Welcome, Big Branch family and friends and visitors with us this morning. It is my great privilege to bring the Word to you this morning, and my prayer is that it comes to bear in your life. And we have been in a series through the Book of Romans We're going to cover the entire book and what an incredible book that it is, the book of Romans. I hope that you'll avail yourself to it, not just during our Sunday morning gatherings, but that you will take the time yourself to read the series, read it yourself, how many of you are actually doing that, you will greatly benefit your, how might I say it, the entire Christian life, I think Paul, there's no stone unturned in the book of Romans and we get the picture of who God is who we are and now what and this morning we're picking up last week we were in chapter 5 verses 1 through 11 we're gonna pick up in verses 12 through 21 this morning and I am going to read the entirety of Romans chapter 5 verses 12 to 21 that'll conclude the chapter And then we'll see what God has to say to us this morning. This is the word of the Lord, starting in verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. About to lose my place here. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Verse 18, therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification for all men. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased Grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And my prayer is that God adds a blessing to the reading of his word this morning. And I realize that that was a big package that I just dropped in your lap. There is no way that we could, this morning, during this hour even begin to do justice to what we just heard. But I want to summarize it in this way, and this is a paraphrase of something that not just one man, but many men have said. I can only track it back to a guy, a gentleman named Johann Gerhard. He was an Anglican pastor in the 18th century, I think it was, and this is my paraphrase of what he said. as far as this passage is concerned. In Christ, the Son of God, we gain far more than we ever lost in Adam, the first man. In Christ, we have gained far more than we have ever lost in Adam. And so, that is the heartbeat of what Paul was getting at just now. Notice, he just continually builds his case The free gift is not like the trespass. The free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. He's saying, it's far better. There's no comparison. And yet he needs to reach all the way back so that you and I today even might understand as this audience in his day, this Jewish audience would understand as many of them did. how far they had come and what sense can be made of the necessity of Jesus Christ crucified on a cross, what demanded that event? And what this morning, as you come on a Sunday morning, when you could be doing many other things this morning, you're here, why is this worth your time? And I'll ask this question as we set the stage. What story gives shape to your life? What story, because we all have a dominant story that really kind of drives what we do, how we think, how we measure a successful life, a life not wasted, Is it the story that you were handed by your parents? Is it a financial story that drives you when you get out of bed in the morning? What makes you tick? Is it being a man of integrity? Is it hard work ethic, maybe? Is it achieving the dream of self-discovery? Because I know that all of us, we want to know How am I wired? What is my gifting? What do I have to offer this world? Can I find my niche where I feel like, you know what, this is where I'm supposed to be and this is what I'm supposed to be doing. That's a good place to be, isn't it? Is it beating addiction and staying clean? Is that the story? that forms your life. It's undeniable we all have stories that shape who we are, what we do, how we think, what we value. And we're all really attempting to gauge how we're doing, how we're meeting our own expectations At minimum, we're trying to figure out, I don't care who you are or even what age or what baggage you brought with you this morning when you came in the room, we're at minimum trying to cope with the heartache, the loss, the difficulty that is being a human. In a world of passing pleasure, that really leaves much to be desired, does it not? There are many good things to be enjoyed in this life, but if this is it, man, what a rotten deal. One of the things I love about the Bible is its honest appraisal of the human experience. I tell teenagers all the time, this is the most honest book ever written. You wanna know why? Because it's not primarily written by men. So the confrontation of question or the glaring question that confronts us from our passage, from our text this morning is, will you leave or will you take? Take it or leave it. God's account of the story of our existence as he tells it because it is a tale of two Adams. Did you see that this morning as we read it? The story of our existence, the story, the true story contained in this book. Romans chapter five verses 12 through 21 really simplifies, and I love that, that this Bible really is a tale of two Adams, two men. And we are either swallowed up in one or the other. Our story is either the first man or the final man, the better man. So let me summarize and then dial in on a few observations that I see that I think the implications matter for our people this morning and for me. So Paul tells us that God chose the first man to represent all mankind. That's what we just heard. God chose for one man to represent us all. So as he rises, so we rise. If he falls, yeah, you know the story. So do we. The first man disobeyed God. Yeah? The first man obeyed God. Are you tracking with me? Disobeyed. And in him, in the first man, we too disobeyed. But the story doesn't end there, right? God does not abandon his people. He could have just, I'm done. You blew it. I was good in giving you every opportunity. The injustice is not on my part. I gave you everything. And what did you do with it? You dishonored me. Instead, God, in his love, in his tenderness, in his kindness, in his mercy, he initiates grace. He makes a move. Because what are the first man and woman doing? Running and hiding. And