Well, good evening. If you would
open your Bibles to 2 Peter 3. That's where our reading will
be from this evening. 2 Peter 3. As you're turning,
let me bring you greetings from our brethren in Danville. We
had a good service yesterday. And from Kevin Thacker. I talked to Brother Kevin today.
He wanted me to pass his love on to you all. 2 Peter 3. This second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which
were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment
of us, the apostles, and of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this
first, that there should come in the last day scoffers, walking
after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, All things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation. For this, they willingly are
ignorant of that by the word of God, the heavens were of old
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby
the world that then was being overflowed with water perished.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word
are kept in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, Be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but as long
suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night in the which the heaven shall
pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein,
shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation
and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the
day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we,
According to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth
where in dwelleth righteousness. And we'll end our reading there.
All right, Sean. If you would turn to song number
298, God leads us along. 298. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary one's feet, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood Some through the fire, but all through the
blood Some through great sorrow, but God gives us all In the night
season and all the day long Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines
so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in the valley in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through His
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all, In the night season and all the day long. Though sorrows befall us and
Satan oppose, God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through His
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all, In the night season and all the day long. Away from the mar and away from
the clay, God leads his dear children along. A way up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters,
some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through
Okay, and now if you would turn to song number 226. My Savior. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His
word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read. For in my heart I find a need
of Him to be my Savior. That he should leave his place
on high, And come for sinful man to die? You count it strange,
so once did I, Before I knew my Savior. And, O that he fulfilled, may
see The travel of his soul in me, And with his work contented
be As I with my dear Savior. ♪ Yea, living, dying, let me
bring ♪ My strength, my solace from this spring ♪ That he who
lives to be my king ♪ Once died to be my savior Let's open our Bibles. Genesis
chapter two. Genesis chapter two. Begin our reading in verse four,
read through verse seven. These verses will be our text
this evening. Genesis two, verse four. These
are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens
and every plant of the field before it was in the earth and
every herb of the field before it grew. For the Lord God had
not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man
to till the ground. But there went up a mist from
the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, We bow in your presence
this evening, coming before you with reverence and fear, coming
before you carefully, only coming, only dare coming into your presence
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pleading his obedience
is all of our righteousness. Pleading his blood is the only
way our sins can be cleansed. Pleading his person is the only
way we can be accepted in thy sight. And Father, how thankful
we are that because of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what
he has accomplished for his people, the sinful men and women such
as we can come before your throne boldly, confidently, knowing
that we'll be accepted and heard for Christ's sake. Father, we
bring before you our praise. Praise your matchless name. Praise
you and thank you for all that you've done for your people.
righteousness, the salvation, the eternal life, the forgiveness
of sin, the comfort of heart, the mercy, the grace, the peace
you've given your people. Father, how we praise you and
thank you. And we bring before you our petition. We praise you
taught us that, Father, give us this day our daily bread,
that you would continue to provide for us as you have in the past.
How thankful we are for your provision to us. And Father,
we especially thank you that you've given us a place and a
time appointed where we can meet together to open your word, to
read and study it, to sing the songs of praise and hear your
gospel preached. And Father, I beg of you that
you'd send your spirit upon us tonight and enable us to truly
worship, enable us to hear a word from thee, give us the ear of
faith to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak, speak to our hearts,
give us an eye of faith that would see Christ Run to him and
cling to him and rejoice in him. What we pray for ourselves, Father,
we pray for your people who are meeting all around the world,
the country tonight, Father, bless your word, what's preached.
Bring glory to your name. Father, for those who are sick
and hurting and need you especially, we hold them up to date. Many
of our number who are hurting or going through surgeries and
recovering and sickness, Father, be with your people. We pray
that you'd be with our world at this time, that you'd bring
some relief from the suffering that's so prevalent in our world
today. All these things we ask in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. All right, I've
titled the message this evening, Two Adams. We just read these
verses that give us some more detail on the creation of Adam
from the sixth day. And in these verses, this is
the first time in scripture the word, the name Jehovah is used,
Lord. Whenever you see the word Lord
in all capital letters, that's Jehovah. In chapter one, the
name of God is all throughout that, but the name translated
God there is Elohim, the God of power and greatness. Now we
read the name Jehovah. Now Jehovah has come to perform
what was promised, to perform what was pictured. And this Jehovah,
God, our savior is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the creator. All
things were made by him. Without him was not anything
made that was made. And Moses says here that the Lord formed
Adam, formed Adam from the dust of the ground. Now the other
animals, other things in God's creation, God made. He, or when
it says he made them, he just, he created them. He spoke them
into being. But here, Moses said God formed man. He formed man
in the image and the likeness of God. And he formed him from
the dust of the ground. That tells you a lot about our
flesh, doesn't it? Adam was made from the small dust of the ground.
