In Genesis 3, I'm going to mention a few things
about the fall in Christ, reversing the effects of that fall. Here
in Genesis 3, in the verses that I've read to you, we see several
things that explain what science, what
philosophy, what evolution, and even through religion can explain. And that's the condition of the
human race. We find out the condition of
the human race and why we're in this condition that we're
in because of what happened here in the Garden of Eden. Because
Adam sinned against God. Adam disrebelled and disobeyed
God. He fell from his standing before
God. He fell from standing in his
own righteousness into sin. He fell from perfection into
utter and absolute chaos. And he fell from life all the
way to death. And I tell you what, we have
explained here in Genesis 3 sin, where it originated from. People
ask all the time, if there is a God is good and there is a
God, why does He let things happen the way they do? Sin is the cause
of what's going on in this world. Sin causes men to do what they
do. I don't care what it is they
do. It's sin that causes them to do it. Sin is that corrupt
nature that they have. And we see that where sin is
explained, where it originated. We see that it goes over all
the world. You can't go no place on the
face of the earth where it's not manifest. In fact, God said
in Acts 17, said He made out of all nations one blood. Every
nation on the face of the earth came from this one man, this
blood right here. And then death, we found out
where death came from. It started right here in the
Garden of Eden. That's where death started. God
said in the day that you eat thereof, you're gonna die. You're
gonna die. And then we find out why the
earth is in the condition it is. God cursed the earth. before
the earth was cursed, now we got to fight briars, sage grass,
old pines and everything you can think of. Weeds, got to deal
with everything and God said that you know you're going to
earn your bread by the sweat of your face. And we find out
why men suffer in this world, because of sin. And we've seen
the power and subtlety of Satan, our enemy, how he overthrew our
first parents. And we see that man, apart from
God, if God don't uphold him, he's gonna fall all the way to
the bottom. Men say that man started way
up here and then he fell. He started at the bottom. He
didn't start up. And I heard Henry say one time,
he said, I will not support under no circumstances or any way,
any doctrine that insults or glorifies man in any way. We
cannot support any doctrine that gives any glory to man in any
way. Can't do it. And I tell you,
we see the effects of sin. These people hid from God. When
his eyes run to and fro and he sees the good and the evil, he
says, the day and the night are like to me. They went to hide
from God. And then we see God's attitude
toward the guilty and the provision that He made for them. When He
said in Genesis 3.15, And the Lord said unto the serpent,
because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
above every beast of the field, and upon thy belly shalt thou
go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and I will
put enmity, here's what we want to see, I will put enmity, hatred,
between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. First promise
of the Messiah. The first promise of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God going to meet our need. Going
to meet our need. And we see that man can't approach
God without a mediator. God had to provide a lamb to
save these people. Now, look over in 1 Corinthians
15 with me. In chapter 15 and verse 45. You know, I read an article yesterday from
somebody, I believe it's Mr. Spurgeon, and he said, he told
who it was that first started, he says, you know, man's got
to deal with the three R's when he preaches. Ruined by sin? Ruined. Ruined. Redemption by blood and regeneration
by the Spirit. You've got to deal with all three
of those things in your preaching. But if you don't know what happened
in the Garden of Eden and what happened to man and how we became
what we are, you'll never know anything else. If you don't start
right there, you'll be wrong all the way through. But here
we see in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45, look what it says now. And so it is written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul. God breathed into his nostrils
when he made him and he became a living soul. The last Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was made a quickening spirit, a spirit
that gives life. Christ said, as a father quickeneth
whom he will, even so the son quickeneth whom he will. Now
watch this, he said, howbeit that was not first, which is
spiritual. Though the spiritual never come
first, but that which is natural. That's the first thing we do,
we're always natural. Afterward comes the spiritual.
The first man is of the earth. Adam is earthy. From the dust
he come, to the dust shall he go. The second man is the Lord
himself that came down from heaven. And as is the earthy, such are
they that are earthy. They that are Adam are as Adam.
