"THE
ADAM-BOMB"
Romans
5:12-21
Or
Death Through Adam, Life Through
Christ
Romans
5:12-21, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through
one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came
to all men, because all sinned-for before the law was given,
sin was in the world. But
sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of
Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin
by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the
one to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass.
For if the many died by the trespass of the one man,
how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the
grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result
of the one man's sin: The
judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the
gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned
through that one man, how much more will those who receive
God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ [Yeshua haMeshiach].
Consequently, just as the result of one
trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result
of one act of righteousness was justification that brings
life for all men. For just as through disobedience of the one
man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience
of the one man the many will be made righteous.
The law was added so that the trespass
might increase. But
where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that,
just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through
righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord."
"This morning, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Romans. Let's
open our Bibles to Romans chapter 5, and we'll begin with
the 12th verse of Romans chapter 5.
I'm going to read the whole long paragraph from 12
to 21. I'll explain
a little bit as I go because it's a little bit involved. I've been reading it a lot for the last three
or four weeks, so it might be making more sense to me than
to you if you haven't been reading it currently.
We're going to focus in on verses 12 and verse 18 as
we explain the Scripture today.
But I'll read the whole thing now.
We'll begin in verse 12, Romans 5:12-21, "Therefore just as through one man sin entered
into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread
to all men because all sinned, for until the law sin was in
the world. But sin
is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses
even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's
offense, who was a type of him who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the transgression, for
if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more
did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one
man Jesus Christ abound to the many.
And the gift is not like that which came through the
one who had sinned, for on the one hand the judgment arose
from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the
other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting
in justification. For
if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the
one, much more those who receive the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ."-now verse
18-"So then through one transgression"-that's
Adam's sin-"there "resulted condemnation to all men,
even so through one act of righteousness"-the life, death and resurrection
of Christ-"there resulted justification
of life to all men. For
as through the one man's disobedience, the many were made
sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many
will be made righteous. And
the law came in that the transgression might increase, but
where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."-as the King James says, "where sin abounded grace did much more abound." "And as sin reigned in death, even so grace
might reign through righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord." Nearly forty years ago a bomber
carried two bombs that were detonated and forever change the
world. The destruction wrought by the atomic bombs
that fell on the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
were horrible beyond description.
The atom bomb ushered the world into a time of unprecedented
fear and insecurity. Today,
even though we think of peace and everything's OK, the cold
war is over, we need to understand that there's stockpiles
of over sixty thousand hydrogen bombs, giving the human race
the ability to destroy the earth seventeen times over-- through nuclear flames in one instant would
burst into a hundred million degrees-one blinding flash and
everything's fried. Today,
countries that are as unstable as nitroglycerin have nuclear
potential [North Korea,
Iran and
Pakistan
so far]. It's scary,
and it's unthinkable what they might do.
I'm sure that when they dropped that first atom bomb
they had no idea of the far reaching ramifications of that
act. The Bible tells
us, though, that when Adam sinned, the equivalent of a spiritual
atom bomb exploded. He
caused such destruction that everything he came in contact
with has been polluted by and has been experiencing the fallout
of his sin. Romans
5:12 tells us that when sin came into the world through Adam,
all sinned through one man, sin entered into the world. When Adam sinned, a spiritual bomb went off.
Theologically, we could call it the Adam-bomb [laughter].
If you want to write that as the heading over verse
12, it wouldn't be a bad heading. The Adam-bomb, and that's the title of my message
today-the Adam-bomb. When
Adam sinned a spiritual explosion took place that radically
altered life on planet earth.
In the text that we're looking at today, the Bible
tells us that when Adam sinned a spiritual holocaust occurred
that forever changed the world.
What he did was much more destructive than any nuclear
bomb could ever be. Because Adam has effected every human being
who has ever lived, and whoever will live, save one. Adam bombed, and you got hit. Adam was originally created perfect, the Bible
tells us. In Genesis
1, the creation account tells us that Adam was created on
the sixth day of a literal creation week, and there Adam was
created perfect and God pronounced him very good. When Adam was in the Garden of Eden, a literal
garden that God created for him to live in, he had one test,
and only one. And that
was to obey God's command concerning one tree of the garden.
God told him to not eat of the fruit of "the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil." God said "Adam, in the day that you eat of that
tree, you will surely die."
Actually, the Hebrew says "in dying you shall die." Adam was told, 'Look, don't eat of the fruit
of this tree. The day
you eat of the fruit of this tree you are going to die.'
One choice. Now,
those of you who don't believe man has a choice, you have
to understand that man had a choice, the
choice was not to eat of the fruit of that tree. God gave man a choice. If there wasn't a choice it would have been
stupid to say "don't eat of the fruit of this tree"-"you're
going to do it anyway because I've predestined you to do it."
