Turn back to First Corinthians,
Chapter 15. Tonight, we're going to have
a baptism, Courtney Howard is going to confess Christ and believers
baptism. And let me make this remark about
baptism, if there's someone wondering whether or not you ought to be
baptized, perhaps you haven't been and you're wondering whether
you should be. Let me say this about baptism, what's the one
requirement for baptism? Faith. in Christ. If you believe
the gospel, you are commanded to be baptized. You don't need
to wonder anymore. You're commanded and you ought
to be baptized. Tonight, I'm going to be speaking
from Hebrews, chapter 13, verses five and six on this subject,
contentment. Confidence. and courage. I've entitled this morning's
message, The Three R's. The Three R's. I'll tell you why I entitled
it that in just a moment. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20,
Paul says, But now Is Christ risen from the dead? Now, in the previous verses,
he spoke of the dreadful effects of him not being risen from the
dead. If Christ was not raised from the dead, our preaching is vain. meaningless. Our faith is vain. We're liars. We're false witnesses. We still
have our sins on us. That's something I can't even
stand to think about. And those who have died in the faith have
perished. And we are of all men most miserable. But Christ is
risen from the dead. And because of that, he is the
first fruit, the guarantee of our resurrection. He says in
verse 21, but since by man. Talking about Adam. By man came death. By man came also the resurrection
of the dead, by man came death. When Adam ate of the fruit, he
died. Now, you know, he didn't die
physically that day, but he died spiritually. And the reason you
and I are born into this world sinners is because we have his
sinful nature passed on to us. And the reason there is death
is one reason, sin. What about babies? Babies die. Why do babies die? There's only
one reason for the death of a child. What is it? Sin. Even though they didn't sin the
way Adam did, they have the same nature Adam has. There's one
reason for death. Sin. By man came death, because
by man came sin. Romans 5.12 says, moreover, by
one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. So death has
to belong in, in that all have sinned. There's nobody outside
of this group. But since by man came death,
verse 21, by man, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, came also
the resurrection of the dead. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, the Son of God,
the second person of the blessed Trinity, God the Son, God manifests
in the flesh. The man, Christ Jesus, was nailed
to a cross. He lived upon this earth 33 years
sinlessly. He never even thought sin. Now, you and I can't get a hold
of that, can we? But it's the truth. He never sinned. The man! Christ Jesus never sinned. He worked out a perfect righteousness,
the God-man. He never sinned, and yet, at
the end of his life, this perfect life of sinlessness, he was falsely
accused, he was beaten, he was tortured, He was nailed to a
cross and he died. The God-man, fully God, fully
man, died. How can that be? That's one of
the great mysteries of godliness. But the God-man died. They put him in a tomb. He went
into that tomb and they laid him down, dead. And there he
lays. for three days, dead, cold, lifeless,
a corpse. That's the God man. Lifeless. Three days later, while he was
laying there on that slab in that tomb, he opened his eyes. Now, I want you to think about
that. He was dead, and he opened his eyes. He took that napkin
off his face. He took the brave clothes off. And he walked out of that tomb
alive. He was dead. Graveyard dead. From dead. And he was raised from the dead.
Now, verse 22 tells us what all that means. There's not a more
important verse of Scripture in all the Bible than this verse.
1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 22. It says, Here's what all this means. By
man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead,
the Lord being raised from the dead, for, as in Adam, all die. Now, I tell everybody, you want
to know what your future is? You're going to die. You're going
to die. That's your future. We have all
kinds of plans and aspirations and so on, and that's fine. But
here's what your future is. This is certain. I know what's
going to happen to me and you. You're going to die. For as in
Adam all die, even so in the same manner in Christ shall all
be made alive. Now, in this verse of scripture,
we have what has been called the three R's. Now, there was
an old preacher by the name of Roland Hill. several hundred
years ago, who made this statement. He said every sermon must have
the three R's in it. What are the three R's? Ruined
by the fall. Redeemed by the blood. Regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Now, any message that does not
have the three R's in that message is not a gospel message. It may have all kinds of good
things, things that are true, but it's not the gospel. And
it's the gospel that is the power of God into salvation. And if
the three R's are not contained in that message, if that's not
the foundation Of everything that's said, that message is
not the gospel. I don't care if it came out of
the scriptures. And if you say, well, I'd agree with that, if
that is not the foundation of that message, that doesn't mean
I have to bring out, use the three R's. I'm not talking about
just using those words. I'm talking about that being
the foundation upholding everything that's said. Ruined by the fall. Redeemed by the blood. and regenerated
by the Holy Spirit is not the sum and substance of the message.
