It talked about two men here.
Verse 15 is as it is written, the first man, Adam, was made
a living soul. You remember it said in Genesis
126 that God breathed in the man's nostrils and made him a
living soul. He was just an inanimate object
until God made him a living soul with no abilities. No ability
to see, hear, do anything until God made him a living soul. And
that's what we are. We're living souls inhabiting
dying bodies. Paul says that this earthly tabernacle,
that's what he called it, is just a tent. A tabernacle is
a tent. And we're living in a tent. And one of these days we're going
to get to move into a new house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. And then he says, but the last Adam, just only
two Adams, the first and the last, was made a quickening spirit. It wasn't the spiritual that
was first. It was natural. And afterward came the spiritual.
And the first man has the image of the earthly. Ain't that what
he says in verse 49? We've borne the image of the
earthly. We shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this
is what the Scriptures teach us. The Scriptures teach us there
ain't but two men that God views the whole human race in. There's
only two men. The first Adam, the last Adam.
Adam and Christ. And he views the whole human
race in these two men. And both of these men are representatives. They're called federal heads.
It's what the old-timers called them, federal heads. They head
over an old federation of people, an old race of people. And they're
representatives over the whole human race. And listen to me
now. Adam, he communicated to those
whom he represented what belonged to him. And what belonged to
him? Sin and death. And He committed
that to us, that's what He communicated to us. You know, how in the world
did we come up to be sinners? How did we end up being sinners?
How was we born sinners? How was we shaped in iniquity
and conceived in sin? Where'd that nature come from?
Where'd that sin come from? Where's this death coming from?
This death that's coming upon all of us, this death that's
creeping up on us and just destroying our bodies even. And I'll be
beloved, we inherited a corrupt nature from him. That's what
he communicated to us. It's like the first two sons
that you find mentioned in the scriptures. One of them worshiped
God in spirit and in truth, and God's appointed way, and God
accepted him and caused his sacrifice. He had respect unto his sacrifice,
but unto Cain's sacrifice he had not respect. And Cain killed
his brother because his works were evil and his brothers were
righteous. I mean, that's what happened with the first two brothers
that you have mentioned in the Scripture. What happened so drastically,
when Adam fell, communicated to his posterity, his generation,
his people, that one son killed another son. That's how... What
an awful effect that this thing called sin had on... That's what
he communicated to his children. He communicated a murderous heart
to one. And secondly, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and bless His name, communicated to those whom He represented
what belonged to Him. What belonged to Christ? Life? Righteousness? Eternality? Spirit? He's a quickening spirit. In Adam we die, in Christ we're
made alive. In Adam, death passed upon us. In Christ, life is given to us.
In Adam, death is given to us. In Christ, death is taken away.
And sin is taken away. And let's look over here in Ephesians
with me directly. Look in Ephesians chapter 5.
Let me show you something. You know the Scriptures teaches
us, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive. And so, beloved, as our Lord
Jesus said, it's because I live, you shall live also. But here
in Ephesians 5.30, look what it says. Here's how close we are to Christ.
If we have Adam's nature and communicate to us, it says this
about us being in Christ. For we are, Ephesians 5.30, for
we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bone. Now,
how in the world can you be any closer than that? Huh? And let me show you another one
over in 1 John 3.9. I looked at this today. I really,
really looked at this. I want to have some understanding
of these things right here in 1 John 3.9. I want you to see
this. 1 John 3.9. As Adam communicated to those
whom he represented, sin and death, and a corrupt nature,
a fallen nature, and every seed that is And every sin that can
be committed by a human being on this world, that seed, that
seed is in the human heart, and the only reason that it does
not blossom in blue and mature and come out and germinate in
every heart is because of the restraining hand of God who makes
us to differ. Now that's right. I know that's
right. You know you can brag about the
things you wouldn't do, but the only reason you don't do it is
because God will not let that seed germinate in you. And He gave you a distaste for
certain sins, and you have a love for others. That's just the way
it is. 1 John 3.9 says this, Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Now, who
is this he's talking about? He's talking about the children
of God. Up in verse 6 it says, "...whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth in my seeing
him, neither knoweth him." Now, this is what this is telling
us, that those of us that are in Christ, that abide in Christ,
we have no sin. We do no sin. We commit no sin. It's impossible for us to sin.
