Good evening. Turn with me to
Isaiah 57. The righteous perisheth, and
no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men are taken away,
none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to
come. He shall enter into peace. They
shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of
the adulterer and the whore? Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth
and draw out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression,
a seed of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every
green tree, slaying the children in the valleys, under the cliffs
of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the
stream is thy portion. They, they are thy lot. Even
to them hast thou poured a drink offering. Thou hast offered a
meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed. Even thither
winnest thou up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors also, in the
post, hast thou set up thy remembrance. For thou hast discovered thyself
to another than me, and art gone up. Thou hast enlarged thy bed,
and made thee a covenant with them. Thou lovest their bed where
thou sawest it, and thou wentest to the king with ointment, and
didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers
far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell. Thou art wearied
in the greatness of thy way, yet saidst thou not, there is
no hope. Thou hast found the life of thine
hand, therefore thou wast not grieved. And of whom hast thou
been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered
me, nor laid it to thy heart? Have not I held my peace, even
of old, and thou fearest me not? I will declare thy righteousness
and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. When thou cryest,
let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them
all away. Vanity shall take them, but he
that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall
inherit my holy mountain. and shall say, Cast ye up, cast
ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of
the way of my people. For thus saith the High and Lofty
One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in
the High and Holy Place, with Him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend
forever, neither will I be always wroth, for the spirit should
fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity
of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him. I hid me and was
wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have
seen his ways and will heal him. I will lead him also and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit
of the lips. Peace, peace to him that's far
off and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked. If you will, you've got your
Bibles with you, open it with me to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis
chapter 3. Let me read verse 12 verses here. And of course, it's just one
of two or three messages on the fall. Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, You shall
not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto
the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall
you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doeth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took the fruit thereof, and did eat. and gave also unto her husband
with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. Subject this evening is the Fall.
What's referred to as the Fall. The Fall of Adam. And there's
several things here and I take a say this is just one of several
messages on this. But here in these verses that
I read this evening we have things explained that science or philosophy
or evolution or even free religion can't explain. They can't explain
it. And that is the condition of
the human race and how they got in the condition that they're
in. Here when we read these verses tonight, we find out where sin
originated, where sin started in the human race. And we see
here that it's universal. No place you can go on the face
of the earth where sin does not reign, where sin has not affected
every member of the human race. Here we find out where death
began and why men have death pronounced upon them. Here we
find out the condition of the earth and what happened after
man's fall and how that he had to leave the garden and from
then on earn his bread by the sweat of his brow because God
cursed the earth. And we see here how man's suffering
in the world started over this fall because of Adam's fall.
And we learn also the power and subtlety of Satan. Oh, he's a
subtle, he's a subtle man. He's a subtle being and he's
our enemy. He's not our friend, He's our
enemy. And we also learn here when we see the fall of man,
fall of Adam, we learn the utter powerlessness, utter inability
of man to walk in righteousness when God withholds His grace.
And walk in righteousness in the most perfect conditions that
he could possibly be in. And he still fell from that steadfastness. And here we see the spiritual
effects of sin, the spiritual effects of sin. And the first
spiritual effect of sin was that the first thing they knew that
they was naked. God made them naked. They were
born naked and never thought anything about it. The first
thing they saw was that they was naked. And it wasn't their
nakedness to one another that troubled them. It was their nakedness
before God that troubled them. And not only that, but we see
that they sought. One day they're walking with
God, communing with God. The next day, immediately after
they sin and fail, they went to hide from the presence of
God. And here we see God's attitude
toward the guilty, guilty sinner. We'll see how man has to seek
him out. And it's an act of free and sovereign
grace. And we see the gracious, gracious
provision that God made to meet our great need in the shedding
of blood and the clothing of skin and seeking us out. Oh, what a gracious, infinite
God we have. And here we're taught that God
cannot approach a man without a mediator. And that's why I
say these are just a few of the things we'll see in the next
few messages. But let's look here at the fall.