I don't care what the subject is. The gospel has not been preached. Now, let's consider these three
hours. Here's the first one, and this
is so important. Ruined by the fall. Paul said in Adam. All You know the story of Adam and
Eve eating of the fruit. It's not mythical. It's not typical.
It's a historical event. God created Adam. He was the
first man and he placed him in the garden. Turn back to Genesis
chapter 2. Verse 15. And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely
eat. Nothing holding you back. But
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. He ate, you know the story, and
on that very day, the Lord said, on the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. I mean, it's going to happen. He ate of the fruit and he died. And you and I both know that
he didn't die physically upon that day. He lived another several
hundred years. But he died spiritually. And that is demonstrated. In Jesus chapter two, at the
end, it says they were naked and not ashamed and didn't have
sinful thoughts the way you and I would have. They didn't have
anything like that. But after they ate the fruit,
all of a sudden they realized that they were naked. And that's
talking about the shame and the sinful thoughts that came with
it. They died spiritually. Now, what took place in that
event? Well, First, the purpose of God. Did you notice how God said,
in the day you eat, you shall surely die? He didn't say, if
you eat, you'll die. He said, when you do, you'll
die. You know what happened when Adam
ate of that fruit and died? God's purpose was being fulfilled. This is all a part of God's purpose. Now somebody says, are you saying
God is the author of evil? No, I'm not saying that. But
I know this, God's purpose was fulfilled. Now you can just,
you can, you can get any kind of implication you want out of
that. But let me ask you a question. Could God have kept Adam for
me? If you deal with that honestly.
Did God have the ability to keep Adam from eating that fruit and
making sure that he never fell? Could God have done that? Absolutely. He could have kept him. Remember
what God said to Abimelech in Genesis chapter 20? Abimelech
had said, oh, in my integrity, I didn't do this. God said, I
withheld you from sinning against me. That's exactly what he said.
I withheld you from sinning against me. You know, if you don't sin,
anytime you don't sin, you want me to tell you why? Because God
kept you from doing it. You would have done it if God
didn't keep you from doing it. Now, that's just the truth. And
God could have kept him from sinning, but this was all a part
of God's purpose. Now, that gives me a lot of comfort. I know people think, oh, that's
good news. God is good in whatever he does
is right. And, you know, we would never
know anything about grace or mercy or the forgiveness of sins
or the love of God if it weren't for this. God's purpose was being
fulfilled. And what happened to Adam? He
died. The Lord said in the day you
eat thereof. You shall surely die. Now, let's take a physically
dead person. Look at that dead person. What
can he do? He can stink. That's it. Show him the beautiful
picture. He can't see it. Play a beautiful
piece of music to him. He can't hear his dad. You give
him the best tasting food in the world. He can't taste it.
He's dead. He can't smell. He's dead. He lacks the ability
to perform the functions of life. That's what a dead person, he
can't get up. There he lies, dead. He can't
do anything. Now, a spiritually dead person
lacks the ability to perform the functions of spiritual life.
He can't repent. He's dead. He can't believe. He's dead. He can't come to Christ. He's dead. Now, most people,
most religious people, when they talk about what happened to Adam,
they kind of present it in such a way as he was hurt. He was hurt. He became somewhat
disabled. He's worse off than he was before
the fall. Some bad things happened to him.
I mean, he became disabled. But he still has the power of
free will. He can still decide to be saved,
he can still, you know, I mean, sure he's bad, sure he's committed
sin, sure he's done bad things, but he still has the free will
and the power to choose salvation. He can choose to be saved, he
can receive Christ, or he can be, he can reject Christ, one
of the two. I mean, salvation is ultimately
in his hands. God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, God wants to save everybody, but salvation's in
the hands of man's will. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Is that true? It's a lie. It's false. It's not the truth. Man is dead.
