(audience laughing)
All right, let's open the word of God this
evening
to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter five,
verses 12 to 21,
and a sermon that I have entitled,
what happened at the fall?
What happened at the fall?
And as I get into this text,
I wanna begin,
and our focus will be on the first verse,
verse 12,
I wanna begin by just reading verse 12,
because I fear that if I read through verse 21
,
and you don't grasp the weight of Romans five,
verse 12,
truly one of the most important verses in the
New Testament,
if you don't grasp the weight of it,
you're gonna miss what the theological
argument
and what is being said in the following verses
.
So let's start with Romans five, verse 12,
and consider it and then move through the rest
of the passage.
Hear now the word of the one true and living
God,
Romans five, verse 12,
therefore, just as sin came into the world
through one man
and death through sin,
so death spread to all men,
because all sinned.
Now in this verse,
we have so much theology packed in.
Now I remember,
I think I have it in my office,
but I didn't look to find it,
but I remember that many years ago,
I was at this thing,
it was on American history,
and I won't go into all the details of it,
but they had some books from the colonial era.
And these are reprints,
they're not actually books from the 1700s,
because those are more valuable
and people don't give those away.
And so it was a reprint of a children's primer
from the American colonies in Massachusetts
and Connecticut in particular.
Is anybody familiar with that children's
primer?
It's very famous in American history.
So in the early colonies,
the children's primer,
the beginning of childhood education,
because you know how Christians school their
children
in early colonial America, right?
In homeschool, that's all he had.
And as they would teach their children the
alphabet,
A to Z, each letter started with something
from the word of God.
And so we see Jay talked about Job and Ann
about Noah,
but the first letter,
the first one that I read really stuck out to
me.
This was 2010, no, 2011.
I had just graduated
from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
,
and I pick up this children's primer
to teach young children in colonial America
the alphabet.
And for the letter A, it started in Adam's
fall.
Can you complete it?
What does it say?
In Adam's fall, we send all.
Now here I am, a recent seminary graduate,
starting to learn the theology of the
Protestant Reformation,
a young pastor in my early 20s, believe it or
not.
And as I read in Adam's fall, we send all.
I thought, that's interesting.
What does that mean?
I mean, I wasn't there in the garden.
I didn't commit an act of sin.
What does that mean?
Well, I'm gonna teach you tonight from Romans
five,
why the children's primer says that,
and why it is indeed theologically accurate,
biblical, profound, and largely unheard of
and unknown in our day.
Now, Pastor Aaron earlier mentioned
the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith.
Now, church members, just so you know,
I just shortened that
and I call it the 1689 Baptist Confession of
Faith.
The longer title is
the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith.
And so, the Confession of Faith that we are
studying
to adopt is our statement of faith
here at First Baptist Church of Livingston, is
this one.
Now, this is a reprint from Founders Press.
It's in modern English.
It's a little bit easier to read.
It was originally authored in the year 1677
and adopted by early Baptist churches
in the year 1689 when they met in London
and adopted this as their Confession of Faith.
This was the Confession of Faith of Charles
Haddon Spurgeon.
In early English and American Baptist history,
they just referred to this
as the Baptist Confession of Faith.
It's not that there weren't other confessions
of faith
that other Baptists used such as general Bapt
ists,
but the overwhelming majority of Baptists
throughout England and America
in the 17th and 18th centuries,
they were churches that held to this.
In fact, there were about 293 churches
represented
in the year 1845 when the first messengers met
in Augusta, Georgia to found a new convention
of churches
called the Southern Baptist Convention.
You ever heard of it?
It's the largest denomination in America.
We say it's not a denomination, but who are we
kidding?
Anyways, the point is, the point is this,
it's not technically a denomination.
I won't go into that now.
We do hold to Baptist polity.
But when the Southern Baptist Convention was
founded,
they did not write a new Statement of Faith.
They just said, "This is our Statement of
Faith."
And from 1845 to 1925,
when the first Baptist faith message was
written,
the first 80 years of the Southern Baptist
Convention,
this was the confession of faith
that early Baptists and Southern Baptists used
.
That's why it was just called the Baptist.
This just represented what Baptists believed
for centuries.
Now, there were other Baptist groups,
but they were much smaller,
and the overwhelming majority of Baptists
held to these doctrines.
And what I'm gonna preach to you
about what happened at the fall tonight,
this was known by children from the earliest
age,
literally five-year-olds understood this.
And now today in America,
most seminary graduates don't understand this.