And we talk about the fall when Adam It says in verse 6, that
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it
was pleasant to the eyes and the tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave
also unto her husband and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened and they sowed fig leaves together. When we
talk about a fall, what are we talking about? Man stood before
God and he stood upright before man, God. God made man upright
and he stood upright before his maker. He had fellowship with
God. He communed with God. He delighted
in God. God told him to name everything,
every animal that was in that garden. And so he named every
animal, whatever name, if you see a pig, God, Adam named that
thing a hog. He named a horse. He named a
cow. He named a bull. He named a dog.
He named every animal that there was on the face of the earth.
God, that's how, that's how, what a condition he was in. But
God told him, don't you eat of that fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil the day that you eat thereof, you're
going to die. And in dying, thou shalt die. And so what he was,
he was upright. And when he fell, he fell down. He fell from life to death. He fell from righteousness of
his own into sin. He fell from fellowship with
God to hiding from God. He fell from delight in God with
no fear, no shame, no nothing. And now he fell from not having
any shame to he was ashamed. He fell from being naked to where
he had to sew fig leaves together to cover his nakedness. So when
he fell, he fell a long way. And you know, in all of us, when
he fell because he was a representative of us, we all fell in him. We
have the effects of his sin. You see, man evolution teaches
and social psychiatry and sociology and all that stuff teaches that
man started it started at the bottom and he's slowly slowly
climbing his way up and eventually he'll get to a good position
But God, according to the scriptures, man started at the top, started
at the top. God's greatest creation started
at the top and fell all the way to the bottom. And he can't get
back up from the bottom. He cannot get back up. He couldn't
get back up and say, Lord, I really, really blew it. I'm really sorry. I'm ashamed of what I've done.
Would you please forgive me? That's not what he did. He went
and hid from God. Fellowship to hide him. And here
we see that this condition that man's in now isn't hereditary. It has nothing to do with his
environment. People say if we can just get
people in the right environment that they'll be okay. That's
not man's problem. His problem is not a social problem
that can be fixed by education. That's what a lot of things,
if I could just get them educated, can't be fixed by the welfare
program, can't be fixed by any other program that's going on
in this world. All of these things are just
denials of the fallen man and the condition he's in. They don't
want to face it. And God made man upright. Look
what he said here in verse 15 through 17 of chapter 2. God
made him upright. And the Lord God took the man.
And in the margin it says Adam. That's what man, Adam. Man of
the red earth. and put him into the garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded
the man, commanded him. It's the first commandment that's
given in the scriptures. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, eat everything, anything you want in here. of the tree
of knowledge, of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for
in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." And so
God made man upright and put one restriction on him, just
one. That's all it took, just one. And man being not an independent
creature, people talk about their independence. Man's not an independent
creature. He didn't make himself. He didn't
make himself. And so that makes him responsible
to the one that created him. That God made him, so he's responsible
to the God that made him. He didn't make himself. He didn't
create himself. He didn't give himself a mind.
He didn't give himself the intellect. He didn't give himself this power,
this ability. Look at Psalm 100. Psalm 100
in verse 3. Look at Psalm 100 in verse 3.
I could quote this to you, but I think it would do you well
to look at it. When you look at something, it's
easier to remember it. So God made man, the only reason
to not eat of the fruit of this tree of good and evil is because
God said not to. That's the only reason for him
not to eat of it. That's enough reason for us not to do anything.
I heard a preacher one time saying, you know, when talking about
the new birth, he said, God only mentioned the new birth, being
born again one time in the scriptures. How many times God has to say
something for it to be true? God don't have to repeat Himself
over and over and over again. He just told that man, this is
what you don't do. This is what you can do. Don't do this. Just
don't do this one thing. That's all it took. But look
what He said here in verse 3 of Psalm 100. Know ye that the Lord,
He is God. It is He that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. And so we're responsible to God
Himself, our Creator. And oh, but God's only reason
not to eat of this tree, the fruit of this tree, was God's
commandment. But the creature, the creature
being like he is, self-seeking, he became self-seeking, he became
self-centered, he became self-willed, and he disobeyed and he sinned
and he fell. fell, standing and he fell, standing
and he fell, upright and he fell, sinless and he fell into sin,
life and he fell into death, righteousness and he fell into
all kinds of disobedience and rebellion against God. But oh,
listen now, here's what happens in verse one. Now the serpent
was more, chapter three, the serpent was more subtle than
any beast of the field. And oh, the Lord God had made,
and you know, he called him the serpent, that old dragon, the
serpent's what he's called through the scriptures, you'd call that
in the book of Revelation. And he said, yea, hath God said
you shall not eat of every tree in the garden? And here's how
the fall took place. The voice of the tempter, the
voice of Satan was heeded. Instead of saying, get thee behind
me, Satan. Instead, she listened to him.
