Four Questions About Vital Issues

Q: What does the Bible say about the fall of man?

The Bible recounts the fall of man in Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve disobey God, resulting in sin entering the world. In Genesis 3, the narrative details the crucial moment of the fall when Adam, our representative, knowingly disobeys God by eating from the forbidden tree. This act of rebellion was not just a simple disobedience; it was a declaration against God's authority. Adam’s choice to eat the fruit represents the willful separation from God and introduces sin into humanity, affecting all his descendants. The consequences of this fall are profound, leading to spiritual death, physical death, and the eternal separation from God, often referred to as hell. Understanding this event is foundational for grasping the necessity of redemption and the work of Christ on the cross.

Q: How do we know God exists?

The Bible begins with the affirmation that God created everything, as stated in Genesis 1:1, which is foundational for understanding His existence. Genesis 1:1 states, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' This opening line of Scripture establishes the existence of God as the Creator of all things. The order and complexity of the creation reflect His divine nature and power. Furthermore, the consistent testimony of Scripture throughout reveals God's character and attributes. The creation itself acts as a testament to His existence, as Psalm 19:1 tells us that 'the heavens declare the glory of God.' Even the natural world points to a Creator who is intelligent, powerful, and sovereign over all. Ultimately, our understanding of God stems from revelation through Scripture rather than merely human reasoning.

Q: Why is Jesus' death on the cross significant?

Jesus' death on the cross is central to the Christian faith as it serves as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, fulfilling God's covenant and justice. The significance of Jesus' death on the cross cannot be overstated; it represents the culmination of God's redemptive plan for humanity. On the cross, Christ bore the wrath of God for the sins of His people, thus meeting both justice and mercy. As stated in Romans 3:25, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, which means His sacrifice satisfies God's requirement for justice while extending grace to sinners. This event not only fulfills the covenant of redemption but also serves as the basis upon which believers find forgiveness and eternal life. His resurrection thereafter assures us of victory over sin and death, cementing the hope of salvation for all who believe.

Q: How does God save sinners?

God saves sinners through His sovereign grace, primarily accomplished via the work of Christ and through faith in Him. Salvation is a multifaceted work of God's grace beginning with His unconditional election of certain individuals to salvation in eternity past. According to Ephesians 2:8-9, we are saved by grace through faith, which itself is a gift from God. The redemptive work of Christ is central to this process; His death and resurrection provide the necessary basis for forgiveness of sins. Following this, the Holy Spirit performs the work of regeneration, bringing the sinner from death to life. Finally, God preserves His people through continual grace, ensuring that those whom He has chosen will persevere in the faith until the end. Thus, God's saving work is entirely rooted in His grace and initiative, not in human effort.

