With all its evil, disease, darkness
and death, it entered into this world that God had made. Is there
any doubt about that? Well, let's go back and read
about it again. Genesis chapter 2. By one man,
sin entered into this world. There's no doubt about it. In
Genesis 2, verse 15. The Lord God took the man, the
man, the only man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress
him and keep him. And the Lord God commanded the
man, gave him this law, saying, Of every tree of 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 that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." That's the command of God. Turn over one page to Genesis
3, and let's see what happens. Genesis 3, verse 6. The serpent
tipped at Eve, and he said to the woman, God said you shall
not eat of every Let's go back to verse 2. And the woman said
to the serpent, We may eat of the fruits of the tree of the
garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of
the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it. That's what
God said. That's the law. Neither shall you touch it, lest
you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely
die. But God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then
your eyes will be opened, you'll be as gods, knowing good and
evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, was pleasant to the eyes, she believed the
lie, Satan told her. And the tree desired to make
one wise, as God. She took the fruit and did eat. Gave also to her husband with
her, and he did eat. And when Adam ate, the eyes of
them both were opened. And they knew they were naked.
They were a holy, God-made man, upright. They had no clothes on, they
didn't know it, they didn't know anything about sin, they didn't
know anything about shame, or fear, or doubt, or hate. These emotions were not in them
at all. But when they ate that forbidden
fruit, their eyes of understanding were opened, and they knew they
were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons to cover their sin, to cover their
nakedness. 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, fear, shame, fear, from the presence
of the Lord God among the trees, hiding from God among the trees.
That's foolishness, that's ignorance. How can you hide from God? And
the Lord called unto the man Adam and said, Where are you?
And he said, I heard your voice and I was afraid. And I was naked. And he hid himself. This is a
totally different man. Spiritually dead. Spiritually
dead. And God said, Who told you you
were naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree wherever I commanded
thee thou shalt not eat? The man said, The woman gave
it to me. Here, putting the blame on someone else. a refusal to
admit that he's sinning, admit he's wrong, he blames somebody
else. All of these are things we understand. He didn't before he ate that
tree. He didn't know anything about blaming somebody, or fearing,
or running from God, or hiding, or nakedness, he didn't know
any of these things. Holy. But now he's a different person.
He's a fallen creature. He said, the woman, she gave
it to me. The woman, it's you baby. Now he's blaming God. This man has no understanding
anymore of righteousness and holiness. He's just trying to
protect himself. And the Lord said to the woman,
what is it that you have done? She said, well, a serpent. He's
to blame. Not me. He gave it to me and
I ate. Alrighty, what's the consequences?
So what's this word sorrow? You were reading this tonight,
that word sorrow in the study when you read sorrow, sorrow,
sorrow. Listen. The Lord God said to
the serpent, because you've done this, you're cursed above all
cattle, above every beast of the field, upon your belly shalt
you go and dust shalt you eat all the days of your life. And
I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed
and her seed. And it'll bruise your head and
you'll bruise his heel. And then he turned to the woman.
Now listen to this. I will greatly, greatly, greatly
multiply your sorrow. There's not a woman here that
doesn't know something about sorrow. And it's been multiplied. Eve knew nothing about sorrow
until she fell. But I'll multiply your sorrow,
God said. In thy conception and in sorrow,
You'll bring forth children in sorrow. Not just bringing them
forth, it'll be sorrow. Raising them will be sorrow.
Watching them suffer will be sorrow. Putting them in the grave
will be sorrow. Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow all of
your life. And your desire will be to your
husband and he'll rule over you. Then he said to Adam, because
you've hearkened to the voice of your wife, You see, Adam wasn't
deceived. He didn't listen to Satan. He
listened to Eve. Eve was deceived. She was really deceived. But
they didn't, their eyes weren't open when she ate. It was Adam
that God gave the commandment to. Her eyes were open when he
ate, when Adam fell. We'll show you that all the way
through here. But Eve was not deceived. Adam, Eve was deceived. Adam was not. He did this thing
willingly. He obeyed the voice of his wife.
