Amazing Grace

Son of man, I have made thee
a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word
at my mouth, and give them warning from me." We have a message of
warning for the wicked. When I say, unto the wicked thou
shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest
to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life. That same
wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require
at thine hand." That is, if you don't warn him, if you don't
get the message out, if you're not faithful in preaching to
the wicked, to the unbeliever. Yet, if thou warn the wicked,
and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked ways, he'll
die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul.
Paul said something about that in the 20th chapter of Acts when
he said, I have not ceased to warn you, minister to you with
tears from house to house. I have ministered to you. I'm
free, he said, from the blood of all men. We have a message,
we have a ministry for all men, even, yea, even the wicked. And
then secondly, we have a ministry and a message to the elect. In
the second book of Timothy, chapter 2, in 2 Timothy 2, verse 8, the
Apostle Paul says this, in 2 Timothy 2, verse 8, Remember that Jesus
Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according
to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even
under bonds I am even put in jail. and put in fetters and
chains, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure
all things," all of this suffering, persecution, imprisonment, "...for
the elect's sake," that's why I suffer it, that's why I'm willing
to bear these things, "...that the elect may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." God's
elect are out there. Who they are, we don't know.
But our Lord has a people. He has a people, and he sends
us forth with the message, with the gospel. And when the gospel
is preached, the spirit of the living God takes that word, that
message, that law, that gospel, that faithful ministry, and he
applies it to the sinner's heart and brings him to conviction
and to conversion. So we have a message for the
elect. We're looking for God's sheep.
We're looking for his elect. They're there. Once the apostle
Paul was about to leave a city, and the Lord said to him in a
vision that night, he said, don't leave the city, stay there, I
have much people in this city. You stay there and preach, and
I'll call them out. He calls out his elect. So we
have a message of warning to the wicked, and we have a gospel
message for the elect. And then turn to Acts 20, and
we have a message for the church. That's what Paul is saying here
in Acts 20. He gives a charge to the elders of the church at
Ephesus in verse 28, and he says, Take heed, therefore, to yourselves. To yourselves. We've got to minister
to ourselves, too. They made me keeper of the vineyard,
but my own vineyard I didn't keep. That's dangerous. We're
not always to give out, we're to take in. You can't give out
unless you take in. You can't talk to men about God
unless you talk to God about men. And you can't minister to
someone else unless God's ministered to you. So take heed to yourself. And to all the flock over the
which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, or rulers, to
feed the Church of God. That's your major responsibility. He has made you overseers, and
you take heed to yourself and to your doctrine and to your
message and to your teaching, and feed those people. which
he hath purchased with his own blood. He saved them, and through
you he will feed them. So we have a message, we have
a ministry for all people, all men, for the wicked, for the
elect, and for the Church. Now, if we're going to leave
the wicked without excuse, that's what we want to do. We're going
to cleanse our hands of the wicked man's blood. If we're going to
be used of the Holy Spirit to call out God's elect, to bring
the elect to faith in Christ, if we're going to establish the
Church and help them to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to have to reach their
minds and their understanding. We're going to have to reach
their minds and their understanding with solid, substantial truth. Now, I want to show you that
in the book of Ephesians. We're not going to do this by
just playing on men's emotions. We're not going to do this. We're
not going to warn the wicked. We're not going to be instrumental
in calling out the elect. We're not going to feed the Church
of God just by appealing to men's feelings and to their emotions
and to their experiences. We've got to reach their minds.
And we've got to reach their minds and understanding, by God's
grace, with solid truth, with the truth as it is in Christ
Jesus. Our Lord said in Ephesians 4, Paul wrote about our Lord,
talking about he went back to glory, verse 11, Ephesians 4.
