Way back in 1859, which is really not that long ago, a book was written by a man we all know his name, Charles Dickens. And the book began like this. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. I remember as a high school student having to read that and I really understood the it was the worst of times as I clawed my way through a book called The Tale of Two Cities. Well, today I'm not here to talk about Charles Dickens. I'm not here to talk about a tale of two cities, but I am here today to talk about a tale of two men, two men who were in this world and two men that will determine how each one of us will spend eternity. The first of these men was a man who, through his failure, all that is known as evil has entered into this world. The other man, through what he accomplished, it is through him that all that we know of as blessing enters into this world. The first man we call Adam. He was a man who, although maybe not created perfectly, although in a sense I believe he was, we know he was able to sin and able to not sin, was placed in that garden. At least we can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was created innocent. there in the garden. He was a man that in a sense was perfect. He was a man that was placed in a perfect environment. Everything, this beautiful garden was there. He had fulfilling work as he tended that garden. He didn't have to battle weeds and thorns and thistles the way those of us who make gardens have to battle those things. He was totally fulfilled in his work. So many things went well for him. We know that the Bible says every day God would come down in the cool of the day and walk with Him. Now you ask me, how did a spirit walk with Him? Well, I can't answer that. The Bible doesn't tell us that. We just know that in the cool of the day God came and He had fellowship with His creation who was named Adam. But yet in that perfect environment with everything just right, Adam sinned. And from this sin, all the troubles that we know entered into this world. But on the other hand, that second man, Jesus Christ, the righteous, he was yes, he was created in a sense perfectly the son of Mary, born of woman, born under the law, but born of a virgin, a special act of God work there. And he has been called in First Corinthians not the first Adam, but the last Adam. And here he was, a perfect man placed into a fallen environment. But what did he accomplish? He accomplished not bad things. He did not bring bad things in the world like Adam did, but he brought righteousness. Morton Lloyd-Jones, who preached in England for so many years, said this about those two men, Adam's sin and its consequences were passed on to us all without exception. And Christ's obedience and righteousness is passed on to all who believe in him. Our text today speaks of these two men. And if you haven't turned to the book of Romans yet, I would encourage you to do that right now as we're about to read verses 12 through verse 21 of Romans chapter five. because this speaks so much of these two men. And as we read, I would like for you to look to try to see what Adam brought to us, which we'll see is sin and judgment and death and what Christ brings to us, which is grace, righteousness and life. Romans chapter five, starting in verse 12. And I am reading from the English Standard Version if you want to follow along. Hear God's written word. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin, 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 who was 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. 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. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For 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. 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 also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Instead of just working through this passage verse by verse, I would like us to work through it looking at the two men. looking first at Adam, that man who brought sin, death, and judgment into the world. And then, after a time, we will look and begin to see what Christ did to overcome what the first Adam did in this world. So let's look and see, what did Adam bring into the world? And the first clue we get, we find in verse 12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, because of Adam, sin entered into the world. And in case we didn't get that point at least six times in this passage, Paul makes that point for us. We see it in verse 12. We see it in verse 15. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass and and he goes on from there again in verse 16. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. We see it in verse 17. If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, we see it again in verse 18. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, we see it again in verse 19. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Do you think Paul makes his point? I mean, he's very straightforward. He wants us to realize that sin came into this world through Adam. It was through his sin, and he uses different words here, his sin, his offense, his disobedience. All of these things came to us through Adam, through a man in a perfect environment. If you're like me and maybe from time to time you think, you know, If my life was a little more simple, or if everything was much better in my life, and my kids obeyed a little bit better, and my wife was a little bit more submissive, well, I really don't think that. All of these things were better in my life, then all would be well. But we look at Adam, a man where everything was perfect, and he sinned. He fell. And because he fell, all men, according to this text, have been affected. Now, I realize down through history, some people have argued with this fact back in the fourth century, there is a British monk whose name was Pelagius, and you may have heard of him. He was the enemy of Augustine. They fought to the death. Well, not literally to the death over the truth of God's grace and what it meant. Well, Pelagius said, you know, actually, Adam's death means absolutely nothing to us. It was just an example. We see that he died. Each one of us are like and