God said, 'Don't eat of the fruit of this tree, the
day you do it you'll die.'
Well Adam did eat of it, we don't know how long until
one day his beautiful wife Eve came to him with a fruit that
she had partaken of, and she says 'Adam, try.' He did it knowing it was that fruit, knowing
he was disobeying God, and he sinned.
And as a result of his sin, he failed the test, he
bombed out, and as a result of that he lost everything.
He brought upon himself judgment.
God called him before him and said "Adam, what have
you done?" And then God judged him and God said to him,
"Adam, you're going to die now."
And a curse came upon Adam, and Adam physically began
to die [i.e. the aging process set in].
Physically he would die, that mystical tie between
his body and spirit had been broken and now some day his spirit
would leave his body, it had never been created to leave his
body. But because of sin he could no longer stay in
that body, and when he died he would leave that body and unless
he experienced redemption he would go to hell.
[There are varying beliefs about hell.
The Hebrew word for hell is sheol, which merely means
the grave, six feet under.
Also there are varying beliefs about this "spirit in
man", some teaching it is conscious at and after death, and
either goes to hell or heaven, based on an allegorical parable
Jesus gave about Lazarus which can be interpreted several
different ways. Others believe the "spirit in man"-all men-when
they die, goes to heaven, and is not conscious upon and after
death, but is merely a spirit record of everything that human
was, from fingerprints and total DNA makeup, to that person's
entire memories contained in his brain.
Then if that person was born-again and a believer in
Jesus, Yeshua, he would upon Jesus' return to earth be resurrected
with his human spirit being placed in a glorified spirit body
which will glow like the very stars in the heavens. If that person died without having received
the Holy Spirit in his lifetime, combining with his spirit,
his human spirit, the spirit in man, he would be resurrected
during the great human resurrection talked of in Revelation
20:5, 11-12. Those
that believe the spirit in man remains conscious think the
human spirit's of the unsaved dead wonder aimlessly around
the world, separated from God, whilst the spirits of those
that are saved go to heaven to be with God, conscious, but
out of body. Solomon
in Ecclesiastes says the dead know nothing, and that all the
"spirit's in man" go to heaven, no distinction between saved
and unsaved. So you
have an allegorical parable by Jesus indicating it could be
different, and Solomon's plain straight-forward teaching that
it is the other way. This
is really a fuzzy area of Scriptural interpretation where
it could be either way. If Solomon is right in Ecclesiastes (which is
an inspired book contained in the OT canon), the very instant
a person dies, the very next instant he will be consciously
aware of is his or her coming to life in one of the only two
major resurrections prophecied in the Bible. Some don't use Solomon's writings to determine
Biblical doctrine, but is it any more accurate to use a parable
that could have several different ways of interpreting it? That is why this is a fuzzy area in Biblical
interpretation, where the individual believer has a right
to believe what he or she thinks is true.
It won't effect your salvation in one tiny bit no matter
which way you choose to interpret it. And besides, we'll all find out which interpretation
is correct when Jesus, Yeshua returns. editor] You're
mortal. You guys are
mortal, so young, so full of energy.
I was over in the San Diego area this last week, and
I decided that well, everybody else did it during Harvest,
they bugie-boarded, I'm going to bugie-board.
And there was no one around that knew me to laugh at
me. So I practiced
one whole day bugie-boarding, and you know you're getting
old when you have to worry about putting 80-proof sunscreen
on the top of your head to keep from getting a third degree
burn. And so here I
was, all soused in a whole jar of sunscreen, and I'm out there
bugy-boarding, and I crashed a few times.
Those waves flipped me over, I did summersaults in
the waves, and I'd come like a tumbleweed onto the shore.
By the end of the day I was so tired that I looked
at Leslie and I said "Honey, you're gonna have to take the
kids and put 'em to bed, I can't help you because I can hardly
move, and I have got to go to sleep." And at 8 O'clock at night.I didn't wake up until
7:30 the next morning, I was dead.
In fact, I thought I might die that night, I was in
so much pain. I experienced my mortality you guys! I'm not quite over the hill yet. Not many more years of bugie-boarding left.
But I was encouraged to see a retired gentleman there
bugie-boarding in the waves that are about this tall [must
have been small waves], and I thought, 'Well, someday that
will be me.' I'll hang
in there. But more than just physical death passed on
to Adam, a spiritual death passed onto him as well. Adam died immediately spiritually. Physically he began to die. Like the Lord had said, "Adam, if you eat of
the fruit of that tree, dying, you shall die."
He died immediately spiritually, and was separated
from God. And again like I said, if it had not been for
the atoning sacrifice of Christ and Adam's faith in that,
Adam would have gone to hell.
