You know, we often commemorate
momentous historical events that have taken place at various locations
around the world. I'm talking about events that
are so impactful that they've shaped the course of world history,
affecting the lives of millions of people throughout the world.
For example, you know, from the history of World War II alone,
we have the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that catapulted
America into World War II as a decisive force that would shape
the world for years thereafter. After that, we had the D-Day
invasion by America and its allies. Again, an event that would mark
the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany. Likewise, then we had
the dropping of the first atomic bombs, which led to Japan's surrender,
again changing the course of history. And of course, there
are many other equally momentous events before and after World
War II that have shaped the course of history. Most of us remember
vividly the 9-11 terrorist bombings on the Twin Towers in New York,
another life-changing event. So we remember such occasions
in these commemorative-type ceremonies. due to their significant impact
upon the lives and the destinies of so many people. But the impact
from such events as these is limited in that it's only experienced
by each of us in each of our respective lifetimes. Now, granted,
the events, they may have an impact that extends for one,
two, or more generations. But individually, we only feel
their effects during our respective lifetimes. lifetimes that are
compared to eternity are little more than a mere vapor, like
a microscopic dot on the timeline of eternity, if you would. When
I think about the vastness of eternity compared to our brief
lifetimes here on earth, I recall that last verse from one of my
favorite hymns, Amazing Grace. There we sing of the everlasting
life that true believers will enjoy in heaven when we sing,
when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the
sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first
begun. That states the truth that after
10,000 years in heaven, I won't have used up any of eternity. It won't be 10,000 years shorter
for me at that point because there's no end. Eternity is forever. And so with that perspective,
this morning I want to talk to you about two momentous historical
events that took place in two different locations that have
shaped the course of eternal destiny. of everyone who ever
lived from every generation. And that's a destiny that each
individual, without exception, shall experience. And not just
during our little brief lifetime here on Earth, but forever and
forever. And that makes our consideration
of these events far more important than all the other important
events that we celebrate or commemorate and remembering them. So today
I want to begin a two-part series which I've titled Two Gardens
in reference to two eternally momentous events that took place
in those gardens. I'm speaking of that which took
place first in the Garden of Eden, and that will be our primary
focus this morning. Next week I'll major on that
which began to take place in another garden, the Garden of
Gethsemane. Events began there, which led
up to the death, burial, and subsequent resurrection of Jesus
Christ. But before I began to further
emphasize the importance of what took place in these two gardens,
not only has it impacted on my eternal destiny and your eternal
destiny and the eternal destiny of everyone who has ever lived,
but listen, your understanding of the vital significance that
took place in these two gardens ultimately gives evidence as
to just what impact these events have on your own eternal destiny. And there are only two outcomes.
I'm speaking of an eternal life with God and heaven's glory,
or else the misery of hell and eternal separation from God.
And the revelation of true, genuine, God-given faith opens that necessary
understanding to the hearts and minds of all those who shall
end up in heaven's glory. Romans 10 tells us that that
faith that reveals that to us, they come by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. So this morning, let's consider
what God's word has to say about what took place in these two
gardens and we'll begin with the Garden of Eden. What happened
there? Well, in short, the fall of all
mankind. It's been said to be wrong on
the fall is to be wrong on it all. And that cliche certainly
has some truth to it. If you're interested in studying
this a little more in depth, there's an excellent paper, a
Bible study paper written by our soon-to-be returning pastor. It's found on our Reign of Grace
website. And I used it extensively in
preparing for today's message. It's titled simply, What Happened
in the Garden of Eden? And that's what we're going to
focus on today, that eternally momentous event that took place
in this first garden, the fall of all mankind. In Genesis chapter
1, we'll read how the triune God created the first man, Adam,
in his own image. In Genesis 2, we read how God
put Adam in the garden. So look at that with me beginning
in verse 15, where we read, and the Lord God took the man, that's
Adam, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree
of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Or literally, that
last phrase is, dying thou shalt die. God created Adam and then
he put him in a paradise, the Garden of Eden. And then he gave
him only this one command to obey in this covenant of works,
as we refer to it, that he made with Adam. It's a covenant of
works because it was all conditioned on Adam's continued obedience,
his work of obedience. In the verses that follow these,
we read how God, he thought it was not good for man to be alone,
so he created Eve to be his wife. And it tells us here in Genesis
that God created both Adam and Eve in his own image. And that's
not insignificant. That means that Adam and Eve
possessed all of the communicable qualities of the character of
God. God has communicable attributes
and incommunicable attributes. You see, there are some attributes
that only belong to deity. So that just simply means there's
some qualities of God's character which he can pass or transfer
to others, but there's some which he cannot. For example, God's
holy, and he created Adam as holy. On the other hand, only
God is uniquely immutable. In other words, he's the only
one that changes not. He's a creator. He's not a created
creature, for he's eternal. That means he had no beginning
and he has no end. Deity cannot change. If deity
changes, it would have to get better. That means he wasn't
God before, or if he got worse, that would mean he ungodded himself.
