Our History in the First Adam

I got to tell you a story before we start. John is a member of the Boy Scouts of America. And because he's a member, so am I. And I'm the chaplain of the troop. So Friday night, they have this thing called Denver After Dark. You ever heard about that? Well, it's primarily for Boy Scouts, but for other kids, too. You have to be 14 to do this.

We all met at a bowling alley at 7 o'clock. And parked at the bowling alley were three Sheriff Department prison buses. So. So we get on the bus at eight o'clock and all three buses are going to different places. And what you do is you spend the whole night going to things in Denver that are happening at night that you wouldn't normally know about. First place we went was to your race factory over here, this place that produces hats and stuff. And you spend an hour going through the factory and have a guy there and shows you around and. You know how they do everything and they have people they're working at night. You know. So that was kind of cool. From there we went to Denver Health Center, which is the old Denver general.

Well, we they wouldn't let us in the emergency room because they were too busy. But they gave us a they gave us a PowerPoint presentation of. people who have been in the E.R. and we saw way more than we ever wanted to see. But it was it was beneficial, especially John's about to get a driver's license. He now knows firsthand what happens if you don't wear a seatbelt, what happens if you go through the windshield and they didn't hold anything back and then they serve pizza.

Anyway, way too much. And then we went to a printing press that was I mean, this place was cranking out how many thousands an hour. Forty one thousand publications an hour. You should have seen this. And then from there we went to the Denver call center. which is where all the 9-1-1 stuff comes in and there's actually four entities within this space. The paramedics, the fire department, 9-1-1, and the cops are there. And then they went bowling at 2 o'clock or 5. I went home after that. I couldn't handle it. But anyway, it was really fun. So if you ever get a chance to do that, do it. There's so many cool things going on all night long. So many people up and working and their life is in the middle of the night. The drill rig in the middle of the night.

Hey, you know, we're good. We're getting used to any questions from last week. I didn't quite finish the last two questions. Anybody have anything on that? If not, we'll just move on. Today we're talking about we're going to focus in on this today and next couple of weeks on the first Adam. Now, just a bit of review. Adam, how many Adams are there? How many? What is an Adam? A.D.A.M. What is an Adam?

How did we define him last week? There you go. That's right. He's the he's the federal head of a race. And there are two. Who are they? You already got the name of the first one. And Christ. So there are two representative men. So what we're going to talk about today is the first Adam and all that he's about. And Courtney will continue on next week with some of the elements of the first Adam that aren't something that has to do with his nature. Now, my first question was, why is it important to know something personal? about our history in Adam. Probably should have put the first down. Why? Why is it? Well, number one, is it important to know something about him? What do you think? Yes. No. Somewhere in the middle. And why is that important? We don't understand what we were. Yeah, I think that's it's critical.

We you you if you're like me, you've never thought about this, that I'm a member of a race of the human race. And there are certain characteristics in that race that are because of the head of the race that I'm subject to. You know, especially we Americans, we think, oh, gee, I'm free and I'm sort of setting my own course and I'm the one that gets to decide. No, you don't.

You know, you are the product of where you came from. And so I think it's important to understand about Adam so you can understand about you because that's where you came from. And there are certain characteristics about you, not only... I mean, physically you look like Adam, because like begets like, spiritually it's the same way. So, in order to understand the nature and condition of the life that we inherited from him, and that life continues to indwell the believer even though he's saved. that life is still there.

Exactly right. And I think it's vital for spiritual growth because what's interesting is that I'm a guy who really likes principles. I like for somebody to explain to me how something works and the fact that it works that way all the time. So if I begin to understand the principles of how Adam works, then I'm not surprised if he does something. But those same principles will hold true when I shift Adams or move to Christ. There are certain principles that are true of him, and they're true all the time. They function the same way.

If we can get a handle on what Adam's about, one, we're not surprised. And by not being surprised, I mean this. We're going to discover, if you haven't already, that Adam is a lot worse than you were hoping he was going to be. And that you can't do anything about that. And you think, oh no. Well, actually that's a good thing to know.

Because God has supplied a remedy for the principle, is maybe the way to say it. And the other thing that comes into play here with Adam and with us, there are facts concerning your position in Adam, and there are facts concerning your condition in Adam. And those kind of facts, position and condition facts, I think they're vital as we enter into spiritual growth.