Adam also experienced for the first time, because of
his sin, guilt. Can
you imagine never having experienced guilt in your whole life? Wouldn't that be a trip. I think, you know, only normal people are guilty
people. Right? But Adam experienced guilt for the first time.
He and Eve realized that they were naked and they began
to be ashamed of being around God, and they tried to hide
themselves from God. It
says "Their eyes were opened and they realized that they were
naked." Adam was ashamed and uncomfortable around God.
And maybe you come to church for the first time, or
maybe it's the second time, you don't go very often, maybe
it's on those major Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas
and Halloween [laughter], you know those Christian
holidays, but other than that you're not a church person. But somehow you're here today, but you feel
a little bit uneasy. Even
though there's no reason for you to be, you do.
And I'll tell you why, it's because the Lord is here. And you've inherited something from Adam, his
discomfort around God and the things of God.
So it's a result of what happened to Adam. So you're not so weird, it's pretty normal.
But it's not good news, either. And Adam lost his home as a result of his sin.Who
was the first homeless person,
Bible trivia fans, who was the first homeless person?-Adam. He got kicked out of his home. He lost it, he went bankrupt spiritually, and
God said "Outa here buddy, you can't be in here, lest you
eat of the tree of life and live forever in your wretched
condition. I don't want you living forever like that, I
want you to have eternal life as a joy-filled life, but you
can't stay here." And
so he became homeless, and began to wander, looking for a
place to live. He became
bankrupt, he lost his position and his authority, he lost
everything. [Now let's
look at the unseen spiritual reality which occurred the instant
Adam sinned. Satan-by default-became the unseen ruler of the
earth, taking Adam's place.
Instantly, as "prince of the power of the air" as Paul
called Satan in Ephesians, Satan began to fill the air-waves
of planet earth with his attitudes of wrath, hatred, competition,
and all the other attitudes that translate out as "the works
of the flesh" which are listed in Galatians 5:19-21. As a direct result, the whole planet took on
Satan's evil attitudes as opposed to a planet of peace and
well-being and love. Earth's
6,000 years of written history attest to this, 6,000 years
of constant warfare, growing more destructive by the century,
until now mankind can destroy all life from off the planet
17 times over. By default,
the rulership over this planet passed from Adam to Satan! This whole planet also fell under Satan's deception.
Read Revelation 12. Jesus, called in Scripture the 2nd
Adam, is coming to restore the conditions that would have
been over the earth had Adam not sinned.
The Millennial Kingdom of God which Jesus, Yeshua is
coming to establish is to restore the conditions which were
in the Garden of Eden, this time over the whole planet. For more on this subject see http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/kog.htm. That is why Jesus is called "the second Adam",
because of the work of restoration he will perform on earth. And the first thing he will do is lock Satan
and all of the demons up, shutting off Satan's evil influence
and broadcast, cf. Revelation 20:1-3.]
He [Adam] had been lord of the world, king of planet
earth. All the animals
had obeyed him, he'd tell a huge bear "Come, sit down", and
the bear would obey him. If
the waters got a little too windy he would say to a lake,
'Hush, hush' and the lake would still, and the whole world
obeyed him, he was lord of the world. But as a result of his sin, the Bible tells
us that Satan became the lord of the world, the god of this
world. And Jesus, if you recall, was being tempted
in the wilderness there in Matthew 4, verses 8-10, Satan told
him 'Look, if you'll just worship me, I'll give you all the
kingdoms of the world.' And Jesus of course refused to worship him,
quoting the Scripture telling Satan 'Look, it is written,
you should worship the Lord your God and him only.'"
But Jesus didn't dispute Satan's claim to be the god
of this world. At that time until the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, Satan was in control, this was his domain. This was his place, his pad, his kingdom.
The kingdom of darkness settled here on planet earth.
[And it still is Satan's domain until Jesus returns,
crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Jesus qualified to replace Satan, but he has not yet
returned to earth to take Satan's place. Jesus, Yeshua's coronation ceremony is described
in Daniel 7:13-14, and the time setting is at or just before
the 2nd coming, if verses 13-14 of Daniel 7 are
taken in context with verses 8-12 of Daniel 7.
Satan right now since Jesus' resurrection, has been
functioning as a "lame duck ruler", but he is still on the
throne of earth, if you haven't noticed.
Wars and terrorism haven't stopped, the nature of animals
is not yet peaceful as Isaiah 11 prophecies they will yet
become again. So that is the direct unseen spiritual fallout
of Adam's sin-rulership of this world transferred directly
over to Satan.] 'Well',
you say, 'what is all this ancient history have to do with
me?' It has a whole
lot to do with you, because the Bible teaches that Adam was
a representative man, the Bible teaches us that he didn't
just live for himself but he lived for all of us.
