You should have turned back in
your Bibles to Genesis 3. Genesis 3. Genesis 3, for I believe
all of us, is one of those very curious passages of Scripture
that in some ways intrigues us, in other ways evades us. And
I suppose if we could distill from the mystery of the narrative
the thing that actually intrigues us, we would probably go away
with a question. And that question is going to
be one of two questions that we developed today. How does
a righteous man, a sinless man who had everything going for
him, God on his side, a wonderful environment, free of any kind
of conflict, God on his side, God in his presence, God in his
life, his thoughts free of being impeded by any kind of an interruption
that we could ever imagine. How could a man who is righteous
and sinless with God on his side and the most auspicious circumstance
any human being could have, how could a man openly and blatantly
rebel against his God and lose all that he had? That's the first
question that we're going to be dealing with today. How did
that happen? And how could one in such a favorable
state lose such a Blessed, blessed condition. I know the psalmist
says, man being in honor, abiding not, becomes like the beast that
perishes. Isn't it curious to you how Adam
lost his way? By the end of chapter 3, you
know what he was told by God? Go east, young man. Go east. We'll learn something about this
in women's theology class. The direction he must go Now
that he didn't tow up God's house, is eased. The title of our message
today is She Ate and He Ate, The Mystery of Union and Imputation. The Mystery of Union and Imputation. I want to talk to you about four
mysteries today revealed to us in the Word of God that will
hopefully help us understand something about the fall of our
first parents, Adam and Eve. When I say the mystery, I'm talking
about the mystery of union, first and foremost, which is given
to us in the Genesis narrative with regards to our first parents,
Adam and Eve, under God's decree in Genesis 1, 26 and 27. This
is the mystery of the union of the man and the woman in the
decree of God. Verse 26, notice what it says.
And God said, And God said, let us make man in our image, after
our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over creeping things that creeps upon the earth.
Verse 27. So God created man in his own
what? Image. And in the image of God
created he him, now mark this now, male and female, Created
he them Now we're talking about right here a union a union Which
is for some of us a mystery how that the one could also be two
How that the two could also be one for God had decreed to make
man in his image and in his likeness and in his own wisdom and prescience
he knew exactly what he was doing and Now, Adam and Eve are one. They are one shared humanity,
one essence, and yet two distinct persons. And yet God calls them
the image bearers of himself. This is a mystery of union which
falls under the category of first things. It doesn't apply to you
and me. We are the prodigy of Adam and
Eve. But that first set of human beings
were one. They were one in what we call
nature or ontology and yet they were distinct in their own persons
as God through the process of time brought out of Adam the
woman Eve and then brought her to himself and I want you to
mark now under the mystery of the union the character of that
union. We know now that they are one
in their nature, one in their flesh. They are distinct in their
persons. But I want you to know now that
God also in the Genesis account lays out for us the characteristic
of their unity over in chapter 2, verses 22 through 24, when
God now begins to bring to pass that statement in Genesis 1,
26. It starts off in verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of
his ribs and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof. And the
rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, what did he do?
He made a woman and he brought her unto him. Now mark the next
three verses. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman. Watch
this now. Here's the definition of why. Because she was taken
out of man. Now, Adam is once again affirming
the nature, the shared nature between him and Eve in terms
of their oneness. He recognized their distinction.
There is a relationship of distinction here. He's the man, she's the
woman. But he acknowledges that she came from him. This here
is the mystery of their union physically. But the next two
verses is going to establish what we call the covenant union. And the covenant union is going
to help us understand the character of the relationship between the
two persons. Here it is. Verse 23 or 24 rather. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be what? One flesh. Now they were already
one flesh in the decree of God. They were one flesh in the purpose
of God, in the plan of God. And when God brought Eve to Adam,
they were one still by nature, though distinct in person. Now
they have become one in covenant. One in covenant. This is the
language that we use when we bring two persons together, a
man and a woman, and we marry them. We use this language to
underscore the fact that they had entered into what we call
covenant unity. Now covenant unity constitutes
a different character, a different quality. You and I share the
same humanity. We are brothers and sisters.
We all come from Adam. But you and I are not under,
on an individual level, a covenant unity like a man and a woman
who are in marriage. You see the distinction? And
what God does here in the beginning with our first parents is not
only does he teach us of their origin and their distinction
and therefore their relationship on a natural level, but he teaches
us that they are now obligated to a covenant relationship between
them whereby they must now correspond to each other, ladies and gentlemen,
in love. That's what the covenant is all
about. The idea of a covenant is two people coming together
on the basis of shared objectives and shared goals and shared purposes
that is based upon love. We marry someone because we what?
Love them. I remember years and years and
years ago, When my deacon, he's an elder now, Angelo, years and
years and years ago, I don't remember how many years, it must
have been about 18 years ago or so, maybe 18, because I don't
think Isaac was even born yet. But I was helping them in premarital
counseling. And one of the things I asked
Angelo and Ruthie, I said, so what's the reason y'all want
to get married? And they kind of looked at each other. And
I said, love. It's love. It's love. You marry a counterpart to you
out of love. That's the basis of covenant.