Because then you begin to see that, well, you know, I've been moved from one race to another, and even though my atom, old atom, functions a certain way, Because I'm not connected with him, he can do whatever he wants. It isn't who I am. You see what I mean? It doesn't mean you just let him go on and sin, but you know what he's going to do before he even does it, because that's the way the nature of the beast is.

So in terms of, and this might have been kind of a confusing question, we have three aspects of our relationship to Adam. Anybody come up with any? I didn't get any hints there at all. We have a position of sin in Adam, which you could say is the source. We have a nature of sin from Adam, and we have personal sins, which is actually practicing what our position in the source is. Does that make sense? We get from Adam a position of sin. We get from him a sin nature, and we get from him the acting out of our position and our source. So what would you say our position of sin is? Think about what position means. Think about the word position. Remember we talked last week about what position was or is?

We were born into what kind of a humanity? What are you born into? This is before you're saved. Born into a condemned and doomed man, right? And his race. That's a position of sin. Psalm 51.5 says, and David wrote, In sin did my mother conceive me. There's a position. You show up in sin. Nothing you can do about that. In Adam, we're declared to be dead in trespass and sins. Why? Because we're in Adam. That's our position. In Adam, or was our position.

Ephesians 2.1 and then 1 Corinthians 15.22. Very interesting verse. In Adam, all what? Die. That's position. See that? The address. First Corinthians 1522. So we have. Yes. OK. Actually, that if you answer it that way, that's good, because because how did you answer it?

Luke is a good example. Luke was conceived in sin. He's born in sin. And he's positioned in his father, Adam. That's where he is. Every human being that shows up on the planet is like that. They all show up that way. We all show up that way. But I know your family is like my family in that you were convinced you got the exception, right?

So you didn't think that Luke was dead unto God and alive unto sin, but he proved you wrong, didn't he? Sure he did, because that's what he is. That's his position of sin. So it's not that Luke was a really good guy and then he started to sin. No, no. He's born in sin, that's his position. And because he has a position, he acts out what he is. He's dead to God and he's alive to sin.

Every human being that shows up here, that's who they are. No matter how much you'd like to think otherwise. That's exactly who they are. So, how would you describe your sin nature? And the whole class next week is going to be on this subject, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. How would you describe your sin nature, if you were of a mind to do so?

You know, that's really good. That's really good. It's all about me. It's me focused. Because we have a position of sin, it resulted in a sinful being, which means you've got a sinful life. And therefore you have this thing, this work, you have a propensity to sin. You have a drag towards sin all the time.

So what is sin? It's all that bad stuff you did yesterday before you came to church today. What is sin? What are sins? What are they? Don't you think in terms of their bad acts, the really evil, dirty, rotten stuff? But the all about me can't be all that bad, right? So what is sin? What is it? I mean, God says, if you sin, you die. So, what's the deal? What's that?

Missing the mark. The word Amartya means to miss the mark. So, OK, what's the mark? Christ himself. The mark is the life and the life is Christ himself. Or you might say that the mark is God himself. OK, so it isn't necessarily what we would call good and evil, you know, because the good guys missed the mark, too, don't they? Because it isn't about good and evil. You see that? You think about good and evil, though, you're still stuck in that tree.

No. Ephesians 2, 3 says that in Adam, We are by nature children of wrath. What's a child of wrath? Don't mention any names. What's a child of wrath? What is wrath? Righteous anger against those who miss the mark. So because you're an Adam, look how God looks at you. You're a child of wrath.

In this condition, we are natural, fleshly, carnal, separated from God. That's who we are. And we think that we somehow deserve God's mercy and His grace, and that we've done enough good stuff that we're really hoping that He grades on the curve. And if He does, I'll probably make it in. Make it into what? A place called heaven where I can be totally self-centered. Here's the problem with coming from Adam. How much capacity does Adam have to receive and understand the things of God? How much capacity does he have? That's exactly right. And that's the verse. 1 Corinthians 2.