And as the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. We have the Spirit of God and
the earthy has the earthy. Now I want to just go through
this kind of slow if I can and I hope I don't hold you too long.
But God always dealt with the human race by two men. He viewed
the whole human race in two men. And he dealt in Adam and in Christ. And both of these people are
representatives. Adam represented the human race. Christ represented his people. Christ represented people that
was given to him. And these two men, God views
the whole human race in these two people. That's what he said,
the first man is of the earth, made of living soul. That last
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he came down from heaven and by
him life came, by that first man death came. Now let me say
this, that Adam What he did, he communicated. He imparted
to those whom he represented what belonged to him. Well, what
belonged to him? Sin belonged to him. Death belonged
unto him. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned. And not only that, but he passed
on to them a corrupt nature. He passed on his fallen nature,
his corrupt nature. You know what happened? They
had a first son, his name was Cain. Second son, the first two
men we find in the Bible after Adam, the first two men we find,
one son kills the other. Now that's how far they fell
in that short a time. A brother killed a brother. Now
you're talking about a corrupt nature. That took a corrupt nature
for a man to kill his own brother. And he hadn't been far out of
the garden when he done that. And oh my, and then the Lord
Jesus Christ, bless his name, he communicated and gave to those
whom he represented what belonged to him. He's a quickening spirit. He's the Lord from heaven, as
is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly. Our Lord Jesus
Christ said, because I live, you shall live also. We're called,
he said, we're bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. As in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And he says,
he that's born of God, listen to me, he cannot sin. Now we've
been born of God. Is that not what the scriptures
tell us? He that's born of God. How many places talk about us
being born of God? And so we talk about being born
of God. He that is born of God cannot
sin. Why? Because the seed, the seed
of Christ remains in him. We have an old nation that can't
do nothing but sin that we got from Adam. We have a new nation
that we have in Christ that cannot sin. Now that's right. And that's the nature that's
going to go to glory. That's the nature that's going
to enjoy Christ. That's the nature that delights
in the gospel. Now, that's the nature that loves
the Word of God. That's the nature that loves
to commune with God. It's this fallen nature that
keeps us from doing that perfectly. Is that not right? And oh listen,
there's a great difference in what they communicated to the
ones that they represented. And when I talk about communicating,
I'm talking about communicating by imputation. Adam's sin was imputed to us and his
nature was imparted to us. were charged with Adam's sin.
We weren't in the garden, but only as we stood in Adam. So
we were charged with Adam's sin. And then we got Adam's nature.
A fallen nature, corrupt nature. And then Christ Our sin was imputed
to Him, and then, beloved, He died for our sin, was charged
with our sin, and it's either sin unto death or obedience unto
life. And Christ, He not only imparted
His obedience unto us, but He made us partakers of the divine
nature, the Spirit of God, Christ in you, the hope of glory, is
what we have now in Christ. Adam, all he had was a natural
seed, a natural seed. Like me and you have, we just
have a natural seed. People look at duty and they
say, it's obvious that he's my son. If you looked at my dad,
it's obvious I was his son. Natural seed. But Christ had
a spiritual seed. You know, how many times you
find the Old Testament, it said, in thy seed, thou shalt see his
seed and be satisfied. And Christ had a seed. a seed. And these two people not only
had a natural seed, one had a spiritual seed. They were both head over
two covenants. Adam was a covenant of works.
God said, don't do this, just don't do that. I gave you, don't
do that, and if you do that, this is what's going to cost
you. So independent upon Adam's doing what God told him to do.
The last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, it depended on, God depended
on what He did to save His people. We, you know, He has in the covenant
of grace. God's people were given to Christ
in a covenant of grace and Christ represented those people. And
God gave everything unto His blessed Son. It's just like in
Adam, the human race was in Him. All of His people were in Christ,
given to Christ, in a covenant of grace. And God looked to Him
for obedience, not to nobody else that ever done a thing.