we've all been doing it ever since. You've got to spin the story somehow of why you do the things you do and why you think the way you think. Here's the story. Here's setting the record straight. God does not abandon his people. Instead, he pursues them. And in His grace, it culminates in the person and the work of His Son, Jesus Christ, who brings justification, as we heard last week, to those who believe, those who, left to themselves, are otherwise condemned. Amen? He says, as bad as the consequence of sin, Paul says, as we're united to Adam, before it unleashes physical death and spiritual death, as God said it would, far greater is the life that we receive as we are in union with Jesus Christ by faith, not by our own works, not by our own bootstraps. He then, because his audience has, the law is the water they swim in. They know the law. They have such great respect for the law. It is what they know. He goes there. What about the law? Paul says, it's like a ledger. The law is like a ledger in the three times holy accountant's hands. Holy, holy, holy. The law is in God's hands as an accountant who keeps records. And so it's not that sin comes in after the law. No, we know better. It was already in the picture before the law comes as it's received on Mount Sinai by Moses, given to Moses. But the law is record keeping. And for those who have the law, there's greater accountability. Just like for you, who have parents, who have told you better, and you know better, and yet you don't care that you know better. There's more accountability, there's greater responsibility when you violate an explicit command, yeah? The law, Paul says, is given to heighten Human awareness of sin. It's to make sin all the more obvious to us. But what do we do with it? We endeavor on a self-improvement project. And that's what happened then and that's what's happening now. And he'll get more specific later in the letter. We're not going to go there today. In chapter 6, he's going to start detailing what do we make of the law. what what is it what's the deal with the law now that we are in Christ how are we to think about it I'm gonna make a few points this morning starting with this one number one the elephant in every room is death the elephant in every room is death you know when we use that figure of speech it's the one thing that everybody knows but nobody wants to talk about We were here yesterday and it was beautiful, the showing here at Big Branch Church for Sheila Pemberton's family. It was a beautiful thing that took place here. And she's home. But do you notice how we soften death? We'll call it passing. No one wants to say, she died. Because we don't want to go there, right? But we must. How many ways do we try to escape the inevitable reality that in this life, we will one day be but a memory? Our hope is to leave a legacy, is it not? If you're not convinced that we're all born sinners, as we read in verse 12, therefore, just as sin came into the world and through one man and through sin, death spread to all men, you are forced, as I said earlier, to spin a different story that has room for death. Because you can't deny it. You can't get away from it. Many commentaries that I read and consulted this week in my studies noted the heart-wrenching reality of infant death. Some of you know that in this room. So I can't just say that, just kind of gloss over it. But why do children in infancy die? The child is not being punished for his or her own sin. Yeah, right? But for another. So you and I have got to come up with something to make sense of that. Here it is. God says his name is Adam. That's a hard pill to swallow. And yet, I cannot find a more compelling, a more competing or consistent story than that of the one true God coming to us in Jesus Christ, taking on human flesh, and bringing resolution to our deepest dilemma. For we know that the last enemy to be defeated is death, yeah? The other issues that we deal with, everyday problems that we deal with, getting out of bed in the morning, those of guilt, those of shame, those of loneliness, those of addiction, those of evil, those of abandonment, those of abuse, those of fear, those of anxiety, those of restlessness, the desire to be known, to be loved for who you are, not the act that you put on, security, peace, comfort, fulfillment, contentment. And then it always comes back to death because you can get some of those things and then you die. Is that the end or is that the beginning? Genesis 5, you go all the way back to the beginning and you read in Genesis 5, This is the book of the generations of Adam. And if you read in Genesis 5, you know what happens? Adam gives birth. Not Adam, his wife. But he fathers Seth. He fathers another child, and he fathers another child, and another child, and they father children. And what's the record? And he died. And he died. So-and-so lived these many years, and he died. The next man lived, and he died. And ever since, the obituaries, she died, he died. And then, it's only fitting and appropriate that we get to the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, and the first line says, this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Why? Because someone must deliver from death. And we have an entire record of people who cannot do it. You can't do it. You cannot deliver yourself from death, and you can't spare anyone else that you love from death. You cannot add one moment to your existence. Have you come to grips with the fact that you have an expiration date? Like sour milk. It only makes sense that we look to someone who can do what we, if we'll look hard enough, cannot do ourselves. So my question is, how do you sleep at night? How do you sleep at night? Just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. How do you silence that ongoing reminder that you have your days numbered. Are you standing one leg as I hope you are here and in the heavens where Christ is seated with this kind of like just holy discontentment, you know, that this is not home, there's something to come? What is of most value in your eyes right now in the little bit of time that you have that God calls a vapor? Have you checked the latest statistic You can fact check me. Ten out of