to ask and answer, from the word
of God, four questions. The title of my message is Four
Questions About Vital Issues. It's my intention to address
four of the most important questions you will ever, ever consider
in this world. I'm going to answer those questions
for you, not with my opinions, because my opinions are meaningless.
And so we have far too grand an idea concerning ourselves
as though our opinions about the Word of God mean something.
Our opinions about the Word of God are utterly meaningless.
I'm going to answer these things for you from the Word of God
alone. And if you'll follow with me
through the Scriptures, you will see that what I'm saying comes
directly from the Word of God. I'm not going to appeal to any
of the creeds or confessions of the church. I'm not going
to quote any of the church fathers. I'm not going to give you the
theological opinions of great men of the past or the present.
Our only authority for faith, our only authority for believing
anything. Folks say, do you believe in?
I believe this book. That's all. I believe this book. Our only authority for believing
anything is the Word of God. Only authority. Our only rule
of faith and practice is the Word of God. To the law and to
the testimony, if any speak not according to this Word, it is
because there is no right in them. Those who do not speak
according to this Word. Now listen to me. It doesn't
matter whether you're talking about politicians, preachers,
or teachers. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about philosophers, scientists, historians, it doesn't matter.
Any who speak not according to this Word, run as cold as they're
in darkness. There's no light in them. Not
even a little bit. There is no light in them. All Scripture, the whole inspired
Bible, Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and this alone is profitable. This alone
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
complete, mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Our textbook, then, in matters
of doctrine, our textbook in all matters of spiritual truth,
our textbook in all matters of spiritual saving knowledge, is
and must be the Word of God alone. Now with those things in mind,
I want you to turn with me and we will begin at Genesis chapter
1 and verse 1. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. The scripture says, In the beginning
God. In the beginning In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. Now you can mark this down. You can mark this down. Everything
began with God. And everything still begins with
God. Everything. Without Him, nothing is. Without Him, nothing comes to
pass. The very first thing we read
about taking place in the Bible after God created the heavens
and the earth, you find in Genesis chapter 2, verse 8. Genesis chapter
2, verse 8. And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Now, I don't know where the Garden
of Eden But that doesn't bother me in
the least, because I know nobody else knows where it is either. We're not given any information
concerning that. We don't know where the origin
of man was in this world, but that's totally irrelevant. That's
totally irrelevant. It would be abhorrent for us
to find out where it was, for some fool would go build a shrine,
and they'd start calling that a holy land. We don't know where
it is, because God's hidden it from us. But I do want to know
this. I want to know what happened
in that garden, and I want you to know what happened in that
garden. And that's the first question I want to address. What
happened in the garden? What actually took place? You've
heard the Bible description all your life of the story of the
creation of God, planting the garden, placing the original
couple, Adam and Eve, in the garden, and of the temptation
of the serpent, and Adam and Eve succumbing to the serpent's
temptation. You've heard the story all your
life. But what really happened? What really took place in that
garden? Now, it's a very, very important
question, because if you understand what happened in the garden,
You cannot possibly understand anything else revealed in this
book. It all begins there. You cannot possibly understand
any other teaching of the scriptures until you understand what happened
in the garden. I'll guarantee you this. I'll
guarantee you this. Find me a man who holds erroneous
views concerning election, redemption, justification, regeneration,
preservation, sanctification, and glorification. And I'll show
you a man who has an erroneous view of what happened in the
garden. He doesn't understand what took place in the garden.
If you understand what took place in the garden, everything else
will fall into place. And so when you begin to think
about understanding the scriptures and understanding something about
the way of life and salvation, you've got to begin right here.
What happened in the garden? Now there are four things clearly
revealed in these opening chapters of Genesis that took place in
the garden. The first, of course, was the
creation of man. God created man in his own image
and after his own likeness. God placed his creature in the
garden and gave Adam dominion over all his creation. God gave
Adam everything. Everything. And he gave all things
to us in Adam. Everything. He was our head representative,
as we'll see in a moment. Look in Genesis chapter 1 verse
26. And God said, let us make man. The triune God consulted
together. Let us make man in our image
and after our likeness. And let them, do you see that?
Let them. Let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the
cattle and over the earth and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God created he
him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them,