He said, you listen to your wife. And you've eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you, thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is
the ground for your sake. God, when Adam fell, not only
was Adam affected by this sin, but the ground was. The trees
were. Everything in creation, everything
in creation was blighted and blotted by the fall of Adam. He'd ruin everything in this
world at one act. Yes, God. Cursed is the ground
for your sake, because of you, and in sorrow. You're not going to find any
happiness. You women are not going to find, and all this work
you're talking about peace and happiness is not going to be
sorrow, God said. This sin brought sorrow. You
find a little Happiness and things to smile about, laugh about,
rejoice in, but basically overall it's going to be a time of sorrow,
a whole lot. And you men, grounds crushed
in sorrow, you'll eat of it all the days of your life. It's not
going to get better, it's going to get worse, all the days of
your life. And thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth
to you, and you'll eat the herb of the field, but in the sweat
of your face. you leap to your breath, till
you return to the ground, for out of it was thou taken, the
dust you are, and the dust you shall return." Now that's it.
And that's what we just read here, wherefore by one man all
that entered into this world, sin and the consequences of it,
and the sorrow of it, and the heartache and the pain and the
sickness and the darkness and the cursed ground. All of these
things entered into the world. And death by sin. Spiritual death. Adam was a holy man. You saw
what happened to him. No longer a holy man, now a man
of flesh. And physical death. Genesis 5,
turn there just a moment. Genesis 5, verses 4 and 5. Genesis 5, verse 3, Adam lived
130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image,
called his name Seth. Of course, he had many sons before
then, Cain, Abel, all the rest of them. And the days of Adam
after he had begotten Seth were 800 years, so that's 930 years
he lived. He begat sons and daughters.
And all the days of Adam lived were 930 years and he died. One man's sin entered this world
and all the consequences of it. Now watch this next line, verse
12. And so death, that spiritual death and physical death, passed
upon all men. The root, you see, is Adam. Everybody
comes from him. Even Eve came out of him. I showed
you that this morning. God put Adam to sleep, cut open
his side, took the rear about and made the woman. He's her
head. The root is contaminated. And
so the entire tree is contaminated. The seed is a sinful seed and
therefore every human being born into this world is born in sin.
Now let's read that in Psalm 51. Let's just reconfirm these
things and see what the Lord is pleased to teach us. In Psalm
51, verse 5, David's speaking here. Verse 4, he said, Against
thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.
That thou mightest be justified when you speak, and clear when
you judge." Let's don't blame God. Let's don't do like Adam
and Eve. The woman you gave me, the woman sent a serpent, Eve
beguiled me. Let's don't blame God. Let's
justify God. Everything God said to Adam is
justified. He deserves it. We deserve it. That's what we are. Now, verse
5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me. So death passed upon all men
from Adam. When Eve brought forth her firstborn
son, she brought forth a son that was a sinner. And look at verse 12 again in
Romans 5. This says, "...for that all have
sinned." Most all of the scholars and
students of the scripture read this verse this way. By one man
sin entered this world, and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men, for they all sinned. When Adam sinned, we sinned. We're not only sinners by imitation. We're sinners by imputation. Sinners not only by imitation,
doing like Adam, but we are sinners by imputation. We sin in him. Adam's fallen nature is in us. Adam's curse is upon us. Adam's
judgment is our judgment. The whole human race is considered,
regarded, fallen, sinful, condemned in Adam. I'll pause there a moment, and
you may run into somebody you work with or talk with and they
say, well, I don't believe that. Well, let me tell you something. If you don't receive imputed
guilt in Adam, how can you believe imputed righteousness in Christ?
A person may say, well, I wasn't here when Adam sinned. I wasn't
here when Christ died either. Your guilt and act, you've got
to also say, I won't have righteousness in Christ. Because it's the same
thing as imputation. We're not righteous by imitation,
we're righteous by imputation. Okay, now let's try it. We're
not only guilty by imitation, we're guilty by imputation. When
Adam sinned, we sinned. When he fell, we fell. When Christ
obeyed, we obeyed. When Christ stood, we stood.