She listened to him. Instead of saying, get thee behind
me, God said this, and just standing on God's word. She listened to
Satan, and he began to challenge God's word, and so she entered
into conversation with him. And that's something, don't never
do that. Talk to yourself, talk to anybody, but don't have a
conversation with Satan. Because I guarantee you, he's
too much of a match for us. He's had 6,000 years, starting
with Eve, how to handle little old worms like us. But oh my! And then I tell you what, what
she did, this Eve tempered with God's Word. And Eve said this,
and the woman said unto the serpent. She answered him back. That's
the first thing she shouldn't have done. She should have called
Adam and said, Adam, come here. This man's talking to me. This
serpent's talking to me. This Satan's talking to me. And
I want you to answer him. But she didn't. And what she
did, she added God's word, and that's always a fatal curse.
And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, you shall
not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Now
she added two things here, you know what they are? Don't touch
it and then lest you die. God said, you're gonna die. She
said, don't even touch it lest you die. She said, we might die
and we might not die. So she's already made a mess
out of everything because she's already denied God's word. She's
already taken God's word and changed it and manipulated and
made it come out a different way. Let me show you something
if I can in Proverbs chapter 30 about, you know, it's a dangerous
thing. Proverbs 30, it's a dangerous
thing. God said, if a man adds anything
under this word, The plagues of this book will be added unto
him. If any man takes away from this book, ways shall be taken
away his part out of the book of life. And so it's a very dangerous
thing to tamper with God's word. And I'll tell you what, when
you tamper with it, you know what you're doing, really what
you're doing is lying. You're changing what God said.
And that's what she did. She changed what God said. She
changed it was, don't even touch it. God didn't say not touch
it. He said, don't eat of it. And he said, when you eat of
it, you're gonna die. She said, we might die. We might
die, lest you die. But look what he said here in
Proverbs 30 in verse five. Every word of God is pure, purified. He is a shield unto them that
put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words,
lest he reprove thee. And listen to this, and thou
be found a liar. And that's what she did. She
got intimidated. She lied. She altered God's word. Don't touch it, lest you die.
When God said, the day you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And that's what she omitted. She added to it, and then she
left something out. She said, lest you die. And God
said, thou shalt surely die. And beloved, how true it is that
history repeats itself. Adam and Eve had no conception
of death. They didn't know what death was.
They didn't have a clue what death was. And people still don't
know what death means. They don't know what it is to
be dead in sin. They don't know what it is to
die a second death. Men are not afraid of death.