And the reason being is because we're in Christ. And is there
any sin in Christ? There ain't no sin in Christ,
so there ain't no sin in us. That's what Christ communicated
to us. When He put that seed in us,
I'm telling you, He so united us to Him that God views us and
Christ is one. And we have no sin. Ain't that
what God said? He said, there's sins in Nicodemus. Why not? Because we abide in
Christ. He's seizing us. We're born of
God. Just like we were born of Adam,
now we're born of God. In Adam, all we could do is sin.
In Christ, we cannot sin. You say, well, that's not my
experience. We're not talking about your experience. We're
talking about what the Bible says. We're not talking about what
we think about it, we're talking about what the scripture just
said. That's what the scripture just said, didn't it? And that blesses me. I don't
know what it does for you, but it does a lot for me. And also,
what a great difference in what they communicated to those whom
they represent. And how did they communicate
them to us? How do they communicate it to us? You know, you see a
baby and you say, boy, so much like his daddy or so much like
his mama, and something like that. They communicate their
looks, their nature, their temperament, and they do it by impartation,
by being born of that person. And not only, but we in Adam
and in Christ both, we receive by imputation. God charged our
calf what really wasn't ours in Christ. And Adam's sin has
imputed us, even though we wasn't in the garden. And not only that,
but by impartation, Adam gives us a corrupt nature. We inherited
his nature, a fallen nature. And when Christ saves us, he
makes us a partaker of the divine nature. One's a sin unto death, the other's
obedience unto life. And in Adam we have a natural
seed. That's all you have. Nature.
Natural. Nothing spiritual about it. He's of the earth. And in
Christ, he's a quickening spirit. He has a spiritual seed. His
seed is a spiritual seed. You must be born again. Being
born again, not a corruptible seed. That's the natural seed.
But incorruptible by the Word of God. And not only that, beloved,
but these two men were head over two covenants. Adam was over
a covenant of works. God put him in the garden, told
him that if you want to continue in righteousness and holiness,
and you want to continue fellowship with me, communion with me, you're
going to have to do what I tell you and not do what I tell you
not to do. And he was dependent on his works to stand. And it
was a covenant of works. And he said, if you break that
covenant, if you do what I tell you not to do, then you're through. You'll become an alien from me,
you'll become dead in sin, you'll become dead in trespass, and
there's no hope for you if I don't do something for you. So Adam
unnaturally, he didn't do the work. And in Christ, it's a covenant
of grace. And what a covenant of grace
is, beloved, that Christ did it all. And what He did, He gives
to us. We earn the wages of sin, which
is death. But we received the gift of life,
which is Christ. We received the gift of Christ.
Grace was given us in Christ before the world ever began.
Christ was head over a covenant of people, and everything that
was against them, everything that was contrary to them, everything
that God held against them, Christ said, I'll be the surety, and
every debt they owe, I'll pay it completely and entirely, and
you'll have to discharge it because they won't owe you nothing. And
it's all given to us. Nobody asked for it. Nobody sought
it. Now, let me try to give you a contrast, if I can, between
these two Adams. The first Adam and the last Adam.
First of all, the contrast in their character and their conduct.
Different as day and night. Life and death. First of all,
Adam. Adam. He cast an awful, awful
reproach upon God's love, upon God's truth, upon God's majesty,
His honor. And how did he do that? First
of all, when he ate of that forbidden fruit, he dishonored, he repudiated,
he says, the love of God means nothing to me. I'd rather have
that fruit than God's love. I'd rather have that fruit than
to experience the love of God. God made him, God created him,
God walked with him. So when he took that fruit, he
lost the love of God. And that's why it's so shameful
and so blasphemous for men to run around telling everybody
that God loves them. When God, beloved, when Adam
fell, he died, and God said, I'm not commuting with you anymore
until I cover your nakedness. Your nakedness can't be in my
presence. Your sin can't be in my presence.
And so, beloved, not only that, but he dishonored God's truth.
You know, if that devil told Eve, she says, you know, you
shall not surely die. And they believe the devil's
lie in face of God's truth. They said, I'd rather believe
the devil's lie and believe God's truth. And how many people do that now?
How many people will believe a lie and reject God's truth? And that's what happened here.
You know, he rejected God. He made God to be a liar. He
said, thou shalt not surely die. And God said, thou shalt surely
die. And they believed the devil's
lie. And so they took God's truth and said, we don't need no truth.
That's what Pilate said to the Lord Jesus Christ. What is truth?