You don't marry them merely because on a physical level that you
are alike. You marry them on the basis of
love because now love is going to regulate how you act inside
the covenant. Now you're gonna have to follow
me now because we're really talking about other things here. And
so it's one thing for you and I to be bound by a common humanity,
but it's another thing when you and I are bound by a unique covenant
constituted by the rules of marriage, and that is going to tell you
and I how we are to act with inside the covenant, and it's
gonna actually help us comprehend what's going on here in regards
to what Adam and Eve are doing. They are now in the mystery of
God's decree, having been made male and female, brought into
the scheme of covenant marriage, which is going to open the door
for the blessed, blessed response that God brings to bear on their
awful act. I want to call your attention
now, secondly, to another mystery, and that is the mystery of sin. The mystery of sin. The mystery
of sin. Look in verse six of chapter
three. This is where you and I I have
to be extremely careful to slow down and pause and think through
what happened. I am tempted to want to explain
verses 1 through 5 in relationship to the devil's slick approach
to denying God's glory by failing to acknowledge him as Jehovah,
but only calling him Elohim and setting Eve up for a dialogue
that basically caused her to deny his role as Jehovah in her
life too, only calling him Elohim, which destroyed in her the kind
of love and league towards God that should have caused her to
stop talking to the devil altogether. Now, you know your head is jacked
up when you are talking to a snake So Eve was moved out of her position
She failed to recognize the lordship of God in her life and she entered
into a dialogue We already know verses 1 2 & 3 and the strategic
method of the devil to question God's love question his his grace
question his provision in their life and we come to now verse
6 because this is at the heart of the mystery of the fall verse
6 and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her. Now, what took place in verse
six was what we call the fall into sin, which was a process
that the New Testament explains as to how that occurs. The fall
into sin by our first parents is described in James chapter
one, verse 14. I want you to see it because
this is going to help distinguish some things as to, again, the
mystery of what's taking place here in the Genesis account.
James tells us in James chapter one, verse 14, these things with
regards to temptation. In chapter 1, verse 14, let me
start at verse 13. This is important. Let no man
say when he is tempted, I am tempted of what? For God, God
cannot be what? God cannot be tempted with evil.
Watch this. Neither tempteth he any man.
But, it's a contrasting conjunction, every man is tempted, how? When
he is drawn away of his own what? Lust. Lust. Lust. Lust. What was it that drove Eve to
partake of a tree wherein God had given a very positive command
not to do it? It was lust. It was lust in her
heart after listening to the propositions of the devil with
regards to an assumption that somehow God is holding back blessing
from her. She was driven by the lust of
her own heart to violate God's law so that she could fulfill
her own desires. This is what James says. It's
the operation that takes place when you and I are driven and
tempted by our lust. Listen to it now. But every man
is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed.
Then, when lust hath conceived, that is, brought forth a conception,
a child as it were, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is
done, brings forth what? Now, the experience of Adam and
Eve having partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil was certainly death of several kinds. But the devil had told
them, no, you will not die. You'll be just like God. you'll
be just like God. Now the mystery of sin that you
and I are dealing with in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6 needs to be
further developed. Go back to Genesis 3 verse 6
and 7 so you can see something that's going to require us now
to consider another thought with regards to the idea of the union
between the man and the woman. Now in Genesis 3 6 we have described
by the Spirit of God the temptation of the woman and her fall into
rebellion against her God Her offering that same act of rebellion
to her husband in the latter part of verse 6 it says and she
did eat and Gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat
Now both of them have now eaten of the fruit But you will notice
that nothing apparently occurred until Adam ate Look at verse seven. 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. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Adam
and his wife, they did what? They hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God amongst the trees. Now this is being
self-conscious, this is being aware of your guilt, this is
now being driven by fear to run from the very God that can help
you. Obviously something radically occurred when they ate the fruit,
didn't it? Something radically occurred in the relationship
between them and their father See they are the son of God at
this point and the father is as it were watching over them
Supervising them and something impeded their relationship which
broke fellowship between them and God and they are now hiding
You know something about that. Don't you we all do don't we?
We all do. This is where the New Testament
verse comes into play. Going to Romans chapter 5 now
to show you something. All have sinned, Romans 3.23
says, and come short of what? The glory of God. The apostle
is going to now explain for us what is going on in the fall
of Adam and Eve with respect to what we have seen here as
a process of which the woman eats, nothing occurs until the
man eats. Romans chapter 5 verse 12 and
14 explains to us the entrance of sin into the world Using this
language verse 12 wherefore as by one man see that Sin entered
into the world and death by sin so that death passed upon all
for that all have sinned We have described in verse 12 the origin
of sin entering into the world. It is the result of a direct
rebellion against God's positive command on the part of Adam and
Eve. John said in 1 John 3, verse
4, that transgression against God's law is sin. If you want
to know what sin is, it's transgression against God's law. Paul said
sin entered into the world through them. He didn't mean that sin
wasn't present in the universe. Obviously, the devil had fallen.
Obviously, other fallen angels had also fallen with him. But
sin did not enter into the world of humanity until it entered
in through the door of our first parents. I want you to understand
this. The door was not opened by Eve.