He's not looking to me, you, Adam, nobody for anything. He
looked to His Son to do everything. That's why it's called, not a
covenant of works, a covenant of grace. Salvation is by grace. From first to last. And I ain't
never gonna do nothing that God will ever look at me and say,
boy, I think he done a fine job. I'll tell you what, we look to
the same place God does, into His blessed Son. And we look
to grace and grace alone. And Christ who gives us that
grace. Now look at the contrast. between these two, the first
Adam and the last Adam, in their character. Look in their character. It says there in verse 45, the
first man Adam was made as a living soul, a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening
spirit, a life-giving spirit. Now there's a contrast between
the first Adam and their character and then how they lived and how
they conducted themselves. When Adam was in the garden,
he cast an awful, awful reproach. He acted like God ceased to exist. As one man said, if he could
have got to God, he would have drug him off his throne. He looked
in God's love. God made him and put him in the
most blessed place on the face of this earth. And God loved
him. And you know what he said about
the love of God? I don't need it. I don't need it. I got this
fruit. And then he repudiated God's
truth. God said the day you eat thereof
you shall die. Adam said I won't do it. Because
the Satan believes Satan's lie. And then he dishonored God's
majesty. God's high and holy majesty. God's goodness. And eating that
fruit that she gave to him, he dishonored and said, God's love,
I don't need it. I don't want it. I'm going to
be like God myself. I'm going to know the difference
between good or evil. Oh my. And he made God, when
he did that, to be a liar. And oh my, when he said that,
you know, he said, you shall not surely die. Well, he saw
Eve, he didn't, she didn't die. And Adam didn't die immediately. But I'll tell you how he did
die. He died before God, the way everybody else is right now,
dead before God outside of Adam, or in Adam. And oh, and then
he not only did that, but he rejected God's authority. Listen
to me. God has the right Oh, I love
that. God has the right to issue commands
and demand obedience from anybody He wills to do it. And He created
that man. He made that man. He walked with
that man, communed with that man, and that man said, listen,
I don't like him getting all the credit, and all the glory,
and all the rights, and all the authority. If I eat this fruit
over here, then I'll have some rights, and I'll have some authority,
and I'll have some freedom. And I'll tell you what, the minute
he done that, he messed us all up. Huh? Oh, that's what he said. Oh, listen, you're going to be
as a God. God's keeping something from
you. And so he repudiated God's majesty, God's glory, God's authority. But now look at the last Adam. Oh, he is a quickening spirit.
He's the Lord from heaven. Ain't that what it says? The
second man is the Lord from heaven. Now our Lord Jesus Christ, look
at his character and look at his conduct in his life. Our
master, our Lord Jesus Christ, honored upheld, magnified God's
blessed love. You want to know how God loved
us? God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, what manner of love has the
Father bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons
of God? Huh? Oh, our Lord up hill, you
want to see God's love? Look at Christ on that cross. Oh my! He so magnified the love
of God and then he upheld and honored and magnified God's blessed
truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself
said, I am the truth. You want to know what God's truth
is? I'm that truth. But he was tempted
of the devil. The devil used the scripture
on him three times. He said, oh, he hasn't eaten
in 40 days. The devil said, listen, there's
some stones right there. Command them stones to be made
bread. Our Lord Jesus says, thou shalt not live. It's written,
thou shalt not live by bread alone. He upheld the truth of
God. Then he told him, he said, well,
Cast yourself down off this temple up here. He said, ain't it written
that the angels is God charged over you and they'll catch you
lest you dash your foot against a stone? He said, you know what?
