For our reading tonight, let's
go to Isaiah chapter 26. Isaiah chapter 26. Judah's in turmoil. Judgment
has been pronounced. A nation is going to come in
and destroy them. But there is a remnant of God's
people in Judah and that's who Isaiah is writing about here
and that remnant God is going to give peace to even during
the time of turmoil. Let's read about it. In that
day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a
strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he
trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever.
For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Now part of that piece
is he got to bring us down to nothing. Listen. For he bringeth
down them that dwell on high, the lofty city, he layeth it
low, he layeth it low, even to the ground, he bringeth it even
to the dust. The foot shall tread it down,
even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy. The way
of the just is uprightness. Thou most upright dost weigh
the path of the just. Yea, in the way of thy judgments,
O Lord, have we waited for thee. The desire of our soul is to
thy name and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I
desired thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me will
I seek thee early. For when thy judgments are in
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness will
he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see, but they
shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people. Yea,
the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. Now here's where
peace comes from. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace
for us, for thou also hath wrought all our works in us. It's God that worketh in you,
both the will and the do of his good pleasure. O Lord our God,
other lords beside thee have had dominion over us, but by
thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead. They
shall not live. They are deceased. They shall
not rise. Therefore hast thou visited and
destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. Thou hast increased
the nation, O Lord. Thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hadst
removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Lord, in trouble
have they visited thee. They poured out their prayer
when thy chastening was upon them. Like as a woman with child
that draweth near the time of her delivery is in pain and crieth
out in her pangs, so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We have been with child. We have
been in pain. We have, as it were, brought
forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen."
Notice how he says this. Thy dead shall live. We may have been dead in trespasses
and sins, but if we are God's people, we shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they live. See, the Lord is speaking here.
awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, for the dew is as the
dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead." We'll stop
there. Romans chapter 5, dealing with,
Romans chapter 5, dealing with Christ, with Christ and the fall. Talked about the fall, man in
the fall, and now we're going to talk about Christ in the fall. Read two verses of scripture
here, then we're going to go to 1 Corinthians 15. But it says
here in verse 12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Where did we sin at? In Adam,
in our father. Down in verse 19, For as by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Two different men here. Now in
1 Corinthians 15. Turn over there. I want you to
look at a couple verses over here. Talking about our Lord
Jesus Christ and the fall and how he took care of it. But it
says here in verse 45, 1 Corinthians 15, 45. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam, the Lord
Jesus, a quickening spirit, life-giving spirit. Howbeit that was not
first, which is spiritual. Oh, we wasn't, we didn't, wasn't
born spiritual beings. We didn't come into this world
as spiritual beings. but that which is natural, what
we got from our Father, and afterward that which is spiritual. The
first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven, as is the earthy, such as Adam. Such are they also that
are earthy, and as is the heavenly, the Lord Jesus Christ. Such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. As we bore Adam's image, we're
going to bear Christ's image. As we died in Adam, we're going
to be made alive in Christ. Now, there's two men by whom
God Almighty views the whole human race, and He deals with
the whole human race in two men, two men. And these two men, Adam
and Christ, are both representatives of the people that are born. They're federal heads. And that
means they had a federation given to them, an all-human race. Adam
was the federal head of the whole human race. So that means that
whatever he did, we did. It's just like our government
now, whatever they do has an effect upon us. What Adam did,
he had an effect upon us. And what Christ did, it had an
effect on us who are believers. And Adam, being the head of the
race, he communicated to those whom he represented what belonged
to him. And do you know what belonged
to him? Sin and death. That's all Adam had, sin and
death. And that's what he communicated
to us, sin and death. That's what he communicated to
us. and he gave us a corrupt nature. And the first two sons,
it's mentioned in the scriptures, Cain and Abel, the first murder
that was ever in the scripture was one brother killing another
brother. One had the nature of Adam, Cain did, and slew his
brother Abel. Abel had the nature of Christ
and offered a lamb, offered a lamb. And the Lord Jesus, as Adam communicated
to those whom he represented, our Lord Jesus Christ communicated
to those whom he represented what belonged to him. And what
belonged to our Lord Jesus Christ? Life, righteousness, acceptance,
holiness, righteousness. And that scripture says we're
bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. As in Adam we all die,
in Christ we shall all be made alive. And He that's born of
God, the scripture says He cannot sin. There's a nature in us,
and this is what Christ communicated to us, is we cannot sin. We have a holy nature, a perfect
nature, a sinless nature, a nature that God gave us, partakers of
His nature. And yet that nature that we have
from Adam can't do anything else but that. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, because I live, you shall live also. And oh,
what a great, great difference in what they communicated to
those whom they represented. And you know, and how did they
communicate to us? By imputation. And that word
means counted as if you did it, as if they did it. Whether sin
unto death, it's like Adam had sin unto death. He committed
unto us by imputation, sin and death. And Christ, he had obedience. And in his obedience, we had
life. And his obedience became ours.