and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth, and do it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have
given you of every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of
all the earth. and every tree into which is
the fruit of the tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for
meat, and to every beast of the earth, and to every pile of the
air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there
is life, I have given every green herb for meat." And it was so. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very, very good. God created
man. God placed him upon the earth
and gave him dominion over everything, gave him possession of everything
except one thing, one thing. He said you can't have the fruit
of the truth, of the knowledge of goodness. That one thing you
can't have. That one thing stands as a symbol
and a representation of my dominion, of my right to be God, of my
right to control everything. You can't have the fruit of that
tree. Look in Genesis 2 verse 18. The Lord God said it is not good
that man should be alone. I will make him help me for him.
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to
see what he would call them. Imagine that. God brought them
all to Adam. What do you want to call that?
But what do you want to call that? We'll call it a lion. But
what do you want to call this? That's an elephant. God brought
everything to Adam and said, you name it. It's yours. You
name it. There we go. And whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And
Adam gave names to all the cattle and all the fowl of the air and
every beast of the field, but for Adam, there was none found,
or there was not found, and help meet for him, and help equal
to or fitted for him. 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 instead thereof. And the
rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and
brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed." What a beautiful picture. Here's the most blessed picture
of humanity. you're ever going to see for
Christ's sake. Adam and Eve were made in the
image of God. God made man upright. God made his creature after his
image holy and righteous. So that Adam lived in this world
as God's original creature. As he first came from the hands
of God, he lived in righteousness, holiness, godliness, and communion
with God. Adam and Eve lived together in
perfect harmony. I mean perfect harmony. There
were no spats or squabbles in that household. There was no
shame, there were no secrets, there was no sickness and no
disease because there was no sin. They lived in perfect harmony. It is utterly impossible for
human beings today on this earth to live in perfect harmony. But
it's not going to happen because we are people of sin. Adam and
Eve had none. They lived in perfect harmony
because they lived in perfect consciousness. And this holy
couple had dominion over everything in God's creation and possessed
it all. They possessed it all. They had
everything given to them. Adam loved Eve and Eve served
Adam. That's a picture of what humanity
ought to be. That's a picture of what it ought
to be. That's a picture, James Lee, of how we ought to strive
to live in our houses for God's good. That's a picture of it,
because that's the way God made us. I know. I know society says
we ought not live like that anymore. You see, we live in a society
where everybody's smarter than God. Everybody thinks they're
smarter than God. Daddy's mama don't paddle with
children anymore because they're smarter than God. Daddy's mama
don't make the kids behave because they're smarter than God. Daddy's
mama don't pay any attention to the governing of their household
because they're smarter than God. They don't exercise their
ways. They're smarter than God. Husbands
and wives don't live together in their households according
to the rule that God himself has established by nature because
they're smarter than God. They're smarter than God. They're
all around you. You can't live like that. Let me tell you something. Can you imagine how happy our
society would be today if men and women lived together, not
as partners, but as husband and wife? As husband and wife? You imagine
not a partnership. It isn't. We don't live together
as partners. Marriage is a wedding of two
people. Marriage is a wedding of two people according to the
ordinance of God, a man loving his wife, providing for his wife,
caring for his wife, protecting his wife, and a woman serving
her husband. A hell meets heaven. Oh, what
a blessed household that is, where such order is maintained. Call it old-fashioned if you
want to, archaic, chauvinistic, sexist, I don't care what you
call it or anybody else calls it. But I'm here to tell you
that as long as rebels dream that they're smarter than God,
their homes will continue to be dens of strife, anarchy, and
misery. But I'm not here to talk to you
about that. I'm going to move on. There was a covenant made
with man by God himself. When God placed Adam in the garden,
he made a covenant with his creatures. And we have a hint of it given
here in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 15. The Lord God took the
man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep
it. That was Adam's responsibility.
His responsibility to dress and keep the garden. I don't have
any idea what that involved. He didn't have any weaves, but
he didn't have any briars, he didn't have any pistons. But
he was responsible to dress and keep the garden. And the Lord
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat. You want this cake? You want
that cake? No! Of every tree in the garden
thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Now, this covenant