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. It doesn't matter whether he wants to or not, he can't. Why? There's foolishness under him. And neither can he know them. Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. So the natural man, Adam, is what? He is so separated from God that he doesn't possess the capacity to understand spiritual things. Doesn't possess them, doesn't have them. He's a son of wrath.

Nice spot to be in, right? Now, just a sidebar, when you're saved, does your Adam wake up and get it? What do you think? No? I always thought he did. So I guess the point that I'm making, does this fallen Adamic man ever change? Does he improve? Does he get better if you become a Christian? Then why do you work so hard on him? That's the whole point of studying Adam, is to find out irrevocably in your mind, your mind, that you're convinced That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it is not going to get better. It's not going to improve. You cannot improve it. But we are all in the self-improvement society, aren't we not? We're charter members. We really try hard to get our Adam to do better, don't we? What do you think covenant theology is all about?

It's designed specifically to put impositions on Adam so he will get better, and he will look better, rather than abandon him. But that's a scary thought. You abandon the guy you know the best, your Adam. God says, just walk away from him, I'll die. Yes, you will. So, if you're totally self-centered, where does that put you in relationship to God? You're totally against him. See that? So here you have this nature that's totally against God and can't be fixed.

I'll read some verses out of Romans 8. For they that are after or come from the flesh, or out from the flesh, they mind the things of the flesh. They pay attention to those kinds of things. Why do you read the Rocky Mountain News in the morning? Why do you do that? It's fleshly. You're interested. Who's interested? You're Adam. He wants to know what's going on.

When you watch the news at night, what are you watching? You're watching what sin did today. If you go out on Denver After Dark and you listen, you go to the call center and you listen to these calls come in, what are you hearing? You're hearing death functioning.

That's what's going on. This is what Adam has been doing tonight. And like the cop said, well, it's about two o'clock. It's going to get real busy around here because that's when the bars close. And so you watch these screens start to light up and assaults and car accidents and stuff. It's all Adam doing his thing. And the reason he does it, according to the scripture, is that those that are after the flesh, what do they do? They take care of, focus in on, pay attention to the things of the flesh.

Because the carnal mind, that mind that comes with that atom, is his enmity against God. You didn't know you had a mind that was against God, did you? You thought you were training it by sending it to school to make it more acceptable to God, right? Along with Adam comes his mind. That's part of what he is. And that mind of Adam is against God. You getting uncomfortable yet? The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can it be. Not only it isn't, it can't be. All you have to do is study the history of Israel from the time of Moses forward. How many of those guys complied with the law? How many? One? Two? Six million? How many?

None. Not a single one of them. because they have this mind that is against the law of God and it can't be. So then they that are in the flesh, only on Thursdays can please God. On Sunday morning, I'm sorry, Sunday morning. Those in the flesh, when do they get time to please God? They can't. It's impossible to be in the flesh and to please God.

I'm carnal, Paul said, soul under sin. So if you just recognize what we've talked about the last five minutes, it would be of great benefit to you because you could stop all your exercise and all your work trying to get Adam to do better. You get him to pray more, you know, more quiet time, stop kicking the dog, you know, whatever your Adam does, why do you keep messing with him? If God says, if those that are in the flesh can't please me, why would you mess with them?

Give me an answer. Why would you do it? I mean, I'm standing up here. I do it all the time. I even bought nuggets tickets. Well, they're not as bad as hockey. Why would you do it? Doesn't want to go away. Okay, okay. Now, I'm moving towards a point here, so track with me. Here you are, functioning in your daily routine, and you recognize that Pretty much a lot of what you do is fleshly and out of Adam. And you think it's important, right? You have a few hiccups along the way, but you get through those and things are attractive to you that are not from God. Why would you do it? Why would you do it? Because you want to. Because you want to. Isn't that right?

No one ever forced me to sin, and said, I'm going to make you do this sin. No, I wanted to do it every time. Every time. I was sold. So the temptation comes to my old man out of my own fleshly desires, and I buy it. And I take it. For what reason? To gratify this old man.

Well, if I come to the understanding of what we've just talked about, that in Adam all die, that nobody in the flesh can please God, etc., etc., etc. Pretty soon it dawns on you, why am I doing this? Why is Adam so attractive to me? Or why are the things of the flesh so attractive to me? The answer is, I'm born of the flesh. That's where I came from. So back to the question number one.