And that whatever Adam did it was as if you and I had
done it. Adam was a representative. You know what a representative is-when we talk
about voting a in Representative to go to the House of Representatives.
We know that that person is supposed to, theoretically
at least, he is supposed to vote according to our will.
And we let that man or woman know what we want to do
and they vote accordingly. Right? (Wrong,
that's not the way it works in reality.) That's the way it's supposed to work, anyway.
And we can't all fit in that room in Washington D.C.
where the House of Representatives meet. Millions and millions and millions of us can't
fit in there. And so
we vote one representative who represents so many hundreds
of thousands of us, or maybe millions of us, and they go and
they sit in that room voting. And they cast their vote, and millions of arms
are casting their vote with them, we're there in our representative-in
our representative. Well
the Scripture says as a result of Adam's sin, all of us sinned.
Look at verse 12. "Therefore
just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so"-read it-"death spread to all men because
all sinned." The Bible teaches that we all became sinners,
and that's why there is so much evil and corruption in the
world today, it's because the whole family of man was plunged
into sin when Adam bombed. OK? [And
I explained how that happened.
Satan, now by default became king of the world. He immediately started to broadcast his evil
nature with all it's evil attitudes into the air. Every man and woman receives that "signal" into
their human spirit. They
start receiving that "signal" at birth.
Babies aren't born "evil".
Human nature is, by itself, neutral.
But exposed long enough-and it doesn't take very long-and
that selfish nature of Satan enters into it.
Look at what James says about where wars come from
in James 4:1-2 in the King James, "From whence come wars and
fighting's among you? Come
they not from hence, even your lusts that war in your members. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to
have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not,
because ye ask not." The
minute Adam sinned, the world was filled with the lust-filled
wrathful attitude of Satan. Sin became a universal standard for man. His nature became downward, not upward, as James
shows.] Verse 12 says
when one man sinned, Adam sinned, death spread to all men
because all men sinned. Well, how can that be? How can all of us sin in Adam? Well, Adam had in all of us, he was the genetic
pool for the race, all of us were in Adam. Let this doll represent Adam, to try to clarify
how we could all be in Adam.
It was just like this.
Here's Adam, he sinned.
But when he sinned, we all sinned with him because
we were all in Adam. OK,
see, in this one was this.
And in this one was this.
[He has one of those Russian porcelain dolls that have
about six other dolls inside of it.]
And in this was this. And in this one was this. OK? You
got the illustration. We
were all in Adam, just like all these little dolls were in
this one doll. Look how many were in there. Let's see if I can do that [put it back together].
I did it. I've been watching my toddlers. OK? So
all of these folks were in Adam.
All these generations of man were in Adam.But all of
us were in Adam, so when he sinned it was like all of us collectively
were in him and we all sinned in Adam.
OK? These [dolls] come compliments of the people
who went to Russia, and ministered in Russia.
I don't know exactly who donated these.You get the
illustration. When Adam fell, we all fell with him. When Adam sinned, we were all in Adam. Right?.Without us having anything to do with
it, Adam caused us to be born into sin.
All he could pass on to us now as our inheritance,
was spiritually dead and lost, spiritual bankruptcy.
He lost the entire estate.
And all that we inherit from him now is sin and death.
[A world of sin, caused by the invisible broadcast
of Satan's evil attitudes into the air-waves, the atmosphere
of earth. Look in Revelation for an example of how evil
demon spirits are used to bring together whole armies. Six thousand years of pain, broken relationships,
sexual immorality, and constant warfare.] That's all we have. And the Bible teaches that every one of us who
is born into Adam's family is born in sin.
It's not our sinning that makes us sinners in the eyes
of God. Now listen.
It's not our sinning, the individual little sins we
do, or big sins we do, that make us sinners in the eyes of
God. It is our being
related to Adam.It is my being related to Adam that makes
me a sinner. It's being
a part of the Adam's family that makes us so gross.
OK? [laughter] Think of yourself being a part of that clan,
with Morticia and the Thing and everything else, I mean, sick. But that's about how sick it is to be born into
the "Adam's family". You're
not born innocent and then become a sinner because of the
sins you commit. [There are differing theological stands on this
one. One of those,
and it is a part of the truth, as we already saw, is that
the moment Adam sinned Satan became ruler of earth by default,
and then he started the powerful broadcast of his sinful attitudes
listed in Galatians 5:19-21.
Newborn babies are not born evil in the strictest sense,
at the very moment of birth their precious little attitudes
are neutral-but very quickly they start absorbing the attitudes
of selfishness and wrath into their human spirits, the attitudes
that fill the air on planet earth, coming directly from Satan.
