{"id":18654,"date":"2016-06-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/identification-truth-the-foundation-for-eternal-security\/"},"modified":"2016-06-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T05:00:00","slug":"identification-truth-the-foundation-for-eternal-security","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/identification-truth-the-foundation-for-eternal-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Identification Truth – The Foundation for Eternal Security"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[90],"series_event":[485],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[152],"class_list":["post-18654","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-romans","series_event-soteriology-sp-anatomy","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-jim-mcgowan","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Identification Truth - The Foundation for Eternal Security","sermon_date":"20160619","sermon_month":"6","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3683,"sermon_slides":3684,"sermon_mp3":3699,"sermon_id":"61916951510","series_or_event":485,"service_type":[473],"speaker":152,"books_of_the_bible":90,"chapter_and_verse":"5:12","sermon_transcript":"SUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nDr. Jim McGowan\n\nIdentification Truth \u2013 The Foundation for Eternal Security,\n\nRomans 5:12\n\n6-19-16\n\nGood morning, welcome to our Sunday School class.\u00a0 Of course you notice immediately that Pastor Woods is not here speaking this morning.\u00a0 He happens to be in Australia, ministering and he asked me to fill in for him this morning on the issue of eternal security.\u00a0 That\u2019s been the topic under his soteriology lessons.\u00a0 So I\u2019m going to just this morning give you a little bit different perspective, if I could, and my hope is that as we go into this study and we talk about these things that you\u2019ll come away this morning with a real sense of the assurance of your salvation and also an understanding of who you are in Christ perhaps a little bit better.\u00a0 With that said let\u2019s go to the Lord in prayer\n\nHeavenly Father, thank You so much for Your great mercy,\u00a0 Your lovingkindness.\u00a0 Thank You,\n\nFather God,\u00a0 that you didn\u2019t leave us orphans but Father, You live and breathe in and through us\n\nLord.\u00a0 Thank\u00a0 You for the privilege that we have to allow the Lord Jesus to make himself manifest\n\nin our mortal flesh.\u00a0 As we consider the issue of eternal security this morning our prayer is that You might be glorified, exalted and uplifted and that the hearts of your people would be challenged, encouraged and motivated to believe and find steadfastness in Your promises.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.\n\nNow there was a handout, I hope you got one of those, if\u00a0 you didn\u2019t, wave at somebody back there and they\u2019ll probably get one to you. \u00a0This morning we\u2019re talking about eternal security.\u00a0 This morning we\u2019re talking about identification truth and we\u2019re going to specifically refer to this in terms of it being the foundation for eternal security.\u00a0 Our outline for this morning, we\u2019re going to first of all talk about our personal history in the first Adam and what I discover as I teach this lesson and I\u2019ve taught it a number of times is that people are not always really familiar with this aspect of their spirituality.\u00a0 So I find it\u2019s a very important thing to go over; it helps us as we begin to understand who we are in Christ.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be talking this morning about our position in Adam, our nature received from Adam and what we\u2019ll call our \u201cAdam practice.\u201d\u00a0 All of this, of course, is before we become a believer.\u00a0 Then we\u2019ll talk about the solution that God has provided and then we will sum up.\n\nSo let\u2019s start off this morning with Psalm 11:3, you probably are familiar with this verse, \u201cIf the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a great statement.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t understand our heritage, if we don\u2019t understand where we came from we don\u2019t really understand where we\u2019re going.\u00a0 I have to axioms here for you; an axiom is just a self-evident truth.\u00a0 Number 1, and I want you to really think and reflect on this this week, we cannot become what we already are in Christ until we know what we were in Adam.\u00a0 And second, everything in Adam is the ground of sin and death; everything in the Lord Jesus is the ground of growth and life; two very important axioms.\n\nSo again here\u2019s our outline, we\u2019ll start with our personal history in Adam.\u00a0 When we talk about Adam most of us have an idea from our understanding and reading of the book of Genesis something about Adam and Eve but I\u2019m not so sure we\u2019ve ever taken the time, most of us, to seriously go back and reflect on who Adam was and what that really means to us as believers today.