I invite you this morning to
turn with me to Romans chapter 5. My message this morning is on
the two atoms. I read to you in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 a few moments ago about the first and the last
atom. There are two atoms. It is a little known fact of
Bible doctrine that God has and is dealing with all men by way
of two representative men, all of mankind. He deals with, He
has dealt with, He is dealing with, and shall yet deal with
in these two men, these two atoms. Their lives, their doctrines,
The blessings or cursings all find their beginning in one of
these two men. Under the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost, Paul wrote this. I read it to you just a few moments
ago. By man came death. By man came also the resurrection
from the dead, for as in Adam all die. Even so, in Christ shall
all be made alive. He said the first Adam was a
living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. 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. As is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have born, and we do,
the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I dare say it seems nearly impossible
to me, nearly impossible to me, for a man to have any understanding
of his present condition or his future hope concerning eternal
life without some basic understanding of how he stands in these two
men. And yet, the whole time I was
in religion, I didn't hear either one of them mentioned. Either
one of them. My sins, they said, began with
me. They began with me. And that
I could, by my choice or by my decisions, or by my experience
or something like that, I can change all of these things. There
was a change that could be made, and it was all up to me to do
it. And that Christ's death had a prominent place, but not a
preeminent place in salvation. Now while 1 Corinthians 15 would
serve fine for our text. I believe Romans chapter 5 is
the clearest of the two as to our present condition and the
hope set before us by the person and work of Christ. Now before
we read our text, I want to tell you one other thing, or at least
point it out to you that you might not be aware of. If you'll
look down in Romans 5 beginning with verse 13 and going through
verse 17, you'll notice that that whole thing is in parenthesis. See at the beginning of it there
in verse 13? And it doesn't end until it gets
all the way down to verse 17. This is what they call a parenthetical
statement. That's a great big word that
just means it's an explanation for what he's talking about.
He's going to pause from what he's saying, I'm going to explain
to you what he's talking about and then he's going to go on
talking about it. Now a lot of times these things are there
and it doesn't do any damage to what I'm trying to teach you.
The problem is sometimes you get overloaded with information
and trying to read the explanation, you forgot about what they're
talking about in the beginning. So this morning, I'm going to
lift it out. When you get home, or after a
while, or tomorrow, or whenever it's your convenience, you go
ahead and fit it back in and read it. It still says the same
thing. But this morning, in order for you to get the impact, of
what this thing is talking about in my subject with these two
atoms and how we stand in these two men, I'm going to lift it
out. Romans 5 verse 12, Wherefore,
as by one man, that first atom, sin entered into the world, and
death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, What's the evidence? All have sinned. All have sinned. Verse 18, 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. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. In other words, that you might
recognize the offense, that it might bring the offense to light. 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. In this first man. The condemnation
of God because of his sin and that sin that was passed to us
brought about a universal judgment of God of all men. That's what
he says here. By this one man's offense, the
whole world, everybody represented in him. Who was represented in
him? All men. All men. Now, even so, he gets down here
to the end and he tells us, even so, by Christ, the same man. And by His righteousness, by
His accomplishments, this grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. To tell us the truth about ourselves
and the truth about our God and His glorious redemption, we must
be brought to see ourselves as we stand in these two men. So let's begin where the text
begins in the first Adam. All that man is by birth, by
choice, and by practice, he owes to his father, Adam. That's who
he owes to. His father, Adam. The old cliche
suggests he's a chimp off the old block. That's what he is.
That's exactly what he is. The Scripture said, as is the
earthy. That first man was earthy. He
was of the earth, earthy. As is the earthy, such are they
also who are earthy. By this man, Adam's sin entered
into the world and passed from him to all his posterity. Through
this man, the very nature and character of all his sons and
daughters is to be found. I read some writers, not just
one in particular, but several writers, and they begin to speculate
about the wisdom of Adam and the greatness of Adam and all
of these things about Adam. Brethren, and they say, well,
you know, we just didn't live in that day. We'll never know.
