This morning I want to just preach
the gospel to you. I want to preach the gospel that
I heard in 1979. When Henry preached I heard him
on television, and I heard the gospel. And I want to give that
to you. And I'm going to give it to you
in three points. What happened in the fall, what happened in
the garden, what happened at the cross, and what happens in
the heart of a sinner when God saves them. what happens in a
sinner when God saves that sinner. And to do this, we must first
start with what happened in the garden. If we go wrong there,
we go wrong the rest of the way. As I heard said, wrong on the
fall, wrong on it all. If you go wrong there, you're
wrong on it all. So it says in Romans 5.12, wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered the world, death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Now, we know
and we've been well taught what happened in that garden. God
commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. He said, for in the day that you eat thereof, you
will surely die. And Adam, fully knowing fully
knowing what he was doing. Eve was deceived, but not Adam. Adam was not deceived. Adam knew
exactly what he was doing. The scripture says Eve was deceived,
but Adam wasn't deceived. Fully knowing what he was doing,
he disobeyed God. Right in the face of God Almighty,
he did what God said don't do. He did it. And by this one act
of disobedience, not many, not many acts of disobedience, not
many sins, just one. That's how strict the justice
of God Almighty is. One sin. I told my boys growing
up, if you do it again, I'm going to do it again, I'm going to
do it again. I sound like a broken record sometimes. God said one
time, and he did what he said he would do. With God it's one time. One act
of disobedience. Many were made sinners. And when
that happened, we lost the weight of God, the truth of God, and
the life of God. What is it Christ said that he
is? I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. He's everything
that I lost in Adam. Everything. I didn't make myself
a sinner. I did not become one at a certain
age. I was born one. Adam made me a sinner. Adam made
me a sinner. And I received from him that
same rebellious nature that he had. He passed it on to me. Passed it to my parents, and
they gave it to me, and I gave it to my boys, and they're going to give
it to theirs, and so on and so on. He gave to me pride and lust
and envy and self-love, and all of that came from him. It came
from my Father Adam. But not only was his sin imputed
to me, a sinful nature was imparted to me. Look over in Psalm 51. Most of you already know this
by heart. David says in Psalm 51, 5, he says, Behold, it's like he's
saying, pay attention, listen to this, I've got something here
to say, I was shaped in iniquity and sin did my mother conceive
me. From birth I was made a sinner, from birth. Now look over in
Psalm 58. It says in verse 3, the wicked
are astray from the rule, they go astray as soon as they be
born speaking lies. You don't have to teach a child
how to lie. It's inbred into them. I am a sinner by birth, I'm a
sinner by choice, and I'm a sinner by practice. That's me naturally. And since I fall in Adam, there
is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sins not.
That's hard to comprehend. The human race can't comprehend
it, because they... Look at the billions of people
that have lived, and you're telling me that not one of them was just?
Not one of them was able to do good and sin not? No, that's
what God said. That's what God said. I'm not
making this up. This is what God said. We bow
to God's Word. You know, we base everything
we believe on the Word of God. It's the foundation of faith.
It's the foundation of our faith, the word of God. And now the
human race is motivated by an evil nature and an evil spirit. You can look over in Ephesians
2, the God of this world. And they cannot love God, they
cannot please God, they cannot believe God, because they won't
do it. They have such an evil darkness
in them that they cannot believe God. They don't have spiritual
life in them. Man has to have spiritual life
in him to believe God. No man has that until God gives it to
him. We cannot repent. Repentance is a gift of God.