It was opened by Adam. Because Eve and Adam, while they
are of the same nature, hold two different roles, two different
responsibilities, two different obligations, two different representations. Paul says in Romans chapter five,
verse 12 through 14, explaining this historical calamity this
way. He says, for until the law, sin
was in the world. Do you see that? but sin is not
imputed where there is no law. Now, have you ever understood
that or has that ever troubled you? What in the world does that
mean? Well, what Paul is teaching is this, that there were two
laws that were set up at the beginning of time, one with Adam,
watch this, and the other one with Moses. They were external
codes of God's positive commands and clear threats of punishment
if you should violate them. The epic is between the beginning
of time and creation, where Adam and Eve are, and that time way,
way, way down the line, 1500 years before Jesus Christ, when
God is doing essentially what we call a recapitulation of the
events of Genesis in the time of the Exodus. where now a whole
people group fall under the same category that Adam and Eve fall
under, and that is being called, now I want you to hear this now,
sons of God. We're learning this in biblical
theology, are we not ladies? That Adam was the son of God.
That means that Adam was a representative of God, God being his father
giving him dominion over this world and Adam having a wife
called Eve by which they would execute their universal rule
and dominion and authority over the whole of creation. But they
were given a very clear and specific law and that is Do not eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day
that you eat of it, you shall surely die. In theology, they
call that the covenant of words. And a covenant of words is mankind
is obligated under God's law to keep his commandments. And
wherein he finds himself falling short of that commandment, he
is going to suffer the judgment that comes for rebelling against
God's commandment. We have come to understand that
as good as Adam was, Adam wasn't perfect. As good as Adam was,
Adam was not able to maintain his standing with God. For some
reason, he fell into transgression and sin and brought the misery
of his rebellion upon the whole human race, didn't he? But God
tolerated humanity because he had a redemption plan. Do you
believe that? Remember what we learned? God is a covenant God.
And when he created this universe, he made sure that he wouldn't
have to react to our actions, but respond to our actions. Go
east, young man, go east. And so now the whole human race
is populating, and God has moved us from the Genesis account to
the Exodus account, and God pulls out of Egypt his next son. Who is it called? Israel. And
he puts Israel under the same kind of covenant paradigm that
he put Adam under. You know what that's called?
A covenant of works. He told Israel, just like he
told Adam, in the day that you violate my law, you're gonna
be cursed. You're going to experience death. That's the code of Deuteronomy
chapter 28. We learned that last night in
our men's meeting. So you see a parallel, don't you? Between
Adam 1 and the nation of Israel, do you not? A very clear parallel.
Now, both Adam 1 and national Israel are said in the scriptures
to be the son of God. Bring my son out of Egypt. because they both would typify
and point to God's ultimate son whom we would meet in the gospel
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Isn't that right? We're not there
yet because there's some things to learn. Going back to Romans
chapter 5, I told you that we are, when we consider Adam and
Eve, we are considering two unions. We are considering the union
of their physical nature by which they were one, Ontologically
are in terms of her sharing the human nature, but they were individual
persons These individual persons have two different roles when
God made Eve. He didn't make Eve To have dominion
over Adam He made Eve to be a helper to Adam. I Helped me to assist
Adam God's son in the accomplishing of his job to have dominion over
this world Are you hearing me? And by the way when God made
Adam and Eve In Genesis chapter 2, God made man out of the dust
of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
And God had blessed him in Genesis chapter 1, 26 and 27, 28 and
29. Adam and Eve, upon being created,
already bore the image of God. They already had the authority.
They already had the dominion. They were already in their position.
Why on earth, when God puts you in your position, give you everything
he gave you, you going to want something else? But see, that's
part of the mystery. Are you hearing me? That's part
of the mystery. That's part of what lust does to us. Listen,
listen, ladies and gentlemen, godliness with contentment is
great gain. I trust me on that. Trust me
on that. You will always be proposition
with more. God is enough. And it should
have been enough for Adam and Eve. But God had to teach us
some things. Romans chapter five, verse 12 tells us it entered
in through the through the man. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin was not imputed where there is no law. It does
not mean that there was not consequences to sin. How do we know there
were consequences to sin? Because everybody that came out
of the loins of Adam and Eve did what? They died. So there
was a real present law and it had its consequences, but there
was no external code. Like the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, that was an external code. The Ten Commandments
that was given to national Israel, are you hearing me, was an external
code. See, we're in Romans chapter 5 and Paul makes that clear as
he develops it. The law came by and by as a second
time in order that sin might be made to be exceedingly sinful.
I've said it before, I mean, you know, the reason why God
gives us laws is so that we wouldn't kill ourselves. Can you imagine? I've been in third world countries
before, maybe some of you have too. My sister, I'm glad to have
you guys back. But in third world countries, they don't have as
quite as developed a transportation system as we do in America. One
of the things that I had learned was when I was in third world
countries, people, they didn't have like white lines dividing
the side of the roads you drive on and they didn't have stop
signs. So like there was this code that
everybody knew to let people around and to stop and to pass
by. And I'm saying, where's the laws
at? Because here in America, we got
to have white lines, yellow lines, lights with cameras, right? And for us, those are called
external codes because the consequences occur whether there's an external
code or not. I remember as I was in Africa,
We were riding down the road and I was always scared to death.
I mean, because the guys were driving so comfortable, just
all over the place, right? They got us there. But I was
glad to get out and get inside the building. And I thought,
I thought, I thought about a week in, you know, I hadn't seen any
accidents, but, you know, we were going the same route all
the time. But one day I did. One day I saw an accident and
the accident was horrific. You know why it was horrific?