But Adam, unlike God, was created. He had a beginning. And being
a creature, he could never be immutable. See, creation by definition
means change has taken place. Adam was nothing. God created
him. He changed as he was made into
man. Adam and Eve were created in
God's image as perfectly holy people who were without sin,
holy in their character and conduct. But as created beings, they were
not immutably holy. They were sinless. Adam was the
first man and the better man than any of his descendants would
ever be. He was the crown of God's creation. And unlike you and me and the
rest of Adam's posterity, he wasn't, as the scripture tells
us, born in sin, born with a sinful nature. naturally allied with
Satan and naturally an enemy of God. And that's what the scripture
declares to be true of all of us. You know, if you think of
it now, Adam was the very best created representative we could
ever hope to have. And God entered into this covenant
of works with Adam, the first man. And he pointed Adam as a
representative and the federal head of the entire human family. And as I say, we couldn't have
a better created representative. And so when Adam disobeyed, as
we'll read about in a moment, he did so as a representative
of all mankind. And we read about how that affected
us all in Romans 5.12. Look at that. Wherefore, as by
one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned,
or all have sinned, as the translators put it. We weren't there personally,
but we sinned in Him, our representative. Adam stood as a responsible and
rational creature. The terms of the covenant were
very simple. God's basically told him here in Genesis 3, obey
God and live, disobey God and die. He gave Adam here both a
promise and a threat. He promised Adam continued eternal
and spiritual life as long as Adam would obey the covenant
and the commandment of God perfectly. And God added the threat of death
should Adam sinfully disobey. We know that Adam was created
with spiritual life because on that basis he had fellowship
with and communed directly with God. But the difference between
the spiritual life that Adam had in his original state and
the spiritual life given redeemed men and women is that Adam's
original spiritual life was mutable. He could lose it. And he did.
The redeemed, those Christ recovered from the fall, they have the
spiritual life that was purchased for them by the everlasting blood
and righteousness of another representative, Jesus Christ.
So their spiritual life is eternal and it can never be lost. Adam,
being a creature, was subject to change and therefore he was
liable to fall. That's the nature of a creature.
Only God is immutable. Now, as we'll see, Satan orchestrated
the fall, but we know from Scripture that all that's in accordance
with God's eternal plan and purpose. As we often read in Ephesians
111, he, God, worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. So Scripture teaches us that
the chief design behind all that God does is for his own glory. So, likewise, God purposed the
fall for the same reason. the fall of mankind in Adam he
purposed for his own glory, and the very highest manifestation
of it in the redemption of fallen mankind by saving his elect through
another representative, the second or last Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ. So in the Garden of Eden, God put Adam to the test. The
objective test of the covenant of works here centered on the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree represented
God's standard of good and evil along with his sovereign right
and authority to set that standard. You see, it's God, not man, who
determines what is right and what is wrong. So the welfare
of the whole of humanity depended upon Adam's continued obedience
because Adam represented the whole of humanity as we just
saw in Romans 5.12. It's important to recognize that
in this simple covenant of works that it was never intended to
be a covenant of salvation or of redemption. There was no provision
in this covenant for mercy or for grace. We read nothing there
about a remedy for his disobedience, no way of recovery found in this
covenant. So disobedience here meant swift
and certain death with no hope of salvation to be found in this
covenant. Thank goodness there is another
covenant. We'll delve into that much more
next week. Adam fell when he broke the covenant
of works by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Actually, he fell before he ate
the fruit when in his mind he had determined to disobey God. His eating the fruit was simply
the result of his having made a judgment, a conscious decision,
coming to a conclusion, and this is what's important, based on
a lie. Based on Satan's lie. And we'll
read about that just in a moment. Now that's very, very important.
if we're to understand the fall of man so as to recognize it
within ourselves, to see the reality of it as it's evidenced
by our own fallen, depraved, sinful human nature and tendencies.