That is the other theological stand.
One is more symbolic, yes, we come under the big general
sin of Adam and are all genetically related to Adam and Eve.
But the mechanics of how the sinful nature perpetuates
itself on this earth is explained as I have just explained
it, it comes from Satan. And
when Jesus returns, he assigns a powerful angel to lock up
Satan, and by extension, all his demons.
Then the peaceful conditions that prevailed in the
Garden of Eden return to the earth, as prophecied in Isaiah
11:6-9 (look it up and read it). Both views actually belong together, combined.
One showing our family line is that of a sinner, so
we all inherit the guilt of the family of Adam until we
are adopted into the family of Christ, Messiah.
Then our lineage changes.
But the mechanics of how the evil goes from, is transferred
from generation to generation is what I have just explained
here. The whole Millennial
Kingdom of God is summed up in Isaiah 11:6-9 until at the
very end of the 1,000 years, when Revelation 20:7-10 shows
us Satan is released from his prison for a brief span of time. Look at what happens when his evil broadcasts
and influence starts up again.
Those that were "neutral", just going with the flow,
but not really imbibing of the precious Holy Spirit, suddenly
are caught unawares, and are swept up in Satan's attitudes
and deception.] You
commit sins because you are born a sinner.
This is very important [his views theological views
do not quite square with mine, due to the fact that he is
using them to totally explain evil in humans. But we will listen to his explanation. And if you feel his needs to be combined with
mine to see what might be the true reality, do so. Some of this stuff is secondary doctrine which
is not all that nailed down in reality, spiritual reality
that is. i.e. God knows for sure how it is, we'll know
at Jesus return when he answers all our various doctrinal
questions.] This is very important, I know it's hard to
think of this precious newborn baby that's so sweet, look
he's smiling, he's only a day old.
It's hard to think that this baby is a sinner [the
other spiritual interpretation says he's not, not just yet
till he's had time to absorb Satan's wavelength filled will
all those nasty attitudes of Satan.].
This baby's born a sinner.
'Oh, no.' Oh yes. You've
been a long ways away from kids if you don't say yes to this
one [and that is merely because kids have had time to absorb
Satan's wavelength of nasty attitude signals].
I mean, tell me, who teaches, who sneaks into your
house in the middle of the night teaches your little 12 month
or 18 month-old to say "No!". Who teaches them that? [Satan's attitudes broadcast
abroad, that's who] Who
teaches them, when they get a little bit older, to lie [the
father of lies]? Are
there lying classes they give them at preschool? I
don't think so. Who
teaches them to disobey you?-to throw themselves on the floor
and say "No!!!!!" It's
what they inherit. It's
their sinful nature they inherit through their mothers [laughter],
I think the Bible says it comes through the mothers, doesn't
it? Isn't that what the Scripture says, something
about sin?-no-"As in Adam all.."-that's right, it's through
the fathers. Well, it's even worse then, it's worse than
we thought, brothers, isn't it.
Well, it is terrible when you see your faults coming
out through your children, it's like, 'Oh my land!-where did
they get that?' And
you know where they get that.
[Now I say, they get that from watching Daddy and Mommy! Children are born with totally blank minds that
fill up with an amazing amount of information in their first
ten years. Their rate
of information adsorption is greater in their first ten years
than for the rest of their lives.
Much of that information is through observation-and
who is around them most? You,
parents. But what's
scary now, it may also be the people at day-care facilities
while Mommy and Daddy work.]
You look at your wife and say 'Where did she
learn to do that?' And
then you say 'Don't answer.'
The Scripture teaches that all of us are born into
sin, that's what makes us a sinner. We're born into this family, we come from Adam,
and so all Adam can produce is a sinner, just like himself. And it has passed down from multiple thousands
of generations. We're
born sinners. We're
born lost. We're born, every one of us, a child of wrath.
[Why? Satan's wavelength, his broadcast of wrath.
That's what makes us children of wrath.
Do a study on who's children Jesus said we were before
our redemption, the children of Satan, the father of lies.
I believe this is in John 6.] What the sinful nature-Ephesians 2:1-3 says-every
one is born into sin. David
says in Psalm 51 verse 5 he says "in sin did my mother conceive
me." And he didn't mean the act of conception was
a sin, what he meant was from the moment of conception on
he was a sinner. You say, 'Well, what happens if a baby dies?'
The grace of Christ, which we'll talk about in a moment,
that covers a little baby, it covers a person until they're
able to make that decision.
"Their angels do always behold the Father which is
in heaven", and Matthew's gospel says that Jesus said "It
is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these
little ones should perish."
So they're secure in the Lord until they're able to
reject him and make that kind of decision and exercise their
wills. And that can
come at a very early age.