His life became ours. And here's another thing about
these two men. Adam had a natural seed, a natural
seed. All he could do is produce what
he himself was. Once he fell from God and fell
from his standing and fell into sin and fell into death and fell
into shame and fell into guilt, right then and there, right then
and there, he started producing a natural seed. He couldn't produce
anything else. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. But our Lord Jesus Christ, He produces a spiritual
seed. He produces a seed just like
Himself. You know, I think it's, let me
see if I can find it over here. Let's see if I can find it. If
I can find it wherever it's at here. And I can find it. But over here in chapter 1, it says something
about every seed that you know that everything shall be after
its own kind, shall be after its own kind. I can't find it
right now, but anyway that's what it says. Everyone shall
be after its own kind. Adam had his kind, Christ had
his kind. Adam had his seed, Christ has
his seed. And he called a spiritual seed,
a holy seed, a righteous seed. And then not only were they had
a natural seed, and over in 1 Peter it tells us there that there's
There's the corrupt seed and the incorruptible seed. The corrupt
seed comes from Adam, the incorruptible seed comes from Christ. One produces
death and the other one produces life through the gospel. And
not only that, but they were head over two covenants. These covenants had an effect
upon us. And we're trying to be saved by one or the other.
They were head over two covenants. Adam was, he was a head over
a covenant of works. God, when He put him in the garden,
sent him to work to dress that garden to keep that garden and
take care of that garden and gave him one commandment and
so it was a covenant of works as long as he did what God told
him to do he would be standing he would always be saved but
the minute he did not do what God told him to do then his works
ceased to be worth anything and then Christ He's head over a
covenant of grace. He's head over a covenant. In
fact, Isaiah 49 says that God gave Christ to be a covenant
and to be a light for His people. And Christ is over a covenant
of grace. And what does that mean? That
means that our works has nothing to do with our salvation, that
Christ in grace did everything in His covenant that we was required
to do and Christ did it for us. We don't work, we rest. We don't
say do, we say done. And oh, let me give you just
a couple of points here this evening, if I can. The contrast
between these two men, the first Adam and the last Adam. We talked
about him over in 1 Corinthians 15. The first Adam was of the
man. He was an earthly man. The last Adam was a quickening
spirit, gave life. But I want to look at the character
and the conduct of these two men. And here's what Adam did. This was his character and his
conduct when he failed. First thing that he'd done is
that he repudiated and made an awful mess and repudiated and
brought reproach upon God's love and God's truth and God's majesty. When he forbid, and God's goodness,
when God told him to not eat of that fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and
eating that forbidden fruit, he dishonored the love of God. God was his creator. God made
him. God gave him paradise. God gave
him a helpmate. God was good to Adam. God walked
with him and communed with him and fellowshiped with him. And
God showed his love for him. And God come down and talked
to him in the cool of the day. And what did Adam do when he
ate of that fruit? He said, the love of God don't
mean nothing to me. I'm going to be like God myself. I'm going to know the difference
between good and evil. And then secondly, he dishonored
God's truth. What he did is he believed the
devil's lie and rejected God's truth. When I, you know, the
Satan said, you know, when you eat, you shall not surely die. You shall not surely die. And
God said, you shall die. And so he said, listen, I'm going
to believe the devil's lie because I'll know the difference between
good and evil. And so he dishonored and repudiated
and disgraced God's blessed truth. He believed the lie and rejected
God's truth. And that's the same thing John
said over there that says, He that believeth not the record