Satan first began tempting Eve by challenging God's authority,
God's truth, God's promise, and God's threat. I want you to look
at that with me in Genesis 3-1, our text. 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 ye
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 has 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 doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof that your eyes shall be open 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. If we read further, the
narrative continues, God showed them that their fig leaf aprons
would not suffice as he made them coats of skin by killing
an animal, typifying the necessary shedding of the blood of the
one whose sacrificial death alone would take away their guilt and
their shame and redeem them from the fall. See, from the very
beginning, God began to point them to the remedy that would
begin to be realized in a second garden. Here, we'll look at that
in more depth next week, perhaps, if time permits, by looking at
that first proclamation of the gospel in Genesis 3.15. But for
today, here in Genesis 3.4, contrary to God's command, Satan's message
to Adam and Eve was, ye shall not surely die. God had set the
standard of good and evil. He had told Adam and Eve that
it was evil to eat of the fruit of that tree. He told them if
they ate it, they would die. But Satan told them it was not
evil to eat of that fruit. He told them it was good. He
told them they would not die. In essence, Satan was saying,
look, God's not the only one who can say what is good and
evil, who can set the standard of judgment in these matters. So in essence, he told Adam and
Eve they could set their own standard for good and evil when
he told them, then your eyes shall be open and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil. Now that phrase doesn't mean
Adam and Eve did not know the difference between good and evil
before the fall. Adam was an intelligent, rational
creature, remember, made in the very image of God. In fact, many
believe he was the most intelligent human being ever as he was the
first man created, see, without the contamination of sin. God, he didn't create Adam and
enter into this covenant with him as if he were ignorant or
irrational or an immature child. Adam knew full well what he was
doing. And consider the phrase, you shall be as gods. See, in
believing Satan's lie, Adam wasn't thinking that he could become
a god or take God's place. He knew full well that his power
was limited. He knew he didn't create the
world. But in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, he sought
to be as gods in this sense. In the sense that he could aspire
to be independent from God and set his own standard of right
and wrong. of good and evil, of saved and lost. And this describes
the problem with all the fallen sinful humanity by nature. Adam
and Eve listened to Satan's lie. Adam made a judgment, a conscious
decision based on that lie. Adam did not believe God's threat
or God's promise. He did not believe God. He believed
Satan's message. You shall not surely die. So
he fell when he took sides with Satan against God. He sought
to set his own standard of good and evil, and in essence, he
sought to set his own standard as to the basis for being saved,
that is, continuing, see, in life, or being lost, death, perishing. Satan, in the form of the serpent,
spoke peace to Adam and Eve, and that in opposition to God's
testimony. In the moment Adam sinned, he
became guilty. defiled, totally depraved, spiritually
dead. I was in a discussion with Mark
and some others a few weeks back, and I like how Mark described
the effects of the fall on Adam. I may not have it precisely that
way you said it, Mark, but it went something like this. One,
Adam immediately died spiritually. Secondly, his physical death
became a future certainty. Dying thou shalt die. And thirdly,
eternal death was no longer something he could avoid by anything he
could do or could refrain from doing by his works. He had broken the covenant of
works God had entered into with him and he and everyone he represented
suffered the sure and certain consequences of that. This proves that immorality is
not the core issue of sin. Immorality is certainly sinful. But it's just an effect of a
greater, deeper, more fundamental problem that we're not as likely
to recognize as we do immorality. Sin is essentially unbelief of
God. Unbelief is what causes us to
declare independence from God. to seek to set our own standard
of good and evil, of saved and lost. Adam and Eve were the only
human beings on earth at that time. So they had no neighbors. They had no one to sin against,
as people like to major on from the second table of the Ten Commandments.