The truth is whatever God says it to be. And then he rejected God's authority. You know, the devil told him,
says, you know, you should be as God's. God doeth know that
when you eat there, you're going to be as God's. You know, God's
on the throne. God's got the right to issue
commands. He's sovereign. He made a man. He made the creature.
And you do what I tell you. I made you. When you go to work
in the morning, you don't go in there with the idea that I'm
not going to do what my boss tells me. I'm going to take a
two-hour lunch. I'm going to go take a nap at
11 o'clock in the morning. You don't do things like that.
You just don't do that. Why don't you do that? Because
they have authority over you. And that's what Adam says. He
says, you're on your throne. You have all the majesty. You
have all the power. You have all the authority. But
I tell you why you do that is because you don't want us to
be like you. And we're going to be gods ourselves. And we
don't need your throne. We don't need your majesty. We
don't need your authority. Try to get God off His throne
is what they said. Scott Richardson said one time,
he said, a man will try his best to slip up behind God and stab
Him in the back or get a shotgun and go up and run and shoot Him
in the face if he could. That's what men want to do. They
just got on His throne and they don't want that. They don't want
that. But look at the last Adam. Look
at this last Adam. The first Adam was made a living
soul. The last Adam made a quickening spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
He does just the opposite. He vindicated, He upheld, He
honored, He magnified the love of God, the truth of God, the
majesty of His Father. Do you know how He so magnified
and manifest God's love? He did it to His very fullest.
God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. And looking at our Lord's life
from the day He was born to His death on a cross, you can't doubt
the love of God for His children, can you? Oh my, God so loved. Herein is love, not that we loved
Him, but that He loved us. We love Him, why? Because He
first loved us. Why do we love Him? Because He
first loved us. He put that love, and why didn't
he put the love of God in Adam's heart, where Adam would never
resist that love? And secondly, beloved, well,
let me show you in Ephesians 3.19 about this love of God.
Let me show you something about that. And I'll tell you, beloved, God's
love, and here's what people do not understand, God's love
is only in Christ. God does not love any man out
of Christ. Until God brings you to know
Christ, to trust Christ, believe on Christ, you've got no reason
to think that God loves you. Now, ain't that so? He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God, the wrath of God abides on him. Oh my, the only reason I know
anything about the love of God is because God manifested His
love to me and to you. But look what Paul said here
now in verse 19. He talked about praying for these
dear people and these saints that they might, in verse 18,
be able to comprehend with all saints what is the bread, the
length, the depth, and the height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passes knowledge, and oh, when you know that love of Christ
that just gets way past you understand, past knowing, you'll be filled
with the fullness of God. God says, fill me up with His
love, fill me up with His grace, fill me up with His fullness.
And not only did he magnify the love of God, but he upheld and
honored God's blessed truth. You know, the devil tempted him
too. Our Lord Jesus Christ was on the mountain. Temptations
for 40 days and 40 nights, and the devil hounded him all the
time. The devil brought to him four temptations. That's like
he done even that he used scripture in every single one of those
temptations. The first one he says, he said, oh, you know,
he was hungry. He said, you're hungry? If you're the son of
God, turn that piece of stone into bread. It is written, thou
shalt not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds.
Oh, he says, listen. He says, you know, he said, he'll
give you angels charge over you. He said, if you jump off up there,
he'll give his angels charge over you and he'll catch you
and won't even let your foot be dashed against the stone.
He said, This written thou shalt not keep the Lord thy God in
him only, shalt thou serve. And he says, Oh, look at here.
See this world and everything. If you'll bow down and worship
me, I'll give it all to you. He says, Thou shalt work. Hereo
is the Lord our God is one, and thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God in him only. And right down the line he went.
And that's what he did. He took the truth of God and
he turned it against the devil. He upheld the truth of God, never
backed down a hair's breadth. And I mean, beloved I, Lord Jesus
Christ, honored it. In fact, the scripture says he
is the truth. I am the truth. You want truth?
Christ is truth. You want salvation? Christ gives
it to you. You want the truth about sin?
Christ. You want the truth about salvation?
Christ. You want the truth about a relationship with God? Christ.
You want the truth about righteousness? Christ. You want the truth about
how you reconcile? Christ. You want the truth about
atonement? Christ. You want the truth about forgiveness?
Christ! Christ! Christ! Christ! He's the truth
about all those things, and you'll see them all in Him. Huh? And, oh, beloved, and bid our
Master bless His holy name. He honored the majesty of God.