It was just dusty ground and this mist that would come up
from the ground watered the earth, made it pliable, like muddy or
whatever, like clay. Man wasn't formed from gold dust
or silver dust, not from diamond dust. Man was formed from the
dust of the ground. That's these bodies. That's all
they ever have been, just made from something very common or
just a heap of dust. That's all we are. In Job 33,
verse six, Elihu said that we're formed out of clay. Maybe that
was like the, you know, as the mist came up, the dust of the
earth, moldable kind of like clay. And the word formed, Moses
uses, means fashioned. Like a potter fashions a clay
pot on his potter's wheel out of the clay. And that's us. That's our bodies. They're just
clay pots made from the small dust of the earth. There never
has been any value to our fleshly bodies. But after the Lord formed
Adam, That was something different. Everything else he just spoke
into existence. Adam he formed. Then the Lord did something else
different, different than he did with any of his other creatures.
God breathed into Adam the breath of life and Adam became a living
soul. Animals are alive, but they don't
have souls. Man does because God breathed
into him the breath of life. And you and I today, descendants
of Adam, we have a body. A body made out of dirt. We have
a body. We are a soul. The person is
just dwelling inside this clay pot. The soul is us. And our
bodies one day will be no more. They're gonna die. They're gonna
go back to the dust from which they were made. But the soul
will leave the body and live forever. Live forever somewhere.
Now that is the creation of Adam, how God formed Adam. And there's
an important thing for us to learn here about the creation
of Adam. Adam was created as a picture
of Christ, the second Adam. You know, God only ever created
two men. He's given life to all of us,
but he only created, formed two men, Adam. He formed Adam from
the dust of the earth and the Lord Jesus. He is fearfully,
wonderfully made in the womb of the virgin. A body has not
prepared me, he said. That's the second body that God
made. He made those two men. Everybody
else was born from them. God only ever made two men. God
only ever has seen two men. God has seized the whole human
race in two representative men, Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ,
the second Adam. And both these men are representatives
of their race. Adam is the representative of
all his race. If every human being that ever
came after him, they came from his loins. And since he's the
representative and all of us, that's where we came from. We
came from Adam. We all did what Adam, our representative, did.
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is the second representative man.
He represents all of his race. His race is not the whole human
race like Adam's. The race that the Lord Jesus
Christ represents is God's elect. those people that the father
gave him to save. They're in Christ, they're representative,
and they all did what Christ did. And being in these two representative
men has drastic, drastic consequences. All of Adam's race became unrighteous
when Adam disobeyed God. They all became spiritually dead. He's the first representative
man. representative mean. The Lord Jesus Christ, he came
and did the opposite. Everything Adam did, Christ did
the opposite. He came and undid everything
that Adam did to God's elect. All of Christ's race became righteous,
justified when Christ obeyed the law for them. They were in
him, their representative. So in that way, Adam is a type
of Christ. And tonight I want us to consider
the glory of Christ, the second Adam, and the glory and the blessing
that we find in Him, by being in Him, by believing on Him. At first, I want us to think
about this. I want us to think about the
humiliation that the Son of God endured to become a representative
of people like us. In order to be our representative,
the Son of God had to become a man. Now, how do you explain
that? You can't. but the son of God
became a real human being. And in order to do that, he,
we talk about him taking off. He never, I don't know if that's
the right term to use that he took off his glory. I don't think
that's the right term because he was always God, but he hid
his glory. He hid his glory as God. He hid his glory as the prince
of heaven, the light, the glory of heaven. And he clothed himself
in flesh. He clothed himself with dust,
with the dust of the earth. And he had to come down. He had
to come down, down, down where we are. He had to become an embryo
in the womb of one of the poorest of his creatures. That's the
way he came into this world. When he was born, he was born
a baby just as helpless as you and I were when we were first
born. He was dependent on the poorest of his creatures, that
poor maiden. He was dependent on her to feed
him and to take care of him. I don't know about how Mary felt
about that, but I remember when Jan was pregnant with Holly.
