Let's look here at 1 Corinthians 15, 22. Paul said this, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. We've been discussing the third chapter of Genesis now for about six weeks. And tonight I want to wrap it up with a message that I call, The Fall in Human History. Darwinian evolutionary theory, which is the common thought of the world you live in, it's taught to your children and grandchildren in school every day as a fact, even though it's not a fact, it's not even close to a fact, and the documentation behind it is about as faulty as the U.S. economy. But Darwinian theory denies not only creation, But it also denies the fall. In fact, one of the primary rationales behind Darwin's thinking was that man can never be the perfect animal that I envision him being if there was such a thing as the fall. It views depravity as nothing more than a temporary imperfection and a minor limitation which will be overcome as humanity evolves toward what he anticipates as its ultimate perfection. But when we deny the fall, it sets aside the imperative need of a new birth and a new spirit, and it leaves man's destiny entirely in the hands of educators and philosophers of culture who would edify his character and would expand the scope of his skill development. On the other hand, if the Bible is true, and I confess to you that I believe it to be true, then mankind is in a desperate need not only of regeneration. As God breathed into the dust of the earth the breath of life and made man a living soul, so the scriptures teach us that men and women who are dead in trespasses and sin need to again be breathed upon by the Holy Spirit of God if they are ever to have spiritual life. But he also needs justification. He needs to not only be forgiven, but he needs to be made innocent in order to be accepted before a thrice holy God. And that acceptance can only come through a perfect substitute. And man can never be his own substitute. So tonight I want to look at just two or three things to help bring this into focus. Let me say first of all, that the fall and the recorded history of humanity does nothing but validate what's taught to us in Genesis chapter 3. There's not a thing in history that would discredit that. The teachings of human iniquity as experienced by historians should verify what goes on in Genesis chapter 3. The recorded history of mankind's sordid and ungodly conduct is a constant portrait of putrid conduct, not only towards other people, but towards oneself. Someone wrote about man's inhumanity to man. I'll be honest with you, maybe more so than any time in my lifetime, I am conscious of the fact of just what evil, wicked beings we are. It seems as if every day on the news there's some news of people who beat their children to death or throw them in a dumpster or lock them up in a closet or a fella gets mad at his wife and pours gasoline on her and sets her on fire. She burnt the biscuits so he decided to burn her. You know an animal, just a poor dumb animal, will not abandon its young as many humans do today. Maybe you've never experienced this, but I have and I think about it a lot. It seems to me every time I go in a restaurant I see somebody my age taking care of a baby with its mother and daddy or mother or daddy nowhere to be seen. My generation of people and your generation of people, we're all raising our grandchildren. My question is, where are their mothers? Now, most of them don't know who their daddy is, and that's just a fact. That's not being slanderous. That's just a fact. But the undergirding foundation of family life among human beings has been always from Eve, we'll take Eve and her children up here in a week or so, has always been that mothers by nature have a nurturing feeling toward their young. I mean an animal won't abandon its young. Every once in a while you get a heifer that has her first calf and doesn't know what to do with it, you have to teach her, but eventually they catch on. I can remember when I was a child, my grandfather telling me he raised hogs. And I can remember him telling me, don't go over in that hog pen. That old sow's got pigs. She'll eat you up. I mean, to that pig, I guess I was some frightening thing. I was bigger than it was. And she was going to protect her. I've been flogged by more hens and more geese to protect their young than I know how to count. And yet human beings have babies in bathrooms and put them in dumpsters and think nothing about it. There are literally millions, at least according to the AARP magazine, there are millions of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren like little street urchins that nobody knows about. An animal will not drink water that's foul. They won't drink water. You get an old muddy pond animal, they'll walk out in the pond till they get to some clean water. And they won't drink something that's bad. They won't drink putridness. They won't drink that water which has been contaminated. But mankind constantly slops around in the troughs of alcoholism and drugs and all kinds of assorted personal choices. You wonder what's wrong with people. I don't make judgment calls on how people live. That's not my business, not my call. But there are certain things that just don't make sense. I was watching some fella on the news last night. He was defending his live-in girlfriend who had just murdered their child. And the fella's got a mouth full. He's got enough metal in his face that he'd never get through an x-ray detector in an airport. And, you know, I mean, I haven't figured out why people like to stick sharp instruments in their bodies and put things in them. I'm not getting on a hobby horse, but there's scripture against tattoos. And people, I wonder sometimes when I see people, do they know what they're going to look like when they get 50 years old? Them tattoos start sagging