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to start out here with who and what was Adam?\u00a0 He was the first man and he was the seminal head of the human race into which we were born.\u00a0 Not that word seminal might throw you a little bit but here\u2019s a bit of a definition:\u00a0 Since all humanity was \u201cseminally present\u201d <\/em>in Adam, when Adam sinned, each person of the entire human race to the end of time was judged guilty as having individually participated in the first sin<\/u>.\u00a0 <\/em>\n\nSo when we say that we were seminally represented, or present in Adam what we\u2019re saying is when Adam sinned we too sinned.\u00a0 Now for some people this is an eye-opening statement and they think well, gosh, that seems rather strange.\u00a0 But let me throw a couple of verses up here; one is Romans 5:12 where Paul as much as says this.\u00a0 He says, \u201cTherefore, just as through one man,<\/u>\u201d that is the First Adam, \u201csin entered the world, and death through sin; and thus death spread to all men<\/u>, because all sinned.\u201d\n\nWe can see a similar parallel in Hebrews 7:9-10, where you may recall that when Abraham went to battle against the Canaanite kings and he returned, Melchizedek met him along the way.\u00a0 And if you remember the story he offered tithes to Melchizedek.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that when we come to Hebrews that the author of Hebrews uses that event as a way to help us understand this idea of seminally being present, because he says here: \u201cEven Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, [10] \u00a0for he was still in the loins of his father<\/u> when Melchizedek met him.\u201d\n\nNow we\u2019re talking about literally hundreds and hundreds of years of separation between the time of Abraham and the time of Levi.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet the author here tells us that when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek Levi himself was paying tithes to Melchizedek.\u00a0 And that\u2019s because the race that would become the Hebrew race was seminally present in Abraham.\u00a0 So that gives you kind of an idea what we mean when we say that we were seminally present in Adam when Adam sinned.\n\nSo that immediately confronts us with a problem here, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Adam is the one from whom humanity has inherited its sinful self-oriented nature and condition of life, and this nature and condition continually wars against the Holy Spirit for control and certainly even in the lives of believers.\u00a0 We know that\u2019s true, all\u00a0 you have to do is go read Romans chapter 7 and the apostle Paul makes that very evident.\u00a0 Point number 3, Through Adam we were all <\/u>born into sin, judgment, condemnation, and death.\u00a0 All right, we need to reflect on that a little bit.\n\nThere are some people that want to teach that all we have to do is sort of pull ourselves up from our bootstraps, you know, and go get the latest and greatest self-help book and if we just follow the principles that are outlined in those books or if a certain TV personality has it in her book club then we know we\u2019re going to be okay.\u00a0 All right\u2026 but notice here we\u2019re saying that there\u2019s judgment, condemnation and death associated with being seminally present in Adam.\n\nPoint number 4, This death<\/em> not only entered the world and the human race, but notice, it reigned as a tyrant king. \u00a0I would refresh your memory to your life before you were a believer and you may not have been the worst sinner on planet earth but I think if\u00a0 you\u2019re honest in your reflection of your life then you would recognize the fact that you really didn\u2019t have any way to not sin.\u00a0 You could really try hard but did you notice, or remember, that no matter how hard you tried\u00a0 you found that you were still sinning fairly regularly.\n\nAnd of course, as believers are we somehow put in the position where we never sin?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 That\u2019s not what we\u2019re saying.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a great distinction before we became a believer and after we became a believer, and we\u2019ll talk some more about that in a little bit.\u00a0 So there\u2019s this tyrant who\u2019s reigning over all of those who are unbelievers.\u00a0 Does that in any way, in your mind, give you any point of reflection for what\u2019s happening in our world today?\u00a0 When you think of what just happened down in Florida?\u00a0 When we think about the different issues going around in the world?\u00a0 It really shouldn\u2019t surprise us at all because we\u2019re talking about \u201cthe world.\u201d\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 When we talk about \u201cthe world\u201d we\u2019re talking about unbelievers.\u00a0 And of course, they have this tyrant reigning in their lives.