And when he went back to heaven, he gave some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, so we all come in the unity of the
faith. and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ, that we henceforth," now watch this verse here carefully,
"...that we henceforth be no more children, infants, tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by
the slight of men, by cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive, but speak the truth in love. But speaking the
truth in love we may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ." Now here's what I'm saying. Here's
what Paul's saying. A religion which is based upon
and sustained only by excitement or entertainment or emotion will
be flimsy It'll be infantile and it'll yield to every wind
of error, every wind of doctrine, every wind of trial. It'll be
like that. In other words, a religion that
is based upon and built upon and sustained only by keeping
the excitement going and keeping the entertainment coming forth
and appealing to the tears and laughter, well, it's going to
be flimsy. and it's going to yield to every
wind of doctrine. But when men are grounded through
their understanding and through their intellect and through their
minds, when they're grounded in the grace of God, when they're
grounded in the doctrine of Christ, and I always regret when I hear
someone making fun of doctrinal preaching. I know some of it's
dry, and I know some of it's dead letter, But you can't condemn
it all because of the failures of some. But I do know this is
true. When men are grounded in the
grace of God, when men know what they believe and who they believe
and why they believe, when men are able, because they have studied
and they've been taught and they're grounded, to give a reason for
the hope that they claim, then they'll stand firm under all
pressure, under all opposition, and under every trial. One old
writer one time said this. This is one of the most beautiful
illustrations of this I've ever read in my life. He says a feather,
a feather flies in the wind. It has no strength. It has no
power of its own to move. It just goes with the wind. You
watch the feather in an updraft, and the feather will float upward.
And the feather, when the wind stops, it'll come down. And when
the wind goes that way, the feather will go that way. And when the
wind goes this way, the feather goes that way. And when the wind
goes that way, the feather goes that way. And when the wind stops,
what happens to the feather? It falls to the ground. And it never moves again. And
that is the religion that's based upon excitement and emotion and
entertainment. When these things stop, it falls
to the ground. But what about the eagle? The
eagle has life, the eagle has strength, the eagle has motivation. He can fly with the wind, he
can fly against the wind, and he can fly when there ain't no
wind. And even so, the well-taught
man in Christ, he stands firm. And he can fly against the wind
of trial, he can fly against the wind of opposition, he can
fly against the wind of persecution, he can fly with the wind, or
he can fly when there is no wind. And while the infant is carried
about with every wind of doctrine, that man that's built on the
rock never moves. And the trials can come from
heaven in the form of rain. The trials can come from earth
in the form of flood. The trials can come from supernatural
principalities and powers such as wind and storms. He won't
move, for he's grounded upon a rock. Now that's why I say
if we're going to give our message to the world of the wicked, if
we're going to give a message to the elect so that they might
come to a knowledge of Christ, that they might grow to mature
believers, If we're going to give a message to the church
that they might be founded and grounded and established, we're
going to have to give them some meat. We're going to have to
give them some doctrine. We're going to have to give them
some truth. Turn back to 2 Timothy a moment. And here when the Apostle
Paul wrote to Timothy, he wrote to encourage him. In chapter
2, verse 1, he wrote to encourage him to be strong. Be strong. in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. See that verse one? Thou therefore,
my son, be strong. Be strong. And then in verse
three, he wrote to him saying, Endure hardship as a good soldier. Endure hardship as a good soldier. Don't panic. Then verse five,
He writes to him to strive for the mastery, strive for the crown
of life. A man is not crowned except he
strives lawfully or in a manner prescribed by God, according
to God's rules. God lays down the rules for this
battle. He lays down the rules for this building. He lays down
the rules for this warfare, and you're going to walk according
to His rules, or you're not going to get the crown of life. It's
like when a man runs a race. Paul used a lot of these illustrations
of running a race, athletic events. He must have loved athletics
or knew something about them because God used that part of
his personality. He talks about the Christian
race. He talks about being crowned when you cross the finish line.
He talks about keeping his body as one that beateth the air,
not as one that beateth the air. And here he talks about striving
for the mastery, striving for the crown of life. But when a
man runs a race, he's got to stay on the racetrack. And that's
what Paul is saying here. He's not crowned unless he strives
lawfully. Then back in chapter 1, look
at verse 7. He tells Timothy to be fearless. God hasn't given us the spirit
of fear. We don't fear men. We don't fear
public opinion. Paul says here, look at verse
7. God hasn't given us the spirit
of fear, fear in opinion, fear in condemnation. The condemnation
of men, fear and censorship. He has given us a spirit of power
and of love and of a well-balanced mind. That's what that sound
mind is, a well-balanced mind. And he tells Timothy in verse
8, you be ready to take your share of suffering. Listen to
him. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but you
be ready to be a partaker of the afflictions of the suffering
of the gospel according to the power of God. And then in this
next verse, and this is where we're going to kick off a few
thoughts tonight, he reminds Timothy of what it's all about. Be strong, Timothy. Endure hardness
as a good soldier. Get out there, Timothy, and strive
for the crown of life. Remembering that if you're crowned,
you're going to strive lawfully. Everybody's not going to heaven
traveling different ways. There's one way, and if you're
not in that way, you'll never be crowned. And don't you be
afraid. God hasn't given you the spirit
of fear. God's given you the spirit of power and of love and
a sound mind. And you get ready to take your
afflictions and your sufferings for the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then he reminds him of that
great doctrine of grace, the grace of God. This is our strength,
Timothy. This is our motivation, Timothy. This is our message. Listen.
