Good morning. I was listening to Caleb out
in Iowa, and actually before the service, Terrell, or Joe,
I guess, he said, yeah, he's up there with them Yankees. I'm very thankful that Caleb
came with his family to bring this truth. And I'm very thankful
for these Yankees. I'm very thankful. And I'd like
to turn to Romans 5. Romans 5, verse 17. The title to this message that God brought to me and actually
made me think about things is why did he have to come? Why
did Christ have to really come? And let's read verse 17. For
if by one man's offense, death reigned by one, much more they
which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. When we read a statement, and
there's a lot in that verse, it explains something that the
condition of man and what actually happened. And you have to go
back all the way to the garden I'd like to turn to Genesis 1. My granddaughter, It's one of
the things that made me think when Caleb asked Dad and me to
bring a message. She's at that age where everything
is why. Why? And when a child is asking
why, sometimes it can be that they don't want to go to bed.
But sometimes they ask why to understand. They want the truth. And this is the truth of what
actually happened in that garden and why we're in the state that
we're in. And it's not something that we're
making an excuse or saying, blaming Adam for what took place, but
it's the truth. It's really why we're in the
state that we're in. So let's read chapter three. I'm gonna go from one, down to
13, chapter three. Now 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, 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 of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
had said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you
shall be gods, be as gods, knowing good and evil. And the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes. and a tree to be desired to make
one wise. She took the fruit thereof and
did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of both of them
were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked and hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou was naked? Has you eaten of the tree? There, wherefore, I command thee,
thou should not eat. And the man said, the woman whom
gavest me, with me, she gave of the tree and I did eat. And
the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done?
And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. I was thinking about the response
of Adam and Eve when their eyes were opened. At that point, they
actually were spiritually dead, and they feared God, and they
hid themselves. They made fig leaves to cover
their nakedness, and they had a fear. You have to think about
what actually took place. I mean, this is the beginning
of time, the beginning when God made the heavens and earth and
everything was made perfect. There was no sin, there was no
death, there was no decay, there was harmony. And actually Adam
and Eve walked with God and talked with him, the creator, the living
word of God who created all things. They had everything. Everything
provided. There was nothing that they were
in need of. Their minds were not corrupt
like ours. Their thoughts weren't. But when
they disobeyed the one command, just one, that's all they had
to do, is not eat of that tree. It changed everything. You would
think they would be blind. But now they say that they see the sin that entered the world
at that time. You know, sin was not there,
but now it is, and it's passed down through the generations
of man. Every single soul from that point
on had the sin of Adam on them. and death reigned from Adam to
this present time. It's an absolute. You can't. You cannot get away from it.
It's something that when God says something and that disobedience
that that ensued, like I said, it changed everything. And man,
at that point, he was cast out of the garden. He couldn't be
there. He couldn't be in the garden
because in the midst of it, the tree of life was there. He could freely take of it, but
he couldn't anymore because of the sin. We can just go a couple pages
over. Adam and Eve were cast out and
they had two sons. One was Cain and one was Abel.
Let's read chapter four so we get an idea of what happened
here. Before God put Adam and Eve out
of the garden, He actually killed an animal. and he provided the
skin to cover their nakedness. And it was a picture of what
was needed because they needed to be covered. And that's what
the state of man is right now. So let's read chapter four from
start to beginning. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived and bear Cain and said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. And she, again, bare his brother,
Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in a process of time,
it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain,
and his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and
his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain,
why art thou wroth? Why is our countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shall not be accepted. And if thou doest
not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. Cain talked with Abel, his brother,
and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain
rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said
unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know
not, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what hast thou done? And the voice of thy brother's
blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed
from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. Even in this passage, we see
that There is one way that sin can be atoned for. And you see
what Cain brought. I'm sure he was proud of what
he brought. But what he brought was not what
God had commanded, what Adam had told him, that there had
to be a blood sacrifice. It started there. It was an example. of really what was to come. And
the fact that, and I'm not saying that I wouldn't do this either,
the fact that Cain rose up against his own brother and slew him,
it shows the self-righteousness and how powerful that is. In the garden when Satan had
tempted Eve, She said that they would be like
gods and they would know all things. That's the reason why
the devil was cast out of heaven. He wanted to be like God. He
wanted to be equal with God. And that was his sin. That was his putting his hands
on, you can be like God. And the fact that Cain would
actually bring his best, like I said, I'm sure it was great,
but it was a salad. It wasn't meat. It wasn't the
blood that was needed. Just turn over to Genesis 22.