\n\nRomans 5:17-18 says, \u201cBy one man\u2019s offense\u201d and it\u2019s referring to the First Adam, \u201cdeath reigned by one \u2026 Therefore as by the offense of one\u201d that is again the First Adam, \u201cjudgment came upon all men to condemnation..\u00a0 Again, sometimes people say well, you know, I\u2019m not a bad person, an unbeliever will say I\u2019m not a bad person.\u00a0 It has nothing to do with whether you\u2019re good or bad, the Bible says that because of the fact that you\u2019re seminally present in Adam when he sinned that you\u2019re under condemnation.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a very important point when we are evangelizing people; we need to help them understand that it\u2019s not their perception of themselves that matters, it\u2019s God\u2019s perception of them based upon His Word.\n\nLet\u2019s look for a moment at three fundamental aspects of this historical relationship that we all have in Adam.\u00a0 Now notice the wording I\u2019m using here.\u00a0 It\u2019s a historical <\/u>relationship; for the believer this means that it\u2019s something in the past, it\u2019s historical.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that currently is our condition.\u00a0 But in order for us to understand who we are in Christ we have to lay the groundwork here first with who we were in Adam.\n\nSo three fundamentals; this issue of being seminally present in Adam has to do with our position in sin, and we can refer to that as the Adam-source.\u00a0 Our nature of sin, which we can refer to as the Adam-nature, and our personal sins which we can refer to as the Adam-practice.\u00a0 Just a couple of ways to look at that.\u00a0 And I have a little paragraph here, \u201cUnderstanding these 3 facts is the essential key to progressing in spiritual growth.\u00a0 Ignorance of neglect of these 3 facts guarantees spiritual defeat throughout the life of the believer.\n\nSo Jim, why are we talking about all of this, I mean if we\u2019re not in Adam any more, if we\u2019re now in Christ why do we even care about all of this?\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m hoping to point out to you that you\u2019ll understand that we really need to understand what it is that God did for us when He saved\u00a0 us.\u00a0 It\u2019s very important we understand that.\n\nHere\u2019s an interesting picture, a couple of interesting pictures, that first picture on the left is representative of God casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden, and of course when He did that since were seminally present in Adam what was happening to us at the same time?\u00a0 We were also being cast out of the Garden.\u00a0 And so what happened when Adam and Eve sinned is represented by this picture on the right hand side.\u00a0 When we were in Adam, if you\u2019ll look at this you\u2019ll see this egg shaped oval here, when we talk about being in Adam what we\u2019re referring to is the fact that we were the old man.\u00a0 And what is the \u201cold man\u201d?\u00a0 The old man is all of who we were before we became a believer; all of who we were in Adam.\u00a0 And notice that contained within the larger oval we have a smaller oval in red, does anyone recognize that?\u00a0 That\u2019s that old sin nature.\u00a0 And the thing that you should notice about this picture is that the sin nature is within and a part of who we were in Adam.\u00a0 So when Adam sinned we too, because we were seminally present in him, we receive that sin nature that he and Eve received at that point in time.\n\nContinuing on this is the problem of being in Adam, is we have all these issues, we have this baggage that we bring to the cross.\u00a0 And God has to deal with it for us.\u00a0 So if you notice here again we have three fundamental aspects.\u00a0 The first one we refer to was our position in Adam, or our Adam source.\u00a0 Now what do we know about our position in Adam.\u00a0 Well, we have some verses that we\u2019ll talk about here in a second but we know that from the Word of God it says that we were born into a doomed humanity.\n\nAgain I would draw your attention to what is it that the world is saying?\u00a0 God says that humanity without Christ is doomed.\u00a0 What is the world saying?\u00a0 The world is saying oh, you don\u2019t need that Jesus stuff, you know, that\u2019s old antiquated out of date old thinking.\u00a0 What we really need to do is come together as a world group of individuals and we just need to make this world a better place.\n\nOf course we as believers understand that we\u2019re not of this world, are we; we\u2019re merely, I love the old King James expression, we\u2019re just passing through.\u00a0 Unfortunately though sometimes we forget that and we try to find some way to sort of nest here, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s what the world is doing, of course, but we\u2019re in a doomed humanity.\n\nThe second one here says that also because of our position in Adam we are dead unto God and alive unto sin\u2026 dead unto God!