that was made with Adam was not made with Adam indeed. You notice
that? Eve hadn't been created yet.
Eve was yet to be created when God made the covenant. You see,
Eve was not the head of the household, and Eve was not the head of the
race. Adam was the head of the race, and Adam was the head of
the household. Adam was the one who was the representative man
whom God ordained to be a covenant head of all his descendants,
so that Adam stood before God as our federal head. He stood
before God as our substitute, so that everything Adam did,
all his race did in him. Everything that Adam suffered,
all his race suffered in him. Now, the terms and conditions
of the covenant are just as simple as they can possibly be. The
Lord God demanded from Adam obedience. That's all. Just obedience. Just
obedience. But the obedience, Bobby, was
as simple as eating the fruit of the tree. It was just that
simple. The obedience was just as simple
as not taking what God has made. It was just that simple. It was
not a hard task. It was not some hard thing that
God required. God simply demanded that Adam
constantly, day after day after day after day, acknowledge his
right to be God. That's all. That's all. His obedience
was simply a matter of living in submission to God's command.
That's it. That's it. Disobedience was given
the promise of death. As we shall see, the death which
would follow disobedience was a threefold death, spiritual
death, physical death, and eternal death. But notice that the sin
and fall of our father Adam was not spoken of in this 17th verse
in vague terms as being a possibility, but rather it was spoken of as
being a matter of absolute certainty. The Lord God says, in the days
thou eatest thereof. Now, I don't know all that I
recognize that. And we'll leave what's not revealed
in God's hands, the secret things belong to God. But I know this,
it is revealed here that the fall of our father Adam didn't
take God by surprise. God Almighty planned the fall
as much as He planned redemption. He planned that we should fall
by the sin of a man who would be a representative substitute
man because he had long before planned to redeem and save his
people by the doing and dying of another representative man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So the fall did not take God
by surprise. It was his plan and purpose from
the beginning to save his people out of their sins for the glory
of his name. And before long, Adam broke God's
covenant. He sinned against God with a
high hand. By an act of willful, deliberate
rebellion, he turned in treason against God and said to God's
hue, God no right to be God." I was talking to the young people
in the Bible study this morning and tried to convey to them our
responsibility, our responsibility before God. Let me tell you what
sin is. Let me tell you what it is. All
sin. All sin. All sin is exactly what
Adam did right here in the garden. All of it. All of it. It doesn't
matter whether you're talking about sins of omission or sins
of commission. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about sacred sins or open public sins. It doesn't
matter whether you're talking about lust or whether you're
talking about the act of adultery. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about covetousness or talking about the act of stealing.
It doesn't matter whether you're talking about anger or the act of murder.
All sin. All it says, in its essence,
is this, but it's man saying, God, you've got no right to rule
me. That's what it is in its essence.
Saying this in its essence, it's man saying, God has no right
to tell me what to do. And this is what Adam did in
the garden. He stand with high head against the throne of God. He said, step off the throne,
I'll take over my life. The crime of man is set before
us here in Genesis 3, verses 1 through 7. I know folks like
to joke about Adam and Eve. They like to joke about how Adam
just took a piece of forbidden fruit, and he was therefore cast
into hell. God didn't send Adam to hell,
and he didn't send Adam into destruction and death for taking
a forbidden piece of fruit. That wasn't it. There was much,
much more involved. Adam, in taking that forbidden
fruit, said, God, you've got no right to be God. He committed
an act of utter treason against the throne of God. Look at verse
3, or chapter 3, verse 1. The serpent was more subtle than
any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said. Yea, hath God said. Have you heard the serpent speak
lately? Now, you don't really think the
Bible means that, do you? You don't really, you can't really
believe everything the Bible says, can you? Yea, hath God
said. It'll bring you down to hell
when you begin to hear the serpent speak. Yea, hath God said, ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said
unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees, all
the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which
is in the midst of the garden, God has said ye shall not eat
of it." And then she added her opinion. That'll get you in trouble. Just as dangerous to take, just
as dangerous to add to the Word of God as it is to take from
it. Neither shall you touch it lest ye die. God didn't say don't
touch it. God said don't eat it. And the serpent said unto
the woman, You don't really believe God
will kill you for that, do you? You don't really believe God
will send you to hell, do you? You shall not surely die, for
God knows. God doth know that in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall
be as God's, knowing good and evil, determining good and evil,
determining what's right for you. And the woman saw the tree
that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes.