You know why? Because there's no fear of God
before their eyes. And men are not afraid of dying
anymore. And oh, shee, and now history
repeats itself. And I tell you, beloved, when
we forsake the only source of light, God's blessed Word, when
we forsake the only source of light, the Word of God, then
we're in trouble. When real, the outcome will always
be a fall. The outcome will always be sin. The outcome will always be lying
on God. And when she forsook the only
source of light, a transgression became the natural outcome. She
saw that tree, oh, it's pleasant. She desired that tree, and then
she ate that tree. Go make her wise, and then she
ate of that tree. And here she's resisted the will
of God. She rejected the word of God
and deserted the way of God. And that's what man does. And
the scriptural record of what I've read to you so far of the
fall is the only explanation for the condition of the human
race. There's no other explanation for the condition of man as he
is in this world now. You find it right here. The only
reason, the only way you can find what's wrong with man is
found right here, when he fell into sin. When he fell from God,
when he fell from being in the position alone with God. When
you start talking about how Adam fell and how Adam sinned and
how Adam ate of the fruit of that tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, this alone accounts for the evil in this world that
God in his grace made for us to live in. You know, you think
Eden was nice, you wait till we get to paradise, but oh man,
God made this world, He was gracious to make this world, and He put
man in this world, and He gave man this wonderful power, and
created this man in His own image, and then that man took the goodness
of God, took the grace of God, took the love of God, took the
will of God, took the word of God, and said, don't need it,
don't need it, don't want it, And I tell you, this account
that I've read to you this evening alone tells us how that sin is
universal. Where can you go on this earth
where you can't find men that are sinners or not sinners? Where
can you go? In spite, just like men, every
time they pray, they pray for their loved ones, they pray for
their children, their grandchildren, their husbands and wives and
sons and daughters. And in spite of all the love
we give them, in spite of all the care we give them, in spite
of all the prayers we pray for them, They still go headlong
in sin, go right on into it. And we all sprang from one man.
Romans 5.12 says, wherefore as by one man, sin and enter the
world and death by that sin. Now look at Acts 17.26 with me. Acts 17.26 with me. This is what
God said. This is what Paul told him when
he was preaching on Mars Hill. You know, and it doesn't make
what race you are, what color you are, what education you got,
what it did, but make no difference where you are, what you do or
who you, what you're accomplishing. All men are related to this man,
Adam. And we became sinners by him.
We inherited his fallen name. It was, if God, if he had stayed
upright, if Adam hadn't failed, we'd still be standing. But he
failed. Thank God that God had a last
Adam had a Redeemer had a Savior before Adam ever sinned And though
Adam could fall we can never fall now Though Adam could could
deliberately denied the will of God and we sometimes may deny
God in our thoughts We may deny him in our actions But he shall
never ever deny us and we can't fall from righteousness now because
it's God's righteousness We can't fall back into sin because we're
dead to it. God's raised us from it. We can't
go back into death after he's given us life. But oh, listen,
look what it said here in Acts 17, 26. He's talking about God that made
the world and all things therein. He says, "...and hath made of
one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth."
One blood. Everybody come from one blood.
Made them out of one blood. You fellas standing up here and
think you're a bunch of great philosophers. God says you're
just as much akin to Adam as anybody is. and hath determined
the times before appointed and the bounds of where they're going
to live and how long they're going to live. So God breathed
into man nostrils and made him a living soul. And since he became
a living soul, why should he die? Because he disobeyed God. He disobeyed God. And here's
the first thing we see about not only we see Adams fall into
sin, And the record of it explains the condition of the human race,
explains our children, explains us and why we do the things we
do. But we also see here Satan and the fall. Here's the first
time we meet with the devil. This is the first time we meet
with Satan. And there's no explanation of
his history, where he came from or how he got here or anything,
nothing about it. But I do know this, that the
sphere in which he operates is religion, in the spiritual realm.
Every time you find him in this book, he's operating in the religious
realm, he's operating in the spiritual realm. You see, he's
not the author of sins of the flesh. No, he goes to church
when you go to church. He carries a Bible. He knows the Word of God. When
He tempted our Lord Jesus Christ, and see, He's not the author
of the sins of the flesh. When He tempted the Lord Jesus
Christ, He used God's own Word. And oh beloved, do you know why
He's not the author of the sins of the flesh? They come from
the heart. For from within, out of the heart. You know what the
first thing He said? Evil thoughts. adulteries, fornication,
lasciviousness, pride, blasphemy, all those things come within.
