I want to begin in the book of
2 Thessalonians chapter 1. And as you're making your way
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, I want to remind you that in
Genesis, God having created all things, and after every day's
creation, he saw that everything was good, And then the very crowning
jewel of God's creation was the creation of man. Scripture says
he made man in his own image. And after the sixth day, that
day when God created Adam, God looked at everything that he
had made and he said, it's very good. It's very good. And that's not surprising because
Only good can come forth from Him who is good, even our God. And of course, we know that in
the New Testament, creation is attributed to our Lord Jesus
Christ. All things were made by Him and
for Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. So our Lord created all things.
He created Adam. He put Adam in a perfect garden. The Garden of Eden. Remember,
that was before sin left its mark on everything in creation. There was a time when all of
creation was man's friend. They were our friends. All of
the animals. No need to fear any animals,
lions or wolves or whatever. And they would just all come
up, and I can just imagine Adam kind of scratching the head of
a wolf or whatever. All things were wonderful because
there was no sin. Adam was given a job to harvest
the crops in the garden. No thorns, no thistles, no weeds. Wouldn't that be nice when you
plant your gardens here in several weeks? No weeds. Never had that
problem. And he had only to pick the fruits,
pick the crops, and enjoy all of creation. And in the midst
of all of that, God gave Adam one commandment, just one. It
wasn't a suggestion. It was God's law. It was God's
command. He told Adam, of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, don't eat the fruit of that tree. Not that
there was anything wrong with that fruit. It was a tree that
was good for food. But God designated that one tree
as being the one from which Adam must not eat of the fruit of
it. That was a sign of God's absolute
authority. You see, God gave Adam authority
over everything in creation, everything on earth anyway, but that tree was designated
as that which Adam must not eat of the fruit of it, as a reminder
to Adam, yes, Adam, you have dominion over all things, but
Adam, I have dominion over you. And don't forget that. I'm your
God. I created you. I give you one
command. Don't eat of the fruit of that
tree in the midst of the garden, for in the day you eat of it,
you're going to experience something that you've never seen before
called death. And we know that Adam, he followed
the lead of his wife. She was tempted by Satan. Satan
said, you go ahead and eat of the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, because God knows the day you eat of
the fruit of that, you shall be as God yourself. And the word
really is, you'll be like the Creator. You won't have to answer
to anybody. You won't even have to answer
to your Creator, to your sustainer. You won't have to answer to Jehovah. You will answer to nobody but
your own self. You'll be as God. That's what
Satan tempted Eve with. And she ate of the fruit. She
said, honey, this is good. I don't know why God told us
not to eat of it. I'm fine. And he received the fruit from
his wife. And he ate, and immediately he
died. Because death is the result of
disobedience of that command God gave. Death. When Adam ate, he died spiritually. Later, he would die physically. Of course, as soon as he ate
of it, he began to die. And but for the grace of God,
he would have died eternally. One command. And I want you to understand,
God has given to each of you, to me and everybody else, one
command. It's a gospel command. Here in 2 Thessalonians 1, I
want you to look as I read to you, beginning at verse 7. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us. when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He continues, "...who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power." God has given to all of us, to
those of you who are watching, He has given us this command. The gospel is not a good suggestion. It's not an invitation. God issues a command to you and
you must obey it. You must obey the Gospel. What is it to obey the Gospel? It's to submit to the Gospel.
It's to submit to God's way of saving sinners. And God saves
sinners, number one, by grace, not by works. And number two,
God saves sinners by the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. To obey the gospel then is to
submit, to bow down to God's way of saving sinners by grace
alone through the Lord Jesus Christ alone who must be received
by faith alone. And to not believe on the Son
of God. To not believe that salvation
is all of grace in the Son of God is to disobey the commandment
of God. God commands all people everywhere
to repent. Isn't that what the Bible says?
That's a command from God. And to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's not a good suggestion. That's not God saying, I wish
you would. That's God telling you what to
do. That's God telling me what to
do. Bow down, proud sinner. Turn your back on your evilness. You're a sinner. You're lost. You're undone. Your ideas about
religion and about God and about salvation are naturally all wrong. To be saved, look to the Son
of God, the Son of God who laid down His life for sinners, that
God might be a just God and a Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Take hold of Him. Hug up to the
Savior. but to refuse to do that is to
disobey the gospel. And disobedience to the gospel,
as was Adam's penalty for disobedience to that command God gave him,
disobedience to the gospel means everlasting death. This is serious business, folks.