In fact, I hate to say it,
but many of our Southern Baptist seminary
professors,
some of these men who I'm friends with,
that I hope if they hear this sermon,
I get the opportunity to discuss it with them
further.
And I likely will, and I look forward to that.
But they don't hold to the historic Protestant
understanding
of what happened at the fall,
what we call the doctrine of original sin.
And the first thing I want you to understand
is when we say original sin,
we're not talking about the first sin
that Adam committed in the garden.
We're talking about the effects of that sin
upon us and all of creation, okay?
When we talk about original sin,
we're talking about how the fall affected us.
In Adam's fall, we send all,
is essentially summarizing the theology of
Romans 5, verse 12.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world
through one man and death through sin,
so death spread to all men because all have
sinned.
Now, the theologian and biblical scholar,
Richard Longenacker,
in his New International Greek Testament
commentary,
if you can't read Greek, don't buy it,
because it's a very technical commentary,
but he provides, I think,
one of the best translations of exactly what
the,
the way the Greek text in Romans 5, 12 reads,
the way the syntax works in the text,
it is very deliberate, it is very specific.
And Richard Longenacker translated it this way
,
and it doesn't read as smoothly,
but it is exactly following what the Greek
text says.
Therefore, just as through one man,
sin entered the world through that sin, the
sin of Adam.
And the Greek text is emphatic here, through
that sin,
the sin of Adam came death,
and thus death permeated or spread throughout
all humanity.
And on the basis of which,
the permeation of sin throughout all humanity,
on the basis of which all have sinned.
I want you to understand,
you'll see in Romans 5, 12,
and the verses that follow,
as Paul explains what he means here,
he's not saying merely that Adam sinned,
and Adam's sin gives us a sinful nature.
Now that is true, that is right,
that is biblical, that is good,
but that's not all that's being said here in
Romans 5, 12.
Yes, we have inherited a sin nature from Adam,
but there's another theological doctrine,
and it's the one that many Southern Baptists
no longer affirm.
That many Southern Baptist seminaries
and professors today
are writing theological treatises against.
A doctrine that was believed by Baptists
in our earliest days,
and has been eschewed by many today,
and it is the doctrine of imputed guilt
through Adam's sin.
Now this is taught in the text, and I will
show you this.
What we are not saying,
let's just start with what we're not saying.
When we talk about, in Adam's fall, we sinned
all.
When we talk about imputed guilt,
I'm not saying that you committed Adam's sin
in the garden.
You weren't born yet.
I realize you're not the one who did it.
But what I am saying,
building on what Brandon said earlier,
is that in the garden,
through the covenant that God made with Adam,
he was your federal head.
He represented you.
And when we talk about federalism
within that covenant,
that God made with Adam,
Adam was your representative.
Now you say, well, that doesn't sound right.
How am I being held accountable
for what Adam did in the garden?
How does that affect me?
How is the guilt of Adam and his sin imputed
to me
because he represents me?
That's not right, that's not fair.
Well, first off,
I'm gonna show you in the text of scripture
that if you reject this doctrine,
you can just give up all hope of salvation
through Jesus Christ,
because you can't have imputed righteousness
without imputed guilt.
And that's exactly what Paul is gonna tell us
in this text.
But also, brothers and sisters.
When we think about the fall,
the reason why the rest of our soteriology
goes wrong
is because we don't understand what happened
at the fall.
So here's what I wanna do.
Before we work through the rest of the text,
when we read that sin came into the world
through the one man Adam and death through sin
and death spread to all men because all sinned
,
that's in the past tense.
In the garden, the sin of Adam and his guilt
was imputed to us before we were born.
This is why we are conceived in sin according
to Psalm 51.
We don't merely become sinners because we have
sinned.
That's not the way the Bible sets it forth.
We sin because we are sinners by nature.
You understand that?
We sin because we are sinners.
We don't come into this world as innocent
little creatures.
We come into this world as sinners by nature
in rebellion against the holy, perfect,
righteous God
who created us in his image.
And here we are rebelling against our King and
Creator.
And Aaron, I do, Vody has influenced me so
much
and most people have heard this before
but he said it well about that little infant.
That's not an innocent little child, as Vody
has said.
That's a viper and a diaper.
(congregation laughing)
You need to understand.
Now I know, Brandon, your little daughter,
Baby Ruth,
25 days old, 25 days old, she's beautiful
but she is a sinner in need of the Savior,
amen?
That's how we all came into this world.
And the only one who wasn't born in sin
is the God man who left his throne in heaven,
God the Son, eternal God who took on human
flesh
in the incarnation and when he came into this
world,
the Bible is emphatic, he was conceived
in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Why is this important?
