I've entitled this message, From
Death to Life. Genesis chapter two, we'll be
starting in verse 15. It says, then the Lord God took
the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of
the garden, you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you
eat of it, you shall surely die." Now in this passage, God has
just taught Adam something new. Something new. Now on the face
of that, that doesn't sound very amazing. I don't know how long
It had been since God had created Adam. Perhaps all things were
new. But up until that point, Adam
had known one thing, and that's life. Life. So what he taught him right here
was something that was, for lack of a better word, I suppose,
unnatural to him. He taught him that transgressing
God's commandment, would result in his death. Now, as we know, in the course
of time, Adam did fall, and with Adam, so went the rest of the
world. It says in Romans 5, verse 12,
therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and
death through sin, And thus death spread to all men because all
sinned. And it is established that Adam
went from a state of life to a state of death. And we will
talk about what that means a little bit later. But once we are dead,
this is the question, once we are dead, how can we be made
alive again? Everyone knows the story of the
valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. God shows Ezekiel. He doesn't put it in measurement,
just a valley, a great valley full of bones, many bones. And he asks Ezekiel, son of man,
can these bones live? And I can tell you what I would
have answered, no way. I've never seen the bones of
a fish lying on the shore just get up and swim again. No way. No one's ever heard of a dead
thing coming back to life, let alone something that's missing
flesh and organs and blood. It just doesn't happen. You're
at the point of no return if you're just bones. But God restored all those dead
things, all those bones to life. Which is a picture of how he
saves, and this is important, dead sinners. The adjective dead is important. This is God's salvation, a merciful
work by which a completely dead man or woman is given life. And God has granted the entire
human race a record, a record of his salvation. It's right
here. We call it the Bible. Anybody
can read it. I'm not saying it's been withheld
from somebody. The record's here so that there
is no one without excuse. No word in it is hidden. But despite all that, some never
find salvation. Because they are looking in the
wrong place or for the wrong God. The Bible answers several
questions about salvation. And those questions can be, where
can we find this salvation? Why would we even start looking? Where would that desire even
come from? It always goes back to that. It always goes back
to desire. The Bible tells us that no person is born thinking
that he or she needs salvation. In fact, based on my experience,
not very many people know what salvation even does. We all come into this life knowing
only that we can, or only what we can see and feel and hear
and What we can see and feel and hear only tells us that people,
they have various morals, they act accordingly, and then they
die. That's it, that's life. This cycle has repeated for every
person since the beginning of time. But the problem we have
is not that we can't see and feel and hear. is that we can't
see and feel and hear God. That's the problem. Now what
do I mean by that? It means that we are born without
the capability to follow him or to understand him. Jesus told
some people in his day that they both will not and cannot come
to him for salvation. Why is that? Because the just
shall live by faith and the ones he was speaking to were trying
to live by works. We're not born with this faith
that he's talking to or talking about. It is a living thing and
it must be given by God. We're dead. Keep that in mind. We're dead. Faith is a living
thing. Faith does not make sense to
natural man. We lost more than we could know
when Adam fell. We have no idea. And I quote this phrase by Henry
Mahan often. He said, if you're wrong on the
fall, you're wrong on it all. And the fall was when everything
changed. When Adam fell, he caused the
rest of humanity to fall with him. God said Adam died when
he would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And
obviously he did not cease to live. He lived over 900 years more.
Then he died. Then he died. The thing that
died in Adam was something spiritual. At any time up to that fateful
day, God walked with Adam in the garden. Adam had communion
with God. God could be in Adam's presence
because he couldn't be in the presence of sin. God has said
that. God could be in Adam's presence
because Adam was perfect. There was no sin into him up
until that point. God had made Adam without sin. Adam knew no
sin, had not yet committed one sin. But when Adam ate from that tree
that he was not supposed to eat from, Adam lost communion with
God. God is spirit, it says in John
4. And Adam lost something spiritual
when he fell. And from that time onward, mankind
has stopped seeking God. You may think that's harsh. Especially in, I shouldn't even
say today's religion, I'm pretty sure this has been going on for
hundreds or longer years. To tell someone that what they
thought they'd been doing very well and has been good for them
is not. You know, maybe somebody for
many years has been, I'm just going to pull this out of my
hat, let's say doing push-ups, and they think that's been great
for them, and they've been dedicated, and they don't miss a day. And
the doctor says, yeah, it's been doing this to your spine. It's
been hurting you. It's almost what it feels like. And while it may be harsh, it's
very important to believe it. In Psalm 14, verses one through
three, it says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no
God. Of them, he says, they are corrupt,
they have done abominable works, and there is none who does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned
aside. They have together become corrupt.