It's another example. Another example that of what God requires and what
God supplies, Abraham and Isaac, the, I hate to say story, it's
a fact of what actually happened. And just looking at Abraham and
Sarah, they had Isaac, it was a promise. They had Isaac when
they were 100 years old. That's a miracle. You don't hear
that happening. But with God, he does that to,
I don't want to say get our attention, but that's how he operates. Everything
he does is by a miracle, is something that is not normal, we'll put
it that way, to the eyes of us. If we read this account a little
bit, and I don't want to go through everything here, but to summarize
this a little bit, It says here, it came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, and he
said, behold, here I am. And he said, take thy, now thy
son, thy only son, Isaac, whom thou loveth, and get thee into
the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. Abraham, Abraham believed God. God had given him faith to believe
that whatever God says you do. When you don't do what God says
and you actually come against it in the fall, look at the result
of that. But getting back to Abraham,
he took Isaac, and he went to the place that God had told him
to do. And Isaac had, he was carrying
the wood. Let's read that. Verse seven. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. And he
said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for
the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together and they came to the place which God had
told him of and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood
in order. and bound Isaac, his son, and
laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth
his hand, and he took the knife to slay his son. And the angel
of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham,
Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he
said, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing that thou has not withheld thy son, thy only son
from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thickest
by his thorns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah. So as it is said to this day
in the mouth of the Lord, it shall be seen. We didn't even get out of Genesis. And the the way that God was
going to save his people was through a blood sacrifice. This
was his only son, Isaac. Now, if Abraham would have killed
Isaac, that wouldn't have saved any of us. He might have been
a martyr, but it really wouldn't have done anything. God looks
to one, his son. And I don't want to just quick
run through the Old Testament. and say the examples that are
shown to us over and over again of what God is doing for his
people. When you look at the Israelites,
when you look at the bondage they were in, for 470 years and
what God did for that people, how he brought them out of Egypt,
all that took place, the miracles that were seen. You would think that everybody
there would be saved just by what took place. The sea opening
up, the Red Sea, they passed through on dry ground. The fact
that the Egyptians were going to take them back and the water
came upon them and killed all of them. The time in the wilderness
that God provided water out of a rock. He provided manna. He did all things to show that
everything good comes from God. Everything that is needed, he
supplies. And even in that, They perished
in the wilderness. There was a few chosen that did
not look to themselves, but they looked to God. There was like
a million people or more. Forty years. It's a long time
that again, he provided all these things for his people. And it's
all a picture of what he does for us, what he is going to do
for us. Everything was spoken of to bring
his son into the world. I'd like to turn to Matthew 1,
18. Matthew 1, 18. We'll read 18. Now the birth
of Jesus Christ was on this wise when his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph before they came together and she was found with child
of the Holy Ghost. If you skip over to verse 21. And she shall bring forth a son
and thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. Now all of this was done that
it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of of the Lord by
the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child
and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. This birth of Jesus Christ was was how he was going to come
and save his people. He was fully God and fully man,
but his blood was not polluted like Adam was. And what Adam
did, he was spiritually alive. And his life that he lived as
a child, all the way up until the cross, He never sinned. His thoughts, his actions always
were toward God. He was there to fulfill the will
of God, his father. He was not there for his own,
his own prophet. He was there to do the will of
God. And as he, as he grew in stature,
He preached in the synagogues. He did things that no man could
ever do. It came to me last night, I was
thinking about this. This is the creator of everything. The word of God is a person. It's a son of God. And he created
everything. Caleb, a few weeks back, said
something that I just didn't, I didn't see it. I didn't, I
never thought of it this way. If God himself, the God who is
holy, the God that cannot look upon sin, he's a consuming fire. If he was in the garden when
that took place to Adam, he would have consumed him. This is, this
was the son of God. the God man that was in the garden. He's the only one that can be
with man and not be polluted by what actually happened. He
can touch that and be with God. He's the only one that can do
that, that has that ability that he was born for. You know, I
thought about the fact that as Christ was on the earth, and
he did miracles again, things that no man could ever, ever
do. He healed the sick. He made the
blind to see. There are all things that are
miracles that no one can fix that. He chose his disciples one by
one. A lot of them were just the base
people of the world, tax collectors, people like that, fishermen.
