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Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!
I'm going to ask you to turn in your Bibles again tonight to Genesis 3, to the continuing story of Adam's place. Genesis 3, a little humor there, verse 8. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Round and round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. And thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. The immediate reaction of the sin of Adam was that he saw. First of all, he saw a consciousness of sin. He saw an awareness of evil. No, God never intended that man would sin. He never intended that man would commit evil. He never intended that he would even have a knowledge and awareness of the fact that evil existed in the world. Someone said to me this morning, preacher, why didn't God kill the devil? I don't know, unless it be that God allowed Satan to tempt man, that man might learn the joy of serving God of desire and not of constraint. But I do know this. The Bible does not basically spend its time suggesting to us that we fight evil. He does not kill the snakes. He raises the serpent in the wilderness. He does not kill the communists. He raises up the Americans. He does not kill Hitler. He exalts the Western Empire. He does not kill disease. He raises up vaccines. He does not kill Satan. He raises up his son on the cross. God, for reasons not only to himself, does not basically fight evil, but spends his time, and well ought we do the same, primarily raising the standard, the solution, in the midst of the pollution. This man and this woman became conscious of sin, but God never intended it so. The song says, are the stars out tonight? I don't know if it's cloudy or bright. I only have eyes for you. God intended that man only have eyes for himself. The first thing that happened when man sinned was that he inherited an awareness of evil. Secondly, he learned the folly of provoking God. Now I raise the question, why did he go and hide? Who told him to go and hide? No one. But his immediate reaction was to hide from the presence of God. In his own consciousness, there was born something that has existed throughout all of the ages of ages that is inherent and intrinsic in human personality, a knowledge of right and wrong. The Bible says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. When men sin, they run from God. When they want to be free from sin, they run to God. You know, sometimes at weddings, I'm really amazed. You learn a lot about folks at their weddings. Sometimes you see them on Sunday, and you get an image of what kind of people they are. One of the best revelations of what a person is really like is when you see those people in their bridal party, their best friends, and you learn who their intimate friends are, what their kind is, and what their type is. And many times, it is a very startling revelation. Then many times, it's amazing to hear the songs that are sung at weddings. Frankly, I don't want them to sing Roll Out the Barrel when I get married. Well, I'm already married, actually. What I mean is, would I be in more trouble if I tried to get out of this? I probably would, wouldn't I? Okay. Let's forget the whole thing. If I, oh well, how to get out of this? I like religious songs at weddings. Amen? Amen. All right. That's what I'm trying to say. There's a song they sing at weddings sometimes that is very religious sounding, whose theology I really do not like. It goes, he. You ever hear that song? Though it makes him sad, because, now here's the punch, to see the way we live, he'll always say, I forgive. And we get a kind of a soft -pedaling picture of God on sin. You see, God is kind of painted as a cross -section between Emily Post and the good old man upstairs. And it makes him sad. He doesn't like to see our immoralities and our lying and our stealing his tithe and desecrating his day and blaspheming his name. He doesn't like that, but he just sort of strokes his chin whiskers as though to say, well, boys will be boys, and men will be men. Ha, ha, that's all right. Just go on. Now, the Bible says God is a compassionate God in Christ. But apart from the shed blood of Christ, the Bible says he is a flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not the Lord. Adam found out something about the seriousness of sin. It's not to be fooled with. It's not to be taken lightly. Young people ought not to see how close they can get to sin. Not how close you can come to the precipice of temptation and then say to Satan, go ahead and push and see how close you can come. The wise man, the wise woman, will stay away from sin. The Bible tells us that they learned something of the evil and the folly of provoking God. Then they learned the awfulness of the favor of God forfeited. They lost their fellowship. They lost their joy. They lost their clothing that was the glory of God. Some years ago, a physician stood before his class. He was teaching as he was doing the surgery. The little microphone beneath the mask recorded every word to the waiting gallery. As he was speaking, he said, now if this man would have come to me two years ago, I would have given him a simple diet and he would have probably been all right. If he would have come as much as six months ago, minor surgery would have saved his life. He said, today, however, he's waited too long. I'm going to perform this operation, but there's little chance that it will do any good. They learned something of the progressive nature of sin. Secondly, not only did they see some things, as soon as they sinned, they saw some things they hadn't seen, but the Bible says that God saw some things too. God saw them. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord are constantly upon the workers of wickedness. The Bible says, be not deceived, God is not locked. God's eyes were penetrating through the Garden of Eden. Young person, God's eyes see through the top of that automobile. God's eyes see in the secret. God's eyes see in the darkness, as well as they see in the daylight. God saw what was going on. Now the Bible says that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the evening. I heard some time ago one of the most ridiculous debates, kind of like the difference between Tweedledee and Tweedledum over whether it was the voice of God walking in the evening, in the cool of the evening, and they were taking a ridiculous assumption that this proved the folly of inspiration because a voice could not walk. And they were arguing whether it was the voice of God walking in the evening or whether it was God walking in the evening. Well, the truth of the matter is that neither of the two were the case. God wasn't walking around. God was a steward. They heard the voice of the Lord in the cool of the evening as they were walking. They were doing the walking. God was doing the searching. God was doing the seeking. God came to them. Does this surprise you? It should not. Just as there are physical laws, so are there unchangeable, irrevocable, immutable laws. And one of them is that the wages of sin is death. When men sin, they can expect to be judged. God came to them. God always comes. Now, God came immediately. I want you to learn a very important lesson. They, the first creatures were just, had just been created, had just been made, they were the first children of God. It was not until men sinned that they became lost and had by faith in the death of the innocent for the guilty to become reinstated, justified, adopted into the children of God. But they were the only two who, by inheritance, were originally born as children of God. That's why God came to him immediately. Because God comes to his own children. The Bible is always raising the question of why the righteous prosper. And the answer is very, very simple. The unrighteous prosper because the Bible says, God storeth up his judgment. He reserves his wrath against the day of judgment. You see, we may know that we are Christians. We may know that we are children of God by the fact that when we sin, God judges us immediately. He comes to us immediately. And Hebrews says, if you are without chastisement, if you are without rebuke, then are you illegitimate and not sons at all. For whom he receiveth, he chastiseth. And he scourgeth every son whom he receives. So if you are without chastisement, you may just go on and become rich and wealthy and happy. You may sin and live like the devil and get away with it. But the Bible says that God is keeping score. God stores up his wrath. You see, God deals with the Christian on a cash basis. When you and I sin, we may expect to be judged. If we are not, then we're not sons of God. But when you are not a Christian, you can get away with it. God just lets the interest compound. Your day is coming later. He deals with the unsaved on a credit basis. He deals with the Christian in immediate judgment on a cash basis. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. I correct my son. I don't correct Frank's children. And he doesn't correct mine. They're not our responsibilities. But as God's children, we correct our own. Some time ago, a Christian farmer had his farm right next door to an atheist farmer. The atheist farm was prospering. He was doing well. The Christian always closed up and wouldn't work on Sundays. His crops were not doing as well. The atheist leaned over the fence one day and said, Christian, I want to ask you a question. Why is it that I am prosperous and I don't believe in God? My crops do well while yours do poorly and you claim to be a Christian? What kind of justice is that? The Christian farmer said, my friend, God doesn't always pay on Saturday night. The mills of God grind exceeding slow, but they grind exceeding fine. God is not mocked. Be sure your sin will find you out. For whatsoever a man saweth, that shall he also reap. They saw some things they didn't know, but God saw as well. The last word is this. God not only saw, he acted. He came to them and asked for an accounting. He said, Adam, where art thou? Now, Adam, God knew where he was. I don't believe he was asking where he was located physically. What was the exact physical location of his anatomy? He was saying, Adam, where are you now? Now what has sin done for you? What to what extent has your rebellion taken you? Now where do you stand? Now where do you stand? God asks for an accounting. He always does. I didn't know where Adam was. He was up a creek without a paddle is where he was. He was in trouble. He was without the presence of God. He was without the covering of God. He was without clothing. He was without food. In every area of his life, in attempting to live, he had fallen and died. And another thing, he was without excuse. I think I've heard some silly excuses. But I want you to look. Lord, this woman thou gavest me. He starts by blaming, not the woman. He starts by blaming God. Lord, the woman you gave me. You gave her to me, Lord. It's all your fault. And he starts by passing the buck. Hugh Hefner was not the first playboy. Adam was. I want you to follow the philosophy. There is a philosophy of modern playboyism that follows thusly. That that is natural is of God. That that is of God is therefore good. That that is good ought to be expressed. Sounds good. One problem. Tain't so. Marijuana is given from God. But that does not mean it is to be abused. The hops are made to grow from God. But that doesn't mean it's to be abused. Sex is a gift of God. But that doesn't mean it's to be abused. A gun can be a gift of God to defend your family. But that doesn't mean it's to be abused. I agree there are no sinful drives. There are no sinful emotions. There are sinful uses of those emotions. There are sinful uses of those drives. The Bible says Christ was tempted in all points, like as are we. Jesus experienced every drive, every motive, every problem that I as a person have. But he never sinned. He never used them wrongly. He never hooked up the wild horses of human nature to physical things. As a spiritual being, he found spiritual fulfillment in the kingdom of God. Adam was without excuse. He tried to blame God and said, you made me like this, you gave me the woman, it's your fault. Then he tries to blame Eve. Lord, this woman that thou gavest me, this woman, she did it, it's her fault. So he turns to Eve and Eve says, no, no, not me, I didn't do it. And they all start to pass the buck, the serpent. He beguiled me and I did sin. He was without excuse. God didn't accept his excuse. But I notice another thing, he was not without judgment. The Bible says that the very earth, the very world on which Adam was created, the very terra firma on which he dwelt was cursed. The Bible said, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In the sweat of thy brow and the dust of the earth shalt thou earn thy bread. Before