And to say that a man has the will to be saved is to deny the
truth of salvation by grace. That's really that simple. Man is... Adam died. He cannot perform the functions
of spiritual life. He can't come to Christ. He can't
believe. He can't love. He's dead. Now let me tell you
how that deadness that I'm talking about is manifested. This deadness
is an evil thing. It's not a, well, poor fellow,
he's dead. No, it's an evil thing. This
deadness, this spiritual deadness is manifested in an enmity toward
God. Now, this dead man is not just
dead feeling. This dead man who lacks the ability
to come to Christ, he hates the living God. He has enmity toward
God. Remember we've been in Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Verse 6, For to be carnally minded,
fleshly minded, is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, the
fleshly mind, the mind that we were born with, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. For it's not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. It doesn't even have the potential
to be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot, they lack
the ability to please God. If you're in the flesh, if I'm
in the flesh, that means I haven't been born again. If I'm in the
flesh, that means I've not been regenerated by God the Holy Spirit.
That means my mind is at enmity against God. And that is expressed,
somebody's not even conscious of that until they hear the gospel. It's when men hear the gospel
that this enmity comes out. Now what do I mean by that? Listen
to me real carefully. God is absolutely sovereign. That means you're in His hands. And he can do with you whatever
he wants to do. He's holy. If he sends you to
hell and doesn't have mercy on you, he's right. And he can do
that. And that's what you deserve.
If he saves you, your eternal destiny is utterly in God's hands. You don't have any control of
this. No control. What do you think about that? Men, according to the scripture,
I've been talking about this. Men are dead in sins, unable
to do anything to save themselves. But God, before time began, according
to the scriptures, God, before time began, selected, elected,
chose a fixed number of Adam's race to save. That's what the
Bible teaches. Election. God chose who would
be saved. Christ Jesus, the Lord. came
and represented those people, God chose. That's what he did. And when he died on the cross,
that's who he died for. He did not die for anyone but
the elect, only the elect. God the Holy Spirit, in time,
comes for those people that God elected and Christ died for and
gives them life. He creates life. He gives them spiritual life.
They were dead. Now they live. And now they believe. Now they
love. Now they repent. These people
will be preserved. Now, what do you think about
that? Somebody says, well, I don't like that. I know you don't. I understand
that. You're expressing your enmity
toward the Lord Himself if you don't like this. But if you love
this, I'll tell you who loves this, people who need to be saved
this way. You know, you won't be able to be saved unless God
does these things for you. You'll love this. But if somebody
doesn't love this, they're expressing their enmity towards the Lord. Now, what Adam did, he did, notice
the language, in Adam, all die. What Adam did, he did as a representative
man. When he died, I did too. And
Adam, all die. His sin is your personal sin. Listen to Scripture, Romans 5,
12. For by one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin.
So the death passed upon all men, in that all have sinned. Now, Adam's sin was more than
charged in your account, although it was. When Adam sinned, I was
held responsible for it. Now, I know folks have a hard
time with that. How could it be fair for Adam's sin to be
charged to me? How in the world could that be
fair? And I understand somebody thinking that. I thought that
before, too. But let's say it didn't happen. Let's say Adam's
sin wasn't charged to you. How does that help you? Look
at you. You sinned without Adam, you
sinned on your own, haven't you? It doesn't help you a bit if
Adam's sin wasn't charged to you. And as far as that goes,
here's the gospel. I didn't have anything to do
with Christ's righteousness and it's charged to me. Isn't that wonderful? To have Christ's righteousness
charged to you? Oh, I love the very thought of
that. But understand this, when Adam sinned, I did too. It's not just that his sin was
charged to me. I actually committed the sin
because I'm in Adam. Whatever Adam did, I did. Just
like remember, it was said of Levi that he paid tithes in the
loins of his father Abraham. When Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek,
Levi did too. So what that's telling us is
that whenever Abraham did, everybody in his loins did. Whatever Christ
did, everybody in him did. Whatever Adam did, everybody
in him did. This is talking about union.
Representation. In Adam, all die. And somebody once said this,
wrong on the fall, wrong on it all. Now, if I don't have some understanding
of ruin by the fall, not stuff, Not fall, falling down, scrape
my knees, not even injured real bad, but ruined. What do you
do with stuff that's ruined? You throw it away, it's no good.
