Let's go back to that passage
that Terry read to us. And I want to speak to you for
a few minutes on this subject, fallen but rescued. We fell in Adam, but we're rescued
in, through, and by our Lord Jesus Christ. Adam was created
in the image of his maker, He was made to live by the very
breath of God. We read that God breathed into
his nostrils that breath of life. God put him in a perfect environment. He gave to Adam every possible
provision. that his heart could have ever
desired. God put him in total authority
over all the works of God's hands on this earth. God gave him a
suitable companion whom the Lord called his help meet. Adam was an example to all of
the universe of Jehovah's goodness and Jehovah's love for that man
and for the woman. And God gave him one and only
one command, that he might have the opportunity
to show his appreciation to God for all of the marvelous blessings
that God gave him and to remind him that God was the giver of
all of those things. And though Adam had, he had charge
of all that was before him, God was his superior. And therefore God gave him that
commandment. But as we know, Adam fell. And when he fell, we all fell. How would we possibly explain
the demise of Adam, the fall of Adam? How are you going to
deal with that? How can you explain that? Did
God force Adam to sin? Or was the fall of Adam quite
by accident? Did the fall of Adam happen outside
of the control of God? And I know some people want an
explanation for everything. But there are lots of things
that we won't ever understand in this world, and that's okay.
Can I give you a couple of passages to read with me? The first, I
want you to go to Deuteronomy 29. 29. Deuteronomy 29 and verse
29. There's some people that want to cry into everything that God
has done and try to find some reasoning that would satisfy
their curiosity as to why this happened or that happened. Look
what it says in Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things They belong unto the Lord our
God. There are some secret things
that you're just not going to figure out. You're not going
to know. And if you needed to know, God would have told us. The secret things, they belong
unto the Lord our God. But those things which are revealed, they belong to us. and to our
children forever that we may do all the words of the law. You see, I have enough difficulty
with the things I do understand, so as not to worry about the
things that I can never understand. Thank God he has given us a knowledge
of how he saves sinners. He's made known unto us the awfulness
of the fall of Adam and the remedy which is the Lord Jesus and His
sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. That's revealed to us. But some
want to know more. Here's another passage I want
you to look at. It's in the book of Job. Look at Job 33. Job 33. This is a man by the name of
Elihu. He's a younger man, and he's
admonishing and really rebuking Job. And he says, Elihu speaking in
33 verse 8, he said, Surely thou hast spoken
in my hearing, and I've heard the voice of thy words. saying,
I am clean without transgression. I am innocent. Neither is there
iniquity in me. Behold, he, that is God, finds
occasions against me. He finds reason to oppose me. He counteth me for an enemy.
He putteth my feet in the stocks. He marketh my paths. In other words, Elihu says, Job,
here's what you're saying. God's treating me not like a
child, but he's treating me like a criminal. He marketh or he puteth my feet
in the stocks. He marketh all my paths. Verse
12, behold in this, Job, thou art not just. I will answer thee
that God is greater than man. Now watch what he says here.