All you have to do to know about Adam is look in a mirror. Isn't
that what 1 Corinthians 15 said? As was the earthy, such are they
also who are earthy. as we have borne the image of
the earthy. You want to know what that image
is? Look in the mirror. Study your own life. Examine
yourself. That's Adam. That's Adam. That natural man. We just like him. Now I'm talking
about the fundamental character of man. I know man progressed
economically through the different ages, and he's progressed in
his inventions and things. Our whole lifestyle, we don't
live like Abraham did. Abraham didn't get on a jet and
fly out to San Diego. You know, he walked and rode
a camel. I know that those things are
changed, but I'm talking about the fundamental character of
men is the same. It's never changed. Never changed. In Psalm 51, verse 5, in David's
confession of his condition before God, he said that God demanded
truth in the inward parts and from the heart. And from the
heart, David made his confession to God and he said, I was shapen
in iniquity. Wow! He was put together, his
nature, his character, was put together in his mother's womb
in iniquity." Now what does that say? I was shapen in iniquity
and conceived in sin. Whatever happened in the fall
and whatever this thing of sin is that passed upon all his children,
he sums it up as death. And now what does that say there
in verse 12 in Romans chapter 5? By one man, sin entered into
the world, and what? Death by sin. Death. Sin brought death, and death
passed upon all who were represented in him. And I know that not all
men and women live out their days the same. I've got eyes.
I know they don't live out their days. You live in a community
over there. All them people ain't the same.
Are they? Don't you have some drunks over
there? Some drug addicts, I do, right here in Taylor. We've got
drunks and dope addicts, but we've got church members. We've
got people over there who are very strict, moral people in
the community, community-minded, family-minded, what men call
good folks, while others go off into all kinds of crimes and
chase after their own lust and passion. But this is not because
there's some goodness in men that they choose to look over
or choose to ignore or some willingness on their part. This is the result
of God's restraining hand keeping some people from being as evil
as they could be. It's not an innate goodness in
man that causes some folks to live out better lives than others. It's the restraining hand of
God. I could, if we had time this
morning, take you through the scriptures and show you that
in different instances. But this is a fact. Paul said,
what have you gotten that you haven't received? Have you got
something? Have you got a good history? One fellow told me, he said,
I ain't always done the right thing. But he said, one thing
I can say. They all got one thing. One thing
I can say is that alcohol has never touched these lips. You reckon God's impressed with
that? That didn't even impress me. God's not impressed with
that. Don't mistake the restraining
hand of God for personal righteousness. Put under the same circumstance
and the same temptation, any man, any woman will do anything
that any other man or any other woman has ever done. How often,
I'm guilty as you are, how often have you read the newspaper about
some horrible, unthinkable act and you say, how could anybody
do that? You'd do it. Sure you would. If you put in the same place,
Apart from God's restraining grace, His restraining mercy
on you, and His hand not on you, not protecting you from those
things, you do the same thing they did. Exactly the same thing. And you know the Lord showed
us that. He showed us that in David. He showed us that in Noah. He showed that to us in so many
throughout the Bible. He doesn't hide those things
like we do. He tells us exactly what these men were and exactly
what they did. If we do anything anybody else
has done, and that includes the sodomites and the gross idolatry
and crimes, too sick to even mention in the presence of our
children. In Psalm chapter 14, the Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. He said, they are all gone aside,
they are together become filthy, there is none that doeth good,
no not one. Not one in the whole lot. I heard a preacher going on the
other day about Noah. God found one righteous man.
And because of his righteousness, He saved him and his children
and his wife. That ain't what the Bible says.
The Bible said Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Ain't
that what it says? He found grace. In Genesis chapter 6 and verse
5 it said that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth. That's talking about mankind.
He doesn't say men there. He said of man was great in the
earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. What are you saying preacher?
I'm saying that we're all represented in Adam and in Adam we're doomed. That's what I'm saying. Man's
doomed in the fall of Adam. He's got no hope. He's not going
to dig his way out of the pit. He can't get himself out from
under the condemnation of God. He can't work his way out of
his nature. He's a sinner. He is a sinner. He doesn't just sin, he's a sinner. The evidence of his sinnerhood
is his sins. That's what it says back there
in verse 12. That death that passed upon him, how we know
it? Because they all sinned. You wouldn't sin if you weren't
a sinner, would you? Man in Adam is doomed. He's imprisoned
with a fallen nature. He's deceived in his ignorance
by the powers of darkness, and he's under the condemnation of
God. He cannot be reformed because his rebellious heart and mind
is enmity. It's hostility toward God. It's
hostile. Like trying to pet a wolf. You
can't do anything with him. He's hostile. He cannot be educated
because the natural man won't receive the things of the Spirit
of God. I could educate him if I could get him to look at this
book. I could educate him and reform him if I could get him
to bow to the commands of God. But you can't do anything with
him because he's a rebel. And he hates God. And his mind
and his heart is enmity toward God. It's not subject, Paul said,
to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Word of God alone, the preaching
of the gospel, the authority of God that is put over you. Man don't want it. He don't want any part of it.
