Well, it's good to be back tonight
to see you again. I'm not going to be long. I want to give Jim all the time
he needs to preach because he preached so well last night in
just a few minutes. I'm kind of looking forward to
a long version of one of his messages. He's always been a
blessing to me. Turn in your Bibles, please,
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to read verse 22. If I were to title this message,
it would be, It is what it is. It is what it is. Verse 22 says,
4, As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive." O. A. D. Muse used to say when he
was looking at sort of the same topic again, he said, let's take
another lick at it. And so that's what I'm going
to do tonight, to take another lick at what we looked at last
night to some degree. What is being talked about here
is the result of the acts of two historical men. One man is
called Adam in this same chapter. He's called the first Adam. And the other man is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in this same chapter in verse 41, he's called
the last Adam. The first and the last Adam.
This is one aspect of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it deals specifically with what the doctrinarians would call
the doctrine of imputation, or God charging to people that which
one man did. That's what imputation is. The
gospel we know is the record, and it is a record. It's not
an ongoing revelation, it is a record. It has a beginning,
it has an end, it has all the facts stated in it, and that's
how it's to be dealt with, and that's what us poor fellows do
when we stand up here, we just recite the record. And the record
is that Christ, on the cross of Calvary, having assumed the
sin of His people, being made sin for His people, declared,
it is finished, and then He gave up the ghost, dying and satisfying
God's law and justice for our sin. The gospel basically has
three elements. What happened at Calvary basically
has three elements. You have the element of what
men thought of Christ. what men think of God by nature. God only allowed men to handle
Him one time in all of human history. And you see what we
did. We nailed Him to a cross. We
whipped Him. We took the cat of nine tails and drew it across
His flesh. We punched Him in the face. We put a crown of thorn
upon His head. We spit in His face and pulled
the hair off His cheeks. We did all that. Why? Because
we hate Him by nature. We hate Him. We despise God. We are at enmity with God. And
you who have been and are in the military, you know what we
do with our enemies. The thing we do with our enemies
is we kill them. That's what we want to do with
our enemies. We want to put them out of business.
The gospel declares that Jesus Christ said, it is finished.
Now that means exactly what it means. It means it is finished. I was looking at a little booklet
down here on this table. It's the Attributes of God by
A.W. Pink. It's a book. It's a finished
work. It has a beginning and it has
an end. And no matter what I think about it or what my will has
to do with this, I can say, well, I don't believe it. That doesn't
mean it's not finished. Or I can say, it's not finished
unless I believe it, and then you'll say, well, you're stupid,
because that's what I would be. It's a finished work. And when
Jesus Christ finished salvation on Calvary 3, it was finished,
complete. And whether we believe it or
not, or whether we foolishly think that our will has anything
to do with it, it doesn't. The work is finished. And this
declaration here is part of that teaching. of the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage of Scripture sets
forth the truth of spiritual life and spiritual death and
declares that the fact of spiritual life and death are revealed in
truth of the representative, or representative truth, or the
fact of representation by imputation. Now all who are in Adam, represented
by Adam according to this passage of Scripture, all who are in
Adam and represented by Adam are spiritually dead. That's
what it says. All as in Adam, all died. The word as there is important
because there's a so that follows. As in Adam all died, so in the
same manner, and that manner is imputation, in the same manner
shall all in Christ be made spiritually alive. And that simply means
that all who are in Christ, and we know how they got in Christ,
according to 1 Corinthians 1.30, they were put in Christ. God
put them in Christ and made Christ be unto them wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. They are put in Christ, and they
were put in Christ before the world began, where He was made,
or became their surety, and signed His name to their debt note,
the debt of sin. He signed His name to their note.
They, the elect, came into this world. sinners all, by nature
the same as all the children of disobedience, caring not for
the things of God, but never, ever, for one millisecond, ever
responsible for the payment of their sins. The assured had already
assumed that debt, and that was taken care of. That's what Christ
did for His people. Now, we were in Christ before
the foundation of the world, we're in Christ now. And all
those who are in Christ and represented by Christ, All who are in Him
as their federal head are spiritually alive or shall be made spiritually
alive, every one of them in Christ. And that's what's set forth here.