I'll show you that in a few moments. When does a person become a sinner?
Well, verse 13. For unto the law sin was in the
world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. There
was a law. This scripture is not saying
there wasn't any law from Adam to Moses. There was a law. There
was a law in the Garden of Eden. Don't eat that tree. That's a
law, isn't it? That's right. Well, the unwritten
law of God was from Adam to to Moses. But the law was written
by Moses. God gave the written law to Moses. God wrote the law on the Ten
Commandments on the tables of stone and gave it to Moses, and
Moses gave it to the people. But that law didn't make people
sinners. That law showed we were sinners. So when does a person become
a sinner? One word will answer that question
here. The law wasn't written between Adam and Moses, but the
law existed. And the proof of it is this,
and we were sinners. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses. People died from Adam to Moses.
That's right. Adam died. All of them died. Even, now here, watch this, even
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over Philem that had not
sinned. Like Adam sinned. How did Adam
sin? He disobeyed a positive command.
He disobeyed a positive command from God. Who are these people? Everybody here tonight disobeyed
a positive command from God. Thou shalt not covet? We do.
Thou shalt not lie? We do. Who are these people over
which death reigned that did not sin against a positive command? Little babies born to those women
in sorrow, and they bring one forth, it's stillborn or it's
dead. It lives a few days and it's
dead, a few months. It never has disobeyed a positive
command. Never did. It never did consciously
or disobey God. It never did intelligently, hear
a law or disobey a law. But it died. Why did it die?
It was a sinner. Isn't that right? There's no
question about it. You can't die unless you're a
sinner. The sting of death is sin. Sin, when it's finished,
brings forth death. So he's saying here that when
Adam fell, we fell. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When Adam died, we died. And his sin is our sin. And when
we're born into this world as infants, never having disobeyed
a positive commandment of God, were still sinners, and that's
why babies die. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them, babies, that had not sinned,
as Adam did, by disobeying a positive commandment of God. But they
fell and they died. This Adam, it says here in the
latter part of verse 14, he's a figure. of him who was to come. Now this is so good here. Adam is a figure. What's a figure?
It's a type. It's an illustration. Adam is
a type or a figure of him who is to come, who was to come at
that time. At that time. And Paul emphasized
this over in 1 Corinthians 15. Let's turn over that. 1 Corinthians
15. Now this, I've really and truly,
if preachers don't preach this, their folks will have a hard
time understanding the gospel. Because the gospel is wrapped
up in this truth right here. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 21. For a sense by one man, by a
sense by man, came death. We've been reading about that.
Well, by man also came the resurrection of the dead, came life. As in
Adam, all died. Even so, in Christ shall all
be made alive. That's two men, two men. Two Adams. Because it says over
here, look in 1 Corinthians 15, 45. So it's written, the first man,
Adam, was made a living soul. The last, Adam, was made a quickening
spirit. Howbeit that was not first, which
is spiritual, Christ, the second Adam, but that which is natural,
Adam, the man. Afterwards, that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy, from the dust. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. And as is the earthy, such are
we that are earthy. We're just like them, we're sons.
And as is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly, born
again, born of God, born of the Spirit, sons of God. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, his image, his sin, his nature, his corruption,
His darkness, his death, thank God, by God's grace we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly. Think about it. So here you've
got two men. First Adam, second Adam. Of the
earth, Lord from heaven. In this one we found two men,
two federal heads, two representatives. And let me tell you this, now
listen. When the Lord God created Adam, and Eve out of him. The Lord God saw, regarded, and
put the whole human race in that man. Black men, white men, red
men, yellow men, we're all of one blood. Paul said one father,
Adam, is the only man God created. He took that woman out of him
and gave them children and children and children. But that's our
start, that's our root. The whole human race in him.