He asked him, why dost thou strive or contend or argue against God
and what God does? For he giveth not account of
any of his matters. He doesn't reveal the reason
why he does this or that. He doesn't owe an account to
anybody. He doesn't owe an account to
us as to why sin is here. And though we're curious about
things like this, yet God doesn't, lots of times
He doesn't satisfy the curiosity of our minds. I know that the sin of Adam did
not take God by surprise. God did not implement a different
course of action when Adam sinned. I know that. A couple of things need to be
remembered by all those who worship God and receive the revelation
of the Holy Scripture, the Word of God, couple of things. Number one, if it had been God's
will and God's purpose to do so, he could have kept Adam from
sinning in the garden. Do you agree with that? He could
have prevented that. But he didn't. So then I must reach this conclusion
since all things are of God. The sin and fall of our father
Adam, like all other things, that was purposed by God in eternity
and brought to pass according to the rule of God's sovereign
providence for the eternal good of God's elect and for the glory
of God's name. For through the fall of man,
God's greater glory is manifested in putting away the sins of his
people. through the substitutionary sacrifice
of Christ. God did not force Adam to sin. He did not in any way compel
him to sin. But all of the circumstances
which brought to pass the sin of Adam and the fall of our race
were ordained by God in His infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace. I believe that. And in the same way, in God's
determination of salvation by the crucifixion
of our Savior, God didn't force men to crucify His Son. God didn't make them to do anything
that they didn't want already to do. He didn't twist the arms of the
enemies of Christ to haul Him before their religious court
and find Him guilty. A blasphemy? But what God did, because He
uses all men, He uses everything. What he did, he used ungodly
men to accomplish his purpose of redemption and therefore Christ
died at the hands of wicked ungodly men at exactly the time and in
exactly the manner that God had of old eternity ordained for
him to die. And God is answerable to no man's
judgment. I certainly don't pretend to
have an understanding of the mystery of God's purpose and
God's ways. People have said to me before,
I bet you I can ask you a question that'll stump you. And I said,
well, that won't be too difficult. A lot of things stump me. But in all of this, in the fall
of Adam, I see the infinite wisdom of God, who through the fall
of Adam brought glory to himself by sending his only begotten
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would rescue us from the fall
of Adam. Adam fell in the garden according to God's eternal purpose.
I'm satisfied to leave it at that. I know God's hands are, he's
clean. And Adam did just exactly what
he wanted to do. And I have discovered through
my many years of pastoring, most people, unless God blocks it,
most people do exactly what they want to do. Haven't you discovered
that? They do exactly what they want
to do, unless God intervenes and stops them. We do the things that make us
happy We do the things that bring joy to our hearts, bring satisfaction
to our hearts. And sadly, oftentimes with many
people, the worship of God doesn't bring them joy. The things of Christ don't bring
them happiness. I wish it did, but I can't compel
people to come and worship. But I know this, God's will reigns
over all. Say what you want to. Remember the commandment that
God gave to Adam. He said, don't eat of the fruit
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And in the day you eat thereof,
you'll surely die. And I pondered this. Adam didn't
even know what death was. Did he? He didn't know a thing
about death. He'd never seen death. There
had been no death in this world. Because death is the result of
sin. So where there's no sin, there's
no death. God said, in the day ye eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. I don't know, maybe that just
rolled off Adam's back like water off a duck's back, I don't know. He could not grasp the depths
of the trouble that he was going to get into and how it would
affect all of his posterity. The Lord said, thou shalt surely
die. And then a one who pretended
to be a friend, he comes along and he says, thou
shalt not surely die. And Eve believed that lie. Think about the audacity of sin,
the boldness, the boldness of Adam's sin. My, what pride, pride
was in this. Adam was the ruler, he was the
governor over all things in the garden, in his little world. With only the creator being his
superior, Yet Adam embraced the desire
to be God. And that's exactly man's problem
today. He wants to be God. I'm the ruler
of my own fate. That's why people fight so hard
for free willism. Nobody's gonna tell me what to
do. I'm my own man. Even God can't tell me what to
do, that's the attitude. My, what pride, what arrogance
in the fall of man. And I would say, what unbelief. God told Adam what not to do
and what the sure result would be. He didn't believe. He didn't believe. And Adam and Eve both embraced
the words of one that they perceived to be a good friend, rather than believing the word
of their creator. And man still walks about in
unbelief, in defiance of God. I know God has said that, but,
that's what people, but I'll tell you what I believe. I know the Bible talks about
an election, but I'll tell you my understanding of that. Would God that he had shut our
mouths and opened our minds and opened our ears to hear his word. Not only what pride is in this,
what unbelief is here, what ingratitude, what an ungrateful wretch Adam
was. You see, the fall of Adam was
an alarming revelation of the lack of satisfaction with where
God put him. Adam, you're over all the animals. You're the greatest of God's
creation. He said, but I want the top position. What in gratitude? God gave you
everything. We're hard to be satisfied, aren't
we? That's the way it was with Adam.
And what rebellion? He turned against the God of
glory. You see, this is what sin is.