Why is it important that we understand and learn about Adam? Why is that important? You see why it's important? I think believers have to understand or need to understand what Adam can do and how powerful he is and how attractive the things of the flesh are.

You think about that. We live in a world that is enmity with God. We have a sin nature within us that's enmity with God. We've got a dying body. We have all of the influences of our sin nature in us going 24-7. And everything in the world is moving towards us 24-7 to do everything we possibly can that's ungodly. We haven't got a chance.

Right? Or not. And then you begin to learn about, from a position condition viewpoint, about the other Adam, which we'll learn about a few months from now. And you begin to see that that's who I really am. That's the characteristics of this new man is who I really am. And so now what happens?

God is really trying to get us not to be good. What's he trying to get us to do? What's the spirit of God trying to get us to do? I think we've done it before. What is he trying to get us to do? What's that? To believe him. And until you come to the, you and I come to a point that we recognize that in my flesh dwells no good thing, we're not going to abandon him. We won't do it. We like him. We're comfortable. We like going to the Bronco games. You know, not that the Bronco games are bad. I don't mean that. But do you understand what I'm saying there?

There isn't really, I think, the apprehension that the things of God are life, and they are the things that are attractive to the new man. We are going to learn, and have to learn, how attractive the things of Adam are to the flesh that we have. So, when circumstances come in your life that are difficult, They're designed by God to teach you about Adam and how unreliable he is. You see that?

I had that thought watching that call center the other night that, you know, here's a, here are the, sin acting out. And, and, you know, we could, we could put more cops on the beat, you know, more squad cars, bigger jails, bigger buses to haul them off to jail, give them more psychological help. We'll boost the mayor's budget to get people off the street.

Whatever we're doing, it isn't going to fix sin. Because sin functions in every human being, especially the non-believers, non-stop. That's all they do. That's all they do. Some of them are good sinners and some of them are bad sinners. You know, the bad sinners get arrested. The good sinners just go home and keep sinning. They don't get caught.

For me it's not a difficult thing to go, okay, the Lord put me through this trial, this hard time, or whatever, and I know that there's a reason for that. That's much easier for me now, maybe because I feel a lot of weight, but those things, Amy and I had gone to botanical gardens and we were struggling with the kids. We needed to move along. Everybody's here and everything. And we ran into a group of, like, Johnsonville and Finley Challenge kids. And they're having the same problem because they're... And after we had passed them and got everybody grouped where they needed to go, it was just like, you know what?

I don't appreciate the things that God has blessed me with, which seems to be... more of an add-on thing then for me than to be upset or whatever because we're going through a trial or lost a job or can't make it or whatever situation. That just reaffirms to me how self-centered I can be where it's like, okay, no, this is okay. But when things are great, then it was because I had a contribution to the things that are Your Adam was doing really well. Yeah, sure. And so when things are tough, then you think, well, Adam isn't doing too well. Notice how much we think from Adam's viewpoint. Don't we think that way all the time? Is it any wonder that God wants to teach us who Adam really is, not who we've always thought he is? Do you understand what I just said? The Spirit of God has taken it upon himself to reveal to every believer who Adam really is. Who he really is.

When we were at Denver Health Center the other night, they were doing a PowerPoint presentation showing these people who had been in car accidents without seatbelts. And they weren't covering anything up. I mean, they were showing body cavities And here's the two male nurses up there giving us the presentation, and they're looking at this.

This is reality, because they see it every day. I mean, body parts taken off. It's just unbelievable. But I got to thinking, that's reality. That's what really goes on. People who find themselves in car accidents without seat belts, or they were drinking, or they were doing something. We never see that. So in our mind, we think, well, that's not really reality. That's for somebody else. But if you happen to work in the emergency room at Denver Health Science Center, guess what you see every day? You see gunshot wounds. And when you have a gunshot wound in the chest, the only way to fix it is to get into your chest.

And they showed that. And I got to thinking, you know, it's like the sin nature. We try to live in this pristine, sort of perfumed, selfish world, and we never see Adam for who he really is. You become a believer and the Spirit of God is going to show you what Adam really is. The gunshot wounds, the body cavities, all of that evil, and you know what you're going to find out? It's me. I found the enemy within the camp. Guess who it is? It's not the dog. It's me. It's me. I'm that guy. Or better said, I was that guy. And that isn't who I am anymore.