Because there was a law there, but they didn't see it. And because
they didn't see it, it didn't slow them down. It didn't give
them the brakes. It didn't preserve them. And
when those two hit, both cars were mangled like a potato chip
bag. And I said, now that's the reason
I'm scared. My point is, what Paul is not
saying, where there is no law, sin is not imputed. He is not
saying that there are not consequences. He's simply saying there is no
external code to let you know that there are consequences So
which is best to have a law external code to let you know there's
consequences are no external code See and so he goes on to
say that between Adam and Moses people lived free of that and
then he says over in verse 13 these words for until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed where there's no law. Verse 14,
nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Now we are trying to figure out
what does that mean? What does it mean that men and
women did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression? Well,
it's simply this, in the same way that I said, When Adam and
Eve sinned, they sinned against an open, positive, explicit command. The rest of the human race lived
under the darkness of sin, and they had to grovel their way
through their consequences. They died without that external
code until Moses came along. See, God is teaching us something
about the obligation of his law to help check our sin, check
our rebellion. Adam, Eve, were under an external
positive code of which they rebelled against, of which all mankind
up to the children of Israel were not culpable of. That means
when children were born, they still died. When adults were
born and are living rather, they got sick physically and they
still died. Humanity was wondering, ever
since they departed from the Garden of Eden into all the other
parts of the world, getting sick and ill and dying, what is this
all about? The only way you can know why we die is to go back
to the beginning. And so the Apostle Paul says,
Adam's transgression was because he was a figure of him who was
to come. Do you see that last line? Adam's
transgression was because he was a figure of him to come. In your outline it says three
sums, Adam 1, Adam 2, Israel, under a law of positive command
and works. There was gospel in it, as we're
going to see, all the way up through the last Adam. But here's
the reason why sin entered into the world through Adam 1. Because
God made Adam 1 the federal head of the whole human race. You
know what federalism is? It means when one person represents
the whole. when one individual becomes head
over the whole group. It was for this reason when Eve
transgressed against God's law, there were no actual apparent
consequences because the responsibility lay on the head. See, this is
part of the doctrine of union, the doctrine of union. Eve certainly
did transgress. We're getting ready to see that
now. But the consequences of her transgression would not fall
out until her husband ate with her. Hence, she ate and he ate. Now this begins to answer the
question of 1 Timothy 2, verse 14. Go there with me. You remember
when Paul is teaching about leadership in the church? And he lays down
those rules that our present liberal progressive generation
despises? where he makes a very clear delineation between those
who are called to the office of leadership in the church and
in first timothy chapter two this is what he says concerning
those who are ruling in the church he says in chapter 2 verse 14
i'm going to start back at verse 12 verse 11 let the woman learn
in silence with all subjection but i suffer not a woman to teach
nor usurp authority over the man but to be in what This here
is a position subordinate to her husband or subordinate to
the man because God made the man the federal what? Head. He made Adam the federal head.
Eve was to take her place under her husband because she was created
to support her husband, to assist him in his role, right? And this
is why Paul taking that particular early Genesis account narrative
and using it as a model in the church, as we're gonna see, because
Adam one points to the last Adam and the relationship between
Christ and the church. Adam one is obligated as federal
head to secure the welfare of his father's glory down here. But the problem with Adam one
is that he had a wife. Now, you know, when, hold on,
hold on, just stop for a second. When my elder was reading the
scripture, I heard y'all laughing. The woman you gave me, she gave
me to eat. And she said, the serpent you
gave me, he was the one who caused me to do it. Now that's humorous,
but there's more theology there than you can imagine. Because
it sets up for us the process of authority And when it's violated,
what the consequences are. And so in first Timothy chapter
two, here's what Paul says. He says in verse 12, I suffer
not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence. And then he goes for, you know what he's doing
now? He's taking us back to the creation account, isn't he? He
says, for Adam was what? First formed and then who? This is priority of relationship. Priority of relationship. God
had already decreed them male and female in the image of God
created he them. Male and female created he them. They were already one in terms
of God's decree. But Adam came first and then
he came second. Is that true? And Paul is arguing
from that premise in terms of the role relationship, role responsibility. Adam is the head of his wife. And so he's maintaining that
in the church. Not so much, ladies and gentlemen, to hogtie our
sisters and make them feel like, you know, they're less. That's
part of that old sexist language. Forget it. There is a greater
reason for which paul under inspiration of the spirit of god is establishing
the principle of headship with regards to the man And it doesn't
have to do with the first man It has to do with the last man
and if the church of the living god would get that we would understand
it Now here's what he said. I want you to get this because
there's some truth that's going to come out for this Out of this
for us and that's verse 14 Now that he says that adam was first
eve was second Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. You see what he does? He explains
something that I think needs to be borne out a little bit,
and that's this. It was revealed to Paul that
what happened in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6 and 7, was that Adam
was not the one that went through the process of what James chapter
1 verse 14 and 15 says. Every man is drawn away by his
own what? That wasn't true of Adam, that
was only true of Eve. And tempted, that wasn't true
of Adam, that was only true of Eve. And once she was tempted,
being enticed, she bit into it. Now, you remember what verse
six says? She saw that that tree of the knowledge of good and
evil was pleasant to the eyes, a tree for food. Isn't that what
it says? But now God had already said that was the case for all
the trees of the garden. Pleasant to the eye. Watch this. Good
for food. But the next word says, and it
was a tree to be desired. You know what happened? She lusted
after the very thing that God said, do not touch. See, she was in the transgression.