Because he was not conceived as we are.
He was supernaturally placed in the womb
of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit of God
and therefore the guilt of Adam and his sin
nature
was not imputed to Christ.
You see, if Christ were not conceived
by the Holy Spirit supernaturally,
then Christ could not be sinless
and therefore be our perfect Savior.
If he is not the spotless Lamb,
his sacrifice cannot cover our sins.
He did not die for his own sins, he had none.
He did not die for his own guilt of sin, he
had none.
Our sin was imputed to him at the cross
and his righteousness is imputed to us by
faith in Christ.
That's another doctrine, double imputation.
So we've talked about the imputation of Adam's
guilt
to all who are in Adam and all are in Adam
except for the Lord Jesus Christ.
All other people who have ever lived,
and yes, Mary was a godly woman,
but she as well was conceived in sin.
That's why she calls the Lord God her Savior
in the gospel of Luke
because we are conceived in sin
and we come into this world already guilty
through our federal head, Adam.
You say, well, I don't like this doctrine
of federal headship.
You know, it's interesting, the founders of
this nation,
look, they weren't all card-carrying Baptists
or Presbyterians, some of them held the deism
and not even truly Christian theology,
but there was one thing that they understood.
They understood federalism and coming out
of the Middle Ages where kings and kingdoms
were more a common part of ancient Europe.
This made a little more sense to them.
In our day, we are so far removed
from that political system
that we really don't grasp and understand it,
but when they founded the US federal
government
in the United States Constitution,
they were taking this biblical principle
of federalism found in Genesis chapter one
and they were applying it
in how our federal government was structured.
Adam represented you in the garden
and his sin and its guilt becomes your guilt
and you are fallen in sin and you say, well,
that's not fair.
You know, when we elect these people to US
Congress,
what are they called?
They're called in the house of representatives
.
It's federalism, brothers and sisters.
The founders of this nation understood this.
The children in early America,
this was taught to them in the first letter of
the alphabet.
In Adam's fall, we send all and yet many the
ologians
and pastors and seminary professors
don't understand this today.
What has happened to us?
We're literally in some respects,
five-year-olds used to have better theology
than our seminary professors in America.
This is a grievous thing, brothers and sisters
.
What has happened to us that we've ignored
or forgotten or never even seen
much of the theology taught in scripture?
A few more comments about verse 12.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world
through one man,
sin came into the world through one man.
What does that mean?
There was no sin before Adam sinned,
which means in the state of innocence,
it was totally different than what happened at
the fall.
There was a point at which sin came into the
world
and prior to that point,
Adam was in a state of innocence.
He was not fallen.
He did not have a sinful nature.
As Augustine said, Adam was able to sin,
but he was also able not to sin.
But what happens in the fall is Adam's nature
and all of his posterity after him,
all who are in Adam, which is all humans
except for Jesus,
all who came after Adam inherit his sin nature
and the guilt of his sin.
And it says, and death came into the world
through that sin in the garden.
You see that in the text?
Just as sin came into the world through one
man
and death through sin.
Now this is one of the reasons,
I'll just throw out another doctrine here.
We're being controversial tonight.
Brandon touched on it earlier.
So I say, amen.
Romans 512 teaches that there was no death
before the fall.
Do you see it in the text?
Just as sin came into the world through one
man
and death through sin.
This is one of the reasons
that I, some years ago,
wasn't long after I began discovering this
doctrine
and more carefully studying the book of Romans
and Genesis and many other parts of the Bible,
that I became convinced
that the Bible does in fact teach a young
earth.
Now, I know people laugh at this today.
I used to mock and ridicule and make fun of
this.
I'm not gonna preach extensively on this
tonight.
I just wanna tell you the straightforward
meaning
of this text is there was no death in the
world
prior to the fall.
How in the world can you have animal predation
and death
prior to sin entering the world
and Adam's sin in the garden?
That does not mix with Romans 5 verse 12.
Sin came into the world through one man
and death through sin and so death spread to
all men.
That's us because all sinned
in reference to Adam's sin in the garden.
Paul goes on to explain, verse 13.
"For sin was indeed in the world before the
law was given,
"but sin is not counted where there is no law
."
You see, when Adam came into the world,
the law at Mount Sinai had not yet been given.
That would not be for another approximately 4,
500 years
according to the biblical chronology.
And so for the first four and a half millennia
,
excuse me, not four and a half, two and a half
.
So for the first two and a half millennia,
what we see is that Adam lived in a time
before the giving of the law in Moses' day.
