3 Important Questions

My message today will deal with
the three most important questions you will ever face. That's right,
the three most important questions that you'll ever face. First
of all, what happened in the Garden of Eden? Secondly, what
happened on the hill called Calvary? And thirdly, what happens, what
really happens in the heart of a sinner when God is pleased
to save that person and bring him to the knowledge of Christ.
Now, many people may feel that they have a ready answer for
all three of these questions. First of all, what happened in
the Garden of Eden? You reply, man's sin. Well, that's
true. It is true that man's sin, but
what was involved in that sin? And how did it affect Adam? And
how does that sin in the Garden of Eden affect you and me? How
are we involved in that scene? So when we discuss this question,
what happened in the garden, we're going to talk about what
was involved in that fall and how it affected you and how it
affected me. And then secondly, what happened
on the cross? Well, you say Christ died. That's true, but why did
he die? Why did Christ have to come to this earth and live 33
and a half years? Why did Christ have to endure
the agony and the suffering and the soul suffering of Calvary's
cross. What did he actually accomplish
when he died on that cross, and why did he die? And then the
third question, what happens when God saves a sinner? What
happens in a man's heart when he comes to a saving union or
interest in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, you say, well, he believes
and he's forgiven of his sins. Well, that's true. It's true
that he believes, and it's true that he's forgiven of his sins,
but what actually is involved in this operation of grace, in
this faith of God's elect? What's involved? I want us to
look now at these three questions, and I hope and I pray that you
will give me your undivided attention, and that you'll take your Bibles
and follow along with me as we answer from God's Word these
three questions. You know, the Bible tells us
to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that needeth
not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Now, what
happened? What actually happened in the
Garden of Eden? What actually happened there
several thousands of years ago when Adam fell and when Adam
sinned against God? With all the scars of sin on
our minds and our hearts and our bodies, It's difficult for
you and me to actually understand how perfect, how holy, how wise,
how great Adam was before he fell. Because our minds have
been scarred by sin, it's hard for us to understand just how
perfect he was, what sort of man Adam was before the fall.
But I can tell you a few things about him. First of all, he was
created in the image of God. Adam was created holy and upright. Adam knew no fear. No fear of
God. No fear of the elements. No fear
of the animals. No fear of sickness. No fear
of death. He knew no fear. He knew no shame. He knew no
guilt. Adam knew none of these things.
He had no sickness. He had no disease. He had no
hate. Adam was created, the Word of God says, holy and upright
in the image of God. And then he had a perfect body.
a perfect body, free from all disease, free from all pain,
free from all fatigue, and free from all chance of death. Adam would not have died had
he continued in obedience to the Holy God. And then thirdly,
who can tell what wisdom, what great wisdom and understanding
this man had? If you read the first two chapters
of Genesis, you'll find that Adam was given by God authority
and dominion over the whole earth. He had authority over the fowls
of the air, over the fish of the sea, over the animals of
the forest. He had authority over all of
God's creation. God put him, man, in dominion
over all that he had made. Adam was answerable only to God. Adam was responsible only to
God. Now God planted a tree, the scripture
says, in the midst of the garden. And that tree was called the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. And God commanded Adam
not to eat of that tree. He said, Adam, you can eat of
all the trees in the garden, everything else. You have dominion
over it, you have power over it, you can eat of any of the
trees, but this one tree, you're not to eat of it, lest you die. That was God's law. That was
God's covenant with man. It was a token As long as it
stood untouched, it was a token of man's dependence upon God.
Now, man had dominion over all that God had made, but God had
dominion over man. Adam was the ruler over all that
God had created, but God was the ruler over man. And as long
as this tree stood untouched, uneaten, it was saying that Adam
was in subjection to God, that Adam was in subjection to the
King. And that was the covenant that he made. But we know, the
scripture tells us, that Adam willfully took the forbidden
fruit and ate thereof. Satan had said to him and to
Eve, his wife, ye shall be as gods. And Adam broke God's law. And Adam destroyed the covenant.
And Adam failed. And when he sinned, death and
judgment and condemnation came upon Adam. And the scripture
says, upon all men, as in Adam all die, when sin came into the
world by one man, condemnation, judgment, and death passed upon
all men, because all men sinned in Adam. For as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. Now, what happened when Adam
fell? How did it affect him? How did
it affect you and me? Well, as I've told you, Adam
knew nothing about shame. He knew nothing about guilt.
He knew nothing about fear. He knew nothing of disease. He
knew nothing of death. He knew nothing of these things.