These things are so according to how God has purposed them.
And we know what God has purposed shall come to pass. And before
us here in these just few words are all that are in the world,
All that are in the world are put in their respective place.
You are one of these two men tonight. You are seen in one
of these two men by God and you are judged in one of these two
men by God. Everybody here tonight and everybody
who walks on the top side of this earth. Would you know your
place? That's the question. I'd like
to know my place. Would you like to know your place? You are before
God considered in one of two characters, one of two people
and the result of that placement And it's God who placed you there,
subsequently is life or death. It says back in verse 21, "...for
since by Adam came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead." There's those two principles set forth. Those who
are in Adam. I repeat, represented by Adam
as their federal head and their representative are dead. They are dead. As Donnie Bell
would say, they're graveyard dead. They're twice dead and
plucked up by the roots, those in Adam. And those who are in
Christ, represented by Christ as their federal head and representative,
are alive or shall be made alive. And that is just the fact that
God has set before us. They shall be made spiritually
alive. Those who are in Adam, represented by Adam as their
federal head and representative, are declared to be guilty of
Adam's transgression. They're actually guilty of what
Adam did. When Adam sinned in the garden,
His sin was accounted to you. It was charged to you, imputed
to you, and you were, before God, guilty of actually doing
that transgression where He disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. You're
not a sinner because somewhere along the line you sinned. You're
a sinner because Adam sinned and you were made guilty by God
of His sin. Look back at Romans chapter 5
just for a moment in verse 12. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12,
it says, "...wherefore as by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men." And it
says here, "...for all have sinned." That's a really weak interpretation
of that passage. What it actually says is this
in verse 12, "...death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men in whom all sinned." In whom all sinned. So when Adam sinned,
you were accounted as guilty of that sin. You were accounted
as that said. And that's what it said, in Adam,
as in Adam, all died. All died. Then it goes on to
say this, those who are in Christ, represented by Christ as their
federal head and representative, are declared to be guilty of
Christ's righteousness, if you allow me a little bit of poetic
license there. And that's what it says in Romans
5.19. It says this, for as one man's disobedience, the many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall the many
be made righteous. Well, what does that mean? I'm
going to give you four or five things on both sides of the coin,
and then I'm going to step down. I told you about 12 minutes,
didn't I? What does that mean? As in Adam,
all dying, So in Christ shall all be made alive. What does
that mean to you and I as a human being walking on the top side
of God's earth? Here's what it means. First of
all, what you have done has nothing to do with your being lost. What you have done has nothing
to do with your being lost. God has decreed that you were
lost in Adam. Secondly, what you do has nothing
to do with your being lost. What you do has nothing to do
with your being lost. We are lost by being in Adam. His sin being imputed to us.
Also, what you do not do has nothing to do with your being
lost. God declared you dead in Adam. What you do not do has nothing
to do with your being lost. Also, what you shall do What
you shall do has nothing to do with your being lost. In Adam,
God declared you to be lost. Also, what you are, inside or
out, has nothing to do with your being lost. Nothing. Nothing. You are a sinner. because
God charged you with Adam's transgression. In Adam, all died. Now conversely, what you have done has nothing
to do with your being saved. You are saved because God sees
you in Jesus Christ, has declared you to be in Christ, and in Christ
shall all be made alive. Secondly, what you do has nothing
to do with your being saved. In Christ shall all be made alive,
it says. It has nothing to do with you
being saved. What you do not do has nothing to do with your
being saved. In Christ shall all be made alive. What you shall do has nothing
to do with your being saved. God declared you to be alive
and therefore saved and righteous in Jesus Christ, because in Christ
shall all be made alive. And finally, what you are, inside
or outside, has nothing to do with your being
saved. You are alive because God declared
you to be in Christ, and in Christ shall all be made alive. And there you go. That's all
there are to it. All you have to do is study this.