It's a gift of God. We cannot repent without a powerful
work of God creating a new heart, a new person. Impossible. Because
it says in Romans 8, verse 7, the carnal mind is enmity against
God. At war, at war with God. When I was born into this world,
I was born into this world at war with God. Right from the
get-go. I was at war with God. Right
from the start. Now, Karl O'Malley is enmity
against God. And it says also that, so that they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. He can give, a man can give all
he wants, do all the charity he wants, he cannot please God. Only Christ was able to do that.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He didn't
say that about any other man, but Christ. For a man sees nothing
desirable in the One who is altogether lovely. Isn't that something? Christ is the One, the Son of
the Father, who is altogether lovely, and when humanity looks
at Him, they see nothing in Him that's desirable. They turned
thumbs down on him, rejected him, despised him, and we would
have done the exact same thing if we had been there. We would have done it. Had the same
nature they had. They don't see him as God over
all, blessed forever. And don't rejoice in him as God
over all, blessed forever. Not at all. That's what happened
in the garden. And if you dwell on that too
long, that's despairing. There's nothing good news in
that. That's disparaging. But let's look also now at what
happened at the cross. What happened at the cross when
Christ was put to death, when the Son of God became our substitute? I know that in today's preaching
in many pulpits, they believe that salvation was made possible. When they look at the cross,
they see a possibility. For all men, for every son of
Adam, that they'll all accept him. You know that's the preaching
of our day, that we live in, this generation. But I'm telling
you that salvation was actually and really accomplished, secured
for a particular people. They got it. They got it. He saved his sheep. And he's
saving his sheep. He's calling out his sheep. That's
what he's doing. He's doing that. They don't preach
to understand the gospel of substitution. They don't understand that when
Christ went to that cross, sin was imputed to him, sin was laid
on him, and he was made to be sin. I've always understood it like
this. He was made to be what I am, that I might be made to
be what he is. God made him to be what I am.
Why did God call Jacob? What did he call Jacob? He said,
Thou worm, Jacob. What did Christ say in Psalm
22? I am a worm. I am a worm and no man. He so
identified with me that he called himself a worm. The transaction
was so real that he called my sins his sins. Look over at Psalm
40. This transaction was that real.
Because the law has to deal with me. The law has to be satisfied
that I'm the one dying, that I'm the one suffering for it. You can't commit a crime and
have an innocent man die for it. The law of our land wouldn't
put up with that. Now you know this is a, let me find it, Psalm
40. This is a Messianic Psalm, because
you can see down here in verse Sixth, sacrifice an offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened, burnt
offering or sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book is written of me.
I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my
heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation, lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest." Now let's go to verse 12. where memorable
evils have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart fails me." The transaction
was so complete that he called my sins his sins. He hung there
on the cross, and when the Lord dealt with him, it dealt with
me. It dealt with John And as far as the law is concerned,
it put me to death. It punished me, as far as God's
law is concerned. He took my place, he took my
sin, he took my punishment. He took it all. And when the
law dealt with him, it dealt with me. What happened at the
cross? Peace with God was made. Peace
with God Almighty was made between the sinner and God. His children
and God, it was made. Righteousness and peace kissed
each other right there at the cross. Righteousness and peace. Reconciliation was made. He has
reconciled us. God has reconciled us in the
death of his Son. The image of the Lord was put
away and justice satisfied. If you want to describe what
happened at the cross, You can describe it in two words, substitution
and satisfaction. I'm telling you, you learn those
two words, you learn the gospel. Now it says in Romans 5, verse
18, Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation, even so, by the righteousness of one,
the free gift came upon all men unto 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." He says here,
"...even so, in the same manner, by the obedience of Christ, the
last Adam," that's what he's called, the last man, the last
Adam, "...the free gift of righteousness came upon all men unto justification
of life." Now, the all-who-who representative is the one he's
talking about here. See, Adam represented everyone that's born
into this world. Christ represented the heavenly race. That's the
best way I know to term it. Adam represented the whole human
race. Christ represented the whole heavenly race. By his obedience,
we are made righteous and justified. All whom he represented are justified
in him. And in the same fashion that
we were in Adam and fell in him through representation, even
so are we, that is, believers, are in Christ and raised in him
and justified in him. Now, the free gift of his righteousness,
that's what he's talking about here, the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, by which no man will see God if he doesn't
have it. The free gift of his righteousness is given to us,
is charged to us, is laid to our account through faith in
him. without any effort of our own, and in him we are justified
from all things from which he could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Now, listen, whereas by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, many were made sinners. Adam's
disobedience didn't put me on trial. Adam's disobedience didn't
make me have a weaker immune system. we were actually made sinners.