God on His throne, God in His glory, God in His majesty. You know what He said? He says, not my will. Oh, if
this cup can pass from me. He was made in fashion as a man,
humbled himself and became obedient. To what? To death. Not my will. Not my will. but thine be done,
even if it kills me." That's what he said. Men refused God's
authority, but Christ, and I want you to see this in Isaiah 42,
but Christ magnified and honored the law of God. Adam didn't do
it. Eve didn't do it. No man before
or since has ever done it, only Christ. Isaiah 42. Men may refuse God's authority,
and God's got the right to tell people what to do, to demand
from people. He's got the right to tell every
man, I'm your God. I created you. I sustained you.
It's by me you live, move, and have your being. And you'll do what I tell you
or else. Now, that's just the way it is. Instead of Christ
doing that, you know, they said we'll not have this man to reign
over us. Here's the son, let's kill him. He will be, you know,
he's there. We'll kill him and we'll have
all the power. That's what they said. That's what Adam and Eve
thought. But look what it says here in Isaiah 42, in verse 19. Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger? Who is blind is he that is perfect,
and blind is the Lord's servant. And what this said about Christ,
he's blind to one thing, but the glory of God. He's blind
to one thing, but honoring God. Blind to one thing, but doing
God's will. My messenger, he's deaf to everything,
but my will, my word. That's why the Lord says, the
words that I speak, they're not mine, they're the words of him
that sent me. I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but
the will of him that sent me. And so he said, who is blind
as he is that is perfect? I mean, he's blind to everything
but God and His glory and His truth. And watch this, seeing
many things, he don't observe them. You know, they were telling
about somebody doing something, he says, he needed not to see
any man testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Opening many ears, But he heard
not. He didn't hear all the hatred
and animosity. He just heard the voice of God.
Now watch this. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. Whose righteousness sake? Christ's
righteousness sake. He will magnify the law. You
know when you magnify something, you make it bigger than it is.
Well, man brought that thing down and down and down and down
until he thought he could keep it. come up with all kinds of
rituals and works and washings and tie-pins and anionizing,
and all those things. And I said, He magnified it. He set it up there. Everybody
can see it and make it honorable. He did that. And that's what
He's done for His people. And so, beloved, well, let me
move on then. Now, Lord, that was the difference
between one. dishonored it, the truth, the love, the majesty
of God, the Lord Jesus magnified it, honored it, glorified the
truth and the truth of God, the love of God, the law of God,
the majesty of God. Now, our Lord Jesus, turn with
me to Genesis 3. I want you to see this. Seven
things. Seven things here. I believe these will be a blessing
to you. Seven things. Genesis 3, 17. Here we see our
Lord Jesus Christ bearing the curse of the fall. You know that
seven things got brought upon Adam for his sin. And I tell
you, our Lord Jesus Christ bore the curse of every one of those
things that Adam brought upon God. Our Lord Jesus Christ bore
every single one of them. And it said in verse 17, And
unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife, and hast eaten, of the tree of which I commanded
thee, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy
sin." First of all, the ground was cursed. The scripture says
Christ was made a curse for us, to redeem us out from under the
curse. Secondly, look what it says,
in sorrow shalt thou eat it all the days of thy life. In sorrow
man must eat it. Our Lord Jesus was called the
man of sorrows. acquainted with grief. And then
he says there in verse 18, thorns also in thistles shall it bring
forth to thee. I mean, when he got in it, he
had all these thorns and thistles. You know, you get out and you're
good at walking through the woods and that, and you get caught
up in old sawbriars, and oh my, we get stuck with all kinds of
things. But he said, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth
to thee. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ, they made him a crown
out of thorns and put it on his head. Not only was the man of
sorrows, but he bore the curse and he had a crown of thorns.
They made a crown of thorns for him. And oh, beloved, then it
said down there in verse 19, in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread. In the sweat of his face, man
must eat bread. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed until his sweat became,
as it were, great drops of blood. That's how hard he worked at
fulfilling his father's will. That's how obedient he was. His agony was so great that his
blood turned to sweat, his sweat turned to blood. And then he
says, Till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou
taken. For dust thou art none, till dust shalt thou return.
