In just a moment, you'll see how well the words of that song fit with our text. Now note, it is not the text in the bulletin. Rather, we are going to be in Romans chapter five as our starting point this evening, Romans chapter five, and I'll give you a moment to turn there. As we are continuing in our series looking at core doctrines of the Christian faith as we summarize them, in a document called the Belgic Confession of Faith, written in 1561, This is one of the most widely affirmed Christian standards or Christian confessions in all of history. And previously, we left off at Belgian Confession Article 14, looking at the creation and the fall of man and the fall of Adam. And tonight, we turn to the effects of that fall upon humanity at large. Hear the word of the Lord beginning at verse 12 of Romans chapter 5. 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, but sin is not counted where there is no law, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who were sinning 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. 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. 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. This is a rich, rich, rich passage. I've read this and studied it hundreds of times, I'm sure. But I can just barely remember something of the impression of the first dozen times that I read this as a child and thought, I don't get that. I think I get parts of it, it has to do with Adam, it has to do with Jesus, and Adam sinned, and Jesus did the right thing, and somehow sin has come to us through Adam, but then righteousness has come through Jesus, and that's a general idea. But then I'm reminded of where Peter says that the inspired writings of Paul are in some places quite difficult to understand. And if you feel that way, then tonight we have the opportunity to look at a number of passages that help clarify what's really going on here in Romans chapter five. However, we have a way of summarizing the whole of our beliefs about the Bible in this segment, and that comes by way of our statement in Belgic Confession Article 15. You can find this in the Thin Forms and Prayers book on page 169. Page 169, Article 15, we believe that by the disobedience of Adam, original sin has been spread through the whole human race. It is a corruption of all nature, an inherited depravity which infects small infants in their mother's womb, and the root which produces in man every sort of sin. It is therefore so vile and enormous in God's sight that it is enough to condemn the human race. And it is not abolished or wholly uprooted even by baptism, seeing that sin constantly boils forth as though from a contaminated spring. Nevertheless, it is not imputed to God's children for their condemnation, but is forgiven by his grace and mercy, not to put them to sleep, but so that the awareness of this corruption might often make believers groan as they long to be set free from the body of this death. Therefore, we reject the error of the Pelagians who say that this sin is nothing else than a matter of imitation. As we go into seeking to understand both the meaning of this doctrine and the implications of it, let's ask for the Lord's blessing. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity this evening to consider one of the weightiest doctrines that you reveal in scripture. and one with enormous explanatory power for understanding our present condition. We ask that you would please grant us spiritual illumination and humility to receive what you have revealed. Guard us from error. Lead us through these things to glory in Christ and in your grace. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. We've seen previously that Adam's fall into sin affected him personally, as all sin does. But especially in his case, it meant that he was, for the first time, introduced to guilt. And he was separated from a claim upon the life and the communion of God. And not only did he come under guilt, but he became corrupted. God withdrew his glorious gifts from Adam and left only a small trace of those things. and he became twisted and darkened in his being. But then we read in scripture and we discover, and I think we discover by experience as well, that Adam was more than simply a private person. His sin did not only affect him personally, but it has implications for all people. He was, if you will, a public person. He was appointed by God to be a representative of other people. And because of that, the consequences of his sin have come down to us in a whole variety of ways. There are different analogies that people try to use to show the connection between Adam as our federal head, as our representative, and then the way that affects to us. I'm not aware of any one perfect analogy other than the one that we'll see in scripture itself. But for instance, people approach this by saying, okay, it's kind of like when maybe you have a king and the king determines that his people are going to go to war. He declares war. And now his whole people are, in that sense, at war. Whether or not they had given a thought about war the day before, just that's the state now. The decisions of this head have affected other people, and now there might be an army coming through your land, and you're affected by it. However, that has the effect of making it seem as if we are innocent, or totally separated from the corruption of sin. Another analogy is sometimes represented in terms of how Adam deprives us of his original character of righteousness as being like, you know, imagine a father or mother who has a very large inheritance, has a fortune. But rather than passing