The transgression was operating in her life, bringing her into
captivity to sin. Sin brought her into captivity
to rebel against God. She was the one did it, not Adam.
She took the fruit she ate and she gave it to her husband. You got it? So now stay with
me now, because I know my brother would say, man, that boy is a
fool. Why on earth would you forfeit all those blessings just
to eat an apple? By the way, it was a fig, not
an apple. I'm messing with you. Which is getting ready to bring
us into a very important concept here now. I want you to hear
me now. The apostle Paul said that Adam
was made in the similitude of him who was to what? Come. Who are we talking about? Jesus
Christ. When God created Adam and Eve,
he knew what they would do. And he knew that what they would
do would serve as a model of redemption for us. Let me see
if I can help you. The reason why Eve ate of the
fruit was lust and pride. The devil told her it would result
in her being just like God, knowing good and evil. That lady was
a dummy. She was already just like God.
You got that? Now, you know you're dumb when
somebody sell you something you already have. Stay with me for
a minute now. Stay with me for a minute now.
They go in your garage, pull out your old vacuum cleaner,
wash it out with your own water holes, come to the door, knock
on it, and sell it to you. He's a good salesman if he can
sell you that which is your own. But what was not theirs was the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was not theirs. But because she lusted after
it, she went after it. Now you answer this question
for me again. Here's the question. How is it
that a sinless man, a righteous man, a holy man who had everything,
God, and a garden filled with wealth and prominence and blessing,
forfeit that for a miserable life of going east, dealing with
the wilderness, drudgery and pain, sweating by the sweat of
your bra, laboring by the sweat of your bra, thorns and thistles,
arguments and conflicts with your wife, and then you go back
to the dust. Stay with me. Here's the question
again. Why Would Adam eat with her? Are you ready? The covenant of
marriage requires the man to love his wife. Eve's was out
and out rebellion based on pride and lust. Adam was based on love
for his wife. Please hear me now. He had a
choice. between obeying the law of his
father and losing his wife, or loving
his wife as the covenant commands. See the covenant of marriage
commands according to Ephesians five, go there, I want you to
see it. Ephesians chapter five tells
us the law of love and the covenant of marriage for the man is the
kind of love that constitutes a sacrificial act with regards
to the one who has become one with him. Ephesians chapter five. Are you there? Listen to this. I'm going to start at verse five
and I'm going to go through verse 32 and we're going to pick up
our last couple of final points. Verse 25 husbands love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church. You see the parallel.
It's getting ready to unpack if you don't know it. "...and
gave himself for it." You see what I'm getting at, man? The
Son of God was obligated, because of the woman that God had given
Him, to love her, even though it would result in breaking His
own Father's commandments. He was stuck between the twigs.
Now this son of God is not the ultimate, what we call the only
begotten son of God. The only begotten son of God
is full of wisdom, full of knowledge. He knows everything. He knows
the end from the beginning. This man has to walk day by day,
having God revealed to him what he needs to know. He is remarkable
to me because what he is doing is exercising a sacrificial love
that points to Christ, even though he don't know what tomorrow is
going to bring. And it must imply that there was a kind of faith
in his heart towards his father that would result in working
this thing out. Teaching you something. It must
imply that there is a kind of faith in his father that father
will work this thing out. All I know is when he gave her
to me, he he called me under covenant, the covenant of marriage
to love her. And I see that I now gotta love
her sacrificially. I gotta lay down my life for
her. I gotta yield myself up for her. Now watch this. Even if it means
she dies and I die. If she dies, I die. And to me,
that's love according to the gospel. Anything short of that,
it cannot be called biblical love. Am I making some sense?
So what we have is Adam being made in the similitude of him
who was to come and being given by God's providence and wisdom
a scenario, a twist out of which he could not get himself. Because
had he not done for her what he did, he would have demonstrated
that he didn't love her and he would have broken another covenant.
And that would have been the covenant of marriage. Are you
hearing me? Are you hearing me? See, Adam
was bound by love because he was married to her. And that
I submit to you is the reason why Paul says he was not in the
transgression. He was not in the transgression,
but follow me now, the consequences and the ramifications of the
transgression fell on him. I'm gonna milk this for just
a minute. She took that fig, she peeled it, She cooked it. She ate it. She fixed her salad
and everything. She ate it and then she gave
it to her husband and before he ate, nothing was going on.
She was enjoying it. In fact, the devil's promise
didn't even come to pass. Her eyes weren't open. She didn't
see anything. She didn't know good and evil
until her husband ate. When her husband ate, then everything
the devil said came to pass and more. because the devil will
always sell you short on the truth to set you up for a lie. The man ate and they both entered
into the consequences and calamity of what we call the fall. So point number three in your
outline is called the mystery of love. It's the mystery of
love. The two becoming one. Adam and
Eve together under covenant bond and covenant love, Adam obligated
to love his wife. Eve was obligated to obey her
husband, submit to her husband, work with her husband. But what
do we do, ladies and gentlemen, when we sin? What do we do when
we fall? What do we do when we find ourselves
in rebellion against God? What's the answer from God for
rebellion and sin? It's the love of God. It's the
love, listen to me. If God doesn't respond in love
to your sin, you and I are in trouble. Are you hearing me? If God doesn't respond to our
love, our sin in love, We are in trouble. This is the beautiful
mystery. And here, 2 Corinthians 11, before
we go back, in 2 Corinthians 11, Paul now carries this imagery
over to the church. I want to just make this one
application before we go to our last and final point and develop
the real message behind this message. In 2 Corinthians 12,
the apostle Paul said this, with regards to a church that fundamentally
was acting like Eve. You know what that means? That
means as Eve should have listened to her husband and not talk to
the devil, and therefore been deceived by the devil, so the
church of Jesus Christ is called to listen to her husband and
not talk to the devil and be deceived by the devil. And the
apostle Paul says it like this in 2 Corinthians 11, verses 1
through 3. Now mark the parallels. Would
to God you could bear with me a little in my folly, Paul says,
and indeed bear with me, verse 2. For I am jealous over you. See that? Can I tell you where
he's taking that from? He's taking that from Jehovah's
Law. From Jehovah's Law. Over the
top of the Ten Commandments is this overarching principle. I am the Lord your God. I am a jealous God. Do you hear it? He's talking
to his wife. Fellas, it's good to be jealous
over your wives. Let them know you are jealous.