\u00a0 Well, I just don\u2019t understand it, why is it that the world is just going to hell in a handbasket?\u00a0 What\u2019s happening here, don\u2019t people, can\u2019t people understand that there\u2019s a better way and the answer, of course, is no, they can\u2019t understand because they\u2019re spiritually dead and it\u2019s not until God the Father, through the emphasis and power of the Holy Spirit, saves you and enlightens you to the truth of His Word that you will finally once and for all understand that there\u2019s this tremendous thing happening, spiritually speaking, throughout the world.\n\nLet\u2019s look at these passages.\u00a0 David said, \u201cin sin<\/u> my mother conceived me.\u201d\u00a0 Now he didn\u2019t mean that it was a sinful act when she was procreating him, that\u2019s not what she\u2019s saying.\u00a0 But what he is saying is that he\u2019s recognizing the fact that when he was consummated, when he was conceived in the womb that the sin nature was transferred to him; that that being seminally present passed through the bloodline to him.\u00a0 Paul in Ephesians 2:1 says this, he says that all men are dead in trespasses and sins.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:1, \u201cAnd you, being dead in your trespasses and sins\u2014\u201c]\u00a0 And\n\n1 Corinthians 15:22, notice what it says: all who are \u201cin Adam\u201d what, \u201call die.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIn Adam all die.\u201d\n\nSo this is important, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 We need to be able to articulate to the unbeliever why there\u2019s an urgency, if you will, for them to acknowledge their need for Christ, because \u201cin Adam all die.\u201d\u00a0 This is referring to spiritual death.\n\nThe second point here of our three fundamental aspects is that not only did we find ourselves positionally \u201cin Adam\u201d but now also we\u2019ve received this (we\u2019ve alluded to it already somewhat) we\u2019ve received a nature also; this nature was passed down, the nature of sin, or sin nature, and the first point we have here is our position in Adam resulted in our being sinful beings by nature, with a natural inclination or tendency for a life that is sinful.\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting and Pastor Woods has alluded to this many times from the pulpit, but isn\u2019t it interesting that when you bring that newborn baby home it\u2019s not very long before that newborn baby begins to exemplify what we might call a self-centered attitude and mentality.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And to be perfectly fair, we kind of nurture that, don\u2019t we?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, in some sense there\u2019s no way around that, when a baby wants to be fed you\u2019ve got to feed it, right?\u00a0 When it wants its diaper changed you\u2019ve got to change that diaper\u2026 well, I guess you don\u2019t have to but you probably ought to, right?\u00a0 But in any case, we\u2019re sinful natures, sinful beings by nature.\u00a0 And again we need to convey this to the unbeliever, that God says no matter how many self-help books you have it doesn\u2019t matter because you\u2019re a sinful being by nature.\n\nDoes that mean that you\u2019re as evil as you can possibly be?\u00a0 No, not at all\u2026 not at all!\u00a0 In fact, there are some people out there who are unbelievers that from the standpoint of the human looking at their lives we go wow, man, look at all the money they give to good causes and look at how they\u2019re involved in the community and doing all these wonderful things.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And of course, what\u2019s another word for \u201cwonderful things?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s works, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And we know that \u201cby the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 3:20, \u201cbecause by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.\u201d]\n\nThe next point, \u201cin Adam\u201d we are natural, fleshly, and carnal, separated from God.\u00a0 It\u2019s important for me to point out to you that often times when the Bible refers to death what it\u2019s referring to is separation.\u00a0 And let\u2019s think for a moment about that in regard to Adam and Eve.\u00a0 God told them, or they died the moment they sinned, did they not.\u00a0 If we go back and read Genesis they died immediately.\u00a0 And yet they continued to walk around; in fact, they procreated, they filled the earth, so wait a minute, something\u2019s not quite right here, I thought they were dead.\u00a0 Well, the Bible talks about death as being separation and what was happening there was the moment they sinned they were separated, dead, they were spiritually dead, separated from God.\u00a0 And of course what was the evidence?\u00a0 How do we know that was true.\u00a0 Well, when God came walking and looking for them in the Garden what did they do?\u00a0 They ran up to Him and said oh Daddy, it\u2019s so good to see\u00a0 you?