Boy, I like to look at that. I like to look at that. A tree to be desired. Before long, you forget what
God said. A tree to be desired to make
one wise, and she took the fruit thereof, and did eat. But nothing happened. Nothing happened. Nothing. You see, the covenant wasn't
made with Eve. Eve was not the covenant head.
Eve sinned against God, but nothing happened. Because God didn't
make and establish His covenant with Eve. He made and established
His covenant with Adam. Eve was deceived. But the scripture
says, in 1 Timothy 2.14, Adam was not deceived. Now read on. She gave also to her husband
with her. Now then, now then. Adam's faced
with a choice. A tough choice. He knows God's
going to kill him. He knows he's under the judgment
of God. And he knows what God has said.
And the serpent didn't say a word to Adam. The serpent didn't deceive
Adam. The serpent didn't beguile Adam.
Adam has a choice. Either Eve or God. And this is what he said. And
you forgive me for being blunt and plain. I want to be understood.
He said to hell with God, I'll take Eve. That's what he said. And that's what all sin said.
That's where all sins end. To hell with God, I'll have what
I want. God, you just shut up. You step aside. I'll take over.
Now read on. And the eyes of them both were
opened. They knew they were nature. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves apes. When Adam saw what Eve had done,
he defied God's rights to be God. Their eyes were open to
see their nakedness and their guilt. They didn't suddenly become
able to determine what's right and what's wrong, but they simply
saw that they were now in sin. They knew beforehand what was
wrong. They knew that they were to walk
before God in submission and not to defy his authority. In
terror, because of their guilt, they tried to hide from God. Oh, how foolish men became. when
sin entered the city. Here is man who's been walking
with the omniscient God. Here's man who's been walking
before God, who made him, who sees all, who knows all, and
is hiding behind some bushes, hoping God won't see him. And
it's those diggings together attempting to establish righteousness
by his own defiled hands, hoping God will accept his work, but
knowing all the while will never happen. And so he's terrified,
attempting to cover himself before God. As the result of Adam's
sin against God, he and all the human race with him were cursed. Read Genesis chapter 3, beginning
in verse 9, and you'll see the curse of man. And the Lord God
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? Notice Adam
didn't take the initiative, God did. And man doesn't take the
initiative seeking after God, God takes the initiative seeking
man. Adam had sinned, but he was had as God came seeking him.
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid. Afraid because I was naked and
I hid myself. And the Lord said, who told you
you were naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? Now God wasn't asking
for information. That wasn't the problem. God
was asking so as to make Adam see his sin. To make Adam acknowledge
and confess his sin. And Adam wasn't too keen on that. He wasn't too keen on that. Neither
are you. Neither am I. It's not in our
nature. We'll do everything under the
sun to excuse our sin. That's our nature, to do everything
under the sun to cover up our sin. To do everything under the
sun, except say, God, I sinned. Everything else. Look how Adam
responds. He says, the man says, the woman whom
thou gavest to be with me. Do you ever talk about that? It wasn't me, it was her. and
really wasn't hers, it was you. You're the one who gave it to
them. If it hadn't been for you creating that woman, I wouldn't
be in this mess. How dare, how dare a man attempt
to accuse God of sin, of what he's done, and yet people do
it all again. Verse 13, And the Lord said unto
the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman
said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat And the Lord God
said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.
And upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life. And the serpent was cursed, as
it is this day. But then, before God pronounces
the curse, He gives promise of a Redeemer. He says, I will put
in the day between thee and the woman. between thy seed and her seed. It was that way from the beginning,
it's that way now. The seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent never get along. Never. There's enmity
between the two. That is enmity between the people
of this world and God's elect. Enmity between the goats of this
world and the enmity between those who are of Christ and those
who are of the devil, so that they cannot harmonize, they cannot
get along in peace. I'll put enmity. And thou shalt
bruise his heel. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Now the prophecy is of the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the seed of the woman. In
the fullness of time, God makes sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. The seed is supposed to be from the man. But God said,
I will send my son, he will not be the seed of a fallen man,
but the seed of the woman conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ is hypothesized as coming into the world for
the purpose of destroying what Satan had done. I'll crush Satan's
head. Amen. Verse 17. And unto Adam
he said, because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and
hath eaten of the tree of which I commended thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the spiel. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground. For out of it
thou was taken, for thus thou art. And the dust thou shalt