And I'll tell you, Leslie and I are praying, we prayed
early for our children's salvation.
We prayed for our firstborn's salvation before she
was ever born, as soon as we knew Leslie was pregnant we said
"Lord, save this child at an early age." And when she was two and a half or three, she
really accepted the Lord in her life, and I see God's Spirit
working in her, and I'll tell you, that is a blessing Mom
and Dad-to have the Spirit on your side when you're dealing
with little ones. You
need to pray that God's Spirit will come in and help them
at an early age, because you need all the help you can get. The Scripture says "For all of have become like
one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a
filthy garment, and all us wither like a leaf and our iniquities
like wind take us away" (Isaiah 64:6).
Jeremiah 13:23 says, "Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed
to do evil." The Lord
says you are evil. "If
you then, being evil" the Lord says in Luke 11:13.
We are evil and we're born that way because we're born
in Adam's family. Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is more deceitful
than all else, and is desperately wicked, who can know it." We're all born under the curse, this is what
we've inherited from Adam [and as a direct result of his sin,
Satan became ruler by default of the whole world-so we've
inherited being born into a world invisibly controlled and
influenced by Satan and all his demons-that's what we have
inherited. Study the
Gospels, see how many times demons were being cast out of
people by Jesus. They "knew" who he was, he caused a stir in
their world, the very world we live in.].
'Well, this isn't fair.
It isn't fair at all, I didn't eat of that stupid piece
of fruit. I wouldn't have been that stupid to eat that
fruit, I would have done better than that.'
Well, probably not.
But you do have a point.
You do have a point, that you weren't there, you didn't
have anything to do with it, and it's not fair.
I agree. I don't think it's fair. I wasn't there. I didn't eat of that fruit. I didn't botch this program up, so why do I
have to suffer? Well,
it's true that it isn't fair, that you had nothing to do with
it, and you didn't botch it up.
And let's say it's unfair. But let's also consider verse 18, "So then as through one transgression
there resulted condemnation to all men,"--that's not fair! Read on-"even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification
of life to all men." And you
have to also say, 'that's not fair'.
Right? Did you
die on a cross? Did
you get beat up? Did you have the sin of the world put on you?
No. But you
reap all the benefits from it.
That's not fair. Stop
asking for what's fair, anyway, because, you know what's fair? Hell is what you deserve. I mean, even if God doesn't look at you as being
a sinner born into Adam's family, you've committed enough
sins right now to do yourself in.
So you want justice?
You want what's fair? Don't say that while I'm standing close to you,
I don't want to be near the lightning bolt when it falls. OK? Don't
ask for what's fair, ask for grace! Grace is getting something you don't deserve.
Grace! That's the only way I appeal to God anymore.
Grace, Lord. You know, it's interesting to me that before
David sinned, he often prayed 'Lord, I'm praying this, and
answer me because of my righteousness.'
'Answer me Lord, because I'm such a great guy.'
But after he sinned with that gal named Bathsheba,
and knew from his whole heart, he knew what a bug he was,
a bum he was, his prayers changed in the book of Psalms.
Now it's 'Have mercy upon me, Oh Lord.'
'According to your abundant kindness, be gracious to
me.' Hey, what's this
change guys? 'Well,
ah, I know I'm a sinner, I don't deserve anything.'
That's true, and I hope you don't have to fall flat
on your face in some big sinful way to realize that you need
the grace of God. Boy in my life that's the way I discovered the
grace of God, was that I had this sin big time. And then I realized 'Oh man, I'm a sinner, I
need God's grace.' 'What'd
you do?' I'm not telling you what I did, it's not important.
What's important is that I received the grace of Christ.
Right? And that's
what's important for you, so you receive the grace of Christ
too. It's not fair that when Adam bombed we bombed
with him, but it's also not fair that when Christ triumphed
we can triumph with him. It
says that Jesus through his one act of righteousness, verse
18, the last half, the result is justification of life to
all men. Now that doesn't
mean that all men are saved right now.
That doesn't mean that every person on earth is saved. What it means is that potentially every person
on earth could
be saved. See, the Bible is full of commands
that we must believe first in order to be saved. The
Bible says "For God so love the world" you know John 3:16,
"that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever would"-what?-"believe in him"-underline
that-"should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Bible says that eternal life, justification,
God looking at me and acquitting me of my sins is dependent
upon my belief first. So
the whole world isn't saved, but the whole world could be
saved-if they would believe in Jesus Christ.
Look at Romans 10, just to underscore the fact that
everybody is not saved. And there are those who teach that today [that
everybody is saved], and it's a lie, and it's a twisting of
the Scripture, don't fall for it.