There is none who does good, no, not one. I didn't say that. The Bible
said that. The Bibles are authority on our
hearts. The Bible says the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. You think you're good. You think the choices you've
made are good and possibly by the standards of man they have
been. But toward God, they are wicked. The fact is that we are so spiritually
dead from the fall, there is nothing observable, nothing natural,
for lack of a better term, that can drive us to an understanding
that we are spiritually dead. And that we're sinners in need
of the Lord's salvation. This church won't do it. The
building, that is. Just because you go to a big
church or a little church, just because you go every Sunday once
a month, once a year on Easter. You're giving. All of those are
observable things. All of those are natural things. They will not drive you to Christ. But because we have wicked, prideful
hearts, we don't... I mean, once we're told what
God's salvation is, we don't even like that. The heart, it can pervert anything
to justify its desires. Even to twist the gospel into
something that we believe grants us salvation. And I'll tell you right now, it's a mixture. It's not pure grace. It's a little
bit of works, or a lot of works. Whatever it is, works is in it. And when I was younger, I believed
that the knowledge of the teachings in the Bible, what people call
doctrine, was the door that led to God. And I thought that since
I heard a believing man preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ,
that the truth coming out of his mouth, was what I needed
to know to get into heaven. I am not downplaying doctrine,
it's important. But people who can, I forget
what, what was that acronym? TULIP. And I can remember maybe two
of those things, but all of those doctrines, all of those tenets,
you can know them. They will not give you salvation.
They're just doctrine. Doctrine is cold. Now there are two things wrong
with what I thought at that time. The first is that I made up my
plan of salvation. That was me getting out a pencil
and saying this is how I'm going to be saved. The problem with that was it
wasn't God's plan, it was Nathan's plan. And the second thing wrong
with that is that I thought that knowledge of these truths would
save me, but it was many years before God opened my understanding
that He alone is the salvation. He alone. Now let me address the second
thing wrong first. Knowledge of, like I said, knowledge
of biblical doctrines, it's important. You must know these things. But
the thing to understand is not that there are rules or do's
and don'ts, but that this Bible, even though it says those things,
points to Christ in all things, points to Christ. It is the wisdom of God recorded
for the benefit of all of God's children. for their benefit. I forget if it was my dad who
said it first or if he got it from someone else, but he said,
when it rains, it rains on the just and the unjust, but it rains
for the just. It's for them. And this Bible
is for God's children. And in the Bible, Christ is is
pictured in many events by the types of, and pictures of many
people in it, and in many acts that take place. For example,
he is like the ark in which Noah was spared the destruction of
the flood. Just as Noah was safe in the
ark, so are God's children safe in Christ, whose blood covered
their sins. Christ is also like the lamb
whose blood was smeared on the doorposts in Egypt on the Israelites'
doorposts the night of the 10th plague on the firstborn. When God saw the blood of that
innocent lamb on those doorposts, on the lintel
I think it was, he passed over that house, that blood was a
representation that a death had occurred there. And so that household
was spared another death. And Christ is pictured in many
other things, and each one is important to understand. You
call it fully fleshed out. You shouldn't talk about just
one aspect of Christ. There are many. It is love, It
is compassion, he is named our friend, he is named the shepherd. There are so many qualities that
we want to hear, not just one, all of them. And this Bible shows
us that. Yet even though As the Bible
says in 1 Corinthians, now we see him, or now we see, sorry,
in a mirror dimly, dimly. What we see is not full. This doctrine is how Christ is
revealed to us. This is how God calls his children,
right here, the word. This is how he does it. Disagree with that all you like,
that's the only thing he's gonna do. And it says again in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through
wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of
the message preached to save those who believe. I'm trying to be careful with
this word here. Is that message salvation? Someone
preaching the gospel. When I was young, when I was
young, just because someone preached it doesn't mean the listener
was saved. How many people did Jeremiah
preach to and they didn't hear? They didn't hear. The message
is necessary. That's how God saves sinners.
But on some, on some, they are deaf to it. It's how God calls us. Now, for
that first thing, that was wrong. I made up my own plan of salvation,
and it was kind of like when kids, they make up rules for
a game. One kid, She's always the loudest. He sets up the rules, and they're
in his or her favor. He said, if you get to the base,
you get a point. But if I get to the base, I get
five points. It's always in their favor. So for my plan of salvation,
I set up the rules. I set up the parameters. They
were in my favor. All I had to do was listen. I
just had to be there. I just had to know. And if you hear the pattern there, it was
me, me, me, I, I, I. And with my plan, I could not
lose. I was sure of it. Now, of course, I set it up in
a silly way. It's a silly thing to do. But
people get very silly when it comes to their own salvation.