return." And so God says, Adam, you're starting to die right
now. And one of these days, you go
back to the dust. He said, Adam, the ground, every
time you go out there, every time you go out there, plant
your crops, remember this man's curse for your sins. And every
time you go out in your field, you've got to dig up those thistles. You've got to take care of those
thorns. You've got to take care of those fires. Every time you
go out there, you're stuck with it. Every time you're sick... He was the mother of all innards.
And to Adam and his wife, the Lord God did make coats of skin
and clothes and And the Lord God said, behold, the man has
become one of us to know good and evil. Now lest he put forth
his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent
him forth from the garden of Eden to kill the ground from
which he was taken. And so he drove the man and he
drove out the man and placed at the east of the garden of
Eden, cherubims and a flaming sword. which turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life. Adam was expelled from
the garden because of his sin, banished from God and his presence,
banished from goodness and blessedness because of sin. And that's exactly
what has happened to the human race. You and I and our father
Adam have been cut off from Our iniquities are separated between
us and God. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
He was our representative. When he died, we died spiritually. We were subject to death. Now,
under the curse of the law, born in spiritual death, subject to
physical death, and condemned to eternal death under the sentence
of death, just as our father Adam. And God has banished us
from his presence. You see, this is what Hell will
be, in its final analysis, hell will be banishment from
God, which means bloody banishment from everything good, everything
enjoyable, everything pleasant, and nothing but misery and torment
and darkness forever and ever. I don't know what all is meant
by the fires of hell and the torments of hell, but I know
that in hell there is a worm of conscience that never dies,
there is a fire of agony and guilt and torment that is never
quenched, and God Almighty sees to it that men and women suffer
his wrath forever because of sin. Now there's a great wealth
fixed because of sin. Here we are, there's this picture,
a chasm between you and God. A huge, huge chasm. A chasm which
God cannot cross because He's holy. And you cannot cross because
you have no ability. You're full of sin. So that God
and man can never come together. God and man can never come together. This great God is called sin. And God will not be reconciled
to you, and will not allow you to be reconciled to him until
sin is dealt with. Can't be done. Oh, but Jesus
Christ, for God's name, set up and established from eternity
as the mediator between God and man, has bridged that door. By his sacrifice, by his obedience
unto death, by his righteousness, he's bridged the door so that
God and man can be brought together in perfect harmony. He who is
God lays hold of God. He who is man lays hold of man,
and the God-man brings God and man together in one. That's the
work of rediction. And that's my second question.
What happened to Calvary? What happened to Calvary? When
you think about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
sufferings and death that our Lord Jesus endured. I encourage
you often to read it, often to think about it, but do not imagine
that it's something like a romantic novel to just stir your emotions
maybe once or twice on Sunday, or once or twice during the month,
or once or twice during the year, and then maybe give you some
lessons about life and morality. Oh, no. No, something actually
happened to Calvary. Something actually happened.
There was something that actually took place at Calvary. Something
that was actually accomplished there. Do you know what it was?
Do you know what happened when Christ died? We read it in Psalm
85 a little bit ago. Mercy and truth met together. By mercy and truth, iniquity
is purged, the righteous man said. God said, the soul that
sinneth in shall die. And yet God is merciful to whom
he will be merciful. In Jesus Christ, God Almighty
satisfied the wrath and justice of his overlord for all his people
by the sacrifice of his Son, and justice and mercy now come
to him. Righteousness and peace had kissed
each other through the sacrifice of God's Son. When Jesus Christ
died at Calvary, a great compassion was revealed. The death of our
Lord Jesus Christ as the spinner's substitute upon the cursed tree,
was the revelation of God's infinite love. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us. Imagine. God commands his love
toward us. God commands his love. Commands
his love. You, uh, you young fellas know
what that is, don't you? You see that young lady in you? Boy, you want her. And you want to commend yourself
to her. And what you do is you put your
best foot forward. And you do the best you can to
commend yourself to her, to win her love, to win her approval.
Will you listen to me? While we were sinners, unlovely
and unlovable, While we were sinners who had
nothing to attract God Almighty, God commends His love to us. In that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, we didn't, we couldn't, we wouldn't, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The
hymn writer said, could we with ink the ocean still? And were
the skies of parchment made worth every salk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade, the law to write the law of God
above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky." You search the world
over and try to find a reason why Jesus Christ should have