And Paul says in verse 13 that sin is not
counted
where there is no law.
Now, Paul is gonna go on and make the argument
in Romans.
He started to make it, he'll continue to make
it
as the letter of Romans develops.
That we need the law to show us how guilty we
are in our sin
and our need of the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But the point here is also that the law was
written
on Adam's heart.
He knew right from wrong, even without the 10
commandments.
The law was written on his heart already.
The law came so that the trespass would
increase
and man would see his guilt before holy God
in his need of a Savior.
So Paul goes on in verse 14, "Yet death re
igned,
"death reigned, death ruled,
"death had dominion in many ways,
"not complete, not total.
"Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses,
"even over those who sinning was not like
"the transgression of Adam,
"who was a type of the one who was to come."
You know Augustine and Thomas Watson,
they didn't make up this doctrine.
Look at verse 14, "Death reigned from Adam to
Moses,
"even over those who sinning was not like
"the transgression of Adam."
He's talking about the first two
of the four stages of man here.
Over those who sinning was not like
the transgression of Adam.
As Augustine explains, Adam was able not to
sin.
Fallen man is only able to sin.
Fallen man is by nature a sinner.
Fallen man is incapable of doing good.
Paul goes on to explain this.
I'll read briefly in Romans chapter eight,
verses seven and eight.
Paul says, "For the mind that is set on the
flesh
"is hostile to God.
"It does not submit to God's law.
"Indeed, it cannot."
And in the Greek text, the verb here,
it cannot is dunami, to have the power
or capability or ability to do something.
Romans eight, verse seven says
that sinful man cannot submit to God's law.
Sinful fallen man, lost man,
is incapable of obeying God.
That's what Romans eight, verse seven says.
And then in verse eight,
"Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
"If anything is pleasing to God,
"the fallen sinful man in and of his own
ability
"cannot do it.
"He cannot please God."
Does faith in Christ please God?
It absolutely does.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Fallen sinful man is incapable of saving faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ in and of himself.
Come tomorrow morning and hear Chad preach
on the doctrine of regeneration
to learn more about that.
Now, getting back to Romans five,
we work through verse 14.
And what we saw in verse 14 was that
the sin of those between Adam and Moses
was not like the transgression of Adam.
They were not in a state of innocence
and able not to sin the way that Adam was.
But after the fall, everything changed.
And then he says that Adam was a type
of the one who was to come.
Now hold on to that because Paul's about to
explain
what he means at the end of verse 14.
But before I go there, I just want to prove,
I want to demonstrate to you that, again,
we didn't make up these doctrines.
Protestants, including Baptists,
but also you find the same thing
in the Westminster Confession of Faith,
representing Presbyterian theology.
You find the same thing in the Savoy
Declaration of Faith,
representing Congregationalist theology
and men like Jonathan Edwards.
What you need to understand is that they saw
this
long before we ever showed up on the scene
and forgot this theology.
So I'm gonna read from the 1689 Baptist Conf
ession of Faith,
but this also represents what's found
in the Westminster, in the Savoy
and other post-Reformation statements of faith
.
But I want you to hear,
and I believe we have it available for you to
read,
chapter six of the 1689 Baptist Confession of
Faith.
Now paragraph one deals with man in the state
of innocence,
what Brandon taught on.
So paragraph two of chapter six of the Conf
ession
deals with what happened at the fall.
And I'm gonna read paragraphs two, three and
four,
where the authors of this confession lay out
for you
what happened at the fall.
And yes, we stole it from the Presbyterians.
Praise God, amen.
We redeemed it.
It was already good though.
Listen to the theology.
1689 Confession, chapter six paragraph two,
by this sin, the sin of Adam in the garden,
by this sin, our first parents fell
from their original righteousness
and communion with God.
We fell in them.
Or as the children's primers said,
"In Adam's fall, we send all."
We fell in them.
And through this death came upon all.
All became dead in sin and completely defiled
in all capabilities and parts of soul and body
.
So let me just deal with another doctrine here
.
What's often called total depravity.
When we talk about the doctrine of total dep
ravity,
we are not saying that man is depraved
as he possibly can be.
That's not at all the case.
We can look throughout world history
and see men who are far more depraved than
others.
What we are saying is that the totality of man
is depraved.
That the fall has affected every part of us.
This is why you grow old.
This is why you age.
This is why you get sick.
This is why you forget things.
This is why you get the cold and the flu.
This is why you sin.
There's even a doctrine, again,
that we're not even familiar with these terms
today,
the noetic effect of the fall.
Have you heard?
Now, I might test you.