It is a kind of love when your heart is right. It's the kind
of love that sees to it that whatever enemy, adversary, obstacle,
hindrance comes in the way, he's going to deal with it because
he loves you. You guys get that? I'm a jealous God. Our God is
a jealous God. The apostle Paul is saying to
the church at Corinth, listen, you guys are in trouble. When
God used me to bring you into existence, I didn't bring you
into existence so that you can sleep around with all kinds of
men. Speaking metaphorically of false doctrines and false
teachings and listening to false prophets and false teachers and
getting caught up in the false philosophies and false ideologies. He said, now watch this now.
I espoused you as a chaste virgin. Christ Got it One-to-one here's
Eve and Christ is the last Adam You got that the goal of the
church then under this age of grace is to stay under one gospel
and that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ committed to
his glory alone as His bride to be alone and not fall prey
to the temptations of the devil That's what Paul is saying. Now
watch what he says. He says over in verse 3, But
I fear, lest by any means, here it is, as the serpent did what? Beguiled Eve. He didn't beguile
Adam. He beguiled Eve. Through his
subtlety, you should also have your minds corrupted from what? The simplicity that is in Jesus
Christ. The mystery of love sets Adam
and Eve up to enter into the transgression together, even
though as you and I very clearly see, Adam wasn't in the transgression,
his wife was. What that means is Adam didn't
experience any spiritual or psychological trap that brought him to the
place of lusting and rebelling against his God. When he took
the fruit, his eyes were wide open. He knew exactly what he
was doing. Are you hearing me? Just like
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to call your attention
to the other doctrine now that's in our text. I just said in the
opening of our message, she ate and he ate the doctrine of union
and what? Imputation. I want to talk to
you about imputation now, because this is where it comes home.
Imputation is the principle of what we call the transfer of
responsibility. Imputation is the principle of
transfer of responsibility. And we already see this by the
fact that when Eve rebelled against God, nothing happened until her
husband ate the fruit. You know what he did? He took
the responsibility that was initially hers and it was transferred to
him. In the doctrine of imputation,
it can be most vividly grasped in the Old Testament sacrifices
of the laying on of hands of the sinner upon the sacrifice.
Yeah, you see people in the Middle East when they offer up a lamb
or a bullock, and they offer that bullock or lamb up as a
sacrifice for sin, what they would do, and this is what happened
under the Levitical code, Leviticus 1.4 will show us this, the sinner
or the worshiper would bring a lamb or a bullock to the priest,
and that lamb was depicted as an innocent lamb that would take
his place for the transgression that he would commit. That lamb
would stand there before the priest, the language is before
the Lord, it's in the temple, and the worshiper would lay his
hands on the lamb. And when he laid his hands on
the lamb, because he believed God for what we call imputation,
his sins by faith, were transferred from himself to the lamb. The lamb then would be the object
of God's consideration for solving the sin problem that was the
man's. Eve's sin problem was transferred
from her to Adam, just like our sin problem was transferred from
us to Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Leviticus 1.4. Did he put it
up? Leviticus 1.4. That's the didactic lesson that
God taught Israel long ago. Imputation biblically is illustrated. The laying on of the hands of
the sinner upon the sacrifice. Leviticus 1.4. And then in what
we call Yom Kippur, in the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16, verses
22 and following, there was a scapegoat. The scapegoat doctrine where
the high priest who represents all of the people of God would
lay his hand upon the scapegoat. And because the people of God
are in the high priest's heart, he wore a vestment that possessed
all 12 stones representing the whole 12 tribes of Israel. So
he's the mediator between the people and God. You guys got
that? He would then go to the scapegoat after accomplishing
all the other ceremonial rites and lay his hands on the scapegoat. All the sins of all the people
of all that year would be laid on that scapegoat and that scapegoat
would be driven into the wilderness by a fit man. Who is that scapegoat? He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is that fit man? He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is that high priest? He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. Now I
want you to stay with me on this. The premise for our Savior's
work of redemption is the same premise for the relationship
between Adam and Eve. It's love. Adam's action towards
Eve was based on love. Christ's actions for us. is based on what? Love. This is what we've been learning
in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John, in fact, the whole book
is teaching us about the love of God. And I have told you,
you and I are not rightly comprehending the love of God until we comprehend
the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. For herein is
the love of God manifested to us in that He gave His Son to
be a what? Propitiation for our sins. The laying on of the sacrifice,
the sins of that worshiper is a great mystery. How do you take
your sins which are indigenous to your nature, which is part
of your makeup, part of who you are? How do you take the sin
of a sinner and translate them to an innocent lamb? It's a mystery. just like the union between a
man and a woman in covenant is a mystery. It's a mystery that
God himself only knows. That's why we believe him, don't
we? This is why we trust him, because we cannot comprehend
the transfer, but it takes place on two levels. It takes place
by faith on the part of the worshiper. By faith, we have been justified
freely by His grace. By faith, you and I have been
delivered from the wrath of God to come. And what we mean by
faith is the revelation of God's Word, which has come to us in
the Gospel, telling us if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall have eternal life. The worshiper by faith lays his
hand on that sacrifice and God accepts that sacrifice. And I'll
tell you something. When the Bible says in Isaiah,
chapter 53, verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray.