died 2,000 years ago. Why should he die? and you'll
find no reason given but this, the Son of God loved me and gave
himself to me. The death of Christ at Calvary
was not only a compassion revealed, but it was a covenant respected.
The Lord Jesus came to die at Calvary because he covenanted
with God his Father from eternity to redeem the people and those
people must be redeemed. When Christ said it's finished,
and gave up the ghost, he had finished all the work which he
had come to do. He had satisfied the justice
of God. He had put away the sins of his
people. He had redeemed those whom he had come to redeem. The
death of Christ upon the cross was also a grievous curse removed. Listen to this. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Do you understand the curse that's
upon you by nature? The wrath of God's upon you.
We are born children of wrath, even as others. And believe it
or not, the wrath of God abided upon him, the scripture says.
What wrath? The curse that God put on Adam.
Back down in the Bible. That curse. Death. Death. Spiritual death. You see, you
who are without Christ, you're dead. Spiritually dead. You have no life before God. No communion with God. No communication with God. No
access to God. Dead in trespasses and sins. Cut off from God. And you're
under the sentence and the curse of physical death. You're gonna
die. You're gonna die. God reported
a day. And it means, by which you shall
die, and you're not going to pass it, not one second. Not one second. Brother Milton Howard's boy,
Stephen, fell 45 feet a few weeks ago. Fourth time he's
fallen before me. I plan to write to him tomorrow.
but God spared him. But not accidentally. Not accidentally. And God gives you warning. He
gives you warning. You're going to die. And you
may die before I finish saying the next word. You're going to
die, Bobbie Estes, when God Almighty is ordained. When God is ordained. You're not going to stretch it
out. Doctors are going to stretch it out. You're going to die. Oh, I pray God, you will not
die under the sentence and the curse of eternal death. That seems like a contradiction,
doesn't it? Eternal death. Everlasting death. You see, death is a separation. Spiritual death is separation
from God. Righteousness, truth, Physical
death is separation of body from soul, and soul from body. Eternal death is separation from
God. Banishment from good, banishment
from light, banishment from everything enjoyable and blessed. in the utter torments of your
soul. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. He has delivered his people from
spiritual death He has delivered us from the dispensance of death.
He will deliver us from physical death. He has delivered us from
everlasting death. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. He who hath been born of God,
on such the second death, hath no power. Here's the third question. I hope you're asking, Preacher, how does God save sinners? Let me quote some Scripture for
you. We won't turn to it. I'm going to go through this
in a hurry. This is what Scripture says.
By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves
is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. This is what Scripture says.
We're justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. This is what Scripture says,
God has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose in Christ, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And in
Revelation, when the saints of God gathered at the throne, they
said, God has saved us. God has redeemed us who are God
out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. You see, salvation
is the result of the operations of God's grace for and in sinners
through Christ the Lord. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. God saves his people by five distinct operations of grace. Five of them. Salvation begins
with an unconditional election of grace of eternity. God chose
you. God chose you. Why do you say it begins with
election? Because it doesn't begin with election. If you're
dead, you're not going to choose God. If you're lost, you can't
choose to save yourself. If you're under the wrath of
God, you can't choose to live. That doesn't make good sense
in any kind of situation. And man, by nature, is dead in
trespasses and sin, condemned and cursed by God Almighty. If
you have pardon, if you have reprieve, if you have life, it
must be by God's choice. and God chose an eternity to
save the people. Salvation is the work of an effectual
redemption by Jesus Christ the Lord. He with his own blood entered
in once into the holy place. Now this is what that means.
When the scripture says, Merle, that Christ took his blood and
entered into the holy place, that doesn't mean he carried
a bucket of blood or he carried a pitch of blood up into heaven
and poured it on the mercenaries. That's sheer idolatry. That's
sheer idolatry. It means that he carries the
merit of his blood into glory. And by the merit of his blood,
he obtained redemption. He obtained it by the merit of
the life which he poured out unto God as a sacrifice at Calvary. He obtained redemption for his
people. And there must be an operation
of irresistible grace in regeneration too. I came to you, and I prayed for you. I prayed to you for that reason.
I've been calling on you since the day you came into this world. You taught me to be a righteous
person. And unless God is pleased to
give you life, there'll be parting of ways with
us. I guarantee it'll come. I guarantee it'll come. She and
I were chatting the other day. There was a young lady in the
church at lookout, like Terri Bartley. I knew her from her
infancy. And she was my friend. We were