and stuff. People make all kinds of crazy choices. I was watching the news last night and they were talking to a fellow there trying to get all the street people to come into the shelter where they had blankets and beds for them. And they said, well, we can't get a whole lot of them just won't come in, so they don't trust nobody. Well, I'm sorry. If you're that stupid, the world's got too many stupid people. The sole undergirding cause of all this disgrace in our society, of the drunkenness and the drugs fornication and the adultery and the pornography and the dishonesty in business, the dishonesty in politics, the dishonesty in relations. It's all caused from the same bad seed. It's called sin. The fall and depravity and our deceitful and destructive hearts. We keep telling ourselves how good we are. Oprah's going to have her own network here in about a month and that's all that will be on there. Programs tell you how good you are. She's confused and they're crazy. And you're silly if you watch it. As a fallen creation, man is fully capable of any vileness or any wickedness of conduct. I never will forget the fellow that One time my wife and I were working at the gate selling tickets at a ball game and a fellow came in there. He was madder than I went in. He said, you wouldn't let my son go back out to his car without paying to get back in. And my wife said, that's the school's policy. And he said, well, why is the school out? Because the kids go out to the car and they drink. He said, I'll have you know one thing. My son does not use alcohol. It wasn't a week until I saw his son's name in the paper. He got arrested for drunk driving. You see, nobody admits they ever do anything like that. But they do it. And I'll be honest with you, every once in a while, I'm pretty thick-skinned. Every once in a while, things just happen that I just... I can't believe this. I can't believe people are this evil. No wonder policemen sometimes are kind of hard and cold. You had to deal with the kind of things they deal with every day. You might get that way too. Man's depraved nature causes him to be out of sync, to be at discord with everything in his world. Natural man is just a jumble of sad contradictions in every area. Whether it's his physical wife, that fellow who died today, I'm going to preach his funeral Saturday. He died from lung cancer. He never quit smoking until he got so sick that he couldn't even sit up and hold one. I mean, you know, you wonder. We're destroying ourselves. The moral corruption of our society, we may not quite be as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah, but we're making gains on them every day. The spiritual society you live in, We've got more religion in America, as Kent Clark likes to say, gets up every morning more religious and goes to bed every night closer to hell. One minute man seems to be running down a path of decency and morality and maybe even nobility. He's trying to be something. He's going to be somebody special. He's going to be a shining star and a shining example. Did it ever dawn on you or do you ever take notice of that? How many of the people that we put up on pedestals as heroes, at some point in time they all managed to shoot themselves in the foot. Ball players, movie stars, people in the world of finance, people in the world of politics. John Edwards' wife died yesterday from cancer. I hope she was saved because The kind of life she's been through living with that scallywag, she deserves a little peace. And the next minute, we see the most putrid display of everything that's vile and base and ruthless and evil. Society just is corrupted in its mind to believe that Adolf Hitler's and Saddam Hussein's and Attila the Hun's are rare commodities. They're not. Somebody once said to me, I'm not quite as bad about it as I used to be. He said, why are you so hard on the Catholic Church? I said, because they killed 16 million Baptists during the Inquisition. That's one reason. And if you didn't live in a country where their power was so diminished, you might find out about that, because it still is in some places. In some actions, there's a reflection of God-like care. We look at little children when they say, oh, they're little angels. Well, they're little angels. Hold on for just a minute and you might change your mind. In other times, people are nothing less than a personification of Satan. Do you have any idea how many Jeffrey Dahmer's there are in the world. How many serial murderers that cut people up and like livestock and put them in deep freezers or throw them in swamps? I mean, we act like it's a rare thing. It's not rare. Julius Malone, who was a fellow I knew, was a pastor of a church in Milwaukee. His church was like three blocks down the street from where Jeffrey Dahmer lived and did all that atrocities. It was a shock in the religious community up there. But the cause of this confusion is the duality of man's makeup. Because man is the joint product of being the offspring of God's creative effort combined with the seed of Satan that grows out of that marred handiwork that was caused by the fall. Like Humpty Dumpty. He just can't be unscrambled. I remember preaching a sermon one time at a conference. I still, every once in a while somebody will mention it to me. They say, you remember preaching that sermon? Yeah, I remember. I preached a sermon on Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty took a great fall. And all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Humpty together again. But the TV evangelist can heal him and put his yoke back together in a moment. We must consider the universal nature of sin. Turn your Bibles back to Romans chapter 3. Every once in a while it just does us good to read this. And I better keep up with the time. Romans chapter 3 verse 9. What then are we better than they No, in no wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Let me read that again. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known? Here is why. Verse 18, There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. That is the only thing the law does, is tell you you are guilty. That is all it can do. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference for all. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." And yet we persist in talking about people who say, well, they're good people. They're really good people. Well, you can believe that or you can believe the Scripture. Every human being, every human being, without exception, without exception, as the old Puritans used to say, has a bent towards sinning. We're warped. We're twisted. I had a call from someone who saw the back of my wife's monument. She said, why did you put that on there about your wife? Your wife wasn't a sinner. I said, she was a sinner. Your wife was the best woman I ever knew. I said, I would agree with that. She's still a sinner. And by the way, so are you. Whether a king's son who's raised in a palace with all the comforts and opportunities that can be afforded him or some peasant's daughter who's brought up under a Christian education and Christian discipline, they're all sinful. Christians seem to be shocked when their children don't turn out perfect. I don't know why we ever would be. Preachers get guilt complexes because their children are flawed. We are too much worried about what other people say. Listen, preachers' kids are no different than any other kids. They are sinners. And if there is ever anything but sinners, it will be because of the grace of God. The reason for this confirmed state of corruption is that all mortals share a common origin. They are all the children of Adam. And they share a common heritage. When Adam fell, we fell with him. And they also share the same human legacy of sin. Your great, great, great, great granddaddy Adam left you an inheritance. It is S-I-N. And then there is the existence of death. Death is an experience that's shared by all. It's an appointment that will never be avoided by mortal flesh. The writer Hebrew says it's appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Neither science nor philosophy can explain the certainty of decay and destruction in our world. They cannot justify the cause for deterioration and death. Only the Word of God has the answer, the solution to this question of where does death come from? And the answer is, the soul that sins shall surely die. In fact, death is a fair wage of sin. The wages of sin is death. Does not the Scripture say that? And because sin is universal, then death must also be universal. Every head which breaks the womb will also enter the tomb. Paul said in Romans 5, 12, Wherefore, it is by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Sin is responsible for the present persistent paralysis that we see in the human race. You know, everything else in nature changes. It does. The interesting thing is the evolutionists keep thinking that we are getting better. The truth of the matter is that everything else in the world is getting better. Man's the only thing that stays the same and gets worse. Things change. They improve. They grow. The cattle we have today are healthier than they've ever been. The hogs are healthier than they've ever been. Sheep are healthier than they've ever been. Horses are stronger and bigger than they've ever been. He's still the same wretched, fallible, sinful creature he's been ever since the fall. Man's problem is that he has been changed from his original design. He is no longer in the original form in which he was created. Man cannot continue to grow in knowledge and goodness and in happiness because he's been corrupted. And he's been stymied so as not to grow to be more like his creator. Oh, we're smarter than we've ever been. Scientists tell us that the amount of knowledge in the universe among humanity doubles every 20 years and now it's even going faster than it has every 10 years. We have more intelligence than we've ever had. We were able to invent things we never could have thought about. But we aren't one bit better because of it. in literature, in theology, which is the study of languages, in art, in science, in ethics. Nothing anybody does is superior to the work of the ancients. You talk about philosophers, nobody talks about modern philosophy. They talk about Socrates. They talk about theologians today. They don't talk about John Piper and R.C. Sproul. They talk about Augustine. Talk about Paul. We talk about artwork. We don't talk about Picasso. We talk about Michelangelo. Our race is neither progressing in reality, and it certainly isn't growing spiritually. It's getting worse. And the cause of this paralysis is nothing more and nothing less than sin. Sin in the heart, sin in the mind, sin in the spirit, and sin in practice. Just sin. That's it. The fall evidences the answer to this perplexing puzzle. Man is a fallen creature. He's flawed and imperfect and he stands at enmity with God. He's at war with God. Few there are I tell you what, you may sound like this is kind of a strange statement. I am thankful for a few atheists and agnostics who will stand up and publicly and visibly shake their fist in the face of God and defy Him. Because all the rest of us do the same thing. We just don't have enough nerve to do it in public. At least they are honest in their blasphemy. Man is a sinner. He is a sinner by nature. And he is a sinner by birth. And he's a sinner by practice. He's a sinner by will and intent. He's a sinner and he aims to be a sinner. People talk about folks that sin sometimes. They're like, well, I'm so sorry he's that way. Well, he's that way because he wants to be. I don't know all of you all's history and background of your families, but I can feel pretty confident there ain't nobody in this house that got more drunks in their family than I got. And I don't know a single one of them that they tied them down when they were children and strapped them to a board and poured whiskey down their mouth until they made them get drunk. But I tell you what I've done, I've seen a couple of my kinfolk walk without a coat on on a day as cold as today down to the cab station to get them a half pint of Old Heaven Hill because they liked it. They liked it. Man, is a fallen creature. He's a sinner. And he needs a Savior. Man must be made a new creature. A work that's made possible only by divine power and implemented through a divine substitute. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Men are perfectly willing to have a Savior as long as they can design Him and control Him and handle Him, but not one that God provides on God's terms. Anything less than a new birth is useless and worthless. Jesus said to Nicodemus, this man who was cultured, Educated. Religious. Moral. Upright. Honest. A man among men. I'm sure he was distinguished in his society as being one of the finest people in the community. And yet Jesus said to him, marvel not, don't you be surprised that I said to you, you must be born again. You go out in that world out there and you start telling people, you must be born again. They'll look at you like you've got four heads. Nothing's changed. They're no better and no worse than Nicodemus. All right, let's look at something else here. Let's look at the fall and Christ. I want you to turn your Bibles. I'm going to take the time to read this. If I have to leave something out, I'll leave it out, but I want you to read this with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 21. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 21. for since by man came death. What do you think about that? Since by man came death. God gets blamed for killing people. I've seen people who were bitter over remorse and they'll also love one and say, I'm mad at God. God did that. Not what scripture says. Scripture says, 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 skip down to that same chapter, verse 45. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Albeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy. The second man 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 earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 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." There is a great contrast between the two Adams that are mentioned in this passage of Scripture. You see, Adam repudiated and dishonored God's love by His rebellion. Christ, on the other hand, demonstrated and verified the love of God by His submission and His willing incarnation for sinners. In Romans 5.8, Paul wrote, But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. going to election to the doctor today and I was listening to a fellow on the radio and he said that Christ died for all of us because we're all good people. And I thought, you are an idiot. Christ didn't die for us because we were good people. Christ died for us because we were the enemies of God. If we were good people, He wouldn't have needed to die. If we're good people, God's the biggest fool, and I say this with some caution. I'm hesitant to say it, but I'm going to say it. If we're good people, God's the biggest fool that ever lived. He's a barbarian. He's a brutal monster. To veil His Son in the putrid rags of human flesh and allow Him to go through what He went through and to be nailed to a cross when we're good people? The fact of the matter is we are enemies of God. And while we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us. Adam questioned and dishonored God's veracity. Satan said, did God say, you are not going to die? So when Eve said, here, have this fruit, Adam who knew full well, she was deceived, but Adam knew full well what he was doing and he took it and he ate. And in doing so, he called God a liar. But Christ labored to fulfill every jot and tittle of Scriptures. Matthew 5.18, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle, shall in no wise pass the law, till all be fulfilled. I know folks think I'm a little bit of a nut sometimes about putting such an emphasis on the Scriptures, but that's what Christ Christ said He came to fulfill that. So it must be important. Adam rejected God's sovereign authority. God said, don't eat of that tree. Adam said, I will if I want to. And he did. But Christ embraced the authority of God and bowed to both its sovereignty and its integrity. In Romans chapter 10, verse 7, it says, Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book which is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offering, and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second, By the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Adam despised and dishonored the majesty of God. Christ, on the other hand, vindicated the majesty of God and surrendered to the majesty of God. In Philippians chapter 2, I love this passage of Scripture. In Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. You want to be like Christ? Well, you better start with the mind. Who being in the form of God, felt it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Adam caused the fall. You say, but Eve sinned first. But because Adam was the head of the household, it was Adam's responsibility to teach his wife. And when Eve was so easily deceived, and obviously she was easily deceived, it was because Adam had failed to obey God in fulfilling the duties of the husband. Adam caused the curse, but Christ was made a curse for us. Galatians 5.13 says, For brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Adam brought sorrow to the garden. Christ became the sorrow of the