that God gave of his son and believes on his son, if he don't
believe that record, he said, he makes God a liar. If the man
that will not believe on Christ and trust Christ, and look to
Christ. After they've heard the gospel,
God turns around and says, You know what you're doing? You're
making a lie. You're saying I'm lying. I told you that salvation's
in my Son. I told you that righteousness
is in my Son. I told you that wholeness is
in my Son. I told you that there's only
one Savior, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one
way to approach me, and that's through my Son. and if you don't
do that and you say listen there's got to be another way I can work
my way I can make my way what you're saying is God you're a
liar there's got to be another way and oh people say oh I wouldn't
do that people do it every day preachers do it every day Oh
my, and not only did he dishonor God's truth, this is his character
and this is his conduct. He rejected God's authority.
That's God's majesty, that's his glory, his authority. God has all authority in heaven
and earth. He does according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And here he was, fresh from the hand of his creator, and God
told him and gave him a commandment, just one. And God has the right,
God has the right to issue commands, and he has the right to demand
obedience from his creatures. Whether they do it or not, he
has the right to do that. And Adam, he said, well, I'm
going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it anyway. I'm
going to do it anyway. All you've got to say is don't
do it and people are going to do it. That's just, that's human
nature. That's human nature. But oh,
listen to the last Adam. That one who's a quickening spirit.
Listen to what he is. His character and his conduct.
Our master, our Lord Jesus Christ, that last Adam who was made a
quickening spirit. Oh, how he did just the opposite
of Adam. How he honored God. How he glorified God. How He
brought majesty and honored and magnified and upheld everything
about God and everything about God was seen in Him. You talking
about the love of God? Oh my, can we doubt the love
of God and the truth of God and the majesty of God that He had
and manifested in His Son? How our Lord Jesus Christ upheld
God's blessed love? Is there any way that God could
express His love more than He did in His Son? And who else
could the Son, how could the Son express more love for us
than He did? You know how much He loved us
and how He manifested His love toward us? In that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we were yet without
strength, none, He died for the ungodly. Oh, listen, Adam said,
listen, Christ said, oh, Father, you love them, I love them, and
I want you, you said you love them like you loved me. And Christ,
out of the love for us, endured the awfulest shame, the awfulest
guilt, and the awfulest reproach, and oh, listen, he endured a
contradiction of sinners against himself. And oh my, looking at
our Lord Jesus Christ from his birth to his death on the cross,
it'd be impossible for us to doubt the love of God. Oh, how
he manifested the love of God. That's why Paul said, I want
you to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. Now that's
something. I want you to know the love of
Christ. And yet he turned around and said, but it passes knowledge.
I still won't know it. And not only did he honor and
magnify and uphold and bless God's holy love, but he magnified
and upheld God's blessed truth. He magnified the word of God,
the blessed truth of God. When God told him something,
he believed it and he did it. You know, I'll tell you when
he was tempted of the devil. Look in Matthew four, let's look
in Matthew four just a moment together, just a little bit together.
In Matthew four, look what our Lord did here. Oh my, he upheld
God's blessed truth. When Satan said, you know, you
shall not surely die, they believed the devil's lie and rejected
God's truth and said, you shall die. And that's what's happening
today. The devil's telling people, you
won't die, you won't die, you won't die. And when they say
that, that you won't perish, you won't perish. You won't end
up in hell. You won't end up without Christ.