You know, those commandments that would later be given to
Moses, they forbid adultery, murder, lying, and stealing,
and covetousness. But Adam, he could not have committed
any of those sins on which religion likes to typically measure, because
there's nobody around to commit them with. There were no drugs
or alcohol, and there wasn't any pornography. See, before
the fall, Adam and Eve were righteous and holy and spiritually alive. with free unfettered access and
fellowship with God. Adam sinned in unbelief of God,
and his sin resulted in a twofold death, a future physical death
and an immediate spiritual death. By that one sin, Adam brought
himself and Eve into a state whereby they now alienated from
God, enemies of God, allied with Satan under his influence and
power, under the powers of darkness, to use the scriptural language.
Now they were guilty and defiled. And remember, here they are,
guilty and defiled. They still had no neighbors.
So they were still moral in all these areas I just mentioned.
What was the first thing they did after the fall? Did they
go, well, we've blown it now. Let's just go get drunk, or let's
go think of some perverted gross act we can commit. Let's see
who will kill each other first. No. Now, what they did, as we
read, they recognized their own nakedness and they proceeded
to try to do something about it, to sew some fig leaves together
to cover themselves. Now, that doesn't mean that they
were unaware of their nakedness before the fall. They knew they
were naked. In fact, some have suggested,
I've heard this absurd suggestion that the fall was really a metaphor.
The forbidden fruit was them, Adam and Eve, engaging in sexual
relationships. Well, we know that can't be true
because even before him, it says they were naked and God told
them to be fruitful and multiply. Now, they knew they were naked
before, but after the fall, they both immediately realized that
they were now exposed, exposed to God's just wrath due unto
their disobedience, their sin. They were trying to hide from
God. The sewing of fig leaf aprons
represents fallen man's natural sinful inclination to figure
some way to cover himself, shield himself from the wrath of God
by his or her own efforts. For the religious, it may be
their church going or their decision for Jesus. For the irreligious,
it's, hey, I'm going to be okay. You know, I know I'm a pretty
good guy. I'm going to treat others nice. I'll probably get in. They're
imagining they can shield themselves from the wrath of God by their
own efforts. And this is sinful. And sadly,
it's just what most religions promote. Even the majority of
those who call themselves Christians, But remember now, since Adam's
fall, eternal life became unattainable by anything that proceeds from
the sinner. That's the reason God tells us
plainly in Romans 3.20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, that is, by any obedience or compliance to any rule you
can come up with, anything you might do, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight. None will be accepted into God's
presence, cleared of their guilt and declared righteous, that's
what it is to be declared just or justified, by any efforts
they make. It's not going to happen because
they believe. It won't happen because of their
church going. It's not going to be their sincere interest
in the things of God. No fallen man needs a savior
who would come and begin to suffer in another garden on his way
to accomplishing for them what none of us can do for ourselves.
As Genesis 3 continues, we learn of some of the other ramifications
of Adam's sin. We read how it brought a curse
upon all of future mankind by ushering in not only physical
death, but many drudgeries of life, including necessity of
laboring by the sweat of our brow for our sustenance. God
tells Eve that because of their sin, women would be cursed so
as to painfully labor in giving birth to children. But most significantly,
Adam plunged himself and the whole human race into spiritual
death and darkness. And every human since then has
proceeded to prove it. And the greatest evidence of
that of our fallen spiritual dead state with which we all
begin our physical lives now here on earth. As the scripture
says, even you hath he quickened, that is made alive, who were
dead in trespasses and sins. The greatest evidence is the
unbelief of God that will cause us, just like Adam and Eve, to
seek to set our own standard of saved and lost. which in turn
causes us to speak a false peace to ourselves and to others contrary
to God's testimony. Again, we may not be religious,
but we figure it's going to all work out for me somehow. I set
my own standard, and I say peace to myself. I'm going to make
it. I'm going to be all right. Maybe real religious and think, well,
that indifferent guy's not going to make it, but I am. I've been
baptized, or I give money to the church, or I go to church,
or I've accepted Jesus in the quietness of my heart. Whatever.