paradise was lost, the trees used to, the apples used to drop off the trees. Now he had to work to pick them. Now Satan, now the serpent was cursed and had to crawl in the dust of the earth. Now thorns were on the roses. Now thistles grew among the flowers. The ground was cursed. The woman was cursed. She became subservient to the husband as the head of the home. It was in the valley of the sorrow of death, the shadow of death, that she was to go down in sorrow and pain in the beautiful experience of childbirth. Woman was cursed. Woman was cursed. Man was cursed. The serpent was cursed. The earth was cursed. One last wonderful word is this, he was without excuse, he was without clothing, but he was not without judgment and he was not without foreshadow. For once again, we see the cross in the book of Genesis. I want you to turn with me, if you will, please, down in verse number 21. Verse 21. Verse 21. And Adam, unto Adam also, unto his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothe them. The first mention of the fact that it is by the shedding of blood, the death of the innocent for the guilty, that the sin, that condition that resulted in Adam's being, by which he was separated from God, when God removed himself, when sin distanced God from his being, left him alone and naked, this condition of lostness, of spiritual death, of separation from God and man was to be solved and resolved by the matter of the death of the innocent for the guilty. A lamb was to be slain. God shed blood foreshadowing the coming of Jesus Christ. I want you to turn with me now quickly over to 1 Corinthians as we close. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse number 20. Now there are those who say that it is not fair, it is not fair that because Adam sinned, death came by sin. Ah, but we find a beautiful allegory in that it was also through the death of one other person that life entered the race, that life was given. Look, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now turn on down to verse 45. And so it is written, Now the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Now the last Adam is Christ. For you see, as Adam was the initiator of a physical race, so was Christ, the second Adam, the initiator of a spiritual race by which men could be born into the family of God spiritually as through the original Adam they were born into the physical family of the human race. And he is saying to us that it is a justifiable fact that man is all sinful because of one man's sin because it is also through one man's death that all can be saved from sin. And so as Adam stands at the federal head of the race, so Christ, the second Adam, stands at the federal head of the spiritual race. So it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam, Christ, a living, a quickening, a life -giving, life -imparting spirit. Howbeit, that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward, that which is spiritual. The first man, Adam, is of the earth, earthy. The second man, Christ, you see, is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, thank God we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We shall be like him, conformed to the image of his dear Son. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then death shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? I said to you that sometimes I find some humor in the Bible. I think this is some. You know what I see here? I see the apostle just dancing around the grave of sin, death, hell, and the grave in mockery and saying, now because Christ was our second Adam, now because Christ lives, because he indwells us, now death, where is your sting? Now grave, where is your victory? He rendered that old roaring lion a gumless, impotent, toothless pussycat. He tore the sting out of death. He took the fight out of the devil. He tore the victory out of the grave through our champion, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he stands to mock sin, death, the devil, hell, and the grave because of the living resurrection of the second Adam who ever lives. Thank God to make intercession for the saints. Brother, that's wonderful. That ought to make you shout. That ought to make you shout. The sting of death is sin, and the sting of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory. Oh, I like that. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Crank that thing up and let's sing victory in Jesus. Can you do it, professor? Let's get ready to go. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. Tell him what key, Gerald? Unmovable. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Does that do anything for you? Boy, that does something for me. Was it in Adam that sin began? So in Christ we begin again. Was it through Adam that subjection was brought by sin? So it is in Christ that we are made under the law, under sin, beyond sin. Was it through Adam that the curse came by sin? So it is in Christ that he was made sin for us. Was it through the thorns, the thorns and the thistles that Adam brought sin? So it is by the thorns of the burial of Christ we are set free from sin. Was it in sweat that Adam paid for his sin? So it is in the foreshadow of the second Adam that by the great drops of blood and sweat that prospered from it, that, that, uh, that were from his, his brow that we are set free from sin. Oh, the analogy, Jesus Christ in the smitten rock. Jesus Christ in the wilderness. Jesus Christ in the manna from heaven. Jesus Christ in the lamb sled, uh, shed from the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ in Adam. The Bible is a book about Jesus. And he says, when you have Christ in your life, you need not go around fearing sin, death, hell, and the grave. Our second Adam has rendered it impotent, dead, and powerless. He has taken the teeth, the power, the death, the sting out of it and made us victorers and more than conquerors through him that loved us. Hallelujah. He is risen. To God be the glory. There is victory in our second Adam, Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Let's stand and sing the chorus of victory in Jesus. Come on, Baptists, sing it like you mean it. Together. In Jesus, my Savior forever, sought me and brought me through. So good to have you. We'd have to get our lives and join our church. We'll all have a word of prayer together, would you? We're going to sing one verse or two of that great song, I heard an old old song.