Who knows what the noetic effect of the fall
is?
Just interesting.
I see one, two hands.
Okay, so even among a gathering of performed
Baptist churches,
the noetic effect of the fall
is the effect of the fall on your mind.
You think wrongly.
You have bad doctrines.
You don't know everything.
That's why God revealed what you need to know
in his word called the Bible,
getting back to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura
,
that scripture is our authority and is
sufficient.
Now, all of us is defiled, even our minds,
brothers and sisters, this is why we go to the
word of God.
Because on our own, we will not find the truth
, Psalm 19.
And the first six verses,
it talks about the beauty of creation
and the heavens declare the glory of God,
the sky above proclaims his handiwork day to
day
for his outspeech night to night reveals
knowledge.
And then in verse seven of Psalm 19, he says,
"But the law of the Lord," the Bible,
scripture,
"the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the
soul."
You see the difference between a sunset and a
waterfall
and the beauty of mountains and the grandeur
of creation is,
it doesn't tell you how you can be saved from
your sin
and receive eternal life through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But do you know what does tell you that?
This book right here called the Bible.
And do the analytic effect of the fall,
do the effect of the fall on your mind.
You don't know these things,
but God has revealed them to you in his word.
The difference between creation and the word
of God
is the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving
the soul.
And while sunsets are beautiful,
they can't save you from your sin,
but God has revealed to you the gospel of
Jesus Christ
in his written word delivered by his prophets
and apostles to us.
In paragraph three, chapter six of the 1699
confession,
the authors go on to say, "By God's
appointment,
they," Adam and Eve, "were the root
"and the representatives of the whole human
race."
There it is, federalism right there.
Because of this, because they represented us
in the garden, because of this,
the guilt of their sin was accounted
and their corrupt nature passed on
to all their offspring who descended
from them by ordinary procreation.
You know why they say that?
Because of Christ, conceived of the virgin.
Continuing, their descendants,
Adam and Eve's descendants are now conceived
in sin.
Psalm 51, "And they are by nature children of
wrath,"
Ephesians chapter two, "servants of sin
"and partakers of death and all other miseries
."
Spiritual, temporal, eternal,
unless the Lord Jesus sets them free.
Again, come tomorrow and hear more
about the doctrine of regeneration.
Paragraph four of chapter six of the 1699
confession
says, "All actual transgressions,
"your acts of sin," right?
You said, "I wasn't in the garden,
"I didn't do that, I know."
They address that here.
"All actual transgressions arise
"from the first corruption, this first
corruption.
"By it we are thoroughly biased against
"and disabled and antagonistic toward all that
is good,
"and we are completely inclined toward all
that is evil."
We're not saying you're depraved
as you possibly could be.
There are men who are worse than we are.
The point is, all of you is fallen in sin
and you are completely incapable
of saving yourself.
You can only be saved by the sovereign,
merciful grace of a holy God.
Continuing in Romans five.
Paul said at the end of verse 14
that Adam was a type of the one who was to
come.
Typology is the understanding here that Paul
will lay out
that there is a parallel between Christ and
Adam.
The first Adam and the new Adam, Jesus.
Verse 15, "But the free gift," that is
salvation,
"the free gift is not like the trespass."
You see, Adam's trespass had an effect,
but Christ's free gift is much greater than
Adam's sin.
The free gift is not like the trespass.
"For if many died through the one man's tresp
ass,"
the fall, right?
His guilt and his sin nature imputed to us.
"For if many died through the one man's tresp
ass,
"much more have the grace of God
"and the free gift by the grace of that one
man,"
Jesus Christ abounded for many.
So here's what he's saying.
"There is a parallel between the imputed
righteousness
"of Christ when we place our faith in him
"and the imputed guilt of Adam's sin."
Now last week I had the opportunity to have
dinner
with some pastor friends that you may know
because I was at a conference where they were
preaching
and they invited me to dinner afterward
and always loved these opportunities.
And so I'm sitting down with Bobby here.
Where's Bobby?
I missed you, Bobby.
And the sitting with us are Virgil Walker,
Tom Askel and Josh Beis.
And I think you were talking Virgil ears off
at that moment.
And so I said, "Well, this is a good time for
sermon prep."
Knowing that I was gonna be preaching to you
next week.
And so I asked Tom Askel and Josh Beis.
I said, "Give me your best, most concise
definition
"of what happened at the fall.
"What is original sin
"and how was the guilt of Adam's sin imputed
to us?"
And they said many helpful things,
but they both took me here to Romans five,
which was the text I was already planning to
preach,
but they helped me understand it much better.