It's written, thou shalt worship, thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. And then he took him up on a
high hill and up on that big temple and he said, look at,
because you worship me and I'll give you all the kingdoms of
the world. One thing they wasn't, they didn't belong to him to
start with. He's a liar. You know what our master said
to him? It is written, thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. He upheld God's
blessing. You want to know the truth? Look
at me. Follow me. Believe me. Trust me. And our
Master upheld and honored the glorious majesty and authority
of God Almighty when our Lord Jesus Christ went into the Garden
of Gethsemane And there he said, the scripture said, he emptied
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. And our Lord Jesus went into that garden and he said,
Father, if there's any other way, Nevertheless, not my will,
but thine be done, even if it kills me." And it did. And men refused God's authority,
but Christ honored and magnified and upheld God's authority. God's authority. He says, My
Father speaketh and so do I. And I tell you what, so our Lord
Jesus Christ, He upheld God's love. Upheld and magnified God's
authority. Upheld and magnified God's blessed
truth. You know when Paul was talking
about the love of Christ, you know what he said? I want you
to see what is the breadth, the height, the depth, and the width
of the love of Christ. And you know what the next thing
he said was? It passes understanding. You can't get, you know, consider
it, but you ain't gonna get it all anyway. You know, it's like
getting a cup of ocean, you know, getting a cup of water out of
the ocean and saying, boy, I've got the whole ocean in this.
No, you ain't. You got just a little bit of
it. And that's the way it is with the love of Christ. We get
just a little bit of it. But thank God we get it. And
we know something about it. And then let me deal with some,
go back over here now in Genesis 3. I want to show you about Christ. Christ bearing the curse of the
fall. Look in Genesis 3 with me. It started in verse 17. Look
at our Lord Jesus bearing the effects of the curse of the fall. Oh, I tell you, our Lord Jesus,
He restored that which He took not away. restored that which
you took not away. There are seven things here that
God brought upon Adam for his sin. Seven things. We're going
to go through them. And then it says in verse 17,
And our Lord bore all of them, because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, And he is eaten of the tree of which
I commanded thee, that thou shalt not eat of it. The ground is
cursed for thy sake. See, that's the first thing.
The ground is cursed. You know what it says about our
master? Christ was made a curse for us. To redeem us from the
curse. So I'm saved from the curse.
I'm going to die physically. But I'm not dead anymore spiritually.
And because I'm not dead anymore spiritually, the curse of the
fall, and the curse of sin, and the curse of the law, and everything
that cursed me, Christ bore that curse, and now I just wait to
go be with Him. And then look what He says, not
only that, now the ground is cursed, but in sorrow shalt thou
eat it. In sorrow. And oh my, how much
sorrow man has in his life. And our Lord Jesus Christ, you
know what he was known as? A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. So he dealt with these things
of the fall. And then look what it says down
in verse 18. Here's the third thing. Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. And oh my, you
know what our Lord Jesus Christ wore? He wore a crown of thorns. They said these thorns and cracks,
thorns and thistles are going to be the curse of your life.
And I tell you what, when I lived down on the farm, I went out
every year and I dug up every thistle I could find. But every
year I had to go dig them again. And I tell you what, that's the
curse. But our Lord Jesus Christ had a crown of thorns. They made
those crowns, those thorns because of Adam's sin. Christ took those
thorns into his own blessed realm and they made him a crown with
it. Huh? Oh my. Thorns ain't never gonna
pierce us because he did. Huh? Oh listen. And then he said in verse 19,
in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. And oh, our Lord
Jesus Christ, he went and walked into the garden of Gethsemane
and the scriptures prayed that said that he prayed so earnestly
that his sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood. You
think Adam sweats and you and I sweat? Our Lord Jesus sweat
blood in agony. Sweated blood. Now that's sweating. It's sweated. because of what
he's going to have to go through. And oh, look and look what else
he says now. In the last part of verse 19.
