of death is he talking about? Physical? Yeah,
but spiritual. Death reigns, verse 14. Death
reigns from Adam to Moses. Eat over them that have not sinned,
after the exact same way Adam did, but still they all die.
Even babies die. Why? Sin. Sin. Verse 17, read on. If by one
man's offense death reign by one, much more they which receive
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ." Chapter 6, look at this, verse
6, chapter 6. Now know this, know this, what
happened at Calvary? Our old man is crucified with
Him. that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve the serpent
of sin. Christ is being made a curse
for us. Christ is hanging there on the
cross as me, as a naked, vile sinner, and Satan and all the
forces of hell and evil unleashed in him. But the wrath of God,
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. That's what's happening
here. And what happened there? Look
at verse 7. He that's dead is free from sin. If Christ did what he did on
that cross for me, then I'm dead. I've been crucified. And what
Christ is doing on that cross See the serpent, the serpent
thought he had Christ, or killed the Christ. He thought he was,
shows me he didn't know much. He's, he's, he's undoing himself. He's about to kill himself. But
he thought, if I can get rid of this son of God, you know,
everything will be all right. No, you'll be dead. You, you,
that's your own death warrant. Well, he thought he did, and
he bruised his heel. What that heel is, see God When
God put on a body, it was just as it were a parachute, a feet,
just the feet of God. Christ was the feet of God. And
the serpent bruised his body, his heel, his lower part. God's
in the heaven, the head's in the heaven, you see, can't get
to the head. But his heel walked this planet,
his feet walked this planet, the head's in the heaven, the
feet walked the planet. bruised his heel, his body as it were.
But what did he do in the process? What the God of glory did, what
Christ did, was step on the head of the serpent. That's what this Romans 5 is
talking about. Look at chapter 6, we're there
in chapter 6, verse 14. It says, "...then shall not have
dominion over you." You're not under the law now, but under
grace, under grace. What Christ did was will step
on the head of the power of sin, for it had no more power. Held him down. crushed his head. No more power anymore over sin,
over my people. No more power. Oh, he touches
them, he bruises them a little bit here and there, but no, he
put away sin by the sacrifice himself on Calvary's tree. What
happened on Calvary's tree was Christ defeated hell, death,
and Satan for his people now. Now, not everybody, not the world,
because you see the world is in it. They're not believers
anymore. You're not under out from under
the absolute reigning power. Now a believer, a believer wants
to tell the truth. A believer wants to live right.
A believer wants, he loves God. A believer, this brings in my
third question. What happens when God saves? What happens in the heart? This
is where the issue of life is. This is where God creates life.
It's in the heart. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, all
right? What happens to a sinner when
God saves him? What happens to a sinner? Now
God purposed this whole thing. Fall of man, yes, and announce
the seed of woman. Christ came and redeemed them
from the curse of the law. Crucified, buried, now risen
again. Christ's redemption is in Christ.
Now here's the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. This is what
the Holy Spirit, everyone that Christ died for, this is what
the Holy Spirit does. See, redemption is what Christ
did for us sinners. Sanctification is what the Holy
Spirit does to the sinner. Redemption is what Christ accomplished
on Calvary's tree for us. Sanctification is what the Holy
Spirit does to us and reveals Christ in us. Not only look at,
but Christ in, a forming in. A new life, they say. Christ
in us, the hope of glory. A new man, a new creature created
in Christ Jesus in the image of God. To actually, once again,
not hiding from God, looking for Him. Not turning a deaf ear
to God, but listening for Him. Not trying to cover Himself with
fig leaves, but coming naked. to be closed. 2 Thessalonians 2 says this.
We looked at this the other night. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says,
We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to save you. Well, what did he do? He gave
you to Christ. He chose you He gave you to Christ
what Christ did. We heard the story, what he did
at Calvary. He went to the cross, took your
place, took all your punishment, your sin, gave you his righteousness,
killed you, buried that old man, took your sins, separated them
from you and God as far as the east is from the west. And then
look at this, verse 13, chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel." A life-giving sound, the gospel,
the gospel call. And the first thing he says was, who were dead in trespasses and
sin. You were dead, weren't you? Cast out in the field like that
infant, dead, good as dead. But at the time of love, God
passed by you and said, live. You heard the gospel, but you're
dead. That's the first thing you hear,
isn't it? You hear what happened in the garden. You know what
happened to the cross, and we died. Then you hear what happened
on the cross. He said, I spread my skirt over
you. You know why Christ went to the
cross. You know what he did there. You know, we know, and we know
that the Son of God has come to give us understanding that
we might know Him as the true and living God. He's all our
hope and righteousness. Isn't that one hanging on that?
That blood that was shed, this is what the Holy Spirit does.
And then from then on, for the rest of your life, this life
is growing, growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ.
And you're no longer, until you're no longer buried, you start out
a dead sinner, looking just like every son of Adam. Then he kills you and creates
a new creature that begins to grow. It's on the inside. It
begins to grow and bear the image of the predestined us to be conformed
to the image of his Son that created us in Christ Jesus unto
good work. Grow in the image of Christ until
God says it's time for you to leave here and come up and be
just like him. You say we're getting perfect?
No, we are perfect. Believe me, we are perfect. before
God's eyes, but yes, the believer is growing in grace and getting
more like Jesus Christ. You don't feel like it, but you,
oh, you still feel, a believer still has this, he has two, two,
is an old man and a new man that's with him. Who shall deliver me,
Paul said, from this body of death? The believer is like a
man that's alive carrying around on his back a dead body. Weighted down, burdened down
by this dead body. He can't fly, he can't jump,
he can't swim, he can't run, he can't do anything he wants
to do, like he'd like to do it. He's carrying around this dead
body that holds him down. This body of putrefying wounds,
bruises, sores, flesh, and it stinks to every now and then.
Oh, it's still stinking, smelling to him. But God smells the sweet
scent. There's only one thing that'll
take that smell out of the nostrils of God. It's lamb's blood, flesh. God smells that. And the believer,
until someday, finally, he lays down this body of death to be delivered, never has sin,
this body of sin, bothered him any more. They've created a new
Adam, a new creature. with a body better than that
first Adam and that first Eve. Are we going to be naked? No.
No. Because He clothed us with something
we're going to wear the rest of our lives. He clothed us with
something beautiful, a white robe. And we're going to be just like
Him, Son of God, just like Him. Do you know what happened in
the garden? You know what happened at Calvary's
Cross? Christ didn't just try to do something. No, sir. It wasn't an attempt made. It
was an atonement made. What happens when a child is
saved? New life. I mean, it's real. It's real. Old things pass away, don't they?
Damn. Old religion, old thoughts, old this and that and the other.
New things. Brand new. All things become
new. You see things, brand new. All right, Brother Joe, what
do you got? 125. Now that's all the counsel of
God. That's the whole counsel. That's all you need to know.
Go and learn what these things mean. What happened in the garden?
If you're wrong there, you're wrong on it all. If you miss
it there, you've missed it all. What happened to Calvary's tree? Redemption's what happened. What
happens when God saves? It ain't no mere joining a church. It's a new bird. A new bird. All right.