And I got progressively nervous as the pregnancy, you know, progressed. And then Holly was born. And
I looked at that kid, and I mean, I just fell in such love with
her. And then the next thing I thought was, I don't know nothing
about raising no babies. What? Mary didn't know nothing
about raising no baby. And God of glory was in her hand,
dependent on her. She didn't know nothing about
taking care of a baby. And here the God of glory made
himself dependent on her to feed him, to take care of him. As
he grew, he was subject to the rule of his parents. His parents
got their life, got their breath from him. He's the ruler, the
God of those parents, yet he put himself in subjection to
them. See, the Redeemer had to limit himself like that because
that's how we're limited. He had to be limited the same
way that we are in order to be our representative. Not only
was he obedient to his parents, subject to his parents, he was
made subject to all the law of God, his own law, the law that
he wrote, the law that he gave. He was subject to the Mosaic
law. He was subject to the ceremonial law. All of it pictured him,
but he had to be subject himself to it. He's the fulfillment of
that law. He's the judge. The law is in
his hand. He's the judge. Yet he became
obedient to it. Subject to that law, to obey
that law perfectly. And he had to do it just that
way. Because that's the law his people
are under. That's the law that we're under. That's the law that
we cannot keep. And he lowered himself to come
on our level to do what we couldn't do. Keep the law for us. Look
over at the book of Philippians chapter 2. Paul here talks about
this. Philippians chapter 2. Verse six, who being in the form
of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It wasn't
robbery for him to say he's equal with God because he is God. But
verse seven made himself of no reputation. They took upon him
the form of a servant. It was made in the likeness of
men and be found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and
became obedient under death. Even the death of the cross.
That's how he humiliated himself to be the representative of his
people, to be made what they are so he could be their representative.
And you know, I can't imagine how the Lord humiliated himself
to come that far down, to go that low, to take on the king,
took on him the form of a servant so that he could redeem the likes
of you and me. He humiliated himself to do that. And you know
why he did it? He did it because he loves his
people. And that's the only way that
they could be saved from the sin and the death that the first
Adam plunged them into. He had to come and redeem them
from that and bring them out of it. Adam, when God created
him, he started up here, didn't he? God created him in innocence
and Adam fell down. I mean, all the way to the bottom,
he fell in sin. Christ, he started way up here. in perfection, in glory. And
he came all the way down to be a man. He came down so far, he
was made sin. He went down so far that he suffered
and died, and his lifeless body lay in a tomb for three days.
He did that to put the sin of God's elect away. So that God's
elect, who in Adam had fallen away down there, could be brought
back to God. And that's what Christ did. He
brought, Adam started out here. We'll get to this in a minute.
In innocence, Adam started out here. When Christ got his people,
he didn't bring them back to where, back up where Adam started. He brought them back up higher
than where Adam started. He brought them back better than
Adam. Christ justified his people and gave them a righteousness
they could never lose. Adam had an innocence. He could
lose. In Christ, you could never. lose the righteousness and the
perfection that he's purchased for you and made for you. That's
why the apostle Paul said, oh, I want to be found in him. I
want to be found in this second Adam. There's salvation and life
in him. And that brings me to the second
thing. Look at Romans chapter five. Sin came by Adam, righteousness
and justification, the opposite of sin, righteousness and justification. came by Christ the second Adam.
Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore as by one man, sin
entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men for that all have sinned. Now sin entered the world by
Adam's disobedience. Satan was here, but sin entered
the world. Sin entered into the human race
by Adam's disobedience. And you think what an awful,
awful effect sin has had on this whole world. It's just marred
God's perfect creation. Causes just untold suffering,
just what sin has caused. But more than that, when Adam
sinned, all of us sinned too. We sinned in Adam. Adam's sin
made sinners out of all of us. We sinned, is when Adam sinned. The phrase here, for that all
have sinned, or all have, yeah, for that all have sinned, literally
translated, that is in whom all sinned. When Adam sinned, we
were in, and we sinned. We sinned, just as surely if
it was us instead of Adam. Now, let's talk about this thing
of representation. People kind of think about Adam's
sin and like, well, God charged it to me, imputed it to me, even
though I wasn't there. No, that's not right. God didn't
just charge the sin of Adam to somebody, even though they weren't
there, even though they didn't do anything wrong. God charges
us with sin because we were there. We were there in the garden,
in Adam, and we did sin. We did, we sinned in Adam, and
we're responsible for what we've done. God charges us with sin
because we're guilty of it, because we did it. And I tell you the
proof of it, the proof of it, and we'll see this again here
in a few weeks, but the proof of it is Eve. Eve was in Adam. He was her representative too.