elect. Isaiah 53 says, He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. He who was the God of heaven became a man of sorrows. Adam attracted a curse of thorns. God said, the ground will grow up with thorns and weeds and you'll have to deal with them. Christ, on the other hand, wore a crown of thorns. It tells us in John 19 too, the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Adam labored with a sweaty brow. Christ sorrowed with a bloody sweat. Luke 22, 44, being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Adam was sentenced to return to the dust from which he was made. Christ was made to be the dust of death. Psalm 22, 15 says, My strength is dried up like a posture that my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Now it has brought me into the dust of death. Adam was barred from the garden by a sword of justice. Christ was cut down by the sword of holy justice. Zechariah 13 says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. Adam died because he sinned. Christ was abandoned because he did not sin, but bore the sin of the And about the ninth hour it tells us, Matthew 27, 46, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, Adam ruined a good thing. Paradise was a good thing. But Christ brought in a better thing by reversing Adam's failure. Christ not only reversed the fall, He brought in a better thing. The creation of God not only becomes the creation of God, but it becomes His adopted family. Galatians 4 and 5 says, "...to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Can you believe that? I am a son of God. You may be a daughter of God or a son of God. How did that happen? Not by what Adam did. Oh, our Christ did. Adam, before the fall, dwelt in an earthly paradise. Christ makes the redeemed to sit with Him in heavenly places. Ephesians 1.13, In whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Adam, before the fall, was innocent. That's not necessarily a good thing. It's a neutral position. Holiness is a negative attribute. It is the absence of sin. Righteousness is a positive attribute. It is the presence of righteousness. Innocence is simply a neutral position that you're neither. Adam was neutral, but the believer in Christ is made righteous. Romans 5.19 says, "...for if by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Can you believe that? This old sinner boy standing up here preaching to you tonight, that before God I am as righteous as his son. Wow! Adam was the Lord and Master of Eden. But Christ has made every believer to be an heir of God. Romans 8.17 says, If children than heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that you suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Titus 3.7 says that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hopes of eternal life. Adam the creature, fellowshiped with God in the garden, but the redeemed of grace fellowshiped with God in Christ. Ephesians 5.30 says we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. In 1 Corinthians 1.9 Paul wrote, God is faithful by whom you were called under the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In 1 John 1.3 it says, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. You see, Adam made his seed to abound in sin, but Jesus Christ makes his seed to abound in grace. Look with me in Romans chapter 5 verse 15. Romans chapter 5 verse 15. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For after the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, or the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, But the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, even so, how did all men get condemned? by one man. Because Adam was the federal head of the human race. And he stood as your representative. And what he did affected you. Didn't need your approval, your authorization. Just the position he was in made him stand as your representative. Much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of a gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men the condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men and the justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The fall was a horrible event. It was worse than the Jewish Holocaust. It was worse than the nuclear bombs that went off over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was worse than the earthquakes that destroyed most of the island of Haiti a few years ago. It was far worse than the tsunami that wiped out the whole coast of Indonesia a few years back. It was worse than the destruction of Pompeii in which millions of people were buried alive under hot molten lava before they even had a chance to run out the door. The depth of its destruction can never be understood by mortal beings apart from the merits of Christ. You want to know how bad you are by nature? you focus your attention on what Christ suffered in order to provide righteousness for His elect people. Every human being, without exception, owes a debt to God that they can never pay, from the best of men to the worst of men. A curse surrounds every human being that can never be cleared. It's like a fog that just never lifts. A charge stands against the souls of every man and every woman who has ever drawn breath that they can never resolve. And yet, and yet, and here is the good news of the Gospel, and yet, by grace, the same God to whom we are all indebted has charged Christ with all my debt and has given me a robe of righteousness that covers me completely. And like Mephibosheth, under the kindness of David, He has brought my crippled and withered and helpless and worthless self to sit at the King's table and called me his child. Folks, that's grace. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. That's what happened when the fall took place and that's how it impacted human history and still does to this very day. Amen.