ten people die. Fact check. I'm confident. So the elephant in every room is death. Number two, it's not fair. It's not fair. Why do you and I take the blame for something that we didn't do? you're paying attention at some point you're gonna have to ask that question have you have you been honest enough to go what gives I wasn't there I went in that garden I've done a whole lot better than he would have here's one answer the testimony of Scripture reveals that we can rest assured and you're gonna love this There is not a single shred of evidence of fraud in the election that took place in the beginning of man. What do I mean by that? For God himself chose our representative. And there is no one more qualified to choose the man that perfectly represents you and me. That's what we're confronted with here in the text. No taxation without representation won't work here. How dare God charge me with something that I did not do? I don't have a representative. Yeah, you do. Adam is it. That is what Paul is putting forth here. For Adam to be in the garden is for Michael to be there. first I don't like that you don't you don't either if you're paying any attention it's for you to be there it's for you to be there for you to be there for you to be there for you to be there and I know that's hard to get your head around there's a principle it's new to me I didn't I mean I get it but I didn't know it had a name it's called the principle of corporate solidarity what does that mean That's why I'm here. You get it. You get it. It's where one person represents the many. You get that? Let me give you an example. This is a consistent theme in Hebrew culture. Thank Abraham and his offspring, right? Thank Israel, a man, and then a nation bearing his name. Let's put that aside for a second. Think about when we were kids and coach said, this team is as strong as its weakest link. Think one man, because Johnny over here, not this one, is goofing off. We're all running laps. You know what I'm talking about, right? I think our nation's military is another example. It only takes one traitor. Yeah? It only takes one traitor to bring us all down. And if you blow it, all of you are doing push-ups. And so it goes with Adam, and so it goes with us. Answer number two, to the objection. That's not fair! Because we object, and Paul is ready for that. He's ready for the objections that we all have. If you object to injustice on God's part, for our human representative, a man named Adam, and as we learned in weeks previous, the imputation of sin that he places upon us, then you saw off the limb that you depend on. One of my favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. Do you know what it says? For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If God does not elect that Adam represent you and I, then he cannot credit what Jesus has done to your account and mine. Can I be any more plain? What I'm saying is if you won't take, if you won't have the blame for what Adam did, you cannot take the blame for what Jesus did. And there goes the good news. There's no good news this morning. The amazing wisdom of God. Isn't it just incredible? Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21, he who knew no sin obviously was suffering the sin of someone else. That in him we might become the righteousness of God, that's a hollow promise. If, in fact, I'm not a sinner as a person before I actually sin, I can't boast in Christ as my substitute. If I, all day long, am arguing against God, it's not fair. It is not fair what Jesus Christ endured for my sin. It is not fair. There was only one innocent man who has suffered, and he's not you and he's not me. Here's a bonus. Number three, answer to your objection and mine. Don't pretend. You've got enough sin this past week that you don't have to stay up at night worrying about Adam's sin. Right? Right? I mean, you don't have a whole lot to cling to to get upset about. We all have an in Adam account, but we've also heaped sin on top of that original sin. Not because he made you do it, but because you wanted to. And you can't say, the devil made me do it either. You can't. You choose sin because you want to. And so I ask this question, is God competent or isn't he? Is God competent? Are you at peace with God's ways being not your ways and God's thoughts being not your thoughts? We went with the children, our kids, a couple weeks ago to the Clay Center in Charleston. There's a planetarium. If any of you have ever been to a planetarium, you know what that is. You sit back in a seat and the whole theater is rounded and you go in outer space. And we're sitting there and the video starts and we're literally in Charleston. Like, it starts out, like, out on the street corner and you see Charleston, one of the avenues and the signs. It takes you up, and you go through the atmosphere, and then you get into outer space, and you see the Earth, and you see the sun, and you see all the planets, and then it zooms you way out, and you see our galaxy, the Milky Way. And then it zooms out even further, and then you see that there, I think they say that there's estimated like three trillion galaxies, right, in addition to ours. How could they know? Three trillion. And if God can just speak the language of galaxies in the creation, just think about that with me for a moment. In the beginning, God says in galaxy form, is he not competent to elect one man to represent you and me? And that our accusations of God that's not fair further prove his point. that we too are sinners. Number three, as I, this is my last point. If this be true, if any of this be true, what we see in our text this morning, our greatest problem is one of identity before it's ever activity. Okay, and I think you have heard this from me before. Here we are informed that for us to sin, unlike Adam, he was in a state of innocence, yes? And he chooses sin. We are first in a state of sin. We are sinners before we ever commit the first sin. And the entire scope of scripture actually gives us an account to make that really clear. Verse 14 says, Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one to come. Adam was a type of the one to come. Don't miss that. You and I and anyone you rub shoulders