They were more in high esteem, but he chose them because he
uses the base things of the world to confound the wise. To make
it that it's not the person that is bringing it, it's the person
of Christ is who is being brought, is the person of God, is the
son of God himself. Ken, I was thinking, and I don't
want to speak about myself, but I'm a mechanic. There's many
times that I am confronted with things and I think, man, I'd
love to get that engineer here. I'd like to get the guy here
that designed this, that could help me fix this, understand
what is actually going on here. I know it's a poor example, but
The disciples and the people that were around him, this is
God who created all things. This is the God who makes your
heart beat. We're not in control of that,
but He is. The breath that you take, coming
over here, we're watching the leaves turn. And we see the seasons
happen. We see the sky that only God
can paint. Only God can do this. This is
His. All this creation He did in six days. Again, they had the one that
could answer every question. And the reality is a lot of times
they didn't ask the right question. They're always putting their
flesh into it, which that's like going back to King. Bring in
your best. The Christ came to live a perfect
life, to be law obedient, to be for us what we cannot be. We'll never, in our best state
ever, the best we ever did won't buy you a millisecond before
a God that demands righteousness, that cannot look upon it. It has to be pure. It has to
be righteous. And it has to be that way. And
there was only one that could could take the place of us and
live this life to come in the person to be the God man. And
as he performed all these miracles, that's probably not a good word
to say perform as he as he did them as they unfolded in time. And the time came that people
wanted to make him king. They're looking for the physical
side of this. But being that this is a spiritual
problem that all men have. We're not spiritually alive.
That has to be done by God. That has to be provided by God.
And you know what? People don't want to hear that.
That's something that they think they have control. of their life
and what they do, what they say, but all those things are going
to perish. What what Christ came to do,
he had to do. And he even asked his father
in the garden, can this pass? Is there a way that would would
work? And his response was, Lord, not
not my will, but thine will be done. He was betrayed by all
of us. If we were there, we would have
turned away. We would have feared man. Peter
thought that he could say, I'll I'll die with you. And Peter's a brother. Peter
loved the truth, but. The flesh doesn't inherit the
kingdom of God. The Spirit of God has to be in
us. That's being made spiritual. We worship in spirit. That's
why we come here. Why we are drawn to this. Because
without it, this life? I'm at my 58th summer. Don't seem like a lot. What did
I do with my life? Is that what's important? There's
no legacy in what I'm done. I'll be forgotten. You go back
and look at that graveyard. You can look at those tombstone
all day long, but you don't know the person. You don't know who's
there. Don't matter. Only matters is
what Christ has done, what he's accomplished. When Christ was
betrayed, again, he was, let's turn to Luke 23. You know, there's
a person that I was on the hot seat, was pilot.
He really was on the hot seat. If we read Luke 23, and we'll
start at verse 20. Verse 20, Pilate therefore, willing
to release Jesus, spake again to them, but they cried and sang,
crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third
time, why? What evil had he had done? and
I have found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise
him and let him go.' And they were instant with loud voices
requiring that he might be crucified. And the voice of them, of the
chief priest, prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that
it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that the sedition and the murderer was cast into prison whom he
had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will. I heard a message from Don Fortner
and he was speaking about this passage. He was released to the will of
man. The will of man, this is, this
is, The God King, this is Christ. This is the Son of God. He did
all these things, and what does man do? He looks to himself and says,
I won't have this man to rule over me. Crucify him to their
will. When I think about free will,
that's the scariest thing in the world. I don't want free
will. I really don't, because that's
what this produces. Crucify him, the one who created
all things, the one that came to save his people, and he did
it alone. Well, actually, he did it alone,
but it's amazing that he was crucified with two other men. I don't know what they did, It
was bad enough that they would be crucified. And they both were
railing with the crowd, too. Except one, finally, said, you
know, this man doesn't deserve what is happening to him. We
do. He saw his sin. At that point,
God made that man, and that guy, he lived his whole life, and
obviously, he did a lot of bad things. But he really didn't
know he was a sinner until that moment, right before he was going
to meet his maker. And he asked Jesus, remember
me. What a glorious thing when Christ
says, today you'll be with me in paradise. And that's what I want to hear.
That's what I want to hear about the truth. about what Christ has done, that
he saves his people from their sins. When Christ was on the cross,
and we look at Luke 23 verse 44, Let's start at 44. And it was
about the sixth hour and there was a darkness over all earth
until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened and
the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands,
I commit my spirit. And having said this, he gave
up the ghost. It was finished. Those three
hours of darkness, just like Adam, his sin was imputed
to us. We can't do nothing about it.