It is pride, unbelief, ingratitude, and rebellion. That's what sin
is. And that's what the fall has
done to all of us. Now be mindful that Adam was
the head of the human race, whereas Christ is the head of his chosen
race. In Adam we fell, in Christ we're
rescued. You see Adam, and I mentioned
this I think last Lord's Day, Adam was a figure, he was a type
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, only once in the Bible
are we specifically told of somebody who was a figure of Christ, and
that's Adam. He broke God's law. He defied
authority. He rebelled against God's commandment. Adam was a disobedient rebel. And he, by his one act of disobedience,
he plunged all of us into a state of separation from God. Never think of what he did as
being, it was just a little thing. He picked an apple that he shouldn't
eat. That's the pitiful, understanding
that most people have. Well, it wasn't a big thing.
It was a real big thing. I tell you how big it was. It
sunk a whole population of everybody who had ever lived into the abyss
of sin, must have been pretty bad then. His confidence in the Lord died. The life that he had of worship
and reverence of God, it died. And when he realized his shame,
what he had done, he didn't run to God for forgiveness, run to
God for mercy. He ran away from God. He is now
a self-righteous sinner. And all of his offspring are
self-righteous sinners too. And we all pick some fig leaves
and try to make an apron. That is, we go to our works to
try to find a basis for feeling good about ourselves. Not realizing that the only clothing
that God approves of is the righteousness of his son, the clothing of God's
provision. Adam turned against the mercy
and kindness of God, but the last Adam came. Look at Psalm 69 and verse four.
Psalm 69 and verse four. In fact, I'll begin at verse
1. Here is our Lord Jesus. If I were going to give a title
to this psalm, I'd say it's Christ Brought Low and Set on High. Listen to it. Save me, O God,
for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire. where there is no standing. I
am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then, then I restored
that which I took not away. Our Lord came into this world
on a restoration mission. He came to rescue the fallen. He restored that which He took
not away. He didn't take the peace away.
He came to establish peace with God on our behalf. And He did
it by the blood of His cross. I've said at funerals before,
we can't make peace with God. There's only one peacemaker.
That's the Lord of glory. He came down here to make our
peace. He came to rescue us from the
fall that we incurred in Adam's transgression. What did Christ do? He trusted
God as the perfect man. He lived by faith. and he obeyed the will of God. He prayed this way, not my will,
thine be done. Now I pray that way, and then hold on to my will.
What about you? You pretty much the same, you're
in the same ship I'm in, aren't you? But not our Lord. He bowed to the will of God.
He is the perfect man. Holy, righteous, sinless, blameless. And he fulfilled all the law
of God. There was no law that he ever
broke. He was made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. That we might receive the
adoption of children under Jesus Christ by Himself. And He subjected
His will to the Father's will. And He magnified the justice
of God in His death. I don't want to die. I'm talking about die forever.
I don't want to die and stand before the judgment counsel of
God and hear, depart from me, I never knew you. I don't want
to die. I'm thankful He came, died for
me. He faced justice in my stead. God forsook Him so that He would
never forsake me. He magnified the justice of God
in his death. And in doing that, he fulfilled
all righteousness for me and for all of his elect. You see, the righteousness that
Adam had was a creature righteousness. He was innocent. There's no question
about that. When Adam came forth from the
hand of God, he was a sinless man. But that was a creature righteousness. And that didn't last. and your righteousness won't
last either. Brother Isaiah said in his gospel
prophecy, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That's not gonna hold up before
God. It's like those fig leaf aprons that Adam and Eve Sewed
together, I guess both of them became, she became a seamstress. And sewed a fig leaf apron together. Maybe she made one for Adam too,
I don't know. Both of them had fig leaf aprons. And I tell you what, all of us
been sewing ever since. Sewing fig leaf aprons to hide
our shame. And we forget that's not a suitable
covering. Because the covering that we
have to have that God will be satisfied with is not a mere
external thing. It's to be made the righteousness
of God in Christ. And that's a righteousness that
will not wilt. And in doing all of this, remember
our Lord was made like unto his brethren. And he's not ashamed to call
us brethren now. Think about this, give it to
you quick. Think about the result of Adam's
sin. I'm gonna go back over here to
chapter three. the result of Adam's sin, and
Terry read this to us a while ago. Under Adam, the Lord said, verse
17. Under Adam, he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
was thou taken, and for dust thou art, and unto dust thou
shalt return. The ground was cursed, And that reminds me of Galatians
chapter 3, our Lord Jesus Christ was cursed for us. Turn over
to Galatians 3. Christ was made a curse for us. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. In fact, I'll begin reading at verse
10. Galatians 3.10, for as many as are of the works of the law
are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law, by those fig leaf aprons, in the sight of God it
is evident. For the just shall live, the
justified, the justified, justified by grace, justified by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall live by faith. And the
law is not a faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in
them. And then he says, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, then made a curse for
us. And God says to Adam, because
of what you did, this is cursed, and that's cursed, and this other
thing is cursed, and you're cursed. It's all cursed. And our Lord
Jesus Christ came. Why did he come? To bear the
curse for us. And you know what? Rather than
us being cursed, we're blessed. Oh, when were we blessed? We
was blessed before the curse come along. was cursed in old
eternity. While we were blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, before the
curse ever came, God had already blessed us from the curses. To the woman, the Lord said in Sarah, should bring forth children.