So I need to give them credit
because they really sharpen my understanding.
The parallel here, look at it again.
Verse 15, "If many died through the one man's
trespass,
"if the fall affected all of us,
"how much more have the grace of God
"and the free gift by the grace of the one man
Jesus Christ
"have bounded for many?"
Here's what Paul's saying.
You think it's unfair
that Adam represented you in the garden
and his sin nature and the guilt of his sin
is imputed to you?
You say that's not fair?
Let me tell you what's also not fair.
Your salvation, you deserve hell,
but God's grace is greater than your sin and
Adam's sin.
Yes, Adam's sin and its guilt was imputed to
you,
but how much more great is it
that through faith in Christ,
the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to you?
You see, you can't have imputed righteousness,
which is necessary for salvation.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, "You must be
perfect,
"just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
That's the standard.
God's not judging on a curve.
He expects absolute moral perfection,
which is his own very nature.
The problem is neither you nor I have attained
that
nor are we able to do so.
The purpose of the law
was not to give us a plan of salvation.
The purpose of the law is to show us that we
are sinners
and we need to run to the Savior.
And here's the point, brothers and sisters,
when you reject the imputed guilt from Adam's
sin,
you reject the whole need
and the reason why Christ went to the cross
and you reject the very theological foundation
for how Christ's righteousness
and thus eternal life and salvation
are given to you by faith in Jesus.
You're undermining the very foundation of the
gospel
when you reject this.
I'm not saying that makes you a heretic,
I'm just saying that makes you inconsistent
and unable to defend core biblical doctrine.
That is not a good place to be
when you're dealing with this pagan,
wicked, unbelieving world.
We need to understand the Bible rightly
and express its theology accurately.
Lastly, reading in R.C. Sproul's commentary,
which is fantastic.
If you've never gotten the gospel of God,
Romans,
R.C. Sproul's commentary, you need to read it.
It's fantastic and it's really written on a
level
that anyone who has, say, a high school
education
should be able to follow it
and learn much about the book of Romans.
R.C. Sproul's commentary is very helpful
and written for the common man.
And in it, he explains something
that is very helpful here.
Concerning these verses, he says,
okay, so if you're a person who says,
well, I understand and I believe that I have a
sin nature
because of what happened in the fall,
but I reject this idea that Paul is expressing
here
that Adam's guilt was imputed to me through
his sin
and therefore I was born already guilty of sin
though I had not yet committed an act of sin
on my own.
And you say, that doesn't sound right.
That's not accurate.
Okay, but Paul said in verse 12,
how did death come into the world through what
?
Through sin.
Okay, so if you believe, say, baby Ruth again,
not to pick on Brandon's daughter,
but that child is born,
if you believe that she is perfect and
innocent,
if that's the case,
why have infants ever died?
Some children die in infancy, right?
SIDS, it's a terrible thing.
Some of you may have lost an infant.
I don't know, and if you have, my heart breaks
for you.
This is a serious matter though, consider it.
If there is no imputed guilt from Adam's sin,
if that child is innocent of sin
and death comes through sin,
then how does a sinless child die
if death only comes through sin?
That dog won't hunt, ladies and gentlemen.
That's incorrect.
The theology of the Bible is the reason why we
all get sick,
the reason why we all grow old,
the reason why we all die,
the reason why your back or your neck aches in
the morning,
when you just sleep on it wrong,
you're saying you have no idea,
just wait 'til you get another 30 years.
I don't wanna learn, but Lord willing,
if he leaves me here long enough
before he takes me to glory, I'm gonna find
out.
But the reason all that happens is because we
're sinners.
And the reason why even infants can die,
both inside and outside the womb,
is because of imputed guilt from Adam's sin.
Brothers and sisters,
the theology of the Bible fits together.
It is we who try to rip it apart
because we don't like some aspects of it.
But if we are under the authority of the word
of God,
rather than the other way around,
trying to put the Bible under us
so that we can tell God what his word means,
then this is very plain what Paul is saying.
Let's continue on.
He talks about how much greater the free gift
is
than Adam's trespass.
Now verse 16,
and the free gift is not like the result
of the one man's sin.
For the judgment following one trespass
brought condemnation.
After the fall condemnation came over all of
humanity,
even creation groans now.
I mean, it's affected the weather.
This is why we have hurricanes and tornadoes.
All of creation was affected by the condemn
ation flowing
out of this original sin in the garden
and its effect upon all creation
and every one of us who are in Adam.
For the judgment following the one trespass
brought condemnation,
but the free gift following many trespasses
brought justification.