But I see his capacity and his capabilities now, and I never realized how sinful my Adam really was, or is, or what he's capable of. A person like Paul towards the end of his life in Philippians talks about being the chief of sinners. You would think that after 30 years he would have thought, I'm not as bad of a sinner as I was when I first started. No. Towards the end of his life he reckoned.

Why? Because he could see the contrast between who he was in Christ and what he was in Adam. Because we really think, in my flesh dwells 65% bad. I think the good is much more deceptive than the bad. and harder and what Satan loves to push you on because it's deceptive because you are doing good. I mean when you see the body cavities and drinking and whatever and yada yada yada, easy to identify, easy to identify. But if I'm a do-gooder, thinking, you know, I'm doing good because I walked a little lady across the street.

I'm not I'm not one of those centers. You know, I'm a I'm a good center. Exactly what you said, a good center and a bad center. That's the difficulty in dealing with the unbeliever. The guy that's the up-and-outer is very hard to talk about a need for anything. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I think in the believers, it's harder to get that rooted out, that good center part. Because we say we climb from the evil branches of the good. We aren't like them. We aren't shooting people. We aren't drinking. We aren't killing. We get a whole world here. We walked Little Old Lady. We served at the food kitchen. We did all that. And we're proud about ourselves. And we're very proud. And that's the heart.

I think that's the hardest one for the believer to root out, because we'll gravitate, you know. Yeah. Well, it's like we have no problem for believing to see that all my righteousness is built in grace. We have a real tough time after you're a believer believing that still. That's right. But it's the same truth. Exactly. I was listening to some, on Tuesday, we're working on a grace, going through a thing on grace. I was listening to some tapes last week, and this teacher is really savvy about this.

He said, and he put it this way, he said, there's no more rotten, evil, smelly, stinky Christian than a legalist. Because he's proud. Because he's happy about what he's able to accomplish. That he looks really good, but he's the most rotten of all Christians.

You think the Spirit of God would show you that part about Adam too? What do you think? You think that's as easy a lesson to learn as the fact that he used to smoke Marlboros? No, that's a hard one. That's the really hard one. Because when the Spirit of God begins to show you those good branches that you live on, and oh, by the way, they don't measure up to the mark, your goodness is like filthy rags He starts to show you that about yourself, now what happens? Uh-oh. Maybe the entire atom isn't worth the time or the effort. See that? The great thing is that you now have another man. I read someplace that it's not what you do or don't do, it's which man you pay attention to. Who is your man? Is it Adam? The good Adam especially for us Christians? Or is it Christ himself?

On Thursday nights we're studying the book of Hebrews. And what's really cool about the book of Hebrews is this. I don't know how many of them, a bunch of Hebrews that were saved. They're Christians, right? And they live in Jerusalem. Where do they go on Saturday? They go to the temple, right? They're under the whole Jewish system.

They're, you know, they're like, I came out of Catholicism and I know several Catholics that are believers who still go to the Catholic Church. You know why? Because if this faith thing doesn't work out, I'm still a Catholic. If this Messiah thing doesn't work out, I'm still a Jew, right? And so the book of Hebrews is designed to wean these Hebrews away from their religion to the person of Christ. And so the whole book is just a contrast between, well, here's the system and here's the person. Here's the system and here's the person.

And now we're up to, here's a Levitical priesthood. How about this priest after the order of Melchizedek? worthy of your attention. Yeah, he sure is. And it's totally... Well, it's the same thing with my old man. You know, you can get through the evil part pretty easy, but here comes the good part. And here's a Jew with the religion that God gave him.

And God is saying to him, you need to abandon that for my son. We need to abandon our goodness for Christ. See that? Well, you're not going to do it Practically, until you see that your goodness doesn't compare. That your goodness is fraught with sin too.

Because underneath your accomplishments is this little deadly sin. The real deadly ones, pride, envy. You know, those little suckers you never talk about, who are the real deadly ones. The Spirit of God is at work to show us all of Adam, not just the bad bleeding part. all of him, for what purpose? So that you'll stop messing with him. That you'll walk away from him by faith to Christ. We think that in our spiritual life, when we recognize exactly who he is, and how ugly he is, and all of that, we'll see that there are people that I believe that Jesus loves.