\u00a0 NO, what did they do?\u00a0 They went to hide themselves and then God, of course dealt with that by covering them, taking the initiative Himself to provide a covering for them.\n\nThe third fundamental here is that\u2026 excuse me, we\u2019re still on the second one, the nature of sin.\u00a0 Our Adamic nature and boy, really listen to this, look at this, read this, let this sink into your heart, let this get down deep, our Adamic nature can never change, never be improved, never be reformed, never be rehabilitated, because in Adam we are entirely self-centered, totally and irreparably against God.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty powerful, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 But so and so seems to be such a good person.\u00a0 Are they a believer?\u00a0 No, but they just seem to be such a good person.\u00a0 The Word of God makes it very clear that there isn\u2019t anything that we can do outside of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; there\u2019s nothing that we can do to in any way make our self worthy to be in the presence of a holy God.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way we can restore that broken fellowship, if you will; in Adam, we are \u201cby nature\u201d the \u201cchildren of\u201d look at that word, we were what?\u00a0 we are \u201cby nature of wrath\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:3, among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.\u201d]\n\nBut wait, I thought God is love?\u00a0 Have you ever witnessed to somebody and you try to talk to them about sin or behaviors and such that they come back at you, well, wait a minute, I thought God was a God of love!\u00a0 Or they\u2019ll use that when something bad happens in the world, I\u2019ll never believe in God because God\u2019s a God of love.\u00a0 Well, He is a God of love, but He\u2019s also a God of wrath, and His wrath is poured out against the children of disobedience, the Word of God says.\u00a0 Wow!\n\nLet me give you a little information here that might help you.\u00a0 When it comes to the attributes of God, when we use that term \u201cattributes of God\u201d all the things we think about, right, omnipresent, omnipotent, etc. etc. etc. when we think about all of those attributes of God we can never pull one out from the group and single it out as if it\u2019s its own entity.\u00a0 God is all those things all the time.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 He\u2019s not more love than He is more wrath.\u00a0 He is not more mercy than He is more judgment.\u00a0 All of those things are operating in His person all the time.\u00a0 He\u2019s all of those things.\u00a0 All right!\n\n1 Corinthians 2:14 says \u201cthe natural man\u201d now in context here this is referring to the \u201cin Adam\u201d person, \u201cin Adam\u201d man, that would be an unbeliever, \u201cthe natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but I can remember a time in my life where people tried to share the Word of God with me and I heard it but I didn\u2019t hear it.\u00a0 And then a while later, sometime later, they would share the same thing with me and all of a sudden, oh, oh yeah, I see that now, wow!\u00a0 Well, the Spirit of God has to enlighten you to understand His Word.\u00a0 For the unbeliever, of course, he has to come to the place where he\u2019s willing to accept what God has said and the moment he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ then all of a sudden the scales, as it were, just like the Apostle Paul, are removed from their eyes and they begin to see and understand spiritual things that they never saw or understood before.\n\nJohn 3:6, \u201cThat which is born of flesh is flesh.\u201d\u00a0 All right, and that shouldn\u2019t surprise us, again if we go back to the first chapter of Genesis one of the things that\u2019s predominant there is God said that everything that produces, how is it going to produce?\u00a0 Monkeys are going to produce giraffes, right?\u00a0 Hippos are going to produce crocodiles?\u00a0 No, everything is going to produce after its kind.\u00a0 So if I\u2019m fleshly, if I\u2019m carnal, if I\u2019m \u201cin Adam,\u201d anything that I produce is going to be in the same state, same condition.\u00a0 All right.\n\nSo we do have a problem.\u00a0 Does everybody see we have a problem here, being \u201cin Adam\u201d?\u00a0 A couple of more Scriptures here; Romans 7:14, Paul is talking here, he says, \u201cI am carnal<\/u> [in Adam], sold under sin,\u201d and he was talking there about his life before he became a believer, that he was carnal, \u201csold\u00a0 under sin,\u201d remember we said that sin is a tyrant master?\u00a0 That\u2019s only true of the unbeliever.\u00a0 Romans 8:5, \u201cFor those who live according to the flesh<\/u>* set their minds on the things of the flesh<\/u> \u2026\u201d\u00a0 Well surprise, surprise, surprise, why is it that people just wrap themselves in things that are hurtful\u00a0 to them all the time?