Setting my own standard. You know, there are many of people
we know. You know people who are more
moral than others, and you know people who are more sincerely
religious than others. Yet, like Adam and Eve, listen,
our first natural religious inclination is to presume that we can be
saved by something done by or through us. Don't we ask ourselves,
when you first got serious about religion, say, well, I want to
go to heaven. What do I need to do to be sure I can get there? And embodied in that question,
we ask ourselves, is that determination to set our own standard? There's
got to be something I can do to get there. You see, we don't
really like this idea that we need God's mercy and grace. Yet, what that's akin to, that work
of our hand, whatever it is, it's the same as trying to sew
those fig leaf aprons together for ourselves. Presuming, see,
we can be saved because we believe, because we're sincere, because
of something. Listen, something, anything other than or in addition
to the doing and dying of Jesus Christ in our place and that
alone. That's why Paul wrote to the
Galatians in Galatians 6, 14, but God forbid that I should
glory. That word glory there is boast
in, take confidence in, place my hope in. God forbid that I
should glory, save, or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We were totally ruined by the
fall. That's why we need redemption. We need to be bought back by
the only one who can and has redeemed those who are saved. Our fallen nature is manifested
by our tendency to likewise fall for Satan's lie, just as did
Adam and Eve. You know, we have numerous warnings
in the epistles to beware of false teachers, and one such
warning is accompanied by an admonition to beware of the subtlety
used by Satan in deceiving Eve. Now, we ought to take that seriously.
Because remember, unlike us, Adam and Eve were not born as
sinners with a natural predisposition to sin prior to the fall. Yet
even so, Eve, even Eve, was deceived by Satan's subtlety. So how much
more vulnerable are we then to likewise being fooled? It takes
the revelation of faith to expose to us what we'll never figure
for ourselves. Look at that warning with me
in 2 Corinthians 11. where Paul wrote to the church
at Corinth in verse three, but I fear less by any means as the
serpent beguiled or deceived Eve through his subtlety. So
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. Now that word translated simplicity
is a word that means the singularity or the singleness of salvation
by Christ. In other words, all of salvation
fully accomplished by him alone. with no contribution from you,
the sinner. Verse four, for if he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit,
which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have
not accepted, ye might well bear with him, or as you see, that's
in italics in the New James Version, meaning it was better translated,
you might better bear with me. So in this context, we can see
what defines this another or counterfeit Jesus of which he
warns us about. We can see what defines this
another or false spirit, this another or false gospel. And it's clearly any notion that
would divert you away from the simplicity that is in Christ,
from believing that salvation is single-handedly accomplished
by him. So remember again, now, these
two aspects of Satan's deception in the garden. First though,
Adam and Eve, they were informed by God that they would die if
they disobeyed him by eating of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Satan told them it wasn't necessary
to abide by that standard. In fact, he told them they could
be his gods. In essence, set their own standard for good and
evil. And then Satan secondly informed them. Contrary to God's
assertion of the certain consequence of death for failing to meet
that standard, that in fact, you really will not die. And
I want to suggest to you that's exactly what the vast majority
of mainstream religion tells its hearers today. Cloaked with
the language of scripture, taken out of context, much of organized
religion in their ignorance tells us that we set the standard for
our own salvation. that it's ultimately up to you,
ultimately conditioned on something that proceeds from you, the sinner,
that spiritually speaking, you're okay, that you will not die eternally
as long as you will meet the prescribed condition of that
particular religious denomination. Listen, a prescription that's
contrary to and independent of God's standard of perfect righteousness. Religion tells us to buy into
Satan's deceptive lie in the garden when it says God's done
his part, he's made it possible, now the rest is up to you. Will
you just receive it? Will you just take it? As if
that's the determining cause of our salvation. Those who are
saved do come by faith to trust in Christ, but they don't come
to trust in their faith. It's trusting in Christ and what
he accomplished. So we're taught we can be in
control. We can be as gods. That the crowning,
determining event upon which our final destiny hinges is our
response, our acceptance. In other words, salvation's condition
on us. Now, different religions and
different denominations, they'll disagree or they'll vary the
emphasis on just what conditions or requirements the center must
meet. But you know, oftentimes, the self-righteous aspect of
such teaching is obscured from us by the seemingly humble assertions