buddies. She just adored her pastor. But she began to grow up. She got to be a teenager. She
got in trouble. And she turned in utter hatred
against the man who'd been preaching to her. I pray God will still
have mercy on her. Last time I saw her, she shot
me in the finger. Last day she died. Utter hatred. Utter hatred. I still pray for
her. may become head mercy owner.
But I promise you, unless God does for you what I can't do
for you, and what you cannot and will not do for yourself,
they'll come apart in the ways, if not in this world, in the
world to come. You'll never be saved apart from
sovereign, irresistible grace, apart from God snatching you
from your destruction by his omnipotent grace. If God lets
you alone, if God lets you alone, you're going to hell. And so
I pray, O Holy Spirit, come like a mighty rushing wind from heaven
and breathe upon these slain that they may live. For the wind
bloweth Now here's the sound thereof. They can't not tell
whence it cometh and whither it goeth. All that's strong is
every one that is born of the Spirit. All the Spirit of God
come and give life. And He's going to give life to
every sinner for whom Jesus Christ shed His blood. For every sinner
who God the Father chose in eternity. But there's still got to be another
work of grace. We will not enter glory, except
we be preserved by a constant work of humiliating us. But if God should carry us all
the way from the pits of the damned to the threshold of heaven,
and leave it for us to make one last step, we perish. You say, Preacher, do you believe
it's possible for man to forsake Christ? You can, you can. Do you believe
it's possible for man to forsake the gospels? Oh, if you can,
you can. Yes, sir. But don't you believe
what's saved always saves? Yes, God saved you. If God saved
you. But if all you've got is a religious
notion, a little religious experience, a little religious ideas, yeah,
you'll leave. You'll leave. has called us by his grace. He
will not leave us marked at the threshold of glory. He'll carry
us in. He'll preserve and keep us. And then there's another
mighty work of grace which is yet to come. These bodies,
these houses of sin, these temples of clay, that my
son be dissolved, laid in the dust because of sin. The Lord God is going to raise
from the dead, in resurrection glory, and deliver us at last
from all the consequences of sin. He'll deliver us from death,
I believe. And set us again in a new heaven
and a new earth, and we will forever till the
garden for the Lord with no thorns, and no briars, and no sweat,
and no sickness, and no sorrow, and no death. That is to say,
we will serve him and live before him in perfect, total submission
to What is Heaven? In its ultimate,
final analysis, Heaven's everlasting glory is mimicked in total, perfect,
complete, absolute, delightful submission. Oh, hasten and bring
the day. is a question that I hope you
ask. Oh, how I hope you ask. It's found in Acts 16, verse
30. The Philippian jailer, when he
thought Paul and Silas had escaped, and all the prisoners had escaped,
and he surely would be put to death for having been so lax
in his job, he cried, what must I do to be saved? I know there are a lot of debates
about whether or not he asked it for the right reasons. Well,
probably not. Probably not. I was reading about
some of the Puritans this past week. They developed a theology
system, and they called many people, their doctrine selfish
theology. That is, they seek God for his
grace, his salvation rather than purely for his glory. When I
listen to him, it'd be real good, it'd be real good to seek to
worship and know God purely for his glory. But that'll never
happen till you seek to know his grace. And this Philippian
jailer cried, what must I do to be saved? And Paul knew exactly
what he was saying when he answered him. This is what he said. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe it. You mean preachers don't have
to do anything? That's your problem. You've been trying to do something.
That's your problem. You mean preachers, it doesn't
matter how I live? Oh, there, you believe in it.
I guarantee you it's going to make some radical change in your
life. But your problem is you try to get a cart before the
horse. You try to bring God something that will commend you to him.
The only way you ever come to God as a sinner, guilty, deluded? Did you eat the tree that God
said not to eat on? Have you lifted your hands in
revelation to God Almighty? You step aside. I'll take over. Have you Have you made an effort
in your infancy to God to kill the audience for sin? If you believe Christ, if you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He has put away your sin. I want to sustain just as I am,
Ron, number 249. Number 249. This is a great, great hymn,
written by Charlotte Elliott a long, long time ago. Just as I am without one thing.
It's the only way it comes. But thy blood was shed for me.
And that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.
Just as I am waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot, to
thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come.

Four Questions About Vital Issues

What does the Bible say about the fall of man?

How do we know God exists?

Why is Jesus' death on the cross significant?

How does God save sinners?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Four Questions About Vital Issues

What does the Bible say about the fall of man?

How do we know God exists?

Why is Jesus' death on the cross significant?

How does God save sinners?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

More from Don Fortner

Same Scripture

Articles by Don Fortner

Books by Don Fortner

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book