with or love or maybe even hate, how dare you, has an in Adam problem that demands an in Christ solution. Are you tracking with me? You have an in-Adam identity problem. You have an identity crisis. That's not just a midlife thing. You have a crisis of identity, and we all know it, and we all see it, but we don't know what to do with it. And here, we find that Adam is a type of one to come. We know his name. You've heard it all morning long. And we listen to, with our kids, to Jesus music in the car. And there's an album that we listen to. A guy, hip-hop artist named Shy Lynn, and he has a song, it's called Only Jesus, and I love it. You know what he says? Adam wasn't good enough, Noah wasn't good enough, Abraham wasn't good enough, it's only Jesus. Isaac wasn't good enough, Jacob wasn't good enough, Joseph wasn't good enough, it's only Jesus. Moses wasn't good enough, Joshua wasn't good enough, Samuel wasn't good enough, it's only Jesus. David wasn't good enough. Daniel wasn't good enough. Jonah wasn't good enough. It's only Jesus. And the entire Bible shouts that message. So if all these guys and all the gals too were not good enough, what makes you think you are? What makes you think you are? Get over yourself. That's the best thing you could do. That's the best advice I could give any of us. Get over yourself. You're not as good as you think you are, and you're far worse than you ever imagined. How's that for a pick-me-up? Do you read your Bible with an understanding of the fact that Christ is the key? He's the ultimate point of the entire passage that we read this morning and every other one before it and after it, or even in the preaching that you listen to. If we don't come to the conclusion that Jesus is absolutely necessary, and not only that, but he's absolutely enough, he is sufficient. We aren't reading our Bibles even the way Jesus did. and we aren't preaching Christian sermons either if I give you a bunch of stuff to do to be better without connecting it and it depending on a life of one man lived 33 years crucified for sins that were not his own and the only man who said the grave can't hold me I'm walking out And as we sing the song, we know that we are walking out with him, aren't we? If we're united to him, if our in Adam problem has been solved by being tied to Christ by faith, trust him, lay it all at his feet. I want you to take heart. I want you to take heart this morning as I get ready to send you out. It does not take a PhD to understand that this book is about a person. These pages are about a person. This is not a manual for your, as I said earlier, self-improvement project. I know it's cute. B-I-B-L-E. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. But do you see how subtle it is that we have taken the Bible And we've made it a tool to make a Michael 2.0. I don't need a Michael 2.0 and neither do you. For in Colossians, Paul says, in Christ you have died. Because if you don't die, then you can't be raised in newness of life. And that's what you need. You don't need a do-over. And that's where Paul leaves us. He says in verses 18 through 21, he kind of leaves us with a call to worship. It's like you just can't help but say, God, look at what you've done. Justification by faith in Christ surpasses condemnation. Sin brought condemnation and death, which is physical. You die. Adam didn't die immediately, but he started aging, didn't he? And we all know that experience. I felt it this morning back in here getting out of bed. But justification surpasses the condemnation that we inherited in Christ. Because we read in verse 21, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life. eternal life so it is not a do-over it is not that Jesus Christ comes to take you and I back to the garden and do you know how subtle that is that that's the misconception in our day and age in many of our churches even maybe this one for some of us we think that we sign up for Jesus Jesus becomes our coach. Jesus becomes someone to make much of me when that is exactly the opposite of what God has come to do. You are merely a vessel to showcase the mercy and grace of God. For God alone has totally exposed who you are and has loved you despite who you are. And we, people of God, the church of Jesus Christ, are called to do the same thing in this church and outside these walls. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Would you stand with me? I want you to remember that you are influenced more than you realize by a dominant story. Is this story the one that we heard this morning? It's this simple. You are either in Adam or you are in Christ. Those of us in Christ this morning are fully redeemed in the sight of God. And yet we wrestle with this remaining sin, this remaining in Adam that we can't seem to shake, that we wrestle, we fight, we wage war with sin. And our hope, if you're in Christ, is the same as saints as it is for sinners. Our hope is the gospel. Christians need the gospel too. How dare you and I think that the gospel is only to get you in the door. And then the rest of it is up to you. God forbid, may he humble us this morning as we pray and you join me. Father, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how it is deep enough for elephants to swim and shallow enough for kids to play in. I love that. We can all understand what we heard this morning. And my prayer is that we again run to Jesus. My prayer is that we are not deceived. God, as I look at this crowd of people that I love, some of them that I don't know very well, my prayer, my thoughts about it are that we can easily think that we are out of the reach of the grace of Christ or we refuse to even believe that we need it because we don't buy the reality that we too failed with our first parent Adam and if that doesn't matter then none of the rest does so God I pray for our people here God that you work in us as only you can that you would humble us that rather than point fingers at people for sinning and being shocked by it we would see that we're capable of the same and that we would grieve and that we would pray for people and we would seek to restore our people knowing that we can be right there with them God help us We want to be your body, as you said we are.