She was taken from his rib, And you know the story, Eve goes
there to the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, and Satan deceives
her and she eats that fruit. When Eve took that fruit and
ate it, and I just think about this, Satan told her, you shall
not surely die. And she ate that fruit, and sure
enough, nothing happened. Nothing changed. Eve didn't die,
nothing happened. You know why? Because Eve stood
or fell in Adam. Not what she did, but based on
what Adam, her federal head, did. But now when Adam ate the
fruit, he took that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, he did it with his eyes wide open. An open rebellion
against God, and he ate that fruit. And as soon as Adam ate
that fruit, Eve knew she was naked. When Adam ate the fruit,
Eve was ashamed. When Adam ate the fruit, Eve
became a sinner. because she sinned in Adam. Not
when she ate the fruit, but when Adam, her federal head, ate the
fruit. And the same thing happened to
you and me too. When Adam ate that fruit, we
became sinners. We became guilty. We didn't become
sinners the first time we told a lie. You know why we came forth
from the womb speaking lies? Because we're sinners. We were
made sinners in Adam. Now Adam was not created Adam
was created in innocence. Adam could sin and he could lose
his innocence. And that's just what he did.
But as long as Adam was innocent, you and I were innocent because
we're in him. But the very moment Adam sinned, we sinned too. The
very moment Adam died spiritually, we died too. And that's why we
come forth in this room spiritually dead because we died a long time
ago in Adam, our federal head. And someone might say, well,
that's not fair. Well, yes, it is. Yes, it is fair. It's fair
because God did it. It's fair and it's right because
that's the way God did it. But not only is it fair, it's
better than fair. It's wise and gracious. It's
this matter of representation. It's wise and gracious. See,
sin came, guilt came by one representative man. Justification can come by
another representative man. And that's just exactly what
Christ our Savior did. Look over a page of verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience,
Adam, many were made sinners, all of his race, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. The obedience of the Lord Jesus
justified his people. It made them without sin because
when he obeyed the law, they did too. It's not just like God
said, okay, I'm going to take this obedience of my son and
give it to you. It's better than that. When Christ
obeyed the law, his people did too. Just as surely as we sin
in Adam, we obeyed the law in Christ and that his obedience
and his sacrifice for his people made his people righteous, literally
and truly without any sin. And that's what the phrase here,
were made means. Adam didn't make his race susceptible
to sin. Like, well, you know, they might
could trip up and fall and maybe they'll sin, maybe they won't.
They're just more susceptible to sin now. He didn't make his
race susceptible to sin. Adam's disobedience made his
people, made his race sinners. It made them guilty, made them
guilty because they actually sinned in him. Well, in the very
same way, just the opposite, Christ's obedience didn't make
God's people savable. It didn't make them where they're
acceptable, like God could accept them as long as they, you know,
follow through and do certain ABCs here. The obedience of Christ
saved his people. Didn't make them savable, it
saved God's elect. The Lord Jesus Christ made his
people accepted, not acceptable, accepted. Accepted in the beloved
because of who he is and what he did for his people because
when he did it They did too He is sinless. He knew no sin. He
did no sin Neither did his people because they were in him their
representative and that's exactly what he came to do To justify
his people make them without sin That's what 2nd Corinthians
5 21 is all about This thing's not pretend. This is actually
what we're made For He, God the Father, made His Son, sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Not made where we can be righteous
or we will be righteous someday, but made the righteousness of
God in Him right now. Because that's what He accomplished
as the representative of His people. Again, I say, that's
glorious. I want to be found in him, don't
you? Not in Adam, but in Christ. All right, now look back at verse
12 again. Here's the third thing. Death came by Adam, but life
came by Christ the second Adam. Verse 12, wherefore, as by one
man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for they all have sin. Now death came into the
world by sin, because of Adam's sin. Sin always brings forth
death. Adam made everybody in him guilty. That's why we all die. That's
why we die. That's why everything in this
world dies. It's because of Adam's sin. See, we die because we were
made sinners. We were made guilty in Adam,
not just by what we do personally, but in Adam. That's why we die. And the proof of that is babies. Babies who never had a chance
to disobey God's law still die, don't they? You know why they
die? It's not because of their own personal disobedience. It's
because they, what is their personal disobedience in Adam? They were
made sinners in Adam. Look at verse 13. This is what
Paul tells us. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin was not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression. That means they
didn't grow up and sin willfully just like Adam did. But they
never had a chance to do that. They're just babies. They don't
have the faculties to do that yet. They had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come. See, Adam here is a picture of
Christ. But as the representative of
his people, they did what he did. And that's why babies died. Then and now, that's why babies
died. But even from Adam to Moses, there was no law. There was no
Mosaic law. There was no Ten Commandments,
not until God gave it to Moses. Well, if there's no law for people
to break, there was no law for somebody to transgress. How could
somebody die? There wasn't a law. It's because
they broke the law in Adam. See that? That's why they died.