Our Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You think you know something
about sorrow? Listen, I've had loved ones die
and I know a little something about sorrow. But the one who knows the most
about sorrow is the man of sorrows. For when he bore our sins in
his body on the tree, the Father forsook him. That
had never happened before and will never happen again. I can't
even, that's another thing I can't comprehend. How can God forsake
God? It is said Martin Luther was
studying that passage. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Had his Bible open, closed his
Bible. He said, how can that be? God
forsaken God. How can that be? Well, I can't comprehend that
either. But it happened. What about the thorns? Our Lord
came forth from the judgment hall wearing, John 19 5 says,
a crown of thorns. Thorns which grew from the cursed
earth. And he was crowned with thorns
for the cursed man. The first Adam got his bread
by the sweat of his face, but Christ, the last Adam, he got
his bread His satisfaction by the sweat of his heart. He sweat,
as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. And as Adam returned to the dust
from whence he came, so the dying Christ said, look it up sometime,
Psalm 2215. Thou hast brought me into the
dust of death. How can it be? And that sword of justice that
Terry read about toward the end of the chapter, that sword of
justice that barred the way or kept the way to the tree of life,
buried itself in the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah
13, seven, awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the
man who is my fellow, my associate, saith the Lord of hosts. God
said, smite the shepherd. The sword of justice, smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. And I'll turn my
hand of mercy upon the little ones. And our Lord, bearing our sins,
was separated from God for a little while so that we'd never be separated. Nothing can separate you from
the Lord. Read the end of Romans chapter
eight. Our Lord Jesus, he restored that
which he took not away. And here, and let me just give
you something else here real quick. Here's the miracle of
God's wisdom and God's grace. In Christ, God's elect have become,
we gained, we gained from the fall of Adam. You know that? We gained. Oh, we lost so much. We lost a lot, but boy, we gained
far more than we lost. We gained the very righteousness
of Christ. We gained the salvation that's
only for the fallen. And you know, before the fall,
Adam lived in an earthly paradise. And you know what's going to
happen to us when we die? We're going to dwell in a heavenly
paradise. Before the fall, Adam lived as
a creature of God. But in Jesus Christ, we're sons
of God. We're the children of God. Before
the fall, Adam was innocent. But since Christ has come to
rescue us, we're positively righteous. Before the fall, Adam was Lord
of God's creation. In Jesus Christ, we're heirs
of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Before the fall of Adam,
he enjoyed the happiness of innocence, but in Christ, We have entered into the joy
of forgiveness, the joy of grace, the joy of
redemption. Before the fall, Adam was a creature
of God in fellowship with his master. But in Christ, we're
one with him. You can't get any better off
than that. We're one with Christ, joined
to him forever. And what God has joined together,
nobody can put asunder. Oh yeah, we fell in Adam. We're
rescued in Christ. Well, let's get a songbook and
we'll sing Closing song, Jesus, Savior, Pilate, Me, 303. Jesus, Savior, Pilate, Me, 303. Let's stand together and sing,
303.