One act of righteousness covered all those
sins.
His grace is greater than our sin, that him
says.
Verse 17, for if because of one man's trespass
,
death reigned through that one man,
again, if you have a problem with this Paul is
saying
that because of this one man's trespass,
death reigned through sin and it's affected
you
in this way.
If you don't like this doctrine,
then you can't believe this other part
that much more will those who receive
the abundance of grace by faith in Jesus,
much more those who receive the abundance of
grace
and the free gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the one man Jesus
Christ.
Paul's saying you can't have eternal life
if Adam didn't represent you in the garden
and his sin affected you
and his guilt was imputed to you.
So if you don't like this doctrine,
then your hope of eternal life in heaven also
goes with it.
The two are inseparable.
That's Paul's point here.
Verse 18, therefore, as one trespass
led to the condemnation for all men,
so one act of righteousness leads to
justification
in life for all men.
Now all men who?
You know, it's funny sometimes people say,
well, all means all and that's all all means.
Oh really?
All means all.
Every person who ever lived, right?
Okay, let's read that into verse 18.
Therefore, as one trespass led
to the condemnation of all men,
I'm okay with that, right?
All men are sinners, except for Jesus.
Got that, okay?
So the one act of righteousness
leads to justification in life for all men.
You mean all men who have ever lived
have justification in eternal life?
Wait a minute.
The Bible doesn't teach universalism.
The Bible doesn't teach everyone goes to
heaven.
I know that's the theology of many today,
but that's not the theology of Scripture.
Amen?
The doctrine of hell is biblical.
Men die in their sin and they perish
and go to eternal hell where they endure
the wrath of God forever for their sin.
The reason that those who have faith in Christ
don't is because Christ paid for their sin
in full on the cross and there is no,
there is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8, verse one.
So the all men here are all who are in Christ.
All who are in Adam are fallen.
That excludes Jesus because he was conceived
of the virgin.
But all who are in Christ,
that is all who have faith in Christ,
they receive righteousness in eternal life.
Or here's how Paul expressed the same thing
in his letter to the Corinthians.
First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 22.
For as by a man, Adam, for as by a man came
death,
so by a man has come the resurrection of the
dead.
Through Adam came death, through Jesus comes
the resurrection.
They go together.
You can't have one without the other.
Same principle in first Corinthians 15.
Now back in Romans five, as we complete verse
18,
Paul is hammering home these two doctrines,
imputed guilt from Adam and imputed
righteousness,
righteousness through faith in Christ.
They go together and they're inseparable.
So if you want the righteousness of Christ
in the eternal life that come with it,
you have to accept original sin
and the imputed guilt through Adam.
Verse 19, for as by the one man's disobedience
,
the many were made sinners.
It does not say in verse 19
that you were made a sinner when you first sin
.
Read it again.
For as by the one man's disobedience,
who's that Adam in the garden?
By the one man's disobedience,
by Adam's sin in the garden,
this is what happened by his disobedience.
The many, that's everyone but Jesus,
the many were made sinners.
Follow the syntax of the verse
by what Adam did in the garden,
you were made a sinner.
Again, if you don't like that,
if you don't want to accept that verse of the
Bible,
then just be honest about it.
If you don't believe the Bible, just say it.
This is plain, brothers and sisters.
Again, do we stand above the word of God
or is the word of God above us?
And we submit to what God has spoken in his
word.
As by the one man's disobedience,
the many were made sinners.
So by the one man's obedience,
the many will be made righteous.
Talking about glorification, second half of
tomorrow.
Again, come tomorrow and learn more.
Verse 20, "Now the law came in to increase the
trespass."
See, the purpose of the law is to prove to us
that we are sinners in need of a savior.
Now that was already true, right?
The law was written on Adam's heart
before Moses gave the law,
but the trespass increased
and God is making us see our sin and face it
and face how hopeless we are without Jesus
so that we will see our need of him.
Now the law came to increase the trespass,
but where sin increase,
grace abounded all the more.
You don't like this doctrine of imputed guilt?
Well, I have good news for you.
The imputed righteousness of Christ
and the grace expressed in the cross
and the empty tomb and his second coming
and the resurrection of the dead on that day.
It's so far greater than your sin.
It's infinitely greater.
I don't care what your sin is,
Christ offers you full pardon and forgiveness
if you will repent, submit to him, place your
faith in him.
Your sin is forgiven.
His grace is so much greater than your sin.
Again, Paul's point is if you don't like this
doctrine,
then you don't get all these benefits
that flow out of what Christ did
when he was your representative,
when Jesus was your federal head at Calvary.