He was holy and upright. But when he ate, the scripture
says, immediately, when Adam took the fruit and ate thereof,
he saw that he was naked. Look at Genesis 3, verse 7. And
when they ate of the fruit, their eyes were opened, and they saw,
they knew that they were naked. Now, before he fell, Adam was
naked, but before he fell, Adam had a pure heart. Adam had a
pure, holy heart, and nothing appeared evil. Nothing in his
sight appeared evil to him. He had an inward part of holiness. But after he fell, he lost that
holiness. He lost that righteousness. He
lost that purity, he lost that inward beauty, and things appeared
to him to be evil. And he saw that he was naked,
and the first thing he did, he got some fig leaves and tried
to make himself a covering to cover his shame. Adam, after
he fell, knew shame. The shame that we know today
is the result of that fall. That Adam's sin was not only
imputed to us, But Adam's sin was imparted to us. Not only
charged to our account, Adam was our representative. And when
he stood, we stood. The whole human race stood in
him. God never made but one man. He made Adam. He created Adam.
And all men came from Adam. All men were created to Adam.
And when he fell as the federal head of the whole human race,
we fell in him. And there was charged to our
account rebellion against God, sin against the Holy God. but
not only imputed to us and reckoned our accounts as if we had sinned
ourselves, but the nature of sin was imparted to us, or passed
from Adam to us. And that's the reason we know
shame. That's the reason you are embarrassed, and that's the
reason you know shame, and that's the reason you feel this shame
as you look upon things and they make you ashamed. Why? Because
you do not have a pure, perfect heart. you have a heart of evil. Secondly, sin made Adam guilty. He hid among the trees. That's what it says there in
Genesis 3.8. He saw that he was naked, and he ran and hid among
the trees. Now, before the fall, Adam had
walked with God. Before the fall, Adam had talked
with God. Before the fall, God had talked
with Adam, and they had fellowship and communion. But now, Adam
doesn't want to talk to God. Because Adam's guilty. He knows
he's guilty, and he feels his guilt. And he's embarrassed,
and he's ashamed, and he doesn't want to meet God. And his eyes
drop, and not only his eyes, but he drops to his knees and
hides like a criminal, a fugitive among the trees. Guilty. Guilty. You know why you feel guilt?
Because you are guilty. Adam felt it because he was guilty.
The scripture says, What the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty, guilty before God. We are guilty. That's
the reason we feel guilt. And then Adam, after he fell,
knew fear. He never knew fear before. He
was not afraid of God. He was not afraid of the animals.
He was not afraid of death. He was not afraid of anything.
Adam didn't know fear. He didn't know what fear was.
He never experienced it. He never realized fear. But listen
to this. God said, Adam, where are you? He said, I saw that I was naked
and a head. Well, why did you hide? I was
afraid. I was afraid. Adam never knew
fear, but here he is now. This brave, this wise, this great
man, down on his knees, hiding among the bushes and the trees,
hiding from God. God his father. God his friend. But he's afraid. He's afraid
of judgment. He's afraid of death. He's afraid
of God. We know fear because of sin.
And then Adam became a fool. Sin not only made him ashamed
and not only made him guilty and made him afraid, but sin
made him a fool. Adam was brilliant. Well, the
scripture tells us that he named every animal. God brought the
animals to Adam. He brought the birds, he brought
the lions, and tigers, and elephants, and horses, and cows, and all
these animals. And Adam named every one of them.
And that's the name that they go by right now, the name Adam
gave them. This wise man named all of these
things. He was created in the image of
God. But here is a wise man, or was a wise man, who has become
a fool. Hide from God? Adam, how can
you hide from God? Don't you know better than that?
Sinful men do foolish things. Sinful men do foolish things
because sinful men are fools. Sin makes men foolish. And then
Adam, in the fifth place, sin made Adam to hate. This is one
of the saddest verses in the Bible. God came to Adam and said,
Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the fruit of
which I said thou shalt not eat? And you know what Adam said?
He didn't say, Yes, Lord, I did, and I'm sorry. And I confess,
and I ask your forgiveness." No, see, he didn't. He put the
blame on somebody else. Adam learned, when he sinned,
how to hate. Before this, Adam loved Eve.
Before this, Adam had called her, bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh. God had made Eve of Adam's rib
and brought her to him, and he received her as his wife, and
he said, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. And that
was before he fell. He knew love. He loved her. He
held her in the highest esteem. She shall be called Eve, mother
of all living. But now here he is saying, it's
her fault. It's all her fault. The woman
you gave me, she made me eat of the tree. If it hadn't been
for her, I never would have touched it. It's all her fault. Hold
her responsible. Don't charge me. Let me go and
punish her. That's hate. That's hate. Here is this man created by God,
in God's own image. who never knew these things before.
There was no such thing on this earth in the human heart as shame.
There was no such thing as guilt. There was no such thing as fear.