this down onto his or her children, it's all squandered in a matter of a few months. Millions of dollars gone and the children And the children's children and the children's children don't get the benefits of that. And so another person's sin can have the effect of depriving somebody else. But that too is an imperfect analogy in several different ways. The analogy which scripture itself gives is an instance where it's not just an analogy, but it's rooted in reality. That the analogy is that Adam's relation relative to His natural descendants, in terms of his sin and guilt and the effects, is analogous in a way to the way that Christ is the second Adam. That's the only perfect analogy here. Christ is the federal head of another people, which includes, it's a portion of all those who are in Adam. But his righteousness then is contributed, is counted to his people, and then is imparted to them in sanctification. Whereas Adam's death comes down to us, Christ's life is given to his people. And so Romans 5 holds up the analogy of the first Adam and the second Adam. Tonight, our goal is to ask the question, to what extent has Adam's fall affected people? How many people and what different ways? And then to look at some of the purposes for which God reveals this to us. We're going to look at this under three main headings. I'll announce each of them as we come to them. The first of these major divisions is this, We need to look at the scope, the scope of guilt and corruption that is consequent of Adam's fall. In other words, to whom has this sin been shared? Consider scripture as it says, basically, it belongs to everyone who is commonly descended from Adam. Romans chapter five, verse 18, one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people. Paul's argument here, the logic is pretty straightforward. He says, all people die, that's a fact. Sin according to scripture, or rather death according to scripture is a consequence of sin, check. And if all people die and sin is a consequence, or death is a consequence of sin, then in some sense all have sinned. But how could they all have sinned if they hadn't even yet heard the Mosaic Law? I thought the law was given at Mount Sinai, long after Adam. And so if the law wasn't revealed on tablets until long after, why are people dying? Why are they dying before they even know how to read it? And Paul's answer, as difficult as it is to wrestle with, is to say, you were already in Adam. You were represented by him. And so already it's flowed down to you, and you share his nature. Psalm 51 verse 5, David says, surely I was brought forth in iniquity. So you're saying I was born already being sinful, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 58 verse three, even from birth the wicked go astray, from the womb they are wayward spreading lies. That set of statements there, there's friction if your idea of sin is simply about outward rule breaking. The Bible reveals that sin is not simply some outward violation of a rule, but includes inward dispositions that are at enmity with God's righteousness. And the Bible teaches that by nature of the fall, all human beings share this corruption, this natural moral antipathy towards the righteousness of God. Ephesians chapter two, verse three says, before we're saved, quote, we were by nature, deserving of wrath. This is key then. According to scripture, sinfulness does not begin as an act of imitation. It doesn't begin, say, when you're five years old or 10 years old or 15 years old, and though none of us are deceived as if sin starts at 15, let's be real here, as if some child in the family sees the older sibling doing something wrong and for the first time ever goes from impure to sin. Rather, there is a maturation process as people gain abilities, as they gain more and more powers of reason, as they gain more emotional complexity. What happens is they are more able to manifest the appetites they already had. It's like a small seed that gets bigger and bigger and bigger and eventually grows into a great big noxious weed that every one of us doesn't have to be taught to bring forth bad fruit. Jesus says, by their fruit you'll know them. And by nature, no one had to teach us to act in selfishness or indifference to the things of God. No one is accepted from this. And so it's not imitation, it's participation. We already share in this nature. Here's some of these passages from scripture that have to do with the fact that no one is innocent except in Christ. Psalm 143 verse two. Enter not into judgment with your servant, speaking to the Lord. Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. Romans 11, verse 32, God has consigned all to disobedience. Romans 3, verse 23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 2 Chronicles 6, verse 36, there is no one who does not sin, Isaiah 53 verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. And so again, together with Belgian Confession Article 15, we believe that scripture teaches that the scope of this guilt extends to every person. Now there's a sense in which we can describe very young children as not having yet been aware, not having yet committed actual sin, that is, committed acts where they're knowing what they're doing. And yet this taint of corruption was there, and too often, I think, we give credit to the person rather than credit to the Lord. That simply, if they had all the faculties they will have, they would behave differently. Now, that brings us to a second major division here. How extensive, okay, everybody has sin, how extensively are we affected by this fall into sin. How extensive is it? And