It's beyond recovery. That's what happened in the fall,
the absolute ruin of our race. And everything I believe will
be dependent upon my understanding of this. Ruined by the fall. That's the first R. Ruined by
the fall. Now the second R is redeemed
by the blood. Look at verse 22 once again,
1 Corinthians chapter 15. For as in Adam, all die, even
so in the exact same manner in Christ shall all be made alive. Now let me ask you a question. Is the all that is in Christ
the same as the all that is in Adam? Now deal with that honestly. Is the all that is said to be
in Christ the same that's the all that is in Adam? No. No. If it was, that means everybody
would be saved. Turn to John chapter, hold your
finger there in 1 Corinthians 15 and turn to John chapter 6.
Let me tell you who the all is that is speaking of, as in Adam
all die, even so in the same manner, all in Christ shall be
made alive. John chapter 6, verse 36, he's
speaking to some people and he says, but I said unto you that
you also see me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out." Now, you fellas don't believe. Well, that's okay. All that the Father gives me
will. Look in verse 38. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day." That's very important for us to see this.
As in Adam, everybody Adam represents, every one of them dies. Even
so, in the same manner, everybody in Christ, all the Father gave
him, all who believe, they will all be made alive. Now, Jesus Christ, while hanging
on that cross, died. He stopped breathing. His heart
stopped pumping. They took him down dead. and
put him in a tomb, and three days later on a Sunday morning
like this, he walked out of that tomb alive. Now what's this all
about? What does this mean? First of
all, it's the will of God being done. Turn to Acts chapter 2. Hold your finger there in 1 Corinthians
15. I want to read these scriptures. When Christ died, it was God's
will being done. Remember how Isaiah 53 says it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief. Look here
in Acts chapter 2. This is the first gospel message
we have after the resurrection of Christ. And look what Peter
says on the day of Pentecost. Verse 22. You men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him, in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you take him, and by wicked hands of crucified and slain,
whom God raised up." Look in chapter 4 of Acts, verse 27. For the truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom Dallas anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. When that soldier lifted up that
hammer to drive the nail in the hand of Christ, God determined
before for that to be done. That was the will of God taking
place. When Christ died, when Christ
was raised, God's will was being done. The Scripture was being
fulfilled. Everything that happened when
they fulfilled all that was written of Him. When they fulfilled all
that was written of Him. Everything that happened was
written in the Old Testament Scriptures. It was the fulfilling
of Scripture. Now listen to this. What was going on? In Christ
shall all be made alive. How is that? On the cross. On the cross, the guilty was
being punished. Now, what do I mean by that?
How many times, maybe I've even used this phrase, sin was being
punished. Since when do you punish sin?
How can you punish a sin? Aaron, you're a police officer.
Do you punish the crimes those people do? No, you put the person
in jail. You don't punish sin, you punish
the person who committed the sin. That's very important. It's not the punishment of sin
in some kind of generic way. It's the punishment of the person
who committed the sin. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ never
sinned. He never sinned in his person,
even when he was made sin. on the cross and the scripture
says he was made sin he never committed sin but my sin became
his so that he became guilt he experienced the shame and the
humiliation and the degradation of sin He experienced everything
about sin, except for the commission of it. My sin became His... That hurts to think about. I
think of my sin, the vileness of my sin. He bare our sins,
Peter said, in His own body on the tree. My sin became His sin. He became guilty. When God forsook
him, it's because he deserved to be forsaken. Why didn't he
defend himself? The Scripture says he opened
not his mouth. Why didn't he defend himself? I'll tell you
what, if I'm not guilty, I'm going to defend myself. Don't
you lay that to my charge. I didn't do it. But he didn't
open his mouth. Why? He was guilty. That's what
was going on on the cross. Justice being executed. God is
just. God must punish sin. The sins of God's elect became
Christ's sin. The wrath of God was poured upon
him because that's what he had coming. Scripture said he was
made sin. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Verse 21. For he, God, hath made him. Now, look at that word to be
and notice in your King James, it's in italics. That means it
was translated there or it was put there by the translators.
And that is actually not in the original. Let's read it without
this. For he hath made him sin. What a. He hath made him sin. For us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, what happened in Christ
shall all be made alive. Here's why satisfaction was made. When he died. Do you know his
dead body never went through the process of decay? Why? I mean, when Lazarus died, he
started sinking four days later, didn't he? And if you and I die,
we're going to start smelling. I mean, we're going to go through
the process of decay. But the Lord Jesus Christ says, Thou
shalt not suffer thy holy one to stay in hell, neither shall
he see corruption, neither shall he see decay. Why did the physical
body of the Lord Jesus Christ never decay after he was dead?