Throughout history, men and women have avoided God's salvation.
and instead devise what they think salvation should be. And
it gets silly. Some have used fire. Some water. Some morality. Or rules. Or actions. Like altar calls. Or simply just money. This will
get me out. This money will save me. Or could be a combination of
all of them. But they all have this one thing
in common, which is that they are works, works. And it is plain
to see by anybody who has read the New Testament, They call
out that word specifically, works, works, works. You will not be
saved by them. There are only two religions
in the entire world, and this has been true since the beginning. They are the religion of works
and the religion of grace. They're the religion of Cain,
they're the religion of Abel. The religion of law. And the
religion of rest. Man will literally work himself
to death trying to get into heaven. And do you know why? Do you know
why that is? Why work? when this whole Bible
points to don't work. It's because man believes that
he has something of value to offer God. But what does God say to that?
He said, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, mercy. The children of Adam will never
stop working for their salvation until God, according to the pleasure
of His good will, according to the pleasure of His, sorry, according
to the good pleasure of His will, shows them their own sin, their
own hopelessness outside of Christ and puts them in the dust, where
they cry out, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's just
how it goes. I like to get up here and tell
on myself because I'm used as an example of what not to do.
I'm fine with that. So I'll do it again. But years
ago when I went to my dad to ask if I could be baptized, I
expected and the okay, you know, just yeah, sure, that'd be great.
But instead, he asked me, do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God and that he died to put away your sins? And
I remember it very clearly because I wasn't ready for that question.
It seems like I should have been. At that time, I only thought
that someone who believed just should be baptized. You believe,
you get baptized. And Jesus even said, I mean,
I didn't just throw or get this out of thin air. He says, he
who believes and is baptized will be saved. Mark 16, verse
16. I was only following the program. I thought I already had one half
of that winning formula, so all I needed was the other half and
I'd be saved. So I just, I probably stared
blankly for a couple seconds and just said, yeah, yep, that's
me. Several days later, I was baptized. I felt no different. I was. No different. So I started wondering if I did
it wrong. There had to be something. Now it's plain in hindsight that
I was only going through the motions. I did not yet have Christ. And I'm not even going to say
that was the starting point. Like I had to go through that.
I'm being careful, I'm being careful. Rather, all I had was doctrine
and I had action. God had yet to reveal himself
to me and I had yet to know what his salvation actually was. So I tell you this so that you
will not follow in my footsteps. Now, I'm not going to say what
happened to me when God finally revealed the truth and opened
my understanding. A person's experience, my experience,
the events leading up to it, they're not important. In matters of God's salvation,
there are always two perspectives. Okay? Two perspectives. It's your perspective and God's
perspective. God is the author of this book
that we call life. All of history. All the future. He's the author. And we, the
characters. And it's not given to us to understand
or to know what God is doing or why he chooses whom he chooses
to save. It's not for us. Just as it is beyond Romeo and
Juliet to know what William Shakespeare had in store for them. We don't
know. We are told, instead, to have
faith. That's it. Have faith. Knowing
that what God has purposed to do will be for our good in eternity. So instead, this is our directive.
From the very mouth of our loving Savior, repent and believe in
the gospel. Mark one. Repent of what? Repent of what? Repent of your sin, your worthless
attempts to please God, which is works, and your rebellion. Rebellion? I've been going to
church my whole life. What do you mean rebellion? Hey
now, tread lightly. Have you been glorifying God? You were just bragging on yourself
that you went to church. Rebellion. God will first empty you of everything
you trust in before filling you with His assurance. There's a line in that hymn,
It Is Well, that beautifully explains this truth about God's
salvation and His full assurance. It says, My sin, O the bliss
of this glorious thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole,
was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the
Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul." Whose sin was it? This guy right here. Who nailed it to the cross? Who
bore it on the cross? Praise the Lord. After repentance comes belief. I am not trying to outline a
12-step program, just the way things are. But after repentance comes belief.
Belief in what? A belief that you need Jesus,
who is the Christ, the Christ. the only son of God who came
down from heaven to redeem God's children. To believe that there is no sinner
too great for him to save. And that you need only his blood
to cover your sins. That's the belief. This is God's salvation. Sounds like foolishness to the
wise. I thought I was wise. I had my
own plan of salvation. It sounded great. But God shows everybody that
he saves what his salvation is. And it does. to the man, to the
natural man, sound like foolishness. This salvation is a message sent
to the spiritually dead that gives life. Can a dead man raise himself? Or can a dead man even call out
to God for life? No, no he can't. Therefore, the
message must come from God. It must be sent, sent to the
dead man. And when it arrives, it will
surely perform its work. It will. He will redeem his children
and will take them up to himself in heaven where they will rejoice. There's no unwilling people there
in heaven. They will rejoice to be with
their Lord. So I ask, are you confident in
the flesh? Are you confident in your flesh?
Repent of it. Are you a sinner? Cry for mercy. cry for mercy. God desires nothing
else. I ask, are you in need of a savior? Go to the cross, go to the cross, which is where God's great love
and God's absolute justice meet, right there. and you will find Christ bearing
the punishment for your sins. This is God's salvation, and
we shall rejoice in it. May he be glorified. Bruce, would
you close us, please?