I don't care how ridiculous it is. How ridiculous that it might
appear man will do anything you tell him to do so long as it's
not according to the word and will of God, he'll do it. Tell
him he has to speak in tongues and he'll stand up here like
an idiot and babble on with a bunch of crap that nobody can understand.
He'll do it. Would you do that? If I stood
here today and told you, now here's what you've got to do
to be saved. You've got to speak in tongues. Huh? Would you do
it? Yes, you would. You might not
now that you have the wisdom of Christ, but there's a day
that you would have. Or if I told you, now here's what you've got
to do. You've got to come down that aisle. What do you mean I've got to
come down that aisle? You have to confess before the
people. You have to tell all your sins to a priest. I don't
care how ridiculous it is. And it can get pretty ridiculous. A man will do anything you tell
him to do so long as it's not according to the will and Word
of God. Martin Luther crawled on broken
glass because some pretender to the throne of Christ told
him that that's how he could satisfy God. That's the only
way he could reach penance for his sin was to crawl on broken
glass. How ridiculous is that? The shakers. They believed that
by abstaining from sex they could achieve a righteousness with
God, but without sex they couldn't reproduce and soon disappeared
from the earth. And what is it that men and women
are being told today? Up in the mountains of West Virginia
and Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, they're told to handle snakes.
Speaking of some unknown gibberish. hear voices in their mind, see
visions, walk aisles, make decisions, baptize babies. In your wildest
imagination, how in the world could a man believe that he could
be redeemed to God by sprinkling water on a baby? Huh? That's ridiculous. Thousands
do it. Thousands do it. Why don't men
just do what pleases God? Why won't they bow to His Word
and will? Because they hate God. That's
why. They hate God. It's man's depravity that keeps
him from coming to Christ. There's nothing complicated about
salvation. Salvation is coming to Christ.
He said, all that the Father giveth me will come to me, and
him that cometh to me, I'll know why I was cast out. That's not
difficult, is it? Just come to Him. Come to Him. You don't have to come down an
aisle. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. This man's deprived
you. He don't want to do that. I just... What do we care? Think about
it. Why do we care how God's pleased
to save us as long as He saves us? I'll tell you what the problem
is. We're not beggars. There's where
the problem is. We're not helpless. We still
think we can take turns. We still think we can cut deals
with God. There's where the problem is.
We don't know what we are before God. And we don't know who God
is. Why do we care? how God pleased
to save, as long as it's safe. I just can't picture a starving
beggar refusing a piece of bread because it ain't whole wheat
or rye. Can you? Hand him a piece of bread. Well,
have you got anything else? I can't even picture that in
my mind. Can you? I can't picture a bankrupt beggar
being handed a silver dollar, and he hands it back, and he
said, I'd rather have three quarters, two dimes, and a nickel. Can you? Mankind and Adam is under the
judgment and wrath of God, and if God leaves you to yourself,
you're doomed. Now, you're doomed. There's no hope. There's no hope
for Adam's sons in Adam. And nowhere does man's condemnation
show itself as it does in his utter rejection of the free grace
of God in Christ. The Lord said to the Jews in
John 5.39, you search the Scriptures. You're diligent to do that. You
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. And they are they that testify of Me. But you won't
come to Me. Why not? He said that's who the
Scriptures testify to Him, give all the prophets witness. Why
won't they come to Him? Because they hate God. They hate
God. You won't have me as God has
set me forth and you won't have me in my offices and you won't
have me and you won't submit to me under my authority and
you won't receive my gospel. He said this is condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. You want proof of the condemnation?