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 the world began. A man
has not seen the glory of God who has not seen the grace of
God. A man has not seen the glory
of God. A man has not seen where the
real battle is to be fought. A man has not seen where the
real warfare is taking place if he has not seen the grace
of God, for the chief glory of God is the grace of God. back here in 1 Timothy 1.11. And if any of you have another
translation, I like the King James Bible, but there are some
of these verses that can be translated a little more effectively because
these men weren't perfect. The Word of God is perfect, but
they're not perfect. And it says the same thing here,
but a better translation of 1 Timothy 1.11 is this, "...according to
the gospel of the glory of God." That's what the gospel is. It's
the gospel of the glory of God. That's what we're preaching.
The gospel of the glory of God. The glory of God is the grace
of God. Turn to Romans 9. Let me show
you that over here in Romans 9. This is a verse of Scripture
by which I place the star because it's so important. Romans 9.
Now I want you to look at it and listen to it. I'm going to
begin reading back at verse 15, Romans 9, 15. Now, please follow
this, and when we get to that verse, I want you to look at
it. What I'm saying is this, and what Paul is saying to Timothy.
The glory of God is the grace of God, the grace of God. And a man hasn't seen the glory
of God, and he cannot be fearless and ready to bear any affliction
for the glory of God if he hasn't seen the grace of God. And that's
where we started, and that's where we are now, and that's
where we'll wind up. That's what it's all about. In Romans 9,
verse 15, he said to Moses, and you remember Moses said, Lord,
show me your what? Glory. Lord, show me your glory! You know, I often think about
these folks in these healing services, pretending to do all these miracles,
trying to prove that there's a God, talking about God's glory,
Moses had seen more of these miracles and signs and wonders
that all of us in this generation put together many times. Why,
he saw the death of the firstborn, he saw the river turn to blood,
he saw the plague of locusts and flies and frogs and all these
other things, he saw the Red Sea divide, he saw the rock smitten,
he saw the law written on tables of stone by the finger of God,
and After all of that, his cry was, Lord, show me your glory. And boy, if we'd have seen just
one of those things, we'd have had enough last trust for a lifetime,
wouldn't we? Because we like plate purties. But Moses wasn't
interested in plate purties. He wanted to see the glory of
God. And he said, show me your glory. And God said, I'll cause
my goodness to pass before you. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. That's my glory, Moses. My grace
is my glory. My mercy to the undeserving,
my grace to the ungracious, that's my glory. That's what he says
in verse 50. He said to Moses, I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
will it, nor of him that run it, but of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture said unto Pharaoh,
Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? Who hath or who
can resist his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why did you make me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel under
honour the same family, the same tribe, the same congregation? one lump under honor and another
under dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, watch this verse
now, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He had afford prepared unto glory? God makes his power known, his
judgments known, his justice known on those vessels fitted
to destruction, and he makes known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy, which he before in his covenant mercy,
he before in his covenant purposes, he before in his covenant grace,
he prepared them to glory, his glory, Look at Ephesians. Let me show you this. Ephesians
chapter 1. I've read it to you a number
of times. I don't need to read it again, but verse 6, talking
about the work of the Father in redemption, having blessed
us, chose us, predestinated us. He did it to the praise of His
what? Of His glory. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Talks about the Lord Jesus who
redeemed us. As God's prophet made known to
us the mystery of his will, enlightened us, gave us an inheritance, verse
12, that we should be, what? To the praise of his glory. The
Holy Spirit enlightened us, sealed us. Verse 14 says he did it unto
the praise of his glory. The gospel of grace is the gospel
of God's glory. And when we preach anything other
than the grace of God, we rob God of His glory. When we accept
any other message than the message of grace, we rob God of His glory. When we support any other program
or any other preaching or any other gospel than the gospel
of God's grace, we are partakers with those in their sin of robbing
God of His glory. That's how serious it is. You
go back and check those scriptures again. Romans 9, that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy. Paul said, I preach the gospel
of God's glory. Moses said, Lord, show me a glory. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will. I'll be gracious to whom I will."