I'm not going to comment on this, I just want you to see it. You
keep Genesis and look with me in Psalm 22. I'm not even going
to comment, I'm just going to read this to you. Read it. Psalm
22 and verse 15. Under dust man was to return,
because he is taken out of dust. And it says here, Psalm 22, 15. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death." Oh, my. You come from dust, you go
into it. God brought me into the dust
of death. Now again, over here, it says down in verse 24 here,
Genesis 23. Genesis 3, 24. It's said here that he drove
the man out, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep
the tree of life. God put a flaming sword to keep
the way to the tree of life. Men couldn't get in there. And
yet God said about his son, Zechariah, he said, Arrake, O sword, against
my fellow. smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered." God put a flaming sword up where you
can't come in, and He took a flaming sword of justice and plunged
it into the heart of His own Son. Now, we have right, Revelation
says we have right to the tree of life. And God's just judgment was executed. It says here that he drove out
the man. Death was executed. He is separated
from God. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ cried out on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And that's where our Christ bore
every effect of Adam's sin. Every effect of the curse for
his people. Now let me quickly hurry up and
give you this. Let me give you the Lord Jesus
reversing Reversing the effects of the fall. Reversing the effects
of what Adam did. Look in Hebrews with me, chapter
7, just a moment. Hebrews chapter 7. He reversed
it. You know, men have gained more
in Christ than they ever lost in the fall. Much, much more
in Christ than we ever lost in Adam. It said here in Hebrews
7.19, For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did. That better hope, of
course, is Christ, by the which we draw nigh unto God. He drove
man out, now we draw nigh unto God, James. And then down in
verse 22, it says this, By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament, a better will, a better covenant. Now,
let me tell you what men have gained more in Christ than they
ever lost in Adam's sin and what our relationship to Adam. Before
the fall, Adam dwelt in paradise, what they call the Garden of
Eden, dwelt in paradise. In Christ, we're seated in the
heavenlies. We're sitting down right now.
When Christ sits at the right hand of God, the scriptures tell
us we're seated with him in the heavenlies. In Adam, all we had was natural
light. In Christ, we have spiritual
life. The scripture says, He has made
us for takers of the divine nature. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Being born of God. Dean, that's born of God. John,
1 John chapter 5. Go through the whole 1 John,
the five chapters of 1 John, and see how many times it talks
about being born of God, being born of God, being born of God.
And beloved, the scripture says, if any man be in Christ, what
is he? New creature? Old things pass away. What things?
Our relationship to Adam is gone. Dead. Sin is gone. Oh my, not
only that, before the fall, Adam stood in a righteousness of his
own and had a holiness of his own. That's why the scripture
says when we were recreated in the divine image, God created
us in righteousness and true holiness. And God made man upright. And so he stood, but he stood
in his own righteousness, just his righteousness, a man's righteousness.
And he stood in his holiness. And when he sinned, he lost that
righteousness, he lost that holiness, and he inherited death because
of that sin. Now, we can never attain to righteousness
and holiness as natural men because we have to be made spiritual. And even as spiritual men, we
can't make ourselves righteous or holy. Now, listen to me. In Christ, we are made righteous.
Not only made righteous, we have the very righteousness of God
Himself. Not just a righteousness, God
gives us His righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. Huh? God made Him to be sin, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness of God
in Him. And I've said this, I know, a hundred times, or two hundred
times, that the righteousness we have in Christ right now will
be no different when I get to glory. I'll be no more righteous
when I enter into the presence of God than I am right this moment
in time. Because it's the righteousness
of God, it's the righteousness of Christ. Will God be any more
righteous when I get into eternity? Well, I can't be either, because
He gave it to me. You know, in the Pharisees, all
He talked about was, I haven't done this, and I haven't done
that, and I haven't done that other thing. But the thing is,
if you've done what's right, It's not only don't do certain
things, but you must also do what's right. And I mean you've
got to do it right as God says it's right. Well, how are we
going to do that? Give it to us. Give it to us in Christ. Oh,
my. In the fall, listen to me now.
In the fall, man sustained an infinite loss in the matter of
righteousness. Everybody has an idea of what
righteousness is. Everybody has their own idea,
but the righteousness God's talking about, He's talking about, I
mean, a plumb line all the way from glory to this earth, and
it don't move a hair's breadth. And you're going to have to be
as righteous as God, as good as God, and holy as God to be
in His presence. And we've got to have it. And
in the fall, man sustained an infinite loss in this matter
of righteousness, a threefold loss. First of all, the loss
of a righteous nature. When Adam sinned, he stood in
his own righteousness and he lost it. He lost it. And secondly, the loss of a legal,
righteous nature in God's sight. You know, in God's sight, legally,
we must be righteous. It's like when you go into a
court of law and they bring all the evidence against you. And
then your lawyer gets you completely off and clears the record where
there's not one thing against you. Well, Christ is our advocate,
our lawyer, and He stands us in perfect stead before God Almighty. Where the law looks at us and
can't find the sin, sees nothing but righteousness. God's holiness
looks at us and sees nothing but righteousness. And then here's
the third thing you lost, and this is really it right here.