That's what I was made. Now listen. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Not only, and I believe this
with all my heart, not only am I legally righteous before God,
not only do I have a legal standing before God, but we are made the
righteousness of God in him. made righteous in him. I not
only have a righteous standing before God Almighty, I do, I
have that. I have a right standing before
God Almighty. But in that new creation of a
new man, that new person of Christ, I am righteous. I am righteous. And this brings me to my last
point. What happens in a sinner when
God saves him. Is that gospel, is that important?
Is it important? I asked myself, somebody asked
me this, the reason why I'm putting this question out here. And I
threw this question back. Is what Christ does in me as
much gospel as what he did for me? You write that answer down
yourself. Christ does in me as important
as what he did for me at Calvary. Well, to me, the answer I told
this person is yes. I said, yes, it is, and I will
tolerate without anything else or less. It's gospel. I'm telling you, it's gospel.
And the first thing that God does in me, did in me, is to
give me a new birth. Life from the dead. Create within me a new person. My first birth was no good. My
first birth from my parents was absolutely no good. And he would agree with me. He
heard the gospel. He'd agree. It might offend some
parents who never heard the gospel, but he'd agree. It's no good. No good. Therefore I must be
born again." Turn over to the gospel of John chapter 3. Now,
when the Lord says you must, I think we must pay attention. John chapter 3. He's talking here to a religious
man who's been well taught in the scriptures. And the Lord
said to Nicodemus in verse 3, "'Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.'" He can't see it, he can't understand it. You can preach
the gospel to him all day long, and he just cannot comprehend
it. Because flesh is flesh. You know, the natural mind, natural
logic never understands the gospel. Never. Nicodemus said unto him,
and right here, I mean, his answer tells you. How can a man be born
when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Here's a man that read
the scriptures every day, was a teacher, and didn't know this. Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water, that is the
word, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
He not only can't see it, understand it, he's not going to be in it.
He's not going to be in it. Now, verse 6, "...that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit, and is spiritual." That man that's born of God is
a spiritual man, totally different from the old man, totally different. That new birth is the birth of
a real spiritual man that was not there before. He wasn't there
before. He's created new. New. And he has nothing of blood and
flesh in it. There is absolutely nothing of
this flesh and blood in that new man, in that spiritual man. There is nothing in it. Look over at 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1. He's a new man. Here it says down in verse 2,
As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that
you may grow thereby, I tell you this. If you come up and show me your
baby, what do you show me? A real person. You show me a
real, living person. And that man that's born of God
is a real, living, spiritual man, born of God. He says, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. My first
birth was of a corruptible seed. corruptible. Every sin known
to man, and even probably those not known yet, but every sin
known to man was in that seed. Every ounce of wickedness, iniquity,
all the rebellion, all the hatred of God, all that despises God
was in that seed. It was in it. But the person who is born again
is incorruptible. The seed that God used in giving
you that new birth is the Word of God. It's the Word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever, and it liveth and abideth forever
also in you. It's in that new man. That's
right. My first birth was nothing good
in it. Now, this is a very important
point here. What it's saying is this, that
there is no sin in that new man. There is no sin in that new man
that's born of God, that's created by God. Or as the scripture says
in 1 John 1, 9, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin,
for his seed, the word of God and the nature of God is in that
man. His seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because why?
He's born of God. He is born of God. I couldn't
do any good in my first birth because I was born of sinful
parents, and they were born of sinful parents right on back. But I'm telling you what, that
second birth, you're born of God. That old man can do no good,
and that new man does no wrong. I went back to the 80s and 90s,
and I looked over notes that I've had preached here and everywhere
else, and some of this that I've pulled out of them old notes
that I preached back in 1987, and I preached from this scripture
out of Romans 5 back in 1987. And I looked at that and I thought,
that's so. That's so. That hasn't changed. An old man can't do one good
thing. And I'm sorry I got him. You
know, God said, He said, let the tares and the wheat grow
together. And when I come, I'll separate them. He said, I'll
separate the sheep from the goats. You know, one day He's going
to separate that old nature from that new nature. He's going to sever
that relationship. One day he's going to take this
old man that I have to carry around with me, that I'm sorry
for, I have to apologize for and repent of, he's going to
cut it off. He's going to put him in the
grave. And I want you to listen to this.