They come in out of the heart. But Satan's chief aim is to get
between the soul and God. His chief aim is to turn man's
heart away from God and turn him to himself. And he takes
lies and puts them in the place of God's truth. I've often used
this illustration. And you think this is right. A funeral director A person that
prepares bodies for burial. How many funerals have you been
to and you've walked up to the casket and say, boy, they look
so good? They look so good. You know they
don't, but that's what we say. We say they look so good. Funeral
director done a good job. And what he has to do is take
that dead body and he puts the makeup on the women, the hair
on the women, dresses them up nice, puts a tie on the man,
whatever he wants to be doing, and the woman puts her jewelry
and things on. He's got to make dead people
look like they're still living, like they're just laying there
asleep. And that's what Satan's main aim is, is to take dead
sinners and make them look like they're alive. Dress them up
with religion. Put a little makeup on him. Give
him a little verses. Give him a few Bible verses.
And give him a Bible. And get him a cross. And get
him a calendar with Jesus on it. And get him a Bible with
pictures in it. And put him a cross on the car and say, I'm a Christian.
And put a fish on it. And do all those things to dress
him up. And a strong man, as long as he's armed, he'll keep
his goods and his palaces safe until a stronger man comes upon
him. Oh my, Job, oh. Listen, the next
time you see Satan, you know where he's working at? He's always
worked in the spiritual realm. That's what people, they think
he's out here in the honky-tonks and all that. No, no, no. He's
talking to preachers. He's talking to church people.
And listen, head to Job, you know what? God said to Satan,
said, where are you coming from, Satan? I'm running to and fro
on the face of the earth, seeking whom I may devour. And God said,
if you considered my servant, Joe, perfect and an upright man,
he said, listen, he said, the only reason he serves you is
because you bless him and bless him greatly and you got a hedge
around him. You take that hedge down and
let me at him and he'll curse you. See, he won't turn him against
God. And that happened twice. In Luke
4, when our Lord Jesus Christ went into the wilderness being
led of the Spirit, first thing Satan said to him, and Christ
would fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and he come to him the first
thing he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that stone
to be made bread. He said, it's written that man
shall live by bread, by the word of God alone, not by bread only,
but by the word of God. Next thing he done is he took
him and everything of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes and the pride of life, all these were involved in these
temptations. And the second thing he took him and set him up on
a pinnacle and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world.
And he said, all these I'll give to you and the glory of them,
if you'll worship me. And he said, it's written that
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God only, and him shalt thou
serve. Third thing he said was, Oh,
listen, talking about the pride of life. He said, if thou be
the Son of God, took him up on its pinnacle, if thou be the
Son of God, cast thyself down for it's written that he would
suffer not your, dash your foot against a stone, that he won't
even let you dash your foot against a stone. Christ was so perfect,
he never stumbled even as a Child or a man. He said, but God said,
He said, it's written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve. So that's what Satan does. He
wants to get to the, to get a man between man and God. And his
method's like this. He says, yea, hath God said.
Did God really say this? Did God, he throws doubt. The
first thing he does is throws doubt on God's word. He suddenly
suggests that God doesn't mean what he says. And oh, that's
what he says there in verse one, yea, hath God said, yea, and
back over in chapter three, yea, hath God said, you shall not
eat of every tree of the garden. He don't want you to eat any
of them, hardly. And he substitutes his own words for God's word.
And he said in verse three, but of the fruit which is in the
midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat, In verse
four, excuse me. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. God's not that mean. God's not
that just. God's not that holy. God's not
that righteous. He ain't gonna punish you like
that. He ain't gonna let you die. No, no, no. Listen, that's why in Matthew
13, he said, you know, when there was wheat sowed, what did Satan
do? He comes and sows tares. You
can't see the difference in them. And man will believe a lie quicker
than he'll believe the truth. Isaiah 44 says this, it said,
he has eaten ashes and said, does not in his right hand a
lie? In his right hand? I tell you
what, this is the truth. I believe this is right. That
a lie will get up and go all the way around the block before
truth gets off the step. And folks will believe it. They'll
believe anything. You know, most folks will believe
what you say about. Somebody could say something
about me and people say, I just don't believe that to be true.