you may have friends who think this way. Each child, when that child is born, is like a clean slate. Totally clean and whatever needs to be written on it will be written on it by that child. Well, that sounds good, especially in our day and age here in America in the 21st century. But in reality, that is not what the scriptures say. The scriptures say when a child is born, that child is born a sinner. In other words, we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we're sinners. And this is what has come to us through Adam. And we get a hint of that up in verse 13 and verse 14, which can be a little bit discombobulating if that's a word for us as we read this. For indeed, sin 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. Now, see, God's law tells us what is sin and what is not sin. But from the time of Adam's sin until God gave the law under Moses, people still died, even though the law hadn't been given. Now, we realize that God had placed the law in their heart. But the main reason why that that that judgment came upon them, that judgment of sin. Yes, it's their sin, but it was Adam's sin also. Adam's sin has been imputed to us. When Adam sinned, we sinned. That is why infants, sometimes as sad and tragic as it is, infants die because of sin that is in the world. Not their sin in particular, but Adam's sin. We call it original sin. So Pelagius missed the boat completely here. He says we are not affected by Adam's sin. But there are at least two other thoughts in terms of of how Adam's sin affects us. One is the thought of Augustine. It is called the Seminal View, and basically it says that Adam passed on to all of us physically his sin. Now, Augustine believed this because of what Hebrew 7.9 spoke of, and I'll just read it to you. It says, And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. And basically, all he's saying here is that this sin of Adam is passed down to us by a physical descent. And I guess that's possible. But I think the best view is the third view. And that is what we have called the federal view. Now, this is not federal vision. I'm not going there. OK, but this is the federal view of sin. The word federal in terms of government means a government that is representative. And in a sense, what we have to understand is that Adam in the garden represented us. He was our representative. And what happened to him was going to affect us. And when he sinned, we sinned because he's our representative. Now, in our day and age, what do you say when you hear that? Or what would your friend say? You wouldn't say this, right? You're theologically astute, you understand. But our friends would say, that's not fair, right? Why should we be judged because of another man's sin? But you need to be careful when you do that. Because how are we saved? We are saved by someone representing us. Christ the righteous, who went to the cross for us, took all of our sins upon himself so his righteousness could be placed to our account. So the federal view here is that we are all born as sinners because we sinned in Adam. And then as soon as we are old enough to sin on our own, we do because that is who we are by nature. The New England Primer was the book that for hundreds of years in America was used to teach children how to read. And they had taken the alphabet and for each letter of the alphabet, they put a little verse to go along with it. Well, under the letter A, this is what the New England Primer said. In Adam's fall, we sinned all. I think they hit it right. Because of Adam's sin, we are sinners. And I even believe, if you look at verse 12 closely, the tense itself will prove to us the federal view. It says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin. Now, that word for all sin, this particular tense of the Greek, that means it is something that took place at a point in time. It's not that all were sinning and that is what happened, but when Adam sinned, we sinned. So through Adam, sin entered into this world and entered into our lives. But that's not all that entered into the world because of Adam. Not only did sin entered into the world, but if we look at our text again, we'll see that death entered into the world. Death is not just a natural event. I hear people saying, well, I guess it is a natural event now, but originally death was not a natural event. There are those who would say that, well, you know, Adam. If he would have never sinned, would have eventually died just like us and life would have gone on. No, no, no. That's not what the Scripture teaches. The Scripture teaches that death entered into the world because of sin. It is very plain that the wages of sin is death. The book of Ezekiel tells us that the person who sins will die. And if we look at our text several places again, Paul drives us home again, again and again to us. In verse 12, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. Verse 15, but the free gift is not like the trespass for the many died through the one man's trespass. Verse 17, If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man. And last of all, in verse 21. So that has sin reigned in death. You see, death is a universal fact because of Adam's sin and eventually because of our own sin. There have only been two men in all of the thousands of years of history that have ever escaped death. And interestingly enough, or at least in English, they both begin with E. We could do a Bible trivia and I could ask you and you would probably name them. But one was Enoch way back in the book of Genesis. It said he walked with God and he was not because God took him. And we don't understand how all of that took place. We just know what the Bible says. And the other one. Any guesses who's the other one? Elijah, that's right. He and Elijah had gone out. And if you remember, as they walked along a chariot of fire, the Bible says came down scooped up Elijah and took him to heaven. And all that was left of Elijah, he dropped his mantle on the ground and Elisha picked it up, walked to the Jordan River, folded it up, smacked the water and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah? And if you remember, the water just parted and and he walked on