You say, well, I'll give some thought to this sometime. Your
maker, your sustainer, your God has given His gospel,
the gospel of free grace, The gospel of the doing and the dying
of the Son of God. God sent His Son down here. What a majestic thing for God
to do. What a merciful thing for God
to do. He sent Christ. And for you to
turn your nose up at Christ, Well, I tell you what Paul says
in Hebrews chapter 10, it's to tread underfoot the blood of
the Lord Jesus. God does not take lightly unbelief. And to die in unbelief means the death of the soul. In the garden, Adam, having been
given a commandment of God, evidently, and I'll give you a verse of
scripture. Look at Psalm 49. I was gonna read this a little
bit later, but I think I'll read it right now. Psalm 49 and verse
12. God commands us to repent. God commands us to believe. This
is not optional. God's not inviting you to believe. God's not saying pretty please
will you believe. God is saying believe. Believe
on my son. Can you even begin to commence
to get started to understanding what it meant for Christ to come
down here? And to rub shoulders with people
who hated Him? Who despised Him? Who plotted His death? It's a marvelous
thing for God to send His Son. He didn't send an angel because
an angel couldn't do the job. He sent the darling of his bosom,
the everlasting Son of God. God sent him down here to live
and to obey God. Something Adam didn't do. And
then to be crucified by cruel and wicked men. And then God
pierced his soul. God put him to death. in order
to save lost sinners, because God's justice had to be satisfied,
and the wrath of God was poured out into the very soul and heart
of the Son of God in order to save sinners. But for most people,
that means nothing. Well, I'll tell you what is everything
to God. It's the only way God could save
sinners in a manner consistent with His holy law. And then people say, well, you
know, if I have time, I will. Maybe one of these days I'll
think about these things. Jim, you've just gone overboard
on it. Well, you're a preacher. Things
are different with you. No things aren't different with
me. I'm poor sinner too. I need this salvation that's
all of God. Look here in Psalm 49, last verse. Psalm 49 verse 20, man that is
in honor. The word man is identical to
the name Adam, Adam. Adam that is in honor, and understandeth
not, he's like the beasts of the field. What happens to the
animals? They die. And I'll tell you what's going
to happen to us if God doesn't do something for us. If he doesn't
show us mercy for Christ's sake, we're going to perish. We're
going to die. But unlike the animals, the death
that we die will be a death that's forever because there's punishment
involved. These words, man that is in honor,
the Jews read this verse this way. Adam, being in honor, listen,
lodged but one night. He lodged but one night. He didn't understand the consequences
of his action until he had committed the sin. Comments by Jewish commentaries
are correct. Adam only remained upright and
without sin one night. One night. And then he ate and then he died. And here's the thing, as you
go back over here to Romans chapter 5 now, The thing about Adam's
death is this. This is why we need to pay attention
because he did not die a private death. He died the death of a
representative man back in Romans 5 and verse 12. Wherefore, as
by one man, sin entered into the world. And death, and death
by sin. See, sin has its consequences. Disobedience against God has
serious results. Death by sin. Look at the rest
of the verse. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sin. Now let me get back to this disobedience of the gospel. When Adam sinned against God, he had no recourse. He couldn't
undo what was done, right? And you and I, born sinners and
disobedient to the gospel of Christ, we have no more ability
to obey the gospel than Adam had to undo what he did. Do you understand that you and
I have no ability whatsoever? We have full responsibility to
repent and believe, to obey God. And God's gonna hold us accountable
if we don't obey the gospel. But you see, our problem is so
deep and so serious and so deadly, that which we're commanded to
do, we have no ability to do. Now that's the circumstance we're
in. What a predicament. God commands me to repent, except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. But I can't. And God commands me to believe
the gospel, to obey the gospel of salvation by grace, salvation
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God commands me to believe,
but oh my soul, I'm in such bad shape, I can't even do that. I'm a poor soul, and so are you. God demands that which is only
right, but I have no ability to obey. And therefore, if we have any
sense whatsoever, if God has given us any understanding
at all, in our hearts we will start crying for mercy. Oh God,
I need your help. You're requiring something of
me that I can't produce. Lord, I'm in a real mess. I'm
in a fix. And I can't do anything about
it. And I run to you. I run to the Savior. Oh Christ,
help me. And I'll tell you what, if you
run to him with that cry, he put the cry in your heart. and he's the only one who can
help you. You see, all of the sons and
daughters of Adam, from Cain, the firstborn, all the way down
to you and me and our offspring, we were affected by what Adam
did. God gave him a command and he
broke it. devastating consequences. In Adam we died. First Corinthians
15 says, in Adam we die and Christ shall all be made alive. What
I'm trying to tell you is Christ Jesus is life. and we receive
life from Him, but He has to communicate that life to us.
That's why our Lord Jesus Christ said, and these words are pregnant
with meaning, you must be born again, because if you're not
born again, you'll never repent. If you're not born again, you'll
never believe. Oh God, the Spirit, invade this
place. Invade my heart and the hearts
of all of you in this building and the hearts of all who are
watching. Lord, life must come from thee. I don't have it. I
can't produce it. You command me to repent and
believe. I have no ability. I flee to
you. Help me, oh God. Help the helpless. And you know what? That's what
he does. He helps the helpless. You see, Adam was a representative
man. And in him, in his fall, we fell. There in Adam, consider it this
way. All of humanity was in that man. Everybody. Everybody born as
a result of a union of a man and a woman were affected by what he did. He defied God. He turned a rebel. He committed treason, treason
against his God. And God said, I'm gonna kill
you for that. Death is the penalty. Is there no hope? Was there no
hope for Adam? No hope for Eve? See, Adam was Eve's representative,
too. Because when she ate, she didn't
die. She didn't even represent herself.