And this modern-day religion of Pentecostalism and freewillism
and Arminianism and Pelagianism says, We won't have that! Then
they're robbing God of his glory. Not another time in this Bible
did a sinner ever say, Lord, show me your glory, but that
one time. And in answer to that one request,
God said, My glory is my grace. my glory is my grace." And that's
how serious it is to promote, that's how serious it is to protect,
that's how serious it is to encourage, that's how serious it is to support,
that's how serious it is to preach that which robs God of His glory. Turn back to our text, 2 Timothy,
chapter And I'm going to define the grace of God. I think one
thing that I've made clear to you tonight, if I've made anything
clear to you, is this. The glory of God is the grace
of God. The grace of God is the glory of God. And a man has not
seen the glory of God who has not seen the grace of God. And
a man has not preached the glory of God who does not preach the
grace of God. And a man does not understand
the glory of God who does not understand the grace of God as
it is in Christ Jesus. Sovereign grace, covenant grace,
eternal grace, all of grace, amazing grace. That's so. If I'm guilty of it, you're guilty
of it, whoever's guilty of it, let him be anathema. But the
grace of God's still the glory of God. that He might make known unto
us the riches of His grace. You know what the Bible says? That in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace. That's what it's all
about up yonder. God showing the riches of His
grace. What does that redeemed multitude
sing up there? Unto Him who washed us from our
sins. and made us kings and priests,
to him be what? Glory!" But they're singing up there,
they don't sing it down here, they'll never sing it up there.
They don't learn it here, they won't know it there. We give the preacher the glory,
we give the church the glory, we give the denomination the
glory, and we take a great portion of it for ourselves, but people
who are saved give God the glory. to give God the glory. Let's
define the glory of God, the grace of God. Look back at this
verse in 2 Timothy, where he's exhorting this faithful young
preacher, and he says in verse 9, the grace of God's eternal. Look at it. He 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 to us in Christ Jesus.
before the world began." That's what it says, doesn't it? This
grace of God's eternal. He hath saved us, he hath called
us, he hath purposed to give us his grace in Christ. Since
when? Since before the world began. Now then, somebody says, you
mean to tell me that a man is saved before he's called? Not in his own experience, he's
not. Not as far as the work of the Holy Spirit is concerned,
he's not. But I'll tell you this, if you're not strong enough to
take strong meat of the word of God, you put your fingers
in your ears a minute, because I wouldn't want to offend you.