There it is. There it is. You won't come to
Christ. Why not? Because you love darkness. You
love darkness. Oh, they love to pray. They love
religion. They love to pray long prayers
to be heard of men and they love to give alms in a crowd and they
love to let everybody know that they fasted. Get that face all
out of shape. Maybe not shave for a day or
two or whatever. I don't know what limping got
to do with it, but I just kind of picture them limping around
like they're on their last leg and they want everybody to know,
well, you've been fasting? Yeah, yeah, I've been fasting.
They love to wear their religious dress, and they love the chief
seats in the semagogues, and they love their titles and stations,
and they love their being recognized by men, rabbi, master. They love that. They love their
tradition and ways. He said, the prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests bear rule by mean, and my people love
to have it so. Why? Because they love darkness. That's right. Let a man preach the glorious
gospel of God's free grace in Christ, and they'll despise him. They'll put a mark on him. They'll
blackball him out of the community. Everybody he baptizes will be
baptized for the dead. Mankind and Adam is doomed. He'll
dream of reformation and righteousness. He'll dig for himself broken
cisterns that can hold no water. He'll make for himself false
refuges. He'll do all he can to rest on
a bed too narrow to lie on and covers too short to cover up
with. The Scripture's full of descriptions of man. And if Adam
were the only representative man, there'd be no hope for man. But there's another Adam, and
he's called the last Adam. The last Adam. He's first in
purpose and existence, but he's last in the order of revelation.
He's first in the order of glory and significance, but he's last
in the manifestation of his glory. As all mankind was represented
in the first Adam, so all God's elect are represented in the
last Adam. Every man, woman, and child were
not represented in Christ. Now, it's just so. If that bothers
you, you need to get over it. Read the scriptures. It's very
plain on the subject. Every man, woman, and child is
not represented in Christ. He represents a people given
him by the Father. We say, I believe all men are
represented in Christ. If they were, they'd all be redeemed.
See, that's what you got to do. You got to go over here and find
out what happened at the cross. And looking through that glass,
you look back over here and it'll straighten you out on this. What
happened on that cross? Did He actually buy people? Did
He actually redeem a people? Did He actually save a people?
Well, then He didn't save the whole world. What happened? Did
He fail? What happened? You see what I'm
saying? What happened on the cross? That'll determine your
doctrine over here. If He represented all men, all
men would be redeemed. They'd all be born of God. They'd
all be brought to faith and repentance. And they'd all exhibit the fruit
of the Spirit. And they'd all rejoice in Christ.
To make God's love, the redemptive work of Christ,
universal. Now listen to me. To make God's
love and the representative and the redemptive work of Christ
universal is to utterly deny God's love and the person and
work of His Son. There's no way you can make what
He did apply to this whole world. There's no way. No way. And that's not even to mention
making God to be a liar. The Scripture said, In Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall how many? all be made alive. Huh? But what about the dead? What about these spiritually
dead? Why is there hell? You see what I'm saying? There's
no way He represented all men. The Scripture says nothing can
separate us from the love of God in Christ, yet religion tells
us that many He loved are perishing in hell. He said, all which the Father
hath given to me, he said, I'll lose nothing. Yet religion grieves
over their losses every day. I'll give you another scripture.
He said, I give unto them eternal life, and they'll never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Who's going to pluck them out
of his hand? The only way you're going to
pluck somebody is if they ain't in his hand. Then they're easy
to be plucked. Well, you say, now, it just depends
if that man does this or does that. He's going to cast him
out. It ain't what he said. He said, all that come to me,
I will know why it's cast out. Let me tell you something. God himself poured out his wrath
on his son as a substitute. I can't even imagine. I can't
imagine taking one of my sons or daughters and putting them
on the sacrificial fire. I can't even imagine that. But
God did. And He did it as a substitute. He did it in our room instead,
in the room instead of a people. We can't even conceive of that,
but if you can, just how much of that you can conceive of,
can you then conceive of Him taking this one for whom He made
His Son to suffer and putting Him on the fire too? That's why I don't believe in
universal anything, universal salvation, any of that stuff. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
representative man appointed by God, ordained by God, who
is very God of very God and man in one person. And He was put
there for a people, given Him of the Father before the world
began. 1 Peter 1, verse 2, He said, They are called elect And now what he said there, elect
according to the foreknowledge of God. Now, he never even met
them. They're scattered all over Cappadocia
and all over Asia and all over. And he writes this letter to
them and he calls them elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. In Romans 8 verse 28, they're identified as the called
according to his purpose. In Ephesians 1, 5, they're set
forth as a people predestinated under the adoption of children.