Her husband, Adam, he's the federal head of the whole human race.
And when Adam ate and died, we died. Because you see, when we're born, we're instantly sinners. Because sin is an inherited disease. You're talking about something
that is contagious. I was reading. Alyssa had something
about how contagious measles are. Terrible. My uncle had polio. Contagious. Terrible. I had some kind of
intestinal bug. Contagious. But I'll tell you
what is the most contagious thing of all. and there is no human
cure is sin. You gave it to your children,
your children, they grow up and they have children, pass on down
generation to generation, person to person. We're sick with sin. Adam was our representative.
He disobeyed the command of God. But thank God there's another
representative man. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's spoken of here. Look down with me, and I'm not
gonna read or comment on all of these verses, but here in
Romans chapter five, look at verse 19. I'll just give you
this one. Look at verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience,
Now, you know who he's talking about. He's talking about Adam.
By one man's disobedience, many, and think of it this way, it's
the many, the many that he represented, were made sinners. And if you
can remember this, or if you have to write it down, For by
one man's disobedience, the many that he represented were legally
constituted to be sinners." You're a sinner because God says you're
a sinner. You're not a sinner because you
feel, well, I don't feel my sin in that preacher. Well, nobody
does. We have no idea how horrible
we are. But God is the one who considers
us to be sinners. Then he says, and so, by the
obedience of one. Now who's that? That's not your
obedience. We're supposed to obey the gospel.
But we're the disobedient children of our disobedient parents, being
Adam and Eve. So by the obedience of one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. See, he wasn't born, Christ wasn't
born as a result of a union of Mary and Joseph. There are some people who take
out in their translations, they take the word virgin out. I read one yesterday, the Revised
Standard Version. You read Isaiah chapter 7. where
it says, and a virgin shall conceive, the Revised Standard Version,
blasphemy leaves out virgin, says a young woman. If Mary was just a young woman
and not a virgin, then our Lord Jesus was contaminated with Adam's
sin just like all of the rest of the human races. Isn't that
right? And if he was contaminated by
sin, he's not in heaven, he's in hell. Let's just say it the way it
is now. So I don't think it's a big deal.
It's a big deal because God says he's born of a virgin, which
means he's not a son of Adam. He's like Gabriel told Mary. Mary, when Gabriel said, you're
gonna have a baby, she said, how can that be? I've never known
a man. He said, that holy thing in you
shall be born. The holy ghost will overshadow
you. He should be called the son of
the highest, the son of God. God was his father. You say, why is that crucial? It's crucial because if our Lord
Jesus Christ was contaminated in any way by Adam's transgression,
he can't be a Savior because a sinner can't save another sinner. But he was the Son of God. And being holy and perfect, he showed his qualification to
save us from our sins. Who's it going to take to save
us? It's going to take God. You agree with that? It's going
to take God. And it's going to take a perfect
man. Because God can't suffer. God's a spirit. God has no tangible. He doesn't
have arms and legs like we are, like we have. But in order to
suffer for us, Christ had to come down here and take part
of the same, just like us. He had to be made in such a way
to be capable of suffering and bleeding and dying, because death
is the punishment for sin. Death is the punishment for disobedience. And so this second part of verse
19 says, so by the obedience of one shall many, or the many
that he represented, be made righteous. Preacher, how can
I be made righteous? How can I be made fit for the
presence of God? Only by the grace of God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what must I do? Well, I'll
tell you this. You will have to repent and you
will have to believe. But God graciously gives us those
blessed twins. Because to turn from here is
to turn to Christ. To turn from sin is to turn to
the Savior. To turn from self-righteousness
is to turn to the Lord our righteousness. Preacher, I can't obey the gospel. I know you can't. But I know who quickens dead
sinners. Now, you put a cry in your heart. I'll tell you our problem. We
don't much mean business with God. That's our problem. Oh, God, make me serious about
this. I'm telling you, if you disobey the gospel, you're not
gonna get all free. Well, I'm trying to be good,
trying to do that, this, something else. I won't cut it. When you stop trying and start
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, say, oh, God, save me through
your son. If you wash me, I'll be washed.
If you clothe me, I'll be clothed. If you save me, I'll be saved.
I lie here at your feet. Like the poor beggar that I am,
do something for me. And I'm gonna tell you something.
Nobody has ever come to God that way through Christ, but what
they weren't received. Come on. Don't come down here. Come to him who's up yonder.
by faith well let's sing