There's no cure on our side for that. Christ, in his life that
he lived perfectly as the God man, as feeling all our infirmities,
everything about us, He took our sin. Our sin was imputed to Him. And in those three hours of darkness,
the Father was dealing with Him. Nobody could see what was going
on. It must have been terrifying. It would have been even worse
if people could have seen really what was happening there. When
God unsheathed the sword of justice, he plunged that into his son's
heart and Christ died. The son of God
died. There is nothing more powerful
on this planet than for that to happen, for that to occur. There's nothing. At that moment,
God was satisfied. The wrath on the sin that is
us, because it's not just a couple of sins. We are sin. There is nothing good in us.
We can't talk ourselves down far enough, and we can't talk
God high enough. But he came to save sinners,
and he did just that. He saved his elect, all the ones
that the father, before time began, he said, I will have a
people. And he wrote them in the Lamb
book of life. He wrote their names. It's a
will. It's a will that is written.
And Christ carried that will out right to the very end. God
raised him again the third day. to show that death has been conquered.
Death no longer has its sting like it used to. We can't, we're all heading to
death. That's something that we're gonna
do someday, some sooner than others, but Christ conquered
death, the sting of it, and he sits at the right hand of God
and He is making intercession for us. There's a passage in
2 Corinthians 4, one to seven. Before I wanna read this, when
Christ, was raised again, and he met with his disciples to
show that he is God, and they believed. And I'm sure there
was a fear, because he told them, I've got to go to my father.
He's no longer going to be here, but he's going to send the Comforter,
the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God only does one
thing. It looks for the blood of Christ.
When it sees it on the believer, when the gospel is being proclaimed
and he sees, he sees that blood, you know, just like the last
plague of Egypt. So encouraging that when they
were told to put that blood over the lintel and that death angel
came, if he saw the blood, he passed by. He didn't look inside. He wasn't looking for validation,
who's exactly in there. He's looking to the blood. The
Spirit of God, through the power of God, looks for the blood of
Christ. And it's not like he can't find
it. But in the fullness of time, each one of God's elect is brought
to the truth. And the Spirit of God breathes
into them. He makes them alive just like
Adam was made alive by the breath of God in the garden. The same
thing happens to the believer. This time it's a spirit of God
that breathes a life and the life that we live is no longer
looked at by God. It's like it never existed. We're
seen in Christ in what he's accomplished. because that's the only thing
that God will accept. It's the only thing that will
please God is what the Son has done. The older I get, wills are coming into effect,
you know? And we deal with this as our
loved ones and friends. People pass away and all of that
is, you know, there's sometimes ugly things happen. But this
will of God, there's nobody that can change it. It can't halt
what God has done. The son is seated at the right
hand of God at this moment, making intercession for his people.
And he sends that spirit of God to comfort us, to bring truth,
to bring understanding, to bring it to a bunch of Yankees seated
here. And he takes the preaching of
the gospel, the foolishness. I remember the first time I read
that and I'm thinking, foolishness, what is that? Why would he say
that? Because of the natural man, it is foolish. People don't
wanna hear this. They don't wanna hear that they're
a sinner. They don't wanna hear that they've
been charged with something that they'll say is unfair. That's
the flesh. That's all that is. That's man
reaching out his fist to God saying, well, why'd you do this?
God did this for his purpose. The earth and everything about
it, the universe, was created for one thing, for the cross,
to show God's mercy and love for his people. That's the only
reason this is here. This is a God who is sovereign. He doesn't make mistakes. He
doesn't change his mind. He brings truth. And he brings
it to his elect and he makes them alive. This second Corinthians
four. I'm going to read. One through
seven. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel is hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
had blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us." I find such comfort in that. I never would have figured
this out. This is not something that you
could read the Bible a thousand times through and search it.
God doesn't apply that spirit If you're not one of God's elect,
and I know that sounds, people say elect, and you're so self-righteous
in that. We're sinners. God came to save
sinners. He endured all things for us. He lived a perfect life. He went
to the cross and took everything that we are. Everything. And he bore it and he satisfied
God and he brought life to his people, to his bride. I am so
thankful for his mercy. and that he does not leave us
to ourselves. Having this church here and Caleb
and his family come, it's a miracle. We waited a long
time. We thought this is impossible,
it's not gonna happen. But for God, all things are possible. for His glory alone. That's why
we're here. That's why we come together. I am so thankful. I am so thankful
and humbled. And I'm inadequate to even be
standing here to say anything. I got nothing. In my heart, I'm thankful, though, for what
he's done for me, what he has done for our family, what he's
done for our brethren to sustain us in a world that is going in
a thousand different directions. But in the end. Every knee is
going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord and he's the son of God. And I take. such comfort in knowing that
that's that's the truth of what this world is. And I'm very thankful
for it. Let's let's pray.