And God just gave the law to show us how exceedingly sinful
we are. He didn't need to give the law to make us sinners. We're
sinners in Adam. That's why people died before
the law was given. They're guilty in Adam. And even
though the law is given now, what's the law do to help you?
We're still guilty in Adam. We can't keep the law. And the
flesh, I know, hates that truth. Hates that truth of being in
our representative, doing what our representative did. But you
know, every believer loves it. Every believer absolutely loves
it. If you hate this truth about guilt and Adam, I got a question
for you. How are you doing on your own? I mean, how are you
doing on your own? Well, you're not doing any better
than Adam did, are you? All you do is sin. Well, if you stand
on your own, There's no hope of redemption. You can't pay
the price. You can't pay the redemption
price. If you're standing on your own, you're a goner. But
if I made a sinner through the disobedience of one representative
man, another representative man can come and make me righteous
by his obedience to the law. And that's what Christ has done
for his people. Look over at verse 17 now. For if by one man's offense,
death reigned by one, Much more, they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ, the second Adam. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so,
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
under justification of life. Now Adam's sin brought death
into the world. Everything dies because of Adam.
That's how death reigns. Death reigns over these mortal
bodies, doesn't it? I don't care what we do, how
much you exercise and take vitamins and eat cardboard and never eat
Doritos and exercise. I mean, there's absolutely nothing
that we can do to stop death. Nothing. That's how death reigns
over these bodies. It's coming eventually. But Christ,
the second Adam, He gave His people life. He brought life
to them. And because of His obedience,
because of His perfection, God's people must live. Just like these
bodies must die because of sin, God's people must live because
of Christ's righteousness. We cannot die because Christ
already died for us. He already made us perfect in
Him. Everyone for whom Christ died, everyone he represents,
they must live. Just as surely as these bodies
must die, you must live if Christ is your representative. You must.
That's Christ's righteousness reigning unto life. It reigns. And you know the good news there?
Christ gave life to his people and that life, it reigns through
his righteousness. That means we can't mess it up.
That means we can't lose it like Adam did. Because that life of
Christ that he gives his people reigns. Now read on, verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now these verses tell us two
important things. Number one, what happened in
the garden? This is what really happened in the garden. And we'll
get to studying that here for too long. This is what happened.
Adam made all of his people, all of his race guilty. He made
them sinners who must die. That's what happened in the garden.
But secondly, here's what happened to Calvary. Christ made his people
have life. made them have life because he
justified them. He made them without sin, so
they must live. Oh, Adam brought in death, but
Christ brought in life that's better. Then here's the last
thing. Death came by Adam, but the resurrection
came from Christ the second Adam. Now look over the book of first
Corinthians chapter 15. When you read the scriptures,
scriptures speak of three resurrections. First, there's Christ's resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ rose from
the dead. Now he died. He died because
of sin charged to him. God's justice demands there be
death for sin. He was made sin, he must die. But he didn't stay dead, he rose
again. You know why he rose again? Because the sin that had been
charged to him had been put away by his sacrifice. No more sin. Where there's no sin, there can't
be any death. That's why he rose again from the tomb. Well, second,
there's a spiritual resurrection. A spiritual resurrection when
God's elect are given life, given the life that Christ purchased
for them, they're given that life in the new birth. Now, the
new birth is new life, brand new life. It's when a new man
or a new nature is born in the believer who never existed before. But scripture sometimes refers
to that new birth as the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 21. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. They'll all
be made spiritually alive. See, Adam brought spiritual death
on everybody who's in his race. That's why we're all born spiritually
dead. We're born dead so that we cannot
believe on Christ. So we cannot love God. We cannot
worship God. We're spiritually dead. We have
no interest in the things of God. That spiritual death came
on the whole race by one representative man, but spiritual life, resurrection
from that spiritual death that we have in Adam came by another
representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ, his obedience and
his sacrifice brought in life to everybody he represents. And
God the Holy Spirit gives those people that life in the new birth. Now just like Adam's race cannot
escape spiritual death. You cannot escape being born
dead in sin. Christ's race, his elect, cannot
escape spiritual life. Try as we might, God's gonna
arrest us. He's gonna cross our path with
the gospel and he's gonna make us believe. See those people
must have life and they'll have it because the Holy Spirit's
going to see to it. And they're going to find themselves believing
on Christ and they can't not believe him. They trust Christ
and they can't not trust him. They believe the gospel. They
love the gospel. They find themselves having a
need for it and they can't get away from it. They see, now they
see how it is. God saves sinners and it's still
God. and they believe it, and they cannot believe it. What
happened? It's a spiritual resurrection.