that God, the Holy Spirit, enabled me to meet the necessary conditions
for my own salvation. Of course, I always want to say,
well, why do you enable you and not somebody else? But many,
including myself in years past, were deceived by that. We fail
to see that the Holy Spirit would never promote anything that would
rival the work of Christ as God's provision to fully meet all of
the conditions necessary for salvation. Christ said that in
John 16. He said, I'll send the Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, to you, and he'll come and speak of me. Now,
a spirit that would suggest to me that, Randy, I'll enable you
to meet the condition, well, that would be another spirit
of which Paul is warning us. But whether the emphasis is on
your act of faith, repentance, some degree of obedience, or,
quote, holy living, or perseverance, or some combination of these,
don't be fooled. Most of religion promotes Satan's
lie by telling us that in the exercise of our, quote, free
wills, we can meet the conditions for our own salvation. Ultimately,
we're in control. And in falling for this, listen,
lost sinners unwittingly, but no less rebelliously, are declaring
their autonomy and their independence from God. They're rejecting His
way and seeking their own way because they reason in themselves,
in their fallen, sinful, depraved natures, they reason, well, this
is what seems right to me. But God tells us in Proverbs,
there's a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. So we see our fallen nature even
in our religious tendencies. But we also see it in those who
are not religious. I have some non-religious acquaintances
that question the very existence of God by reasoning if there
really was a God, he wouldn't allow all these awful tragedies
to take place. Starvation of children in third
world countries, natural disasters that kill thousands, disease
epidemics, pain, suffering, death, genocide at the hand of tyrants.
They reasoned if there really was a God, he wouldn't allow
these bad and undesirable things to afflict good, innocent people,
especially innocent children. And here's the problem with that
kind of thinking. It's unbelief. of what God says is true of us
all. Certainly, we know that some
people have better morals and have more commendable character
traits than others, and so we're inclined to think, well, there's
some good in all of us. But listen, we don't set the
standard for goodness for acceptance before a holy God. The sovereign
God of this universe does, and He will not allow us to usurp
that authority. We would agree that a loving
God would not allow bad things to happen to innocent people.
But the premise is flawed, because according to God, there are no
innocent people since the fall of man and Adam. And apart from
God's grace, we just will not bow to what God says about us
in Romans 3.12. that there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. God tells us we're going to be
judged in Acts 1731 in righteousness, and he proceeds there in Acts
1731 to tell us he's referring to the perfect satisfaction to
God's justice that only the God-man, Jesus Christ, could accomplish
and has accomplished for those he saves by his perfect, sinless
obedience even unto the death of the cross. That's his righteousness.
That's what we must have if we're to stand accepted before a holy
God. As we read in Romans 10, 4, Christ
is the end of the law or the fulfillment of it for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. So to not see the universal deservingness
of God's wrath against all of sinful mankind is to not understand
what took place in either of these two gardens. There are
no innocent people, for when Adam sinned, we all sinned. His
sin was imputed or charged to all he represented, all of mankind. And we have the proof of that
given to us in Romans 5.14. by the fact that there is a physical
death that awaits us all. It's pointed out there how, because
of Adam's universal representation of all mankind, that even infants
die physically. I believe that's who he's referring
to there when he speaks of those who have never sinned after the
similitude of Adam, meaning in the same willful, intentional
way that Adam sinned. You know, God speaks and reasons
through his word to men and women who have the capacity to reason. And I believe I can't, this is
an opinion, so you take that for what it's worth, but I believe
that's why the Bible has little to say regarding the salvation
of those who die in infancy or the mentally impaired. But based
on King David's remarks following the death of his own child, I
personally believe the death of an infant or a mentally impaired
person is an indication they were one of God's elect, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, one to whom God has imputed Christ's
righteousness. But listen, we do have an abundance
of scripture from which we can conclude with certainty that
all who inhabit heaven's glory will do so based solely upon
one, God having charged or imputed all their sins, including their
original sin in Adam, to Christ, that he might bear the just penalty
due them in their place, and two, based on having then the
entire merit of what Christ accomplished for them, his righteousness freely
imputed or credited to their accounts. See, it's not going
to be because of their innocence. That was lost in the fall. You
can read that on your own in 2 Corinthians 5.21, how he was
made sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. What a great transaction. Well, as I said at the outset,
your understanding of the vital significance of what happened
in these two gardens ultimately gives evidence of the impact
these momentous events have had on your own eternal destiny. Consider those I mentioned who
persist in doubting even the existence of God, maybe because
of the tragic circumstances God allows, God even ordains. See,
they don't see the depth of their own sinfulness and their consequent
deservingness of God's wrath, that which can only be removed
by Christ having endured it for them by his suffering and death. So that mindset certainly mirrors
Adam's sin of unbelief. What about those who persist
in their indifference? Figuring, oh, things will probably
work out for me in the end. I'm not such a bad guy. Well,
they too, they're reflecting their fallen nature in unbelief
of God's promises and threats. God says, I'm going to judge
you in righteousness. You can't produce that. So the
tendency among them is to focus extensively almost exclusively
on this little sliver of time we call lifetime on earth and
ignore the eternal significance of what took place in the Garden
of Eden that made necessary the glorious accomplishment for all
who were saved that would begin to take place in the Garden of
Gethsemane. And finally, what about the self-righteous
religions who persist in insisting that salvation's condition, at
least in some way or in some part, to some degree, on something
they do, on their faith, their decision for Jesus, their acceptance
of him. Listen, rather than exclusively
on that which Christ single-handedly in his simplicity accomplished
to save his people. Well, they don't really understand
that since the fall of Adam, eternal life is no longer a possibility
by works of man. They don't believe Romans 3.20.
That's unbelief of God. Adam's sin in the covenant of
works was broken, as was inevitable for a created, mutable being.
And it was inevitable in light of God's eternal purpose and
chief design to receive all glory in the saving recovery of his
people from the fall by Jesus Christ. See, that he might be
worshiped as he is, that we might know him as he is and worship
him as a just God and Savior, that Christ would have all the
preeminence. Well, until you see what it takes
for a holy God to accept and have fellowship with sinful creatures
such as us, you can't really appreciate the extent and the
impact of what took place there in the Garden of Eden. But thank
goodness, there's another representative who entered into another garden,
the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus Christ called the last
Adam in the Bible. He began his soul suffering as
a substitute. for a multitude of sinners chosen
out of Adam's fallen race. As we're told in 1 Corinthians
15, 21, for since by man, that's by the fall of Adam, came death,
by man, the God-man, the last Adam, Jesus Christ, came also
the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all, all he represented,
die, even so in Christ shall all, all he represented, be made
alive. So we can conclude then from
God's word that sinners are saved in precisely the same manner
in which they were lost, through the act of a substitute and a
representative. See, as Adam, by his one transgression,
he brought guilt to all who were connected with him, so Christ,
by his act of righteousness, that is, his sinless life and
substitutionary death, he brings justification in life to all
who are connected with him. This is why we insist that to
deny the doctrine of the total depravity of man resulting from
the fall, and to promote universal notions that suggest Christ died
for all, even those who perish, is to deny the gospel of salvation
and final glory based solely on the righteousness of Christ.
It's to deny God's standard by which he tells us we'll be judged.
His doing and dying, nothing we do. You know, if you believe
like I once did that Christ died for all, then by your way of
thinking, as it was mine at the time, clearly that means there's
got to be something other than or something in addition to Christ
that is presuming to make the real difference in your own eternal
salvation. But God will not share his glory.
You know, we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we were
made sinners by the fall. And consequently, we're born
into this world spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, and then
we proceed to prove it, that sinful nature, by sinning. We
need a suitable sinless substitute. We need a redeemer to recover
us. In the Garden of Eden, the devil first triumphed over our
nature in the fall of man, as he conquered the first Adam.
And in him, our representative made captive the whole human
race, including God's elect found among them. But Christ, as the
elect substitute, surety, and representative, he began in the
Garden of Gethsemane to give the final deadly blow to sin
and Satan. In that garden, Christ entered
for the recovery of those he came to save. And next week,
we'll consider further how that eternal plan of redemption came
to fruition in time as the final stage of Christ's glorious work
of redemption began in that second garden, the Garden of Gethsemane.
Well, we do well to be sure we understand, from God's word,
the momentous, eternal impact resulting from what took place
in these two gardens. Thank you.