And when he fell, the whole human race of natural men and women
fell in him. They were born in his image,
born his likeness, born rebels, born strangers, born aliens. Our whole head sick, our whole
heart faint, from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads,
no soundness, no goodness, no righteousness, no understanding,
no life, spiritual life. And under the curse of the broken
law, under the judgment of an offended God, with children of
wrath, creatures of the darkness, disease and death, man that is
born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble." That's
that Adam. But stir it in there. The second
Adam. Like the first Adam is a man.
The body has not prepared me. God set forth his Son, made of
a woman, made under the law, made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, the God-man, the Lord from heaven, Jehovah our Savior. And when the Lord God gave him
a body and sent him into this world, Jesus Christ our Lord,
the surety of a new covenant, Almighty God saw, put, regarded
all of his sheep, his elect, his church and believers in that
man Christ Jesus. As Adam's sin was ours, Christ's
righteousness is ours. As Adam's rebellion is ours,
Christ's restoration is ours. He put us in Christ and sent
Christ down here to do for us the opposite of what Adam did
for us. Adam took us down and Christ took us up. Adam contaminated
us and Christ cleansed us. Adam damned us and Christ saved
us. That's right. In him now, I'm telling you the
truth. And this was given us before
the world began. Turn to Ephesians 1. This is
the gospel now. This is the good news. This is
not giving me something to work out and to do in order to make
myself acceptable to God. This is the good news. In Ephesians
1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father,
my Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. The very opposite
of what we were at Adam. Having predestinated us to the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved in
Christ." 2 Timothy 1. Look over here. 2 Timothy 1. Verse 9. He hath saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before this world began. Now in Adam, as natural men,
we die. In Christ, I'm come that they
might have life and have it more abundantly. In Adam, we lost
our souls. David said in Psalm 23, he restored
my soul. In Adam, we lost the way to God,
the truth of God, the life of God, Christ said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to my father but
by me. In Adam we were children of wrath, in Christ we are children
of law. All right, back to my text. Let's
look at verse 16. Romans 5 verse 16. Now here are
three things I want to show you. Start with verse 15. All right, he says in verse 15, But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. What does that mean? I believe,
whether this is in Old English, and many of you already know,
but this is what that's saying. You can write this in the margin
of your Bible somewhere. This is what the Lord is saying
here. You can't compare the fallen Adam to the free gift of life
in Christ. Any more you can compare this
earthly life to life in glory. In other words, God's free gift
of life is not at all to be compared to Adam's transcription. His
grace is so far out of proportion to that fall, you can't even
compare it. But we do compare it. Adam, listen, he's more an antitype
of Christ than he is a type. For example, Adam is a living
soul, Christ is a quickening spirit. Adam is of the earth,
Christ is the Lord from heaven. Adam is our source of sin, Christ
is our source of righteousness. In Adam we die, in Christ we
live. That's the reason he says this, that the fall, we'll compare
it, but it's not worthy to be compared. Let me give you a scripture,
Romans 8, verse 18. This will help you understand
what we're saying. In Romans 8, verse 18, I recommend that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Not worthy. The glory, the sufferings of
this life is not worthy to be compared to that glory. And how
can you compare Adam to Christ? But we'll use the compassion,
because he does here. But he says, verse 15, all right,
let's look at it. There are four marks of a good
ministry. Four marks of a good ministry. Free grace, grace,
a free gift. Justification, a free gift. Righteousness, a free gift. Eternal life, a free gift. Did
you say that? That's marks of a good ministry,
the man that preaches and emphasizes free grace, the free gift of
God, without works, free justification, cleansing, free righteousness,
holiness, free gift of life, eternal life. Watch this here,
verse 15. Not to be compared, for if through
the offense of one many be dead, much more The grace of God and
the gift by grace. It's a free gift. Grace is a
gift. It's the gift of God. And it's
by one man, Jesus Christ. And it's abounded unto men. Grace
is what? It's a free gift. It's the gift
of grace. It's the gift of God. It's not
for sale. It's not merited. It's not earned.