You won't end up without God. God will figure out some way
to get you through. Then that's the devil's lie.
Well, you know, he was a good boy. He is a good, she's a good
woman. And you know, I know she had
her faults and she had her weaknesses and she had her, but oh, she's,
she is a good person. That's the devil's lie. Well,
our Lord Jesus Christ upheld that truth. Look what it says
here now. Verse 1, when Jesus was led up
of the spirit and the willness to be tempted of the devil, he
fasted 40 days and 40 nights. Here's the first thing the devil
said to him. If you're the son of God, see he always puts a
question mark on there. If you really are the son of
God, because he knowed he was hungry, command these stones
that they be made bread. What do you think our Lord Jesus
Christ would say? I'm not hungry. I'm not suffering. No, no. You know what he did?
He said what God said, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word which comes out of the mouth of God. Then the
devil took him up, set him up and set him up down there and
says, now cast yourself, throw yourself off this building here.
And there the devil quoted a verse of scripture out of Psalm, I
believe it's Psalm 30 or Psalm 91. He shall give his angels
charge over thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. You know
what our Lord said to him? thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. I'm not going to jump off this
building. Then he took him up and showed
him all the kingdoms of the world. He said, you fall down and worship
me and I'll give you all this. Now you know that's a lie. The
earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof. But he makes people
think, buddy, all you gotta do is follow me and do what I tell
you, and you can have the world in all its gold. You can have
the world in all of its pomp. You can have the world in all
of its wealth. You can have the world in all of its position.
But look what our Lord Jesus Christ said in verse 10. Then Jesus said unto him, get
thee behind me, Satan, for thou shalt, listen to him, There's
a quote of scripture again, it is written, thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. Oh, when the
devil brought him lies, our Lord Jesus Christ answered him with
scripture, answered him with truth. Oh, Satan, Adam did just
the opposite. Oh my, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, it is written, it is written, it is written. And not only did
he honor God's love, and not only did he uphold and honor
God's blessed truth, and he himself is the truth. Our master honored
the majesty of God. The scripture says that he made
himself of no reputation, but emptied himself, emptied himself,
made himself of no reputation, and found in fashion as a man. He became obedient even to the
death of the cross. He says, when he came down to
the truth of God, and the honor of God, and the majesty of God.
You know what he said when he was in the Garden of Eden? In
agony of soul, and his soul was troubled under death. He says,
not my will, but thine be done. I don't want my will. And that's
something I don't want. I don't want my will. God, please
don't leave it to my will. Not my will, but thine be done.
Men refused God's authority, but Christ honored and magnified
God's law. Let's look in Isaiah 49. Look
what it says about our Savior over here. Isaiah 49. Look what
it says about our Savior over here. Men and women, you know,
they refuse God's authority, but Christ magnified and honored
the law of God. Oh, he did how he honored and
magnified it. Adam just put it under his feet
and trampled it down. Christ honored it. And Isaiah
42, excuse me, I'm sorry, 42, can't even read my own writing
over here. Isaiah 42, in verse 19, now look
what it says about our Savior. He said His face is flint toward
Jerusalem. He said, who is blind but my
servant? or deaf is my messenger that
I sent, who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the
Lord's servant." Now, what is he saying here? Christ had one
thing in view, one thing in view. to honor his father. I came down
from heaven to honor my father. I came down from heaven to glorify
my father. I came down from heaven to fulfill
the will of my father, to do the work he gave me to do and
finish it. And that's all I can see in front of me. They brought
him food. They brought him some food. And
he says, I have meat to eat that you don't know anything about.