when we talk about this corruption, sometimes the word that's used is depravity. That means to be morally deprived of righteousness, to be corrupted in that way. I want to be clear, when we talk about so-called total depravity, and that's a common reformed way of talking about this particular thing. Total depravity does not mean that we are absolutely depraved. People are not as bad as they possibly could be. And I say that especially for the younger kids here, when you hear that we believe in total depravity. It's not as though we are as bad as we could be. Sadly, I think we can all imagine ways that we could be worse. Total depravity, however, is an appropriate phrase because it has to do with the fact that this depravity, this lack of righteousness, extends to the totality of our being. Every part of who you are, has been affected with this corruption, so that your mind and your reason is warped according to scripture, your affections in terms of the things that you appreciate and love, those are changed. Your appetites, your will, your body itself, all of who you are is affected by the curse. Now, where do we see this in scripture? Ordinarily, I will state, most of the time, my personal preference in preaching is to pick one passage and just be in that passage. But on the other hand, when we are in a doctrine like this, sometimes it's very useful to look at a number of passages and see how they stack up and build together. Especially a doctrine where people are inclined, I'm not saying you're inclined to this, but people are inclined to resist a doctrine. For instance, the deity of Jesus Christ, the personhood of the Holy Spirit. There are doctrines where it's important for us to see again and again in scripture, okay, that's not just one verse, where somebody took it out of context. And so here are these passages concerning the heart and the mind. Don't turn to them, there will not be time for that, but feel free to write them down or ask me after, I'd be happy to give you these verses. Romans chapter one, verses 28 through 31 mentions, speaking of all of humanity, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. So the very turning away from the Lord results in him withdrawing from them that moral sanity and that rationality that Adam and Eve originally had. People like to pride themselves on being reasonable people, but there's nothing reasonable about sin. Sin is the least reasonable thing and people do it all the time. It never pays off, but I still do it. And this is the debasing of the mind that scripture speaks about. Jeremiah 17 verse nine. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Some translations read desperately wicked. Who can understand it? Titus 1 verses 15 through 16. To the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. When it says that their minds and consciences are defiled and that nothing is pure, it means that nothing that they do is acceptable when it's passed before the righteous bar of God. It's not that every single thought that they have is harming kittens. When it says that it's all impure, it means it doesn't meet the actual rule of righteousness. None of it. And that's who we are according to scripture. And you can say, well, I don't feel like I'm that bad. That's because you are that bad. When you think that this is where the bar is, you feel fine. And I remember God, when he worked this work in me. So I would always, from a young age, I acknowledged I had sinned. I mean, who wouldn't say that? Who's gonna say they're perfect? But it wasn't until much later, when I was an adult, that the Lord used the word to convict me. I have never done a thing that was acceptable, not once. Somewhere in the background static of my deeper heart, I'm always torn and divided selfishly. Who has loved God with all their heart, all their mind, all their strength, all at once, every moment, all the time? There are so many channels operating in the backdrop that we don't even notice. But the Lord sees them all, nothing's hidden. You ever have a dream and you go, where did that come from? And you could want to blame it on the enemy. I don't think that it has to be. I think there's enough sin buried deep in us that even as believers walk with the Lord, yet there's this heart to be contended with. Ephesians 4 verses 17 through 18. You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. He's talking about the Greeks in this moment who were the premier philosophers of religion in the world. And he says, no, they are ignorant due to hardness of heart, not lack of sheer intellect. They could have an Aristides. They could have all of these inventors who do complex math in the ancient world, who are calculating the curvature of the earth in 300 BC. And yet, hardness has blinded them to reality. Matthew chapter 15, verse 19. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual morality, theft, false witness, and slander. Not only is our heart affected and our mind affected, but our affections and desires. John chapter three, verse 19. This is the judgment. Light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. In that context, mind you, light is not simply standing for the moral way In context of John chapter 3, light is Christ, God of God, light of light. And men love darkness rather than light because their works were evil. What they don't like about Jesus is not that he, you know, wants to do good to his neighbors. What they don't like is that he is their Lord, whether or not they acknowledge it. He is your Lord. And that's where sin rises up in us to say, give me back one slice of the pie. Isaiah chapter one, verses five through six. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds. They're not pressed or bound up or softened with oil. And there it's describing the falling condition of people in the world. Or the will, the ability to choose rightly. John 8, verse 44, Jesus says to these certain Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. Elsewhere, you read in Paul's epistle to Timothy in 2 Timothy, that the servant of the Lord ought to be gentle as he seeks to teach people, and why? Paul says because those people have been taken captive by the enemy to do his will. How are they responsible for their sin? I suppose in roughly an analogous way to the way that people are still responsible when they're drunk and they crash their car. They made choices that led to a weakening of ability. They made decisions and they're here and they're still accountable for those things. And so we are affected in the totality of our being. That doesn't mean, by the way, that we are absolutely, again, absolutely wrecked. There are vestiges of life that God has preserved. And what a mercy that is. It's because God has preserved Certain glimmers of light in us, our original nature, that the world can be even as good as it is. That there are still artists and kind parents, and there's still order, and there's a certain amount of doability in the world. However, we have to contend with the consequences of total depravity. What are those consequences? This brings us to our third and our final division. The consequences of total depravity. This is heavy, and I know that, I presume, being in a confessional reformed church, most of you affirm this. Some of you have maybe not thought through it yet. Maybe because you're younger or you just haven't taken time to think about it, and I understand that. And it's not one of those doctrines that we necessarily go running to think about. How much has sin affected us? But it's one you must wrestle with because it will make the difference in what kind of savior you're looking for. What are the consequences of total depravity? We believe essentially two things. Apart from the grace of the Holy Spirit, no one, no one who's a common descendant of Adam has ever or can ever since the fall do anything to seek or serve him acceptably. And it's not as if he's stopping them, it's that we're so twisted we don't desire it. There are foods which, you love, some of you love, which if you put them in front of me, unless God does a miracle, I will never want to eat them. And it's because my appetites don't line up. My sense of taste does not line up. There's an entire category called the ocean, out of which I want nothing. And there is something similar to that for us in terms of depravity. We don't want true righteousness. which serves God for God's sake, end period. Now, when you serve God properly, it is a blessing to others and it is for them in love. But there's always a turning upon ourselves, what is in it for me? Titus chapter one, verses 15 through 16. Again, but follow the end of that passage. To the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God. but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin, because you're offering it to God apart from an acknowledgment of your need of a righteousness which is alien to you, that which is counted to us through Christ. And so any good work that is done apart from faith in Christ is a glorious sin. Now I'm not saying unbelievers should just sin all the more. But it is to say that nothing is acceptable of itself, and that no one seeks God, the true God, as he deserves. Romans chapter one, no one seeks God. Moreover, I said it's twofold, no one is willing to submit to the call of the gospel, the true gospel. To forsake all claim of their own righteousness and to have Christ alone as their righteousness, and to have him as their Lord. In fact, I want you to see the way that we confess this in the latter half of Belgian Confession Article 14. This was the half I did not read last week. The last time we read the first half of Belgian Confession 14. You'll find this on page 168. where it's talking about the effect of sin as it relates to coming to the Lord. For who can boast of being able to do anything good by himself since Christ says, no one can come to me unless my father who sent me draws him? Who can glory in his own will when he understands that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God? Who can speak of his own knowledge in view of the fact that the natural man does not understand the things of the spirit of God? In short, who can produce a single thought, since he knows that we are not able to think a thing about ourselves by ourselves, but that our ability is from God. And therefore, what the apostle says ought rightly to stand fixed and firm. God works within us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. For there is no understanding nor will conforming to God's understanding and will apart from Christ's work. And he teaches us, as he teaches us when he says, without me, you can do nothing. We confess that no one apart from a miracle will ever desire to believe on Christ as their Savior. That's not just something we confess. We confess it because it's scriptural. Listen to John 3.20 again. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. That's Jesus speaking. Does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. Romans 8, verses 7 and 8, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they seem like foolishness to him, and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned, meaning from the work of the Holy Spirit. Just a few more. 2 Corinthians 4, our gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 1 Corinthians 1, the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. Finally, the passage quoted in the Confession, John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. What good does it do you to know this? On the one hand, there are people, I think, who maybe think about this doctrine, and they misunderstand it, and they think, well, then we shouldn't even preach the gospel, and they're forgetting that God uses means, And they maybe feel, well then, I'm not a believer and I'm not accountable because I can't do anything about it. He calls you to belief. And Jesus looked at a man who had a withered hand and he said, stretch it out. Christ performs his miracle in the moment of faith. And once you have believed, which he commands you to believe upon him. Once you have believed, then what do we do? We say that this too is a gift of God. You're saved by grace through faith, this not of yourself, lest anyone should boast. This is meant in God's providence. Why does he consign all people to disobedience in this way? It's meant to drive us to humility. As we recognize who we truly are, what is the depth of our need, it's not simply that we needed information. And it leads us to revel to the grace that God has given to you in Jesus Christ. If you are a believer this day, I want to ask you to raise your hands. I hope every hand would go up. If you're a believer, people always say, I want to see a miracle. You are one. God has formed in you this desire to know him, to know righteousness. And now you can look upon the sin that once perhaps you remember in your life as being delicious, and you can say, he has begun a good work because I don't just dislike the consequences of sin, he's given me a distaste for sin itself. and not just for particular sins that I've judged myself better than, but he's given me a zeal, a yearning, a hope that one day I'll be free of all of it. Is that not supernatural? Have you forgotten that that is not in the world? That the world doesn't actually want that? That the world still revels in a little sin as long as they get to pick which sins it is? Sometimes I think that's one of the, it's very good to spend time with Christians, but I think that sometimes we do forget just how openly in love with sin this world is, and yet we find in our very transformation that a miracle has happened. It may be this evening that you will wrestle with, continually, the it's not fair of this doctrine, and you would not be the first and you won't be the last. Something in our desire to represent ourselves rises up against that, to think that we would have done differently than Adam. I am more inclined to believe that in appointing Adam, God chose a perfect representative of all human hearts, one accepted, that of Jesus Christ. And we should not presume that we would have done any differently. But then again, I don't want fair. I want mercy. I want grace. Was it fair with respect to your sin Because you have to acknowledge, even if you think you would do differently than Adam, the fact is you continue to choose to sin, I continue to choose to sin, even knowing all that we know. Was it fair that God from eternity appointed that Jesus Christ should be your second head? Was it fair that God would choose that Christ's righteousness would be counted to you, in a way analogous to Adam's being counted to us? Was it fair that God should send forth the Holy Spirit to work in you the miracle of new birth and to impart to you, to begin forming in you a righteousness and a love in a way that's analogous to a way that we fell in Adam and share his corruption? None of that was fair. That's God being generous. In the mystery of God's establishing headship, we have something better than the angels. We have a way of redemption. We have a way of reconciliation. because we can have a substitute. Hear again what it says in Romans chapter five, verses 15 and following. But the free gift is not like Adam's trespass. For if many died through that 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 all of our sins brought justification. Justification being the declaration in God's sight that we who are united with Christ are righteous. 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. And what an awesome phrase that is. Much more. If death has reigned in the world as it has, and think of the ways it has reigned, the tears that have been shed in this world, the howls, the hollering, the grief, much more shall the abundance of blessing and grace in Christ reign towards you who are in him. through the free gift of righteousness through that one man, Jesus Christ. God grant us not to be paralyzed by a sense of our brokenness, but to live in the faith of the much more. To live in the faith Christ dwells in me and his life is more lively than the death that came through Adam. May he help us in that. Let's close in prayer and ask it. Our Father in heaven, we thank you again for your word, for coming before us as a good physician and holding up the reality of our desperate need. We ask that through your spirit you would deepen our sense of dependence upon you and our confidence that the life that you are working in us, you will not fail to bring to completion. We ask for you to please work in the hearts of others, whether in this congregation or out in the world, to similarly come to an end of themselves, to not put any hope in their best effort, but to acknowledge freely that they need your grace and that it is enough to receive from your open hand, simply by faith. All of this we ask in Jesus' name, amen.