across. These are the only two men or the only two people, you know, who have ever not died. Now, one day when Christ returns, those who are alive, when when he returns will not face this physical death. But other than that, every one of us are going to die because of Adam's sin and because of our sin. Back to our New England primer. When you get to X, this is a great way to learn to read X was Xerxes, and that is spelled with an X. Xerxes, the great did die. And so must you. And I, could you imagine that in first grade today? You know, all the parents freaking out. But it's true. Xerces the Great did die. And so must you and I. We are going to die. All of us. Now, we may be able to hold it off a little bit. You can eat all those nasty green vegetables and exercise and take vitamins and floss your teeth and do doctor checkups and all this stuff. But I tell you what, you can do all of that. And death is still going to come. And the difficult thing about this is it's not just a physical death that comes through what Adam did, but a spiritual death comes through what Adam did. It brings judgment. And that's the third thing that Adam brings to us. Again, look at verse 16. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin for the judgment following one trespass brought Condemnation. And again, in verse 18, we see it again. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation. Hebrews 9.27 tells us it's appointed unto man once to die and after that, the judgment. This word for condemnation in the Book of Romans means, of course, to condemn or to damn, to bring a judgment of guilty. against someone to bring an eternal judgment of guilty and an eternal punishment for that sin. Jesus spoke of it in John, chapter five. He he speaks that the day is going to come when all in the tombs, those who have died will hear his voice, Christ, and shall come forth. And those who did the good deeds to the resurrection of life and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. We see it in Matthew 12, 37, Jesus says, Then I say to you that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. That judgment is going to come. But I guess the clearest picture we see, we find in the book of Revelation. If you want to turn over there with me, Revelation chapter 20. We find these fearful words. for those who are in Adam. Revelation chapter 20, starting in verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it and from his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done, and the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Horrible words, words of judgment, words of condemnation that come because of sin that originally came from Adam. And then we ourselves began to sin the sin. And it's even worse than the picture we see here, because we're not talking about being cast into a lake of fire and being annihilated, just being burned up, although that is the newest theological rage out there. People talk about annihilationism, that those who do not know Christ are just basically snuffed out and cease to exist. But that is not what we find again in the scriptures. Jesus told us in Mark 9, 47, if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes and to be cast into hell. And then he says these these horrible words where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Yes, through Adam, sin came into the world and through Adam, death came into the world and through Adam, judgment came into the world. But gloriously, that's not the only man we're going to talk about today. If we just stopped here and went home, we would be, of all people, most miserable. But thankfully, there is another man talked about back in Romans, and he did not bring death and judgment and sin into the world, but he brought something else. Look at verse 15. 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 me. Those words of grace and gift so often come together in Scripture because, in a sense, they're inseparable. They're one in the same. If it's grace, It's a gift. If it's a gift, it's grace. It's not something that we earn. It's not something that is paid to us because we have worked hard and we've tried to clean up our life and we've done all these things. No, it is something that God, out of His good pleasure, pours out upon us. His grace is something that we do not deserve. That beautiful picture of what Christ did for us, the prophet Isaiah, prophesied, if you'd like to just listen, that's fine. If you'd rather turn with me in Isaiah 53. We get this beautiful picture of how this grace was poured out upon us, Isaiah 53, starting in verse four. In talking about Christ, it says, and surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem them stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, and we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." As we look at those words, and it goes on from there, there's much, much more. But notice, he bore our griefs, he carried our sorrows. We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace fell upon him. It is all something that he did for us. He gave us disgrace. Again, Paul is like a broken record as you read through the book of Romans again and again. He speaks of God's grace and in Romans 11, 6 he says, but if it's by grace, it's no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. What did God's grace give to us? His grace gave us righteousness. Remember, we could not be righteous. We're sinners. But God's grace through Christ has given us righteousness. Verse 17 says it so well. 