Wish you not that I'd be about my father's business. And that's
why he didn't listen to anybody else. Oh, you're a wine-dipper. You're a devil! And all picked
up stones to stone him. He ignored it and went on. And
look what it says in verse 20. Seeing many things, but he didn't
observe them. He opened the ears, but he heareth
not. What did he hear? He opened our
ears, but he only heard one thing. The voice of his Father. The
voice of his Father, the Word of God. And look what God says
about him. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He who Christ, by doing this,
he'll magnify the law. Oh, he'll keep every jot and
every tittle of it. And he'll make it honorable.
Oh, that's what our Savior did. That's what our Savior did. That's
their character and conduct. Adam dishonored God. Christ magnified
God. Now let me give you seven things
about our Lord Jesus Christ bearing the curse of the fall. Bearing
the curse of the fall. Now we need to go to Genesis
chapter 3. Let's go to Genesis chapter 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ bearing
the curse of the fall. Seven things God brought upon
our Lord Jesus Christ, upon Adam, excuse me, that God brought upon
Adam for his sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ bore
all of those things that God brought upon Adam for our sin.
He bore the curse of it. He bore. In Genesis 3.17, look
what it says. Under Adam, he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. The ground was
cursed because of what Adam did. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
scripture says, was made a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on eternity. God made him a curse for us to
redeem us out from under the curse that God put on Adam. And
then look what he says there after that. And in sorrow shall
I eat of it all the days of thy life. In sorrow he's going to
eat of it all the days of his life. For our Lord Jesus Christ,
you know what it said about him? That he was a man of sorrows.
He was a man of sorrows. He was a man acquainted with
grief. And oh, listen, how sorrowful our Lord Jesus Christ was. You
only find one place where he rejoiced. One place where he
rejoiced in the scripture. And then look what it says down
in verse 18 here. It says, thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee. Oh, that's what the ground's
going. He didn't know anything about thorns and thistles before.
It never existed before. And our Lord Jesus Christ, they
took a a bunch of thorns and they plaited them together and
said, we're going to make this king a crown. We're going to
make this king here a crown. And they made a crown of thorns
and sat it down on his head and pushed it down. And those thorns
hurt him, hurt him so bad. And oh, listen, and I tell you
what, that's what he bore the curse. He bore the curse even
to the thorns and the crowns that was upon his head. on his
head. And I tell you, talking about
thistles, I went out in my field here a few, couple weeks ago,
and I took over half a day, half a day, hot day, grubbing out
thistles. And I had almost three quarters
of a pickup load of thistles out of my field. That's because
of that curse. And if I'd let them alone, I
wouldn't have nothing but a field of thistles. And I'm going to
kill them. That's a curse. I sweated and
sweated and sweated over thistles. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
bless His holy name, all those thorns and all those things that
troubled us, He bore it. He took that crown of thorns
and wore them gladly, thankfully, gloriously, and said, this is
the glorious crown anybody can be given because I bore it for
my people. And then look what He said in
verse 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until
thou return to the ground. In the sweat of his face man
was to eat bread. And I tell you, you go out here
and you raise corn, you raise wheat, whatever it takes. I tell
you what, the man, he's going to eat by the sweat of his brow. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ in
the garden of Gethsemane, he sweated one night and oh, he
sweated. He prayed and he prayed and he
prayed and he began to sweat. And that sweat began to drip
out of his body. It began to come off of his forehead. It began to come off his elbows.
It began to come out of his pores. And all beloved while he was
there before that place on his hands and knees before God praying,
the sweat became to break out all over his body. And when it
began to fall out of his body, you know what it was? It was
as blood. It was red. His soul was in such
agony that blood, blood came out of his pores when he sweat.