\u00a0 Why is it that people do things that ultimately, if they thought it through they would recognize that, you know, if I follow this path it\u2019s going to lead to destruction.\u00a0 Why do they do that anyway?\u00a0 Because they can\u2019t help it, they have the mind of the flesh, therefore they follow after the things of the flesh.\n\nRomans 8:7-8 here, the Apostle Paul says, \u201cBecause the carnal mind, that is <\/u>the Adamic thinking process, \u201cis enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.\u00a0 [8] So then, those who are in the flesh<\/u> cannot please God.\u201d\u00a0 Now this is specifically true about the unbeliever but it\u2019s also true about the believer.\u00a0 If we as believers choose to operate as if we were in Adam when we\u2019re actually in Christ, what are we doing?\u00a0 We set ourselves against what it is God is going to do in our lives.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but I find myself in that position sometimes, where my will becomes the more important will.\u00a0 Do you ever experience that?\u00a0 You know God, I know I really shouldn\u2019t do that but you know I really want to, and I go ahead and do it and then of course there are repercussions to that.\u00a0 I can tell by the silence that you\u2019re all on the same page with me.\n\nAll right, let\u2019s look at the third point here; we mentioned the fact that the three fundamentals were we have an Adamic position, Adamic nature, and now we have this issue of the Adam practice.\u00a0 In Adam we\u2019ve grown up to be sinners by choice and practice, because the inherent product of a sinful nature is sinful behavior.\u00a0 The practical result of our being \u201cin Adam\u201d is stated in Scripture.\u00a0 Romans 3:23, everybody knows this verse, \u201cFor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.\u201d\u00a0 Everyone, everyone has fallen short.\u00a0 That\u2019s the bad news, now we need some good news, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about some good news.\n\nFortunately, because God is a God of love He saw our wretched condition of being in Adam; He saw our position, He saw this sin nature, He saw the sinful practice that dominated our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 And He recognized, of course, that there was nothing that we ourselves could do to rescue ourselves.\u00a0 And this is the big issue, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 This is the most difficult thing for the unbeliever to come to grip with, is the fact that if they\u2019re truthful, if they\u2019re honest, they recognize that something is missing in their life.\n\nOne person put it that there is a God-shaped void in the life of every unbeliever and I think that\u2019s really true.\u00a0 Why do I think that?\u00a0 Because look at what happens in the life of the unbeliever?\u00a0 What do they do?\u00a0 They endeavor to find things to fill themselves with to make them feel better about themselves.\u00a0 Some people take it to the extreme and they get involved in all kinds of addictions, don\u2019t they?\u00a0 Other people find other things that they fill their lives with, and all these things are there, through their effort they are endeavoring to fill a void that they can never fill.\n\nThe Bible in the book of Romans, the first chapter, talks about the fact that there is this God consciousness amongst even believers.\u00a0 Why is it that when we go anywhere in the world, any culture you can think of, why is it that they have gods?\u00a0 Why is it that they have idols?\u00a0 What\u2019s the reason for that?\u00a0 I mean, come on, anybody with a brain knows that an idol made out of wood, what in the world is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s nothing, right?\u00a0 We all acknowledge that but why do that?\u00a0 Because they\u2019re trying to fill themselves up with a sense of spirituality but they\u2019re rejecting the God of spirituality, if you will, the God who loves them.\n\nSo God recognizes this terrible problem that we have and He\u2019s determined that because of His love He is going to take the initiative.\u00a0 We can\u2019t do anything to move toward Him so He has to take the initiative and he moves toward us; just exactly the picture of the type we see in the third chapter of Genesis I guess it is, where Adam and Eve had sinned, right?\u00a0 And God\u2026 isn\u2019t it interesting, God comes looking for them.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that amazing?\u00a0 You would think that before they sinned, well yes, God would come looking for them, He wants fellowship with them, and after they sinned against Him that He would just write them off\u2026 ah, well, you know, I tried to start this thing off the right way and boy, they just blew it so maybe I\u2019ll just get rid of them and start over again.\u00a0 But He didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that God came seeking them in their sin?\u00a0 I have news for you and it\u2019s good news, God did the same thing for you and I, you and me.