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. And again in verse 19, For 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. You see, it is through God's grace that we may experience the righteousness of God. We don't earn it, but His righteousness is placed to our account. Martin Luther for years was terrified of the righteousness of God, because he looked upon the righteousness of God as something that condemned him. And I guess in a real sense, it does. His righteousness is so real and it's so holy that it condemns those. But then he began to see that it is through the righteousness of God and God's grace that he is made right with God. Romans 1, 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why? For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. You see, when our faith is placed in Jesus Christ, His righteousness is placed to our account. Our union with Adam, with that first man has now been changed and we have a union with Christ through faith in Him. And because of our union with Him, we have been declared righteous in God's sight. In other words, we are not saved by what we do, but we are saved by what Christ did. You remember ten years or so ago, I guess it's been, W.W.J.D. was the rage. I mean, there were W.W.J.D. bracelets and W.W.J.D. baseball caps and W.W.J.D. afghans. You know, what would Jesus do? That was the big question. And I kind of shook my head sometimes. I understood what they were saying, but in a sense, it's a wrong question. It's not W.W.J.D. It should be W.D.J.D. Not what would Jesus do, but what did Jesus do? You see, that's what matters. It's what Christ did when he came to this world. The Bible says he was born of woman. He was born under the law and he kept that law perfectly. Let me say something and I want you to listen to the very end. Don't get mad halfway through and stop listening and leave mad at me. There is one sense in which we are saved by works. The deal is, it's not our works that save us. It's the works of Jesus Christ. By His grace, His works are placed to our account. And what did His righteousness provide for us? Look at verse 20. came in to increase the trespass, but when sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness." Look what he says, "...righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." See, that's what Christ has done for us. He kept God's law and it is through his righteousness that we may experience eternal life, not eternal life in terms of a physical life here on this earth forever and ever. For some people, that would be a horrible thing. But it is an eternal life with a new body, an eternal life with a glorified body and soul so that we may never, ever sin again, that we may be right with God and worship him forever and serve him forever in all of his glory. I love the way Paul said it in First Corinthians 14. But when this perishable, talking about our physical bodies, but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put on immortality, Then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Christ has done for us. Adam's sin brought judgment and death. Righteousness and his grace brought righteousness and eternal life. And how did it happen? Titus says it so beautifully, not by the works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to your mercy, you saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's what the last Adam did for us. He made it possible for us to be righteous. And even more than that, He didn't just make it possible for us to be righteous, but through what Christ did, He made us righteous. First, He declares us righteous when we are justified, and then He doesn't leave us there, but He makes us righteous through sanctification. And then one day when we die or Christ returns and we go to be with Him, Then we will be made totally and completely righteous when we are glorified through him. And it is all done by his grace and for his glory. That's what Christ has done for us. I was sometimes accosted, I guess you could say, by some of my Baptist friends for not giving come down the aisle invitations when I preached. And I always tried to explain to them, you don't understand. I invite people to Christ all through the message that I preach. That is what my life is about, inviting people to Christ. And today, as we look at what Paul has said in the book of Romans, for those of us who are Christians, it gives us something to rest in. And as we battle the sin in everyday life, still we rest in His grace. But for those who do not know Christ, there is an invitation here. What does Paul say? That whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now I realize, until God, and unless God's Holy Spirit quickens our hearts, we will never do that. But if you're here today and you have a desire to call upon the name of the Lord, and to look to Him in faith, then that is good evidence that God's Holy Spirit is working in your heart. So my message to you today, to all of us, is to look to Christ. Don't look to what you can do. Don't look at cleaning up your own life. That will take place later. That is the work of sanctification, not justification. But today, look to Christ as your only answer. Look to Christ as your only hope. Look to the last Adam, the one who has brought grace and righteousness and life. to your life. Let's pray together, please. Our Father in heaven, your word is true. Men, preachers in particular, are so human, and there are times when we struggle to open up your truth to be understood. But Lord, we thank you that you promised us that your word would never, ever return void, but that it would always accomplish the purpose to which you have sent it forth. And today, Lord, we pray that that would take place, that for those who need to be called to repentance, that they will hear your call to them. And we'd ask that your Holy Spirit would change hearts to make them alive that they might repent and believe and be converted and be changed and be united to the last Adam. Lord, for those of us who are Christians who struggle and get down and just beat ourselves up constantly, Lord, I would pray today that you would send forth encouragement in your Word. that they would know that through Christ that they are accepted in Your sight and that You are working in their life to make them holy. Not just declared righteous, but to be made holy. And Lord, may all of this give us a desire to truly grow in Your grace. To desire to be a part of Your church. To hear Your Word preached. To sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. To hear the Word read. proclaim, to give, to praise, to honor, to give thanksgiving to You. Lord, may we leave this place with our thoughts on You and what You have done for us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You for the last Adam who came to earth on our behalf. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.