I said that new man does no wrong because he's born of God. You
know why? I said this in Sunday school.
Like begets like. in Genesis, after its kind. After its kind. That's all it
says, after its kind. Every time God created something
and it regenerated, reproduced, it was after its kind. Children of God are after their
kind. God. Born of God. Our Lord said this. He said clean
water and salt water cannot come from the same fountain. It's
got to be two different fountains. You've got that new man and that
old man. He said a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. And he said a good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit. Two separate natures, two separate
trees, two separate fountains. One can do no good and one does
no wrong. That new man is made righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said this, I am divine,
what are you? The branches. Is not the branch
everything divine is? Is it not everything divine is? As he is, so are we in this world. How is he? Righteous, holy. Do I feel it? It's got nothing
to do with it. I'm telling you, what I feel
has nothing to do with it. It's what this right here says.
Forget about the feeling of it. It's what the Word of God says.
That's what it says. As he is, so are we in this world.
This is not introducing another righteousness, for it comes from
the Lord our righteousness, both my standing and my person, that
new man. It comes from the same Lord,
our righteousness. Now, turn over to Ephesians 4. In Ephesians 4, verse 24, he says, And that you put on
the new man. which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. This is not just my standing
before God, this is also my person before God. That new man is in
Christ. He's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Lord Jesus Christ is in that new man, that spiritual
man. He's in him. That new man is created in righteousness
and true holiness. The nature of Christ is in that
new man. Just as Adam's rebellious nature
is in that old man, that's where you've got it. It's in that old
man. Even so, that loving, obedient
nature of Christ is in that new man. It's there. Where do you think that love
comes from? It comes from him. It's in you.
That nature of him is in you. That's where it comes from. Remember
this, the branch grows out of the vine. And we have come out
of him. We have come out of Christ. That
spiritual man is out of him. And someday God's going to lay
the old man down in the grave, and that new man is going to
be with the Lord. He's going to be with the Lord. That's right.
That old man is going to die, but that new man shall live forever.
You're looking at a man that's not going to die. I'm telling you, I'm not going
to die. I know what you think. You say, well, we've buried quite
a few people. You're burying a man that's already dead. You're
burying a body that's already dead. You're burying a body that's
nothing but flesh. You're burying a flesh. But that new man has no sin.
That's why he doesn't die. If he did, he'd die. Christ put
him away. Christ put it all away. And why am I not going to die?
Because I am a part of him. He's the head, I'm part of the
body. I'm a part of him. Now get a
hold of this. As Eve was taken out of Adam,
even so we are taken out of Christ. Now listen. When God created
Eve, what did he do? He put Adam to sleep. A deep
sleep it says. And he took a rib and he took
out of Adam that rib and he made a woman. He made a woman. God put his son to death. And
out of him came the church and every member. I tell you this
is so sweet to me because I know that This spiritual man, this new
man, this new creation of God, came out of the Lord Jesus Christ,
made out of him, holy and righteous. That's the one who's going to
be with the Lord now. That's the one who's going to be with
the Lord. The believer is never going to
die. He has no sin. Christ put him all away. Christ
who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. This is the gospel. This is the gospel. This is the
gospel I've heard and believed for many years. And I'll tell
you what, I ain't changing. I ain't changing and I'm not
confused. This is the gospel. And I thank God for it. I'm telling
you, I thank God Almighty for the gospel. I thank God Almighty
that He made a new me. He's going to get rid of the
old me. I'm glad He's going to get rid of the old me. And I hate that he has to go
with me everywhere I go now. But I can't get rid of him. I cannot
make that separation. God can. God can make it. Okay,
Mike.