Until thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Now I want
to read something to you out of Psalm 22 and verse 15. You've
got to see this. This just brought my heart to,
oh my. Our Lord said in Psalm 22 and
verse 10, where He says, you know, and to dust was thou, and
to dust thou shalt return. Our Lord said, my strength is
dried up like a parchment, my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and
listen to this, and thou hast brought me in to the dust of
death. All the things that was pronounced
on Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ bore them. To reverse what he
did. And then look what happens now
down here. Here's the sixth thing. Down
in verse 24. So he drove out the man, and
he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubims, a
Garden of East Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned
every way to keep the way to the Tree of Life. Now this flaming
sword went back and forth to keep the way, to guarantee that
the way to the Tree of Life. Nobody can get to that Tree of
Life until you go through these swords. Now you know who bore
a sword in his soul? Awake, O sword, against my fellow. Smite the shepherd. Smite my
fellow, and the sheep shall be scattered. And you know now,
beloved, the way to the tree of life is opened through our
Lord Jesus Christ. He took that sword, and He took
it out of the way, and that tree of life, that blessed cross upon
which He was on, No wonder Paul said, I glory only in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he wasn't talking about the
tree that Christ was on. He was talking about what was
accomplished on that cross, and who it was that accomplished
it, and whose blood was shed, whose death was given there on
that day. And oh my, and that's the way
it's open now. And you know, in Revelations,
I believe it's in 22, it might be in 21, but anyway, And that
new city and heaven and in that place where we are, he said,
there's a tree of life. There's a river going down through
there and there's a tree of life. And you know what? When we get
there, we won't eat one bit of it. There won't be nobody taking
a bite off of it. He just says it's there. Don't talk about anybody eating
off of it. Because we've already got life. Why would we eat a
tree to get life from? We've already got life in Christ. And then here's the seventh thing.
God's judgment was executed. Death. And you know, look what
it says here now. In verse 24, the first line,
he said, so he drove out the man. He drove him away from him. Get out, you can't live in my
presence anymore. You can't abide in my presence.
You got no right in my presence. You don't ride to paradise anymore. So he drove him out. So he drove
him out. That's what death is, to be separated
from God. And that's what spiritual death
is, to be separated from God. And that's why it said, you who
were dead in trespasses to sin, hath He quickened and given life. And so Christ, our Lord Jesus
Christ, you're talking about being separated from God. Remember
in Matthew 27, verse 46, our Lord cried out, Eloi, Eloi, lamas
abdoctani. being interpreted, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer comes back, because
thou art holy and beloved. And now, since he did that, we
have the way. We have the way opened into the
presence of God himself. God made us accepted in the beloved. And then our Lord Jesus, I've
got to hurry, I've got to hurry. The Lord Jesus reversed, He bore
the curse for all seven of the things that Adam went through.
And He did it for us. And the Lord Jesus, He reversed
the effects of the fall. He undid the effects of the fall.
The scripture said He brought in the better things, a better
testament, a better promises, a better testament, everything
is better. And I'll tell you this, and I
love this, we have gained more in Christ than we ever lost in
our father Adam and in the fall. We gained so much more. Before
the fall, Adam only lived in paradise. You know where we live
at now? We're seated in the heavenlies
with our Lord Jesus Christ. He's just in paradise. We're
seated with our Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. In Adam all they had is natural
life. In Christ we have spiritual life. Oh my, we're made partakers of
the divine nature. All spiritual blessings, spiritual
blessings are in Christ. You know what the first spiritual
blessings mentioned after that? According as He has chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And you know why?
That we should be holy. Why? Without blame. Where? Before Him. In love. And I tell you what, we're made
new creatures, new creatures in Christ. And before the fall,
Adam was just, he was innocent. He had one man's righteousness. But I tell you what, in Christ,
we're made righteous. a positive condition. It's like
the Pharisee. He stood and said, I haven't,
I haven't, I haven't done this, I haven't done that. That's fine
if you don't do certain things. As you know, there's a lot of
things we ought not to do. But that's not, just not doing things
is not good enough. You got to do what's right and
you got to do what's holy. Well, how's that going? through
our Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness given to us. In the fall, man
sustained an infinite loss in the matter of righteousness.