I think it's more than just the realization. Because we human beings, we do things because we want to do them. I mean, I bought Nuggets tickets because I want to go to the games. I like basketball. So why do I do that? Why did I spend my money to go to basketball games? Because I want to do it.

Until Christ becomes so valuable to you, more so than Adam, you won't abandon Adam. Do you see that? You may logically have it all figured out, but it comes down to your value system. Does that make sense? Maybe put it this way. When I was single, You know, I've met and observed lots of young ladies, right? When Donna came into my life, and we loved each other, she chose me and I chose her to the exclusion of the others.

You see that? Well, when you begin to see Adam for who he is, and at the same time, the Spirit is revealing Christ to you for who he is, what happens to you? You choose. I would much rather hang with Christ than me. See that? Why? Because Christ now is really more valuable to you. And you discover ever so slowly that Adam isn't worth your time, and that Christ really is. That Christ is your very life.

He is your new Adam. He loves you. He sacrificially loves you. He has demonstrated his love towards you, that while you were yet sinners, what did he do? He gave his life for you. Well, Adam isn't going to do that. Adam is going to sacrifice you for himself. The Spirit of God works both. We're working on the Adam part now.

Actually, in a believer's life, both are going on at the same time. So that I can learn about the not-I-but-Christ life. And I won't abandon me, to be honest with you, even though I understand it all, until I value Christ and don't value me to the point where I'll do it. I'll assent by faith to it, but the value in my heart won't happen, I don't think, until Christ is the most... He becomes the pearl of inestimable value to you. And boy, without the Spirit of God, that would never happen. That would never happen. But thanks to him, it does happen.

Describe what substitutionary death is. One of the questions I asked was, what's substitutionary death? What does that mean? Somebody died in place of me. And I was worthy of death. And not only because of my past sins, but because of the ones I'm doing now and for sure about the ones I'm going to do in the future. in himself bore my sins in his body on the tree. He took my place, having made peace through the blood of his cross unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins by his blood."

Now, the reason I brought that up is because up until, and we'll study Romans 5.12 more in depth later, but up until Romans 5.12 in the book of Romans, We're really talking about the substitutionary death of Christ. That he took my place and bore the punishment and the penalty that I deserve because of my Adamic, that's where it came from, because of my sins, the things that I do and will do that missed the mark. Substitution. But this class is called identification, which is different than substitution.

So what's the difference between sins and sin? You should be able to tell me now. Say that again. When you see the word in Romans, if you're studying Romans, and you come down through 511, you're going to see the word sins, sins, sins. Those are the actions of a sinner. So at 512, it changes. Now you see the word sin, sin, sin. And if you look in the Greek, it's got the definite article in front of it, the sin. That's the sin nature. Now what you're going to find is that God did something different with the sin nature than He did with the sins.

Right? Did God forgive your sins? Yea or nay? And why did He do it? Because He's big-hearted, right? Why did He forgive your sins? Because Christ, as your substitute, paid the penalty for them to satisfy a holy God. He therefore can forgive you your sins. Did He forgive your sin? He didn't forgive you, the sinner. Understand that? Your sin nature was not forgiven. Your sins were, but your nature wasn't. What happened to your nature? You got crucified.

So it's important to understand the difference between sins and sin, and the fact that God deals with sins differently than He deals with sin. Because, again, back to what we were just talking about. How many times in your life have you heard that I'm a forgiven sinner? No such animal is a forgiven sinner. Do you understand what I'm saying? Your sins are forgiven, but what happened to you, the sinner?

You got crucified. So you don't forgive crucified people. Did the buzzer go off? Brian's out of town. Well, I was going to I was hoping that we'd get to see if you could pick out the seven ways. But I'll pick you up two weeks from now. Sure. Question seven. OK, let's go.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your Son's work on the cross. And not only were our sins forgiven, but we as sinners were crucified. And as we grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear Son, that we might rest and find Him more valuable than we are, our old man. So we thank you, Father, and we pray in your Son's name. Amen.