There was no such thing as foolishness. There was no such thing as hate,
blaming somebody else and justifying ourselves. Why do you do that? You do it and everybody else
does it. Because we are of the nature of Adam. In Adam we died. In Adam death, spiritual death,
physical death. In Adam, death passed upon all
men, and all of these evil things and this evil nature are ours
as a result of that fall. We weren't like that before,
but we are now. And we are born that way. David
said, In sin my mother conceived me, I was shapen in iniquity,
I was brought forth from the womb speaking lies. It's the
nature of man to be ashamed and to feel guilty and to be afraid
and to be a fool and to hate. I'll tell you something else
that happened when Adam sinned. Sin made Adam a dying creature. He wasn't a dying creature before,
but now he is. What a catastrophe. What a terrible,
terrible thing. What an awful fall. God finally
said to Adam, Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Now that's what happened in the
Garden of Eden. Man lost the truth. the truth
of God when he believed Satan's lies. Adam lost the way to God,
for God then took the man which he had created and cast him out
of the garden, and put a flaming sword in front of the garden,
lest man come back. Man lost the way to God, man
lost the truth, and man lost his life. He is dead in trespasses
and sin. He does not know God, he does
not fellowship with God, he does not seek God, he does not want
Man loves darkness rather than light, because his deeds are
evil. This is condemnation. Light has come into this world,
but men don't love light, they love darkness. And like Adam,
they hide from God, foolishly hide from God. Now that's what
happened in the garden. And that shame, and that guilt,
and that fear, and that foolishness, that spiritual insanity, and
that hate, and that self-justification, and that death and disease, passed
upon all men. And that's how you can account
for the condition of the human heart today. You take your own
children. You don't have to teach them
to lie and to hate and to steal. You don't have to teach them
to be envious and jealous. You don't have to teach them
to do foolish things. That's born in them. That's the
nature they receive from Adam. As in Adam, we died. In Adam,
death, judgment, and condemnation passed upon all men. All right,
the second question, what happened on the cross? What happened on
Calvary's Hill? What happened on Golgotha's Mountain?
Well, the old covenant of works made with Adam, that's the first
covenant, was broken. It was destroyed. God said, Obey
me and live. Adam disobeyed and died. That
did away with that covenant. It's no longer in effect. We
are no longer under that covenant. but we're under the curse of
the broken law. So God then revealed a new covenant. God then revealed a covenant
of grace, not made with man, because man failed, and man couldn't
keep the covenant, and man was a fallen creature. But God revealed
a covenant made with his Son, in which he had made his Son
the surety, the representative of a new race, of a new people,
of a spiritual The first Adam had fallen, and with him all
his race. As in Adam we died. In the second
Adam, and that's what Christ is called, the word Adam is a
Hebrew word which means man. And when God created the first
Adam, all flesh was in him. Every human being that's ever
walked on this earth can trace his lineage and his house to
Adam, because Adam is the father of every living creature. We
were all born from him. And Adam was our representative.
In Adam we die. Christ is the second Adam. Listen
to this scripture, 1 Corinthians 15, 47. The first Adam is of
the earth, earthy. The second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, the first Adam, so we shall bear the image of
the second Adam. Now listen to Romans 5, 19. For
as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, because
they were represented by him and they were in him. Even so,
by the obedience of one Christ, shall many be made righteous.
Galatians 4 and 5 says, in the fullness of time, God sent forth
his Son made of a woman, the seed of woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were born under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. In Adam we fell, in Christ we
are made alive. In Adam we became sinners, in
Christ we are made righteous. Adam represented his people in
the garden, and he destroyed them. Christ Jesus represented
every believer in his life, in his obedience, in his death,
in his burial, in his resurrection, in his ascension, in his intercession,
and he restored them. What we lost in Adam, we regained
in Christ. Adam lost the way, the truth,
and the life. And Christ said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. They're just two men. And God
Almighty sees all men in these two. As we have borne the image
of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly. And
from the first promise in Genesis 3.15 of the woman seen, till
the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, the Old Testament,
tells of the coming of Christ, his life, his glory, his obedience,
his death, his resurrection, in prophecy, type, and promise.
In Matthew 1, verse 20, the angel came to Joseph and said, Joseph,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall
deliver his people from their sins. And this was spoken, that
it might be fulfilled which was written in the prophets Behold,
a virgin shall be with child, and thou shalt call his name
Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us." God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
live on this earth in human flesh for thirty-three and a half years?