But brother, he's saved in God's purpose. He's redeemed in Christ's redemption. he saved in his relationship
to his covenant head. For that's what he said, he saved
us and called us with a holy calling and according to his
purpose which was given to us in Jesus Christ. When? Before
the world began. That's what it says. God has
from the beginning, Paul said, chosen you unto salvation. No election is not salvation,
it's unto salvation. The covenant is not salvation,
it's unto salvation. But known under God are all his
works from the beginning. He declares the end from the
beginning. And just as Christ, who died
on the cross two thousand years ago, was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, in the same way those who died
in Christ died before the foundation of the world. And those who were
redeemed in Christ were redeemed before the foundation of the
world. Now suppose, illustration. Suppose you live in the days
of the old debtor's prison. You remember reading about the
debtor's prison. Take a man who owed some debts. He couldn't
declare bankruptcy and start all over again like they can
today. But they take a man who owed debts and couldn't pay them
and put him in prison. Suppose you had a friend in debtor's
prison, had a great debt, and you sat at home and you purposed
to pay it. And you went down to the authorities
and you paid his debts, every single one of them. And they
took whatever pen or quill or stamp marked that man's debt,
all paid. But he's still in prison. His
debts are paid, but he's still in prison. He owes nothing, but
he's still in prison. He has no legal claim. They have
no legal claim on him, but he's still in prison. So you take
the paper, and you go down to the prison, and you walk up to
those in charge, and you say, here's my friend's Emancipation
Proclamation. Everything's paid. Let him go. And then the prison doors are
open, and he walks out. When the receipt is presented
to the proper authorities, when the man receives the good news,
when the prison doors swing open, he walks out free. But the transaction
took place before he walked out. And I say to you, when did Christ
pay my debt? He paid my debt on Calvary. When
was the purpose and the plan and the covenant drawn up by
which my debts were paid? before this world began. Jesus
paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin left a crimson stain, but
he washed it white as snow, but I'm still in jail. And God came
one day with the power of his blessed Holy Spirit, and he said
to me, I've paid your debts. You're free. I've paid your debt. That's good news. That's glad
tidings. Suppose I take the paper and
go down to the debtor's prison, my friend's in jail. He's got
nothing in his pocket but holes. He's got nothing in the bottom
of his shoes but holes. He's got nothing, is nothing,
has nothing. And I go down and say, now, George,
let's see, you owe a whole lot, and I paid all of them but one
or two. Now, you take care of those,
you can get out. Old George said, well, you might
as well not have paid any of it then. Because I can't handle
that one or two. And if Jesus Christ came down
here and paid some of my debt and let the rest of me take care
of, he might as well not have come. He might as well not have
come. But Scripture says the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. All sin. So this grace, which is God's
glory, is eternal. And you see, I don't have any
part in it at all. It's all God's glory. God thought
it, God bought it, and God brought it to me. And it's an eternal
transaction. All right, second thing. The
reason it's the gospel of God's glory, which is the gospel of
God's grace, is it's sovereign, undefining the grace of God.
Now, it's eternal. Secondly, it's sovereign. Look
at this verse again. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose. I wish old Ralph was here to
say, purpose, don't you? Oh, nobody could say that like
he could say it. According to his purpose. If any man be saved, it's not
because he purposed to be saved, but because God purposed to save
him. What does John 1 verse 11 say? He came to his own, and his own
received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave
he the right, the privilege, to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood,
not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of
God. If any man be saved, it is because
God purposed to save him, not because he purposed to be saved.
What did Paul say in Romans 9? I read it a while ago. It is
not of him that willeth, it is not of him that runneth, it is
of God that showeth mercy. What did our Lord say in Matthew
11? Father, I thank Thee Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and Thou hast revealed
them unto me, because it seemed right to You." Even so, Father,
it seemed good in Thy sight. Because of my evil nature, I
wouldn't choose God, so He chose me. Because of my love for darkness,
I wouldn't come to the light, so he brought the light to me.
Because of my corrupt, twisted, warped, unnatural affections,
I didn't love God, so he loved me. Because of my inability,
I couldn't come to God, so he came to me. Because of my pride,
I wouldn't call on God, so he called me. And that's all of
grace. If you can find any place in
there, even even an atom, even a minute particle where you can
squeeze in and get just a little bit of credit. You please show
me. I can't see it. He called us, he saved us according
to his own purpose. I can't see into the counsels
of God, I can't see into the purpose of God, I can't see back
yonder, way back yonder, into the will of God, but if I could,
I'd tell you who they are, because they're there. They're there. Their names are in his book,
which he hath written. Man didn't have any part in writing
that book, God wrote it. Moses says, block me out of the
book which thou hast written. It's the Lamb's book of life.
It's not the church roll book. It's the Lamb's book. That's
whose book it is. His purpose. All right, the third
thing about this grace, which is His glory, it's eternal. It's sovereign. And it's free. Look here. He says, "...who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works." Now, you know what they're preaching today, and I know what
they're preaching. Here's what they're preaching.
Today's preaching says, do the best you can, live a moral life,
and God will take you to heaven. That's about the size of it.
You know that, and I know that, and that's what's being preached. When we determine whether or
not a person who's died has gone to heaven or to hell, people
say, well, he lived a good life, he's gone to his reward. He lived
a drunkard's life, so he's gone to hell. So the difference between
heaven and hell is what kind of life men live. That's the
preaching nowadays. But the grace of God says this.