Isn't this amazing?
We don't want Adam to represent us in the
garden.
People reject this doctrine today,
but you want Jesus to represent you at the
cross.
You want his salvation in eternal life,
but you don't want to accept what he says
about you
and your sin and your connection to Adam.
Again, you can't have one without the other.
Do you see how many times Paul has stated
and restated and restated and restated?
You know why he says this so much
between verses 13 and 20?
You know why?
'Cause we're so hard headed, we'd reject it
if he didn't tell it to us
about seven or eight times in the same passage
.
I mean, he is just circling again and again
and again,
like a pilot who just can't find the runway,
and he's just, I mean, he is just narrowing in
saying,
this is what I'm saying, this is what I'm
saying,
this is what, I know you don't like it,
I know you don't want to believe it,
but this is the truth.
- Verse 21, "So that, what's the result
of his grace being greater than all of our sin
,
so that as sin reigned in death,
grace also might reign through righteousness,
leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord."
Now, this isn't the only passage of scripture
that teaches this, but I think it might be the
best
and the clearest.
Brothers and sisters, in Adam's fall,
we indeed sinned all.
I know you weren't there in the garden,
I know you didn't commit the sin,
but Adam represented you in the garden,
but the good news is Jesus represented you at
the cross,
and all who repent and place their faith in
him
will be forever saved.
And that is good news,
and why you would want to reject these doctr
ines?
Why you would rob glory from Jesus
and what he was doing at the cross
and why he had to die for you?
Do you understand?
We want to minimize our sin,
and when we minimize our sin,
we minimize the glory of the Savior
who redeemed us out of that sin.
He suffered so much because we sinned so much.
He paid exactly for every sin we ever
committed at the cross.
You realize that the cup of wrath
that he drank at the cross, the cup that he
said,
"Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass
for me,
"yet not my will, but yours be done,"
and he had to drink the cup of God's wrath,
which was the punishment for your sin
that you would have endured in eternal hell.
He drank the cup of God's wrath on the cross
in your place, paying the penalty for your sin
,
so that now the penalty is paid in full.
The debt of your sin is paid, it is removed.
And through faith in Jesus,
he declares you faultless and righteous
to stand before his throne.
Why would we want to ever reject that glorious
theology?
Brothers and sisters,
this is at the very heart of the gospel.
You see, the reason why we need to understand
the doctrine of man is because if we don't
understand
how simple we are and how desperately we need
the Savior,
we rob Christ of his glory, we distort the
gospel,
and we say things to men like,
you know, the gospel is God loves you
and has a wonderful plan for your life.
What a watered down way to present
the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel is God created man perfect,
but he rebelled in the garden,
and you are the heir of Adam's rebellion.
And you came into this world,
an enemy of God hating God, reviling God,
sinning against God, bent on your sin,
refusing to bend the knee.
You were incapable to obey God
because you hated him so much.
He didn't make you sin, you chose that sin.
And it was a part of your very own nature
from your forefather, Adam.
But the good news is you have a Savior
who is far greater than Adam.
The second Adam covers the trespass of the
first
and gives righteousness to all who trust in
him.
That is why the doctrine of original sin
and what happened at the fall
is so critical to us getting the gospel right
and explaining it to this lost world
who desperately need this glorious Savior.
We're gonna close our service.
I'm gonna ask Pastor Mark LaCour to come up.
The mic's right here, brother.
Just get that and flip that on.
And I'm gonna ask Pastor Mark to close us in
prayer.
And after Mark prays, you'll be dismissed
and we'll see you back here at 10.30 tomorrow.
Pray for us, brother.
- Let's stand.
The old days when the father incurred unpay
able debts,
guess who went into the poor house?
The family of the father.
When the father struck oil, guess who went
into the mansion?
The family.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you and we bless you this
evening
for these words, these truths, Father,
of how we were created as your people to have
dominion,
how that was lost.
We thank you, Father, that in understanding
the severity
and the extent of the fallenness,
how it opens the door for us to be saved
through another atom.
We thank you for that, Father.
We ask, Lord, that you would put these truths
into our hearts,
Father, that we would look to Christ,
that, Father, Christ just doesn't even up the
books.
It's a far greater grace and we thank you for
that.
There was sin abounded, grace abounded all the
more.
It's always all the more and we thank you for
that, Father.
We love you, we bless you.
Be with us now as we travel, keep us in your
grace,
help us to come back tomorrow and learn even
more.
We love you and we thank you.
For us in Christ's great name, we pray, amen.
(upbeat music)
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