Great drops of blood. Then look what else it said here
in verse 17, or 19, excuse me. For out of it thou shalt return
unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken. For dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Look what our Lord said
about Himself in Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Look what our Lord
said here. Psalm 22. Unto dust thou came,
and unto dust thou shalt return. Psalm 22, under dust you're going
to return. Look what our Lord said in verse
15 of Psalm 22. My strength is dried up like
a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And listen to what
he says. And thou hast brought me in to
the dust of death. He said, you brought me right
down. into the dust of death. Adam, you're going to come from
the dust, you're going back. Christ said, listen, you took
me down into the dust of death. You know, our mind can't grasp
things like that. But that's the agony that our
Savior went through. Reversing what Adam did and bearing
all the curse that Adam was put on Adam and fell on us. Our Lord
bore every single one of them. And then look what it says down
here in verse 24. So he drove man out of the garden. He drove out the man and he placed
at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. Now I tell you, let me say this
about this. This flaming sword didn't keep people from the tree
of life. It kept the way to tree of life. You know, you can't get by there
unless that sword of justice is satisfied in somebody else.
A flaming sword. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
scripture says, God said about his son, he said, away goes sword. awake, O sword, and smite my
fellow, smite my fellow, smite my son, and the sheep shall be
scattered. And, beloved, God put that sword
up now, and the way to the tree of life is through that sword,
piercing our Lord Jesus Christ. And God put the sword up, and
the way to the tree of life is through our Lord Jesus Christ
now. Huh? I ain't got no sword. It'll
keep everybody out that don't want to come to the white way.
But oh my, if you see Christ bore that sword and God himself
said, away go sword against my fella. Smite the shepherd and
the sheep went every direction. But oh, when he raised from the
dead, what'd he do? He went and gathered them all
back together. He found them fishing, found them over in Galilee,
found them hid in a room. But he got them all back up.
He gathered them all back up. Because that sword had been put
up. Oh my! Though the way that the
tree of life was opened. Opened! And then, oh my! It says there in verse 24. So he drove out the man. God's judgment was executed upon
Adam. He died. God said, you can't
have fellowship. You can't stay in the garden.
He drove him out. Drove him out. And God's judgment
was executed. Death. He was separated from
God. And our Lord Jesus Christ cried from the cross, my God,
my God, why? Why? Why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast thou forsaken me? And
our Lord Jesus Christ was forsaken of God. Everything that happened
to Adam our Lord Jesus Christ more everything that everything
that fell on now now Let me stay about our Lord Jesus Christ undoing
and Reversing the effects of Adam sin. He reversed it Hebrews
7 I tell you I know I've got you all over the Bible tonight,
but Hebrews 7 We need to see these things. All these things
have a purpose in turning to these. Hebrews 7. And I want
us to, you know, we see what happened in the garden and Christ
bearing all the things that happened to Adam. And now He reverses
it. He brought in better things.
Look what it said in Hebrews 7, verse 19. For the law made
nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which
we draw nigh unto God. Look down verse 22. By so much
was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And I tell you, we
have gained more in Christ than we ever, ever, ever lost in the
fall. We gain so much more in Christ
than we lost in the fall. before the Adam fell in the garden,
he dwelt in just paradise. He just dwelt in paradise. You
know where we dwell now? We dwell in Christ and Christ
dwells in us. In Christ they need to eat is
in paradise in Christ. We're sitting in the heavenlies
We're in heaven we get our spiritual blessings out of heaven, and
we're seated together with Christ in heavenlies That's much better
than paradise would you rather be seated with Christ in heavenly
or be it all seated with Christ? Huh in Adam all we had was natural
life in Christ We have spiritual life. The scriptures tells us
that we are made partakers of the divine nature, that God has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. And all the scriptures tells
us that we're born of God, born of God, a new birth, a new person
brought into existence, that we're made new creatures, new
creatures in Christ. Oh, listen, and then before the
fall, Adam was just innocent, just innocent. That's a negative
condition. But oh my, in Christ, we're made
righteous. That's a positive condition.
You know, God said in Ecclesiastes 7, 29, that God made man upright,
but he sought out many inventions. But God says that we're created
in Christ in righteousness and true holiness. You know, the
Pharisee, when he prayed in Luke 18, all he talked about was the
things that he hadn't done. He hadn't done. He hadn't done.