I want you to hear this now. And the Lord have laid on him. That's the doctrine of imputation. The Lord have laid on him. Who is the him? Christ. Who is
the Lord? The Father! The Father hath laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. What love of God! What love of
God! I want you to see the picture
one more time. Genesis chapter 22. Genesis 22. Do you remember
when Abraham finally got his boy the right way? By a miracle of grace and not
by the human works of the flesh, which was Ishmael? And do you
remember the boy finally reaching at the age of maybe 16 or 18
years old, God said to Abraham, Abraham, take Isaac, your only
son, Isaac, whom you what, love, and offer him up for me on this
mountain. That was a long walk, wasn't
it? That must've been a walk by faith,
wasn't it? But it was a trembling faith, wasn't it? Now I want
to show you something that depicts the doctrine of what we call
imputation. How that God in his plan of redemption
takes our sin and lays it on his son. In Genesis chapter 22
verse 6, as they're headed up, it's described this way. Listen
to it. And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering. Do you see it? And he laid it
upon Isaac, his son. And he took the fire in his hand
and a knife, and they went, both of them. How? Together. Do you
see them? Headed up Mount Moriah. The only
two heading up that mount is the father and the son. Do you see it? Nobody else. This
is a work that God himself is doing. the Father and the Son
in order to depict for us the nature of God's love and anticipating
the work of Christ in our behalf. It's the Father and the Son going
up that hill. Now, I'm here to tell you the
Father loves the Son. Can I tell you something else?
The Son loves the Father. Can I also tell you something
else? Both of them were in full agreement with what they're doing.
They never ever contradicted each other's will. They both
win. Now, we're dealing with a picture
here, a pattern, a type. As they're heading up that hill,
I can imagine the weight of the wood being on the young man Isaac.
Remember what it says? And his father laid the wood
on him. I will tell you that that wood
represents our sins. In the same way the father, that
is Abraham, lays the wood on his son Isaac, so our heavenly
father laid upon Christ all our sins. He's walking up the hill
and he raises the question to his father. Very astute question. Verse seven, and Isaac spoken
to Abraham, his father and said, my father, my father, he said,
here I am, my son. And he said, behold, I see the
fire because you got it. And I know what it would is because
it's on my back. But where is the lamb for the
burnt offering? And you know what the Lord, you
know what Abraham said to his son? My son, God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And I want you to hear this now.
This settled Isaac down. Wouldn't it settle me down? But
it settled Isaac down. Can I tell you why? Because the
son always believes the father. Now we're learning something
about the relationship between the father and the son on a heavenly
manner and it should apply to us by transfer. The son was always
obedient to the father because he knew that the father's will
was right. And so the son obediently goes
with his father to the place where his father is going to
offer him up. And for the life of me, I would
have been talking, dad, dad, dad. And that boy kept silent
until his father took the wood, plopped it down, put him on it,
tied him down. I'd have been talking. I'd have
been talking. Hey, dad, you said there's a
lamb somewhere around here. I love God because He has integrated
our human weakness into the scheme of redemption as it unfolds in
the scripture, and the dignity and the glory of the gospel in
those narratives is what gives us awe at our God. I can identify
with the people as weak, sinful human beings, but I also see
how God restrained them and graced them to go through these emblems
of redemption to let us know, Lo, I come, and the volume of
the book is written of me to do thy will, O God. I see Christ,
don't you? I see the Father, don't you?
I see the Spirit of God, don't you? And you know what else we
learn in this account? We learn that God, again, was
not reacting. This is all part of the movement
towards the revelation of the Son of God. And we read over
in verse 9, And they came to the place which God had told
him of. Abram built an altar there, laid the wood in order,
and he bound Isaac himself. See, at that point I'd have been
screaming. and laid him on the altar upon
the wood. There it is. And Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. See, at this
point, you got to be operating out of absolutely pure faith. The son here has to say, I know
my father loves me. I'm going to close my eyes to
what I see, because I know my Father loves me. Whatever is
about to happen now, I believe my Father for it, even though
every fiber in my being is running the other way. That's called
faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And this is why you and I know that the Son believed
the Father all the way to the end. All the way to the end,
He believed the Father. All the way to the end, He believed
the Father. the way to the end he believed the father this was
a transaction of love on the part of the father and the son
for the bride for the bride for the bride for the see listen
had Abraham killed this boy this boy would have never got married
but he died in a figure didn't he and watch this and the angel
of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and say Abraham Abraham
And he said, here I am. I'm so glad you showed up, Lord. I am so glad you showed up because
I was struggling through this thing. Now, I know you, Abraham
knew God. And the Hebrew writer tells us
that Abraham had reasoned this through. Abraham said, God is
the God of the living, not the God of the dead. And he also
said, Abraham said concerning Jehovah, he said, now Jehovah
doesn't lie, he can't change and he can't fail. So even though
he's giving me a commandment that I cannot fully comprehend,
it perplexes me and it looks like it's actually gonna take
away from what God has promised me, I'm gonna believe God. Now,
here's what I know, if I actually have to kill my son, watch this,
I know God can raise him from the dead. Isn't that what the
text says? Now stay with me now. This is
what, listen, ladies and gentlemen, this is why the hope of the believer
is in the resurrection. Our hope is not in temporal blessings. Our hope is not in temporal success.