This is the preaching of the grace of God. You all are lost
sinners. Even your righteousnesses are
filthy rags. God may justly be on the best
of you, as well as the worst of you. And if you say, they'll
not be according to your works, but according to His mercy, only
His mercy, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. Well, preacher,
are good works of no value? Well, they sure are. They are
of great value when a man is saved because they are evidences
of his salvation. But good works contribute nothing
to a person's redemption. The Bible says, by the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified. The scripture says
it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us. And Paul assures us in Romans
11, 5 and 6, if it's grace, it's not of work. If it's work, it's
not of grace. You don't mix them any more than
you can mix water and oil. And that's the message old Martin
Luther hurled at the Church of Rome and gave religious freedom
to Germany. He cried out, we're justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. It's free and postpaid. That's how God saves sinners.
When they could pay nothing, when they were bankrupt, he freely
forgave them. He freely forgave them. We give
him nothing in return, he freely forgives us. Justified freely
by his grace. Justified freely by his grace. Not according to your works.
not dependent on your work, not in return for your work, not
in consideration of your work, freely. The gift of God's eternal
life. All right, the fourth thing in
defining grace, it's eternal, it's sovereign, it's free. And brother, it's in Christ. Look at this. He saved us, he
called us. Who did? He did with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Jesus Christ before this world
began. The two most important things
that any man can learn The two most important things
that any man can learn in all of his life, and if he doesn't know these
two things, all of his other knowledge, wisdom, information,
is as fruitless and void as if he were a moron. The two most
important things that a man can learn are these. his identification
with Adam and his identification with Christ. That's right. Now you think with me a minute.
Turn back with me to 1 Corinthians 15. This is the most important,
important information, knowledge that a man can possibly gain
if he can learn it right. What happened in the garden?
And how was I involved? And what was the result of it?
And what happened on the cross? And was I involved in that? And
what are the benefits of it? That's so. In 1 Corinthians 15
verse 21, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection, for as in Adam we died." Now,
man's death is pretty important, isn't it? Pretty important. But I'm telling you, if my physical
death is important, think how important is my spiritual death. What happened to me? Why am I
like I am? Why am I separated from God?
Why am I in trouble? Why am I under condemnation?
A man sits in prison and says, Why am I here? How did I get
here? What did I do? And verse 22, Even so in Christ
shall I be made alive. Boy, if my death is important,
my resurrection is a lot more important. And my dying in Adam
is important. How I got in prison, what I'm
doing in prison, how long the sentence is going to last, if
that's important, how about my pardon? Two of the happiest days of my
life was when I joined the Navy and when I got discharged. Man,
the road life, and he's in there too, some of the rest of us.
But man, I tell you, when I kiss Mom and Daddy goodbye, I was
going to be a hero. And I left. All the boys was
leaving. I couldn't wait to join the Navy. I joined when I was
17 years old. I wasn't even out of high school yet. I got my
daddy to sign my papers. I joined before I ever graduated,
just to hurry up and get in. And boy, when I got in, I wanted
to get out. I wanted to get out. And I'll tell you two most important
events that ever transpired as far as I'm concerned is when
I died in the garden and when God raised me at the cross. That's
it. My identification with Adam.
In the garden I died. In the garden death and judgment
and wrath passed upon me. In the garden I departed from
the living God. In the garden I was separated
from God." Boy, I'd better find out what that's all about. Turn
over to 1 Corinthians 15 and look at verse 45. As it's so written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul, and the last Adam, boy, now wait
a minute, he was made a quickening spirit. Who's that first Adam?
Well, that's Adam in the garden. Who's that second Adam? The last,
that's Christ. Albeit that was not first, which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that
which is spiritual. Redemption came after the fall.
Restoration came after our fall in the garden. The first man
is of the earth, earth, and the second man is the Lord from heaven.
God doesn't see but two men, the first Adam and the second
Adam. And in that first Adam, he sees me lost and damned and
ruined. In that second Adam, by his grace,
he sees me restored, redeemed, regenerated. That's what's so
important about what happened back yonder and what happened
over there. Two most important things a man can learn. And he
doesn't know anything if he doesn't know these, his identification
with Adam and his identification with Christ. Our Father in Heaven, make us
faithful, fearless, bold in the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our message, this is
our

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