He lost a righteous nature, he lost a legal right in God's sight,
and he lost the understanding of what righteousness really
is. Man, being ignorant of God's righteousness, he goes about
to establish his own. And I tell you what, in our Lord
Jesus Christ, He restored. Well, Jehovah's akin you, the
Lord our righteousness. And man didn't keep the commandment,
and he sinned and transgressed the commandment. Well, our Lord
Jesus Christ bore the penalty of sin. He not only failed to
keep any commandment, but he kept all the commandments. Every
bit of the ceremony law, the moral law, every jot and tittle. Christ bore the penalty of sin
in his own body. He put sin away once and for
all. Man is forgiven. Sin is put away. And God required that a man actually
keep the law and in our Lord Jesus Christ we keep the law
and it's fulfilled in us and those who believe Christ. I'm
telling you. I'll tell you how I can tell
how we've kept the law and the law is fulfilled in us. Romans says, Romans 8 says, the
law is fulfilled in us. How is it? Let me ask you this,
does the law ever come and condemn you? Love God. I do. Where at? In Christ. Love your neighbors as yourself.
I do. In Christ. Be circumcised after
Abraham. I am circumcised in Christ. And then not only that, we have
to continue on them until the end of life. Well, Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. We
are forgiven and our sins are gone. I read two places today
where God, He had talked to Israel and Jacob said, Oh, how to measure
in and what you've done, Jacob, you've done this, you've done
that. But He said, you know what I did? I blotted out your transgressions. I cast them into the depths of
the sea and I put them behind my back. He'd tell them how sinful
they was. And then he says, you know what
I did for you? I cast all your sins away, throw them behind
my back. That's what he says to them.
You all are a mess, yes, but I put all your sin away and can't
find it. We share a better inheritance.
Adam was Lord over Eden. And he lost every bit of it and
became so poor. In Christ, everything Christ
has, we have. He's the heir of God. Did he
not inherit everything? God said, this is my beloved
son. He gave him all power and all
authority. Everything's his. But you know what? He said, but
everything he has is yours too. You know, I've used this illustration
so many times. When somebody dies, you know,
if they got a whole bunch of youngins or brothers or sisters
or something, they have to take the pie, they have to cut it
up. Sometimes they get little bitty pieces of pie. Sometimes,
you know, if there ain't not many of them, they get a pretty
good piece of pie. But when we get Christ, we get to hope. And I get one, you get one, everybody
gets one. And we have a greater joy. Oh,
we're conscious of sins put away. We have a closer relationship
than was ever possible before the fall. We're members of Christ's
body, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Christ calls us
his brethren. And where sin abounded, grace
does much more abound. And I say it in closing, we could
not know God in Adam only as a creator and as a God to obey. And if we failed him, and I'll
tell you what, If Adam had not failed, you know, we'd always
been subject to falling. You know that? But he failed. But now we know him. We know God now. We couldn't
know God in Adam. But we can know Him in Christ.
We know all that God is, all that God purposed, all that God
has, all that God's going to give. He's already done it. Where
at? In His blessed Son. Oh my. But in Christ, We are perfected
and we are complete and we can never lose that relationship
like Adam lost his relationship with God. We can never lose it. You know why? Because it don't
depend on us. If it depended on us, we would
have done lost it. But our relationship with God
depends on His blessed Son. Amen? God bless His name. Oh, Father, oh, Father, thank
you, thank you, thank you. Oh, Lord, I come in here with
my heart heavy, now so lifted up and so grateful, so full of
joy and peace. And I pray that your dear people
will be filled that way. But we do want to remember those
who are being so greatly tried, so greatly burdened, so greatly
afflicted. Father, keep these, thy dear
people, as they go on their ways out the door this evening, preserve
them, uphold them, and help us to love you more. Be more in our minds and upon our
hearts. But thank you and bless your holy name for being the
Lord from heaven and coming down here and doing for us what we
were absolutely, utterly unable to do. We thank you for it in
your holy name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy sweet salvation, so rich and free.