Our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's where
we will ultimately achieve all the inheritance that the father
gave to the son and he gave to us because we're in him. And
let me show you a glorious truth. Then we'll close with our last
point and partake of the table. Glorious truth. I saw this years
and years ago told you about it. I'll share it with you now
He said lay not your hand upon the lad verse 12 neither do anything
unto him for net for now I know that you fear God. Do you see
that? Please understand. These are anthropomorphical terms.
God knows everything He wasn't saying. Oh now I know as if God
discovered something new. I He means that when you and
I act out of obedience of faith, the perfection of that faith
now becomes a testimony of what God had already pre-decreed. When God calls us to obedience,
our active obedience becomes a testimony to what God had already
decreed. Let me put it like this in a
more Christocentric fashion. The coming of Christ in his incarnation
is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament acts of faith.
He becomes the quintessential assurance and fulfillment of
all that God had promised with regards to faith in Christ. When
Abraham does this, it becomes vivid to us all. Why? Because
it was written down in the Genesis narrative. Why? Because it was
written down in the Hebrew narrative. Why? Because it was written down
in the narrative of James. James said, Abraham's faith was
perfected by what words by which God was glorified and this is
what God is pleased with because the model is that of the atoning
work of Jesus Christ now notice the beautiful merciful act of
our sovereign God over in verse 13 he says first of all Lay not
your hand upon the lad, neither do anything to him. I know now
you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your only son
from me. Verse 13. And Abraham lifted
up his eyes and looked, and behold what? Behind him a ram caught
in a thicket by his horns. What had God done? Exactly what
Abraham said to Isaac, Son, God will provide a ram for himself. I want you to mark specifically
that Abraham looks behind and not in front. He looks behind
because Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The work of redemption and atonement in Jesus Christ is the basis
for the creation of the world. It's not the end result. Sinners
from Adam all the way to Christ were saved on the grounds of
an eternal God with an eternal covenant and an eternal purpose
who can't lie, change, or fail and therefore can act as if it
was done because with him all things are at once. Christ is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and every believer
experiences the blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ
before his coming when he came and after he came because for
us Jehovah Jireh Jehovah provides Jehovah sees Jehovah foresees
Jehovah provides Jehovah make sure we have what we need before
we even need it so that when we need it He brings it to our
knee. This is exactly what now we're
dealing here with the doctrine of substitution Because the lamb
is a substitute for Isaac and he ultimately points to our substitute
Jesus Christ I think I got one more point I'll close here on
this and this year is fairly easy to comprehend point number
five and I'll close right here the mystery of of his grace.
There are four mysteries we consider today. The mystery of union,
the mystery of sin, the mystery of love, and now the mystery
of grace. What is the mystery of grace?
I'm gonna sum it up by the question now that is the counterpart to
the first question. The first question is, how can
a sinful, I mean a righteous man, a godly man, a holy man,
who had everything going for him, a perfect environment, great
fellowship with God, no broken communion whatsoever, mess all
that up in sinning against God's positive and explicit command
and find himself going to hell. That's a question to reckon with,
isn't it? But here's another question to reckon with. How does a sinful, corrupt, vile,
God-hating sinner, like you and me, with our fists stuck in God's
face, daily rebelling against his positive commands, daily
testing his will, daily throwing away his covenant behind our
back, daily tempting the Lord God Almighty. How can sinful
people like you and I, who deserve the wrath of God, find ourselves
in a place, find ourselves in a place by virtue of imputation,
having our sins taken away from us and placed on him and his
righteousness placed on us. So that in God's eyes, a sinful
person like you and I are the very righteousness of God in
him. How is it that you and I can
walk in comfort and security of a relationship with the Holy
God when we are sinful as we are? I'll tell you what it's
called. It's called the mystery of His grace. The mystery of
His grace. But God, who is rich in mercy,
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and
sins, quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. By grace are you saved. By grace
are you saved. By grace are you saved. And that not of yourselves, it
is a gift of God. It's a gift from God, not of
words, lest any man should boast. It is a gift of God that you
and I, hell bound sinners, are on the road to glory by a God,
a God, a God who loved us enough to trade places with us and take
our sins on himself and lay hands on us and transfer all of his
righteousness to us. so that we stand before God in
the beloved, holy and blameless and without spot, without spot,
the mystery of his grace, the mystery of his grace. And I'll
tell you, we're done. You and I ought to be thankful people.
You listen to me. You ought to be thankful people.
You and I need to be thankful. We need to be thankful. We need
to be thankful. Amen. Amen.