Because the moment he closed his eyes in death, complete satisfaction
was made. I'm now not in my sins. My sins
that I'm so acutely aware of, I don't have. He put them away. My sin became His sin. He paid the price, which was
death. And as soon as He died, my sin
was blotted out. And His righteousness Now look
what it says in verse 21, for he hath made, 2 Corinthians 5,
21, for he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now I wouldn't
say this, I wouldn't dare say this if the Bible didn't teach
it, but look at me right now, look at me. That person you're
looking at is the righteousness of God. That almost sounds blasphemous. No, that's faith. That's what
it says. It says he made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That, my dear friends, is the
gospel, isn't it? That's good news. What happened
when he died? Satisfaction was made. God was reconciled to all he
died for. Look in Romans chapter 5, verse
10. If, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. When Christ died,
God was completely reconciled to me. He doesn't have any reason
to be mad at me. He doesn't have any reason to
be disgusted by me. I have no sin. God's reconciled. Christ
put away my sin. That's what happened on the cross.
Redeemed by the blood. Not a redemption, not a potential
redemption or a redemption that we may have if. No, he actually
redeemed. When he said it is finished,
the salvation of God's elect was accomplished. Redeemed by
the blood. And notice this Back to our text
in 1 John, just read a couple of minutes. 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 22. For as in Adam all die, that's
the first R, ruined by the fall, even so in Christ shall all be
made. That's what happened on the cross.
Christ was making some people to be what they were not. He
was making them the righteousness of God. Even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. Regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Made alive. Regenerated by the
Holy Spirit. Now, Saul of Tarsus, on the way
to Damascus, he hates Jesus Christ. He hates everybody who believes
him. He murders those who believe him. He's a persecutor. He's
a cruel man. He wants to put to death everybody who believes
on Christ. He goes out looking for his disciples so he can put
them in prison. And something happens to him.
He's blinded by a light on the road to Damascus. What happened? Life from the dead. Life. Divine life. Regeneration. Now, what happens
when someone all of a sudden lives like Saul of Tarsus did?
They were dead. Dead in sins. Hated God. Hated Christ. No more. What happens? First of all, I'm
going to answer that the same way I've answered the other two
points. What happens is God's will is being done. James 1.18 says,
Of his own will be gave us through the word of truth. That's what's
going on. God's will is being done. He
willed Saul of Tarsus' birth. And if I'm saying it's not because
of my free will, it's because of God's free will. He willed
my new birth. What happens? Spiritual life,
life from the dead. Ephesians 2, 1 says, And you
have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. This
is called in the scriptures a new creation, a new creation. It's God placing something there
that was not there before. That's what creation is, isn't
it? There was nothing. God said, like me, like was creation. When God gives spiritual life,
this is a regenerated by the Holy Spirit, ruined by the fall,
redeemed by the blood, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. God, through
the preaching of the gospel, begets spiritual life. There's life that was not there
before. It's called passing from death
to life. You can now do what was impossible
for you to do when you have life. You know what you do? You come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what happens when folks
have lives. You come to Christ and you continue to come. You
now believe Him. You now rely on Him. There was
a time when you didn't know what it meant to believe. You do now. You repent now. You love now. Why? You can perform
the functions of spiritual life because you've been given life
from the dead, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and now you're
on the Lord's side. You're not on man's side. You
know, when people hear the gospel, men who don't love the gospel,
that's not fair. That's not right. That's not
being good. But when God saves you, you're on the Lord's side.
You even take sides with him against yourself. You really
do. You're on the Lord's side and
you become reconciled to God yourself. He becomes reconciled
to you. That's what happened in the death
of Christ. But when God gives you new life,
you yourself become reconciled to God. You put down your arms. You surrender. You say, I'm on
the Lord's side. I'm not on man's side. I'm not
on self's side. I'm on the Lord's side. And that's
what true repentance does. There's true repentance toward
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a love
to his people and a hatred of sin. Whenever the gospel is preached,
the three R's are always the foundation of what is said. Ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by God
the Holy Spirit. And anytime that is not the message,
it's not a gospel message. May God bless this to our hearts.
Let's pray together.