[There
are a group of Sabbatarian Churches of God who hold an interesting
secondary belief about the 2nd resurrection back
to mortal life as being an opportunity for all the "unsaved
dead" to receive salvation. To view this secondary teaching
of one group of Christians, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/revivals5.htm
and scroll to the very end paragraph, where a link to this
study can be found. It is a totally secondary belief of one group,
but it is interesting, and may or may not be true. Either way, it doesn't effect one's salvation
to believe or not believe that interpretation.
But what Pastor Martin is saying, that the teaching
that all are saved, is a false teaching, and to be rejected.
There will be a group of people who will not be saved,
it is only the opportunity for salvation that is universal.
Some believe that not all the unsaved dead have received
that opportunity, and that even most in history have not. Being a history buff myself, I am inclined to
believe that statement. We'll
know more at Jesus, Yeshua's return.] Romans chapter
10, verse 9 tells us how to be saved.
And if you have to do this, then it surely means that
not everybody is saved, because not everybody has done this.
Verse 9, read
it with me, ".if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you shall be saved.
For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness,
and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation."
So you have to believe, and you have to confess, you
have to say that belief. And you have to believe something factual, that
Jesus, Yeshua died, was buried, and rose again for you.
So the bad news is Adam bombed, but the good news is
you can come into Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:45 says that when Jesus came, he came
as a last Adam. There
was a first Adam, Adam the 1st who lived in the
Garden of Eden and failed in the Garden of Eden, and there
was a last Adam-Jesus Christ-"So also it is written, the first
man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam became a life-giving
spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45). Then in verses 21 and 22 he says, "For since
by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall
all be made alive"-that is, all who believe in him will be
made alive. [And 1
Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter, all about the
1st resurrection to immortality, cross referenced
with Revelation 20:4,6. For
more on the 1st resurrection to immortality see
http://www.unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm
.] So there's a first Adam and a last Adam. Adam failed in the Garden, Jesus, Yeshua won
in the Garden. Isn't
that interesting. Why
was it the Garden of Gethsemane that there he struggled with
the will of God. He could have copped out like Adam did. Was it coincidence he was in a garden again?
No. He is the last Adam, he's retracing every step
of Adam the 1st, and he's undoing Adam's mistakes. You ever wonder why Jesus in the boat with the
disciples, and they went into that hurricane [squall] on the
lake? Remember the disciples were bailing out, Jesus
was sleeping through it, they finally woke him up-"Lord, don't
you care that we perish?"
Jesus woke up, he stood up.
And what did he say? The Greek says he said "Shhh, be still" and
rebuked the wind and the waves.
Well what's that in the Bible for?
It's showing you that he's Lord of creation, that the
creation obeys him. Remember reading in Luke's gospel about his
temptation, those forty days Jesus was in the wilderness? And it says "And he went out into the wilderness
with the wild beasts." I
often wondered 'What is this wild beasts stuff?
Why add that?' Well
it's because the wild beasts didn't hurt him.
Why? Because
he's Adam the last. Because
he's Lord of creation. A
lion came up to him, and asked for his tummy to be rubbed,
maybe, you know. Nothing to fear. Here's Adam the Last. He's in total control of his kingdom, he has
dominion over the earth. [Read
Isaiah 11:6-11 where it shows that when Jesus returns, all
the animals on the earth will become like that!]
Everything Adam lost Jesus regained.
It was at a tree that Adam fell, it was at the cross,
the tree, that Jesus won. You can just look at these things, it was the
sword that kept Adam out of the Garden, it was the spear,
the weapon that went through Jesus heart and opened up the
way to heaven for us. Just think about it. All these parallels with the first Adam and
the last Adam. Adam
was our representative, in him we lost, we bombed.
Christ came as a new man, a new representative of man. And he says "you can all be in me, and you can
all win in me, if you'll come into me and accept me by faith."
[And then Jesus promises that if we come into him, he and
the Father will come into us by and through the Holy Spirit
who will dwell in us, cf. John 14, combining with, joining
with our human spirits, cf. Romans 8.]
Now there's an Old Testament story that helps illustrate
this [representative principle].
We look at 1st Samuel chapter 17.
You have to go way to the left in your Bible.
1st Samuel chapter 17.
You'll find the story, all of Israel was gathered on
one side of a valley and all the Philistines were gathered
on the other side. 1st
Samuel chapter 17. There
was a valley in the middle between them. And a strange thing was happening. This huge guy, ten feet tall the Bible says,
was standing on the hill yelling at the Israelis on the other
side. And you get by the tone of his voice that he's
really putting them down.
'Hey, choose for yourself a man. A man who can
come and fight with me. Come
on, why should we all fight?
Why should both of our armies fight?