God gave life to the dead. And thirdly, there's the resurrection
of these bodies. Now this comes full circle, I
guess. God created a body for Adam,
given all of us bodies, and he's not gonna let that go. We can't
escape the death of these bodies because of Adam's sin. They must
die. But the Lord Jesus Christ brought
in life for his people. Spiritual life. And their dead
bodies are going to live one day. Now they don't now. The
flesh is a flesh. It's dead. It's dying. But those
dead bodies are going to be raised. They're going to be raised in
glorified flesh. And when we appear in glory,
we're going to know each other. We're going to recognize one
another, but our bodies are going to be very, very different. Even
though we're going to know each other, our bodies are going to
be very different. The same yet different because
they're going to be perfect. Let's read a few verses beginning
in verse 35. But some man will say, how are
the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?
Well thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except
it dies. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that
body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of weed
or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased
him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same
flesh. There's one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and of birds.
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial. But the
glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial
is another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of
the moon, another glory of the stars. For one star differeth
from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. It's sown in corruption. It's
raised in incorruption. It's raised in something much
more glorious than what you buried. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised
in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised
in power. It's sown a natural body. It's
raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. How be it that was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.
They're just like Adam. And as is the heavenly, such
are they that are heavenly. Those people who are in Christ
will be made just like him. As we've borne the image of the
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Right
now, you and I bear the image of Adam. We're just like him. And it's getting to be that time
of year that we're gonna sing that song. There's a line in
it. This is our prayer. Adam's likeness now he face.
Make me not like Adam anymore. This day that Paul is talking
about here, Adam's likeness is gonna be effaced. You're not
gonna look like, you're not gonna be like, you're not gonna act
like Adam anymore. You be made just like Christ. That makes death something not
to dread at all, does it? All that is, is a place for your
body to rest until Christ raises it, a glorified body. And if
you happen to remain until Christ returns, you won't be resurrected
in a glorified body, but you'll still be changed. Look at verse
50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. We cannot inherit the kingdom
of God being like Adam. Neither does corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment. In the twinkling
of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead should be raised incorruptible, and we should be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption. This body must
be made like Christ. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality,
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written, death
is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, For as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. We're gonna be changed in a resurrected
body, a body made just like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't think of anything more
glorious than that, can you? And as glorious as we might think
that is, we haven't begun to scratch the surface. Oh my, what
the believer has to look forward to. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that
you and your mercy and your grace, your pity to your people have
not left us to stand on our own, to figure a way to come to God
and have to earn our way to you by ourselves, by our own sinful
works, but that you put us in Christ. Oh, how we thank you
for a Savior who saves, how he thank you for a savior who puts
away the sin of his people, justifies them, and makes them have eternal
life, and who will someday come and gather our bodies, raised
in glory, united with our souls and brought to him to be with
him forever. Lord, we pray, hasten the day. Even so, come quickly. Lord Jesus,
because in his precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen.
All right, Sean. Okay, if you would please stand
and sing song number 287, Like a River Glorious. Like a river glorious is God's
perfect peace, Over all victorious in its pride increase. Perfect yet it floweth for every
day, Perfect yet it groweth, deeper all the way. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed
hand. Never foe can follow, never traitor
stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade
of care, not a blast of hurry. Touch the spirit there, stayed
upon hearts are fully blessed, finding
as he promised perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial
falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the Son of Love. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly find
Him wholly true. Hearts are fully blessed Finding,
as he promised, perfect peace and rest