But it put it in your mind. You know, maybe it is. All they
got to do is just make a little suggestion. That's all it takes. And then not only does he substitute
his own word for God's word, but he casts reflections upon
God's goodness and questions his perfections. And oh, look
what he says in verse five. For God doth know, for God doth
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes are going to be
opened. God's got your eyes, got you blinded. He got you blinded. He's a saint that he don't want
you to see. And that, you know, and your eyes should be open
and you should be as God yourself. Oh, you could be a God. Knowing
good and evil. Oh my. He puts in her mind that
God is withholding from her and them something that's good, something
that'll benefit them, something that would make them better.
And that's what he suggests to them. This'll make you better.
This'll make you wiser. This'll make you stronger. This'll
make you know the difference between good and evil. They didn't
even know what evil was at this particular time. He says, believe
me, believe my lie, and you'll gain from it. You'll gain from
it. You'll get wisdom and knowledge that God is denying you right
now. God's denying it to you. And
I tell you, let me tell you this, in verse six, here's what happens. Here's the temptation. And when
the woman saw, oh, he put it in her mind. God, you ain't gonna
die. God's just withholding something
from you. He don't want you to be as smart.
He don't want you to be better than you are. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food. Oh, this is good food. Good, good food. And it was pleasant
to the eyes. Oh my, that's a beautiful tree.
And oh, listen, the tree decided to make one wise. Oh, she's gonna
get so smart. And she did eat there. She took
of the fruit and ate thereof. Now let me tell you this, and
I'm through. All three things, lust of the eyes, lust of the
flesh, and the pride of life, all three of them took place
right there. She saw, she desired, and she said it was good for
food, and she fell. And we all fell with her. And
here's the difference between how Satan works and God works.
Satan goes from without to within. He tries to get, He comes from
without. He comes with lies, and He comes
with deceit, and He comes with scripture sometimes, but they'll
be perverted just a little bit, changed just a little bit. But
God works from within. He works from within and goes
outward. Satan wants to go from without
to within. He wants to dress up the outside.
God dresses up the inside. Satan works on the mind. God works on the heart and the
soul. And I tell you what, and how
he did our Lord Jesus exactly the same way he did her. Same
way he did her. And that's just the beginning
of what happened. That's just, oh my, it's a mess. Oh my. Next time anybody asks
you, why is this so much meanness in the world? Say, because our
father Adam. You know, people say God could
stop this, God could stop that. Well, he's gonna put a stop to
all of it one of these days. But a man in his heart, he does
what he does that's in his heart to do. If a man commits murder,
that don't make him a murderer. He was a murderer is why he murdered
a person. A man don't become a liar when
he tells a lie. He tells a lie because he's a
liar. And where did he get that nature
from? Where did he get that attitude
from? Where did he get this propensity
to do wrong from? Another illustration I've told
you, and me and some of the preachers and some other folks talked about
the other night, Frank Tate was preaching on the
law, the four things of the law, things that man cannot do anything
about. I said, you know, all a person's got to do, if you've
got two or three kids or just got one, You tell her just close
one door. If you've got a 15-bedroom house,
just close one door. And say, go in any room in the
house. You're welcome to any room in the house. Go anywhere
you want to, but don't go in that room. You won't be to the
end of the driveway and out of the driveway before they'll be
at that room trying their best to get in. Now why is that? Why do our children, when they're
four or five years old, stand and lie to us? Why do they make
up stories? Why is that? Because of this thing called
sin and death that fell upon Adam. Here he was, upright, a
living soul. Boom, down he went. Down he went. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we thank
you that though we know in ourselves that there's no good thing in
our flesh, we know that we have nothing worth to glory in. We
know how we became sinners, but we also know how you, in your
sovereign mercy and free grace, made us righteous. made us righteous
by the doing and dying of your blessed Son, that you, blessed
Savior, came and restored that which you took not away. You
gave life where there was death. You gave righteousness where
there was sin. You gave clothing where there
was nakedness. You brought us access to the
Father, whereas we were estranged from God and alien from Him.
And now we can talk to our Father through you, our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for what you've
done for us. Oh, bless your holy name. God, keep these dear saints,
preserve them, uphold them, strengthen them, and encourage them, and
meet the need of every home and every heart represented here. Save your people in this place,
for Christ's sake. Amen. See you Wednesday night,
God willing.