You chose a champion from among yourselves, and I'll
fight with him, and it will come about that whoever wins,
his side will win, whoever loses, his side will lose and will
become the servants of whoever wins.
No use spilling all this blood.
No use having thousands of us die when two of us could
fight.' Well man, that sounds like a great option to
me, but the only problem was there was no one among the Israelis
who could step forward and be the champion.
This dude's name over here was Goliath.
The Bible tells us he was over ten feet tall.
The Bible tells us that he wore about a hundred and
twenty five to a hundred and fifty pounds worth of bronze
armour--state of the art weaponry in those days.
That he had a spear, the tip of which weighed fifteen
to twenty pounds. I
mean, imagine throwing that thing through the air, it could
really get some power behind it and do a lot of damage to
what it hit. Couldn't it?
We're even told that this dude was so big that he had
his shield carried by a separate person.
His shield was so big that another guy just carried
his shield for him, all you saw was a shield with two feet,
you know. [chuckles] And he'd BOOM his voice 'CHOOSE FOR YOURSELF A MAN.' Some of you are too young to remember
the Jolly Green Giant commercials on TV, 'Ho, Ho, Ho', you
know. So he was laughing at Israel, he thought they
were really funny. 'Come
on, come on, choose a man. Isn't there a man in Israel?' Day after day this went by, and now every time
he said that everybody looked at king Saul, because we're
told earlier in Samuel that, one of the reasons why those
chose Saul to be their king was, well #1, he was good looking.
But secondly, he was head and shoulders above everyone
else. He was taller
than everyone else in Israel. He was the giant in Israel. So the man who should
have gone out to fight the giant, the champion in Israel should
have been Saul. But
Saul bombed out, he failed the test, just like Adam.
So now the whole nation is threatened, and they're
just stymied. It's really funny, the headlines every day,
'Israelis chicken out, Israelis don't make a move, Israelis
can't find a champion.' One
day this kid, the Scripture tells us that he had to be in
his early teens, named David-he came onto the scene of battle,
sent by his father to bring some food to his brothers, and
he overheard the taunt of the giant. He overheard Goliath's shout, he overheard Goliath
defying the armies of the Living God, and it made him mad
[angry], and he says, 'Man if somebody let me I'd go out and
I'd do that guy in!' And of course his older brothers told him to
shut up and go home. But
somebody overheard him say that, and king Saul was so desperate
that when king Saul heard it, he said 'Send him here.'
I mean, he's a kid, just a kid.
I mean, maybe he's got a few whiskers, nothing yet,
I mean he's just a kid. And Saul said, 'What did you say now?' And we pick it up in verse 31, "When the words
which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and
Saul sent for him. And
David said to Saul, 'Let no man's heart fail on account of
him, Goliath. Your
servant will go and fight with this Philistine.' And Saul said to David, 'You're not able to
go against this Philistine to fight with him, you're but a
youth, while he's been a warrior from his youth.'
And David said to Saul, 'Your servant was tending his
father's sheep when a lion and bear came and took a lamb from
the flock, I went out after him and attacked him and rescued
it from his mouth. And
when he arose up again against me I seized him by his beard
and struck him and killed him.
Your servant has both killed the lion and the bear,
and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them
since he's taunted the armies of the Living God.' And David said 'The Lord who delivered me from
the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will
deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.'
And Saul said to David, 'Go!
Go! And may the Lord be with you!'"-(you're going to
need all the help you can get, buddy.) And he thought, 'Well, I'll help him out.'
And he started first of all to give him his armour.
So you read the next verse, it says that Saul took
off his armour, because Saul was the only one in Israel that
had bronze armour, because the Philistines had a weapons embargo
against Israel. And
so he put his bronze armour on David, and you can just see
it beginning to weigh poor David down, and David could hardly
move, so he said, 'Saul, I don't think this is going to work,
I can't even raise my hand, I can't move my head, I don't
think this is going to work.'
'I don't want to fight in another guy's armour.
This isn't the way the Lord delivered me, it wasn't
through the armour of man.
I'll just trust God.' And it says that he took for him, verse 40,
'He took his stick in his hand,' I love it, really arming
himself, with a stick, 'and chose for himself five smooth
stones from the brook, put them in the shepherds bag which
he had, and took his sling which was in his hand, and he approached
the Philistine.' Now
talk about a foolish thing, talk about a stupid thing, talk
about a weak thing, but you know, the Scripture says elsewhere
that God has chosen the foolish things, God has chosen the
weak things. God has
chosen those things which are not, in order to confound the
wisdom of this world [1 Corinthians 1:26-29], and to show
his glory. And so David went forth and when he stepped
forward, and here's Goliath, 'Hey, why don't you chose a |