He lost the understanding of what real, true righteousness
is. He lost the understanding of
it. How do you know? He goes about to establish his
own. How many years did we spend going about establishing our
own righteousness? We joined a church. We read our
Bibles, we prayed, we changed the way we dressed, we quit bad
habits, took up new habits, and all those things, trying to make
ourselves acceptable to God. Make ourselves more righteous.
And oh, that's why, beloved, until God comes and restores
that image of God in a man, he has no clue what righteousness
is. He'll go about to establish his own. Let me tell you two
things here quickly, and I'll tell you, man, did not keep the
commandment. That means that he did a sin
of omission. He did not do what he should
do. That's a sin of omission. People say, well, I didn't do
it. Well, if a man knows to do good and doeth it not to him,
it's sin. That's a sin of omission. And then man sinned and transgressed
the commandment. That's committing a sin. Leaving
off doing what's right. That's omission. And committing
is a commission of sin. And so if you don't always do
what's right, you're committing the sin of omission. You're not
doing what you should. And then when you deliberately
do something against the law of God or against God, then you
commit sin. So any way you go, you're a gone
Jesse without cross. Without Christ, there ain't no
hope for you. That's the long and short of
it. Ain't you grateful that Christ reversed the effects of the fall? Our Lord Jesus, bless His holy
name. Oh, thank God. Our Lord Jesus
bore the penalty of sin in His own body. What was that penalty
of sin? Death. And when He bore that
penalty of sin in His own body, He, beloved, put that sin away
once and for all. God can justly now look at a
man who believes on Christ and declare him righteous. And God
required that a man actually keep the law, and Christ kept
it in our room instead. And Christ, our Lord Jesus Himself,
is the end of the law. I mean, when you get to the end
of something, no place else to go. Christ ended the law. Fulfill
the law. The goal of the law. And when
you get to Christ, you're at the end of it too. Huh? Oh, no wonder David said, blessed
is the man. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputes not iniquity. And I'll tell you what, I hate
to be so long, but it's such a blessing to me, I don't know
what it is. But when Christ, we share a better inheritance.
In Adam, he was Lord over Eden, Lord over the creation. He lost
all. Lost every bit of it and became poor, driven out of it. But in Christ, We become heirs. Everybody knows what an heir
is. Well, guess who we're heirs of? Heirs of God? Do we own heirs
of Christ? Whatever Christ inherits, we
get. Whatever God's got to give to us, that's what we're going
to get. Huh? Oh, we're made rich through His
poverty. And oh, we have such a greater
joy than Adam could have ever possibly known. We're conscious
of sin being put away. We have a closer relationship
than was possible before the fall. We are now members of Christ's
body. We are called His brethren. And
that's why, no wonder the Apostle said, we're sin abounded. Grace
did much more abound. And I say, beloved, in closing,
that in Christ, we couldn't know God in Adam as we now know Him
in Christ. Couldn't have possibly known
Him. All we would have known Him was as the Creator. A Creator. One we can commune with and fellowship
with is one who has authority over us. That's all we'll ever
know. We'd have never known anything about grace, or love, or justice, forgiveness, justification, righteousness. We'd have never known God in
all of His glory. But oh, in Adam we would have
been subject to death, to fall any time, but in Christ we are
perfect and complete. And as Adam lost that relationship
with God in Christ, we'll never lose that relationship. God drove
out the man in Christ. He'll never cast us away. Never
cast us away. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ Jesus our Lord, thank you for allowing us to meet here
tonight. Thank you for the truth as it is in Christ. Oh God, thank
you for this relationship, this work you've done in us, this
work you've done for us, this work of putting away our sin,
this work of reconciling us to God, this work of putting the
Holy Spirit in us, forgiving us of all of our sin, putting
it away by the sacrifice of yourself. Thank you, oh Lord God, for making
us one with your blessed Son. We bless you. God opened the
heart here to see that, to know that, to understand that, and
find peace, comfort, and hope only in Him. We ask you in Christ
our Lord's name. Amen. Amen.