All of their names in Scripture set them forth as divided from
all other men. He calls them His sheep. His sheep. His bride. His children. His heirs. And
none of the relationships He uses to describe His relationship
to His people can be interpreted in any way as universal. He calls
Himself their Father. Huh? Their Father. their husband,
their brother, their friend. And none of his offices can be
applied to any but his elect, the priest. He's the high priest. Israel had one priest. Who had
him? Israel. Prophet. Who had a prophet but
Israel? The King, the Savior, the Redeemer,
the Substitute. Universal salvation is a lie. It's a lie out of hell, and it
cannot be found in the Word of God, nor this so-called free
will of man. We are the result of free will. Adam had a free will. We're the
result of it. Christ is the Redeemer of all
His elect. When He lived as their representative,
He did for them what they could not do for themselves. He obeyed
God in all that He was commanded to do. And He's the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. They have in Christ
the very righteousness of God. They have in Christ an honored
law. They have in Christ an obedience
of pure love. Religion lives to manifest a
righteousness acceptable to God. Apostle Paul said he didn't want
his. He carried his out and threw
it on the dung heap. He said, oh, that I might win
Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness.
He didn't want any part of it. But that which is through the
faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness of God. What's my hope? What's
your hope? How do we seek to be found? We're not long before we stand
before God. None of us. The youngest of us
here, not long. You'll find out your life is
just a vapor. You get just a little bit older,
man, them days pass by like a phew, just gone. What's my hope? How do I seek to be found? You're hoping that if you do
the best you can that God will overlook your faults and show
some leniency. Is that your hope? Have you set
a goal or a standard you believe God will accept and struggle
every day to reach it? How do we hope to be found? Paul
said he hoped to be found without any righteousness of his own
doing. None. None of his own doing. But only in the righteousness
of Christ. In this representative man, we
have a righteousness that leaves us without fault before God. Faultless, he said, before the
presence of His glory. And in this representative man,
all God's elect have a perfect justification. All of our sins
have been laid on Him. He satisfied justice and vengeance
and the holy wrath of God concerning our sins. He gave to God what
God demanded for our sins. Now, I'm not even going to pretend
I know what that means, and you don't either. You don't either. I just know verbally what He
says about sins before God and the wrath of God. I have no concept
of everlasting punishment. I have no concept of that perfect
justice except as I see it carried out on Christ on the cross. I'm not even going to pretend that
I know What that entailed except to say that when he saw the travail
of the soul of his son, he was satisfied. He no longer requires
anything from his elect. All that they owed, he paid. All that was required of them,
he did. Now the end of this thing is
this. that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's where it's at. It's in
the second Adam. It's not in our doing. It's not
in our sacrifices. It's all in him, Nathan. It's
all been done. It's all been accepted. God raised
him from the dead and seated him at his right hand, gave him
a free hand to sinners. Save whom you will. What then is my message to those
whom I have sent? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved. Believe
on Him as God has set Him forth as a propitiation for our sins.
Believe on Him as God has set Him forth as a representative
of all His elect. Believe on Him as God has declared
Him to be the righteousness of God by faith, the sin bearer,
the substitute, the reigning king, the wisdom of God, and
the sanctifying priest. Believe on Him. Come to Him.
Rest in Him. Believe on Christ. alone. Don't
mix your work with His. Don't mix your sacrifice with
His. And don't mix your nature with
His. Believe on Him. Rest in Him.
That's where life is. It's in Him. We'll have the rest
of it in that day. But right now, we've got the
earnest of it. And the earnest of it is the mind of Christ.
Faith in Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit teaches
those He calls. Our Father, bless the message
this morning. I look back on myself and my struggling ignorance and
darkness. And my confession is, but by
the revelation of the Holy Spirit, I'd have known nothing. I've
still been looking, still been searching, still been confused,
but for His revelation. Our Lord, that's what we pray
for this morning. Take this message and reveal
it to the hearts of seeking sinners, for Christ's sake. Amen.