It's not a reward. It's a free gift. The God of
all grace. has given us the free gift of
the grace of God." Look at the next verse. "...and not as it
was by one that sinned, or not to be compared." His grace is
not to be compared to this fellow, but we'll use it. "...for the
judgment was by one to condemnation." But the free gift. The what?
The free gift. The preacher has got to do something.
The free gift. But I got to pay something. The
free gift. Free gift. Now you folks know something
about giving free gifts. My goodness, you're so good about
it. You're so... And you'd be insulted if somebody wanted to
pay you for your gift. And God says it's a free gift
of many offenses under justification. Adam committed one offense and
damned everybody. We committed many offenses. How many offenses? Many offenses! That's the reason it's not worthy
to be compelled to do one thing wrong and damn the whole human
race. Well, boy, if the whole human
race left us alone, we'd damn two or three races. Many offenses! But this free deal is of many
offenses under free justification. Now, what works in there some
way? Can anybody work some works in? It's a gift of God, a free
gift. Grace is free, justification
is free, look at the next verse. For if by one man's offense death
reigneth, and it did, by one, by him, much more. You folks
that receive abundance of grace, and we've got to have abundance,
and grace is abundant, abundant grace. You folks that have received
abundant grace, And what else? And the gift of righteousness,
the free gift of righteousness, holiness. My holiness is the
gift of God. It shall reign in life by one
Jesus Christ. Sin has reigned because of Adam's
fall, because of Christ's obedience, his precious blood, his perfect
life. The free gift of righteousness
is ours and will reign with Christ. All right, free grace, free justification,
free righteousness, what's the next line? That's the offensive
one, that's by the offensive one, judgment came upon all men
to condemnation. Now that's just condemnation,
all men. All have sinned and all have
come short of the glory of God and all are condemned. Now you
just write it down, write it down, it's condemned. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, by the righteousness of one, by the obedience of one, the free gift came upon all men
under justification of life. Free gift, life. This is the
record God has given us. Free grace, free justification,
free righteousness, and free life. God has given us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. I just think that is so clear,
I don't know of any scriptures that are any clearer on the freeness,
free grace, free justification, free righteousness and eternal
life on all in Christ. Who is he talking about? You
people that have received abundance of grace, that's who he's talking
about. Let's wind it up with verse 19. And the two words I
want you to look at carefully in verse 19, along with the rest,
but two words are important. Verse 19. For as by one man's
disobedience, one man's sin, many were made sinners. Were made sinners. It doesn't
say Adam's fall put us on trial. I heard a preacher say one time,
we're all on trial. The trial is over. The trial
is over. We're guilty. But the law says,
it says to all them that are under the law that every man
may be stopped in all the world and come with guilt. There's
no trial. The law of God doesn't, Adam's
father didn't put us on trial. By his transgression we were
made sinners. That's when everybody was made
sin. Alright, now look at this. So,
by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." Adam's
sin didn't put us on trial, and Christ's obedience didn't put
us on trial. Adam's sin did not render us
liable to follow, and Christ's righteousness doesn't render
us able to be righteous. Adam's follow damned us, Christ's
obedience saved us. Adam's foe made us sinners, and
the minute my Lord obeyed the law for me and died for me, I
was declared righteous, accepted, and admitted to glory in him."
That's it. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God The
law entered that the offense might abound. The law didn't
make us sinners. Our disobedience to the law didn't
make us sinners. We disobeyed the law because
we were sinners already. The law entered that the offense
might abound. The law entered that the offense
might be inexcusable. Take away all of our alibis and
excuses and reveal what we are. But thank God, where that sin
abounded by that man's father, grace by a greater, more perfect,
wonderful Redeemer did much more abound. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. Somebody said, where do you find
sovereign grace in the Bible? Right there. Grace reigns. That's
sovereign grace right there. It reigns. And I'll tell you
how it reigns. Through the righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's where grace
reigns in Christ. Where grace is found in Christ. Nowhere else. All right. I'm glad I studied that and I'm
glad I preached it and I hope you're glad I did too. Hope it's
a blessing.