All of them negative. But not only must you not do
some things, but you have to do what's right. It's not enough
not to do certain things, but you also got to do everything
that's right. Huh? You must do what's right
and holy. And in the fall, when Adam fell,
man sustained an infinite loss in this matter of righteousness.
Threefold loss of righteousness. He lost his righteous nature,
the loss of illegal righteousness in God's sight, and thirdly,
the loss of understanding of what righteousness is. For the
Jews, as they went about to establish their own righteousness. and
did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God in Christ.
And Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
man that believeth. And so man, he didn't keep the
commandment. That's the sin of omission. He
didn't do. And then man sinned. That's the
sin of commission. He transgressed the commandment.
Well, our Lord Jesus Christ bore the penalty of sin in his own
body on that tree. And He put this sin away, this
sin of omission and the sin of commission, the things we shouldn't
have done and the things we did do. The things we didn't do when
we should have and the things we do, He bore the penalty of
all of them. Man is pardoned, but God required
that man actually keep the law. And our Lord Jesus Christ, God
said He must continue in all things written in the law. But
you know what it says in Romans 10 verse 4? Christ is the end
of it. Kegono Father than the end. He's
the end of the law for righteousness. To who? Believers. We're pardoned and we're law
keepers in Christ. I've kept the law in Christ.
You know, no wonder David said it like this. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the
man who worketh not, but believeth on him who justifies the ungodly. You know, in Christ we share
a better inheritance. Adam would have been Lord of
Eden He was Lord of Eden, and he lost it, and he became poor. But in Christ, whatever Christ
possesses, we possess. He's heir of everything. He's
the only son, and God made Him heir of everything. And then
it says that we're joint heirs with Him. And it tells us that
through His poverty, we're made rich. And then we have a greater
joy. Oh, what a joy! conscious, conscious
of our sin being pardoned, our sin being put away. We have a
closer relationship than anyone ever possessed before the fall.
Now we're members of Christ's body, bone of his bone, flesh
of his flesh. Not only are we members of his
body and members in particular, but he's our elder brother. And you know what he said? He
said, I'm not ashamed to call them brothers. Not ashamed to
call him my brother. He's our elder brother. And he
says we're his brother. And not only that, but where
sin abounded, grace, you sang it, giveth, giveth, giveth, giveth
more grace. And I tell you, we could not
know God in Adam. We could not know God in Adam
as we now know him in Christ. In Adam, we would have been subject
to fall anytime. But in Christ, we're perfect,
we're complete, and we have a new birth, we're joined to Christ,
members of His body, and that relationship can never, ever
be severed. Can't never be severed. There's
no danger of us falling. You can't fall out of Christ.
Now, you can fall from religion. You can fall from a profession.
You can fall into sin if you don't know. But here's the thing.
You can't fall out of Christ. You can't undo a birth. You can't
get out of Christ's body. Amen. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for allowing us this
time to meet. Thank you for these blessed,
blessed truths, these precious truths. Lord, if we don't take
our part in Adam, we'll never know what it is to have a part
in Christ. If we don't understand how we
became sinners, we'll never understand how we became righteous. So Lord,
teach us these blessed truths, these precious things. But oh,
we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You're that quickening Spirit,
that One who comes from heaven, that Lord of glory, who quickened
us, saved us, give us life, His life, made us partaker of His
life. Oh Lord, blessed be Your name. God bless these dear saints as
they go their way. And we pray for Steve again,
Kim, the kids. Thank you for them. Thank you
for their love, for their faithfulness, and their commitment to Christ.
Thank you for what you've done for Steve. And again, we pray
for Joe and Patsy. Pray for your abundance of grace
to be given to them. Be their strength, be their encouragement,
be their comfort, be their stay. As we thank you, dismiss us please
into the care. Comfort of our Lord Jesus Christ
in his name we pray. Amen. Amen