Why did the Lord Jesus Christ go to the cross of Calvary and
there die that terrible death in which his body suffered as
no man ever suffered, in which his soul was made an offering
for sin? in which he bore the sins and
the hell and the wrath and the judgment of God Almighty, in
which God himself, the Heavenly Father, turned his back upon
his own son. Why was this necessary? I'll
tell you why. Now listen to me. First of all,
in order to save his people from their sins, Christ must, as a
man, do what Adam didn't do. He must keep the law. Almighty
God is a holy God. He's a righteous God. and his
law must be honored. God cannot forgive people and
save people and take them to heaven and disregard his law
at the expense of his holy law. Now, you may think he can, but
he can't. God is holy. The attribute of his holiness
must be satisfied just like the attribute of his mercy. And so
Christ came down here and did what God commanded of every one
of us. He was born under the law. He
was born under the Mosaic law. He was born under the law of
the home. He was born under the civil law. He was born under
the moral law. And as a man, he never sinned.
He was tested, tempted, tried in all points, yet without sin. And he imputed to us, he reckoned
it to be our own, a perfect righteousness. You see, when the first Adam
stood, we were in him. When he fell, we fell in him.
We lost our righteousness. We became sinners, we fell under
the curse of that broken law. When Christ came, the second
Adam, the perfect Adam, the perfect man, he obeyed the law in every
jot and tittle. And in him we live. In him we
have a perfect righteousness. To save his people he must not
only honor the law, he must satisfy God's justice. God said the soul
that sinneth it shall die. And we sinned, and we had to
die. Soul had to die. So our representative, Jesus
Christ, came down here and died for us. You say, how could one
man die for so many? Because of who he is. He's God.
God in human flesh. And he died that the Father might
be just and justify the ungodly. To save us, he must be buried.
He must rise again. He must ascend to heaven. He
must intercede for us. That's what the scripture says
in Romans 8.34. Who can condemn us? Christ died. rather is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession
for us." He ever lives to make intercession for us. That's what
happened on the cross. Christ honored God's law. Christ
satisfied God's justice, enabling a holy God to be just and do
business with you and me, and justify us. Christ died that
we might live. He's our representative. I can
look back to the fall of Adam, and I can trace my sin. I can
look to the cross of Christ and trace my righteousness. I'm accepted
in the beloved. Third question, what happens
to a sinner when God saves him? Well, my friend, true salvation
is a whole lot more than reforming the flesh. A lot of folks think,
well, quit my drinking, quit my cursing, quit my swearing,
and I'll be a Christian. No, being a Christian is more
than that. The old Pharisees had that, and Christ said they
were whited sepulchres. appeared beautiful to men on
the outside, but on the inside they were full of rottenness
and corruption. True salvation is more than mental acceptance
of a few facts. James says, you believe there's
one God, you do well. The devil believes that and trembles.
True salvation is more than affiliation with a religious organization.
The people in Matthew 7 verse 22 said, Lord, we preached in
your name and cast out devils and built many wonderful works
and did many wonderful works. He said, I never knew. What is
true salvation? Well, first, it's a new birth.
It's a new birth. Except a man be born again, he
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Now, men can make fun of born-again
Christians, but people who've been born again know what it
means. God has come and created a new man, a new nature, a new
object, a new family, a new motive, a new attitude. God has made
a new man. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and the flesh doesn't change till we die. And we lay
it aside, we put it in the ground, it rots and goes back to the
dust. But God creates a spiritual man. He creates what died in
the garden. That new nature. That God-like
nature. In the image of God. In the image
of him who created him. That's the new birth. Our salvation
is to know God. Jesus Christ said eternal life
is to know God. You know what our Lord charged
those religious people with in his day? He said, you don't know
me and you don't know my father. You don't know me and you don't
know my father. But eternal life is to know God
and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. And this was Paul's cry.
This was his desire, that I might know him and the power of his
resurrection. Not that I might just go down
to a temple on the Sabbath day and go through the motions of
religion, but that I might know God. Walk with God. Talk with
God. Commune with God. Fellowship
with God. That's what John said. Our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Jesus Christ. He's not just a far-off being
somewhere, a character I read about in a book. He lives in
my heart. He's my Lord and my Savior. Walk with Him and talk
with Him. And then true salvation is a
work of grace. It's a work of grace and faith
in the heart. For by grace are you saved. It's
a gift of God. not something I do for myself,
salvation not something I do for God. Salvation is something
God does for me. He makes me a new creature. He
reveals my sin. He reveals Christ. He gives me
repentance. He leads me to faith. And true
salvation is a work of sanctification. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. And it brings with it the fruit
of the Holy Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, meekness,
temperance, These things, the fruit of God's Spirit. Yes, if
any man's in Christ, he has the Spirit of Christ, and he's a
new person. He's different. God makes him
different. He makes him different in Christ. Now this message is
on tape recording, cassette tape, along with the message that will
be preached next week. If you want it, it costs three
dollars, write to me, I'll send it to you. God bless you, everyone.

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