\u00a0 He came seeking us and what a wonderful thing it is to understand that.\n\nSo what did God do to bring us back to Himself?\u00a0 Well, you see on this slide here, God did a couple of things.\u00a0 He judged Adam, He condemned Adam and He terminated Adam.\u00a0 What in the world do I mean by that?\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about that for a moment.\n\nGod's solution was that He would judge and condemn Adam in relationship to the dispoisition.\u00a0 So we all know that as an unbeliever we had this position in Adam.\u00a0 Our position in sin (notice this, this is very important) our position in sin could not be forgiven; it couldn\u2019t be forgiven.\u00a0 God, being the holy, righteous God that He is He couldn\u2019t just wink at it, He couldn\u2019t just\u2026 you know, say well, okay, you blew it, I understand, do better next time.\u00a0 NO, because sin is an affront to the holiness of God.\u00a0 So he couldn\u2019t be forgiven.\n\nOn the cross how did God deal with sin?\u00a0 Well, on the cross in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ our heavenly Father once and forever cancelled our position in sin.\u00a0 This is really good news.\u00a0 When we think about this in terms of\u2026 remember, we\u2019re talking about eternal security, when you think about the solution as we talk about that, think about that in terms of your eternal security.\u00a0 God has forever cancelled your position in sin, in the first Adam.\u00a0 That\u2019s good news.\u00a0 Romans 8:3, \u201cFor what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,\u201d notice this, \u201cGod did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.\u00a0 HE [God]\u201d did what?\u00a0 He \u201c CONDEMNED \u00a0SIN , that is our Adam-source, \u201cin [Christ\u2019s] flesh\u2026\u201d\u00a0 When Christ died on the cross God condemned sin once and for all.\n\n2 Corinthians 5:21, \u201cFor [God] made Him\u201d that is the Lord Christ, \u201cwho knew no sin to be sin for us\u2026\u201d\u00a0 This is mind-boggling.\u00a0 When you try to wrap your mind around the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity willingly and voluntarily elected to be\u00a0 your and my substitute on the cross, that He took your and my sin, my guilt, my penalty, He took it for me.\u00a0 That\u2019s just mind-blowing, it\u2019s just\u2026. You remember when Jesus was on the cross and He cried out, \u201cMy God, My God, why have You forsaken Me,\u201d have you ever thought that was the first time in all of eternity past and present that the fell between the Trinity was broken.\u00a0 That\u2019s amazing.\u00a0 And God did that for you and for me!\u00a0 He said I am willing to break fellowship with My Son in order to bring many sons to Myself.\u00a0 What an awesome God!\n\nOur position in sin, again, our position in sin cannot be forgiven; I think we said that already\u2026 here we go,\u00a0 our nature of sin, so he dealt with our position in sin, or our position in Adam, what about this sin nature issue?\u00a0 Well, our position in sin could not be forgiven, neither could our sinful life and nature be forgiven.\u00a0 They too were taken into the judgment death of the cross.\u00a0 Romans 6:11 is very interesting.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re not familiar with this passage I would encourage you to take this passage and put it up on your refrigerator, look at it every day, meditate on it, think about it. \u201cEven so\u201d Paul is saying to us as believers, \u201cEven so consider<\/u>\u201d or the King James Version says \u201creckon yourselves to be dead to sin<\/u>, but alive to God<\/u> in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\nNow in the book of Romans more often than not when you see the term sin it literally means the sin nature.\u00a0 All right.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at this word consider or reckon here for a minute.\u00a0 I\u2019ve given you the definition, down here, this is a mathematical and an accounting term and my wife being a math teacher just went woo-who, it\u2019s a term of cognitive processes, think about what that means, it\u2019s something you think about, it\u2019s something you meditate on, right?\u00a0 It mean to reckon, to value or esteem, to put down to one\u2019s account.\u00a0 So what it says here is we are to reflect on, to meditate on, to cognitively embrace the idea that we\u2019re dead to the sin nature.\u00a0 We\u2019re dead\u2026 now what did we say dead means?\u00a0 It means separated from, we\u2019ve been separated from the sin nature.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s gone, I want to make sure you hear me carefully, we\u2019re not saying that the sin nature has vanished or disappeared, but it is no longer a tyrant in the life of the believer unless we let it be.\n\nThis is a long quote but it bears reading.\u00a0 This is from Kenneth Wuest, he has an excellent commentary series for those of you that like those kinds of things, and let me fast forward, it\u2019s called the Wuest\u2019s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament.\u00a0 I have all of this posted online if you want to go back and look at that later.\u00a0 But let me read this here and see what you think.\n\n\u201cHere Paul\u201d he\u2019s talking about this verse we just looked at, Romans 6:11, \u201cHere Paul is exhorting the saints that in their endeavor to live a life in accordance with the Word of God, they should take into account the fact that they are dead to sin<\/u>, that they have been disengaged from the evil nature<\/u>, that it has no power over them anymore,\u201d did you hear that?\u00a0 Let me read that one more time, \u201cthat it has no power over them anymore, that they are scot free from it and can say a point blank NO to it, also to take into account the fact that they are alive to God<\/u>, that is, that the divine nature<\/u> has been imparted with the result that that nature gives them both the desire and the power to regulate their lives in accordance with the Word of God. Now, reckoning one\u2019s self dead to sin and alive to God does not make one so,\u201d notice that carefully, just because you think that\u2019s true that\u2019s not what makes it so.\u00a0 But the act of reckoning brings into better operation with beneficial results, the working of this inner spiritual machinery\n\n\u201cThe Christian who does not count upon the fact that the divine nature is implanted in his inner being, goes on living his Christian life\u201d notice this, \u201cas best he can more or less in the energy of his own strength, with the result that he exhibits a mediocre Christian experience. But the believer who counts upon the fact that he is a possessor of the divine nature, ceases from his own struggles at living a Christian life, and avails himself of the life of God supplied in the divine nature. So the first adjustment\u201d notice what this says, \u201cthe first adjustment the Christian should make is that of counting upon the fact that the power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken and the divine nature imparted, and order his life on that principle.\u201d\u00a0 [Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest\u2019s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Ro 6:11). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.]\n\nNow that\u2019s a long, long excerpt right there and I would strongly encourage you to get that off the internet and go back and re-read it over and over and over and over again until it becomes a reality in your heart and life, because what happens is that the world, the flesh and the devil are trying to get us to do what?\u00a0 To reflect back on who we were in Adam.\u00a0 The world, the flesh and the devil is trying to get us to reflect back on the desires of the sin nature and because we\u2019ve not had good teaching or we have not taken good teaching and applied it in our lives, that can happen, if that\u2019s the case what happens is we fall for what the world, the flesh and the devil is telling us and we buy back into what it is or who it is we were when we were in Adam.\n\nAll right, still talking about God\u2019s solutions, so God dealt with our position, or our nature, what about our personal sins?\u00a0 Did God deal with our personal sins, which is our Adam-practice?\u00a0 Once our sinful position and nature had been condemned and judged God was then justified in forgiving our personal sins, past present and future.\u00a0 How did He do that?\u00a0 By means of the shed blood of Christ on Calvary\u2019s cross.\u00a0 Hallelujah for that, right!\n\nIn fact, notice this, all that we inherited from Adam suffered the same fate, death at the cross.\u00a0 What did we inherit from Adam?\u00a0 A position, a nature and a practice.\u00a0 This says all of those things were dealt with at the cross\u2026 all of those were dealt with at the cross.\u00a0 God took the initiative in sending His Son, the Lord Jesus, and when He spilt His blood on the cross God said judged and condemned and we stand forgiven in Christ.\u00a0 1 Peter 2:24 says, \u201c[Christ] Himself bore our sins\u201d notice that\u2019s plural there, He \u201cbore our sins in His own body\u201d where did He do that? \u201con the tree<\/u>\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Revelation \u00a01:5, \u201cTo Him who loved us and washed us from our sins\u201d plural, \u201cin His own blood<\/u>,\u201d who is that?\u00a0 The Lord Jesus.\u00a0 Colossians 1:20 \u201c[Christ] \u2026having made peace through the blood of His cross<\/u>.\u201d\n\nRemember we said a minute ago that when we were \u201cin Adam\u201d we were at enmity with God.\u00a0 Another translation says we were God\u2019s enemies.\u00a0 [Romans 5:10, \u201cFor if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s a great translation, we were God\u2019s enemies, and yet God, through the blood of Jesus\u2019 cross, right, the blood on the cross, He brought peace to those of us who stood under the wrath of God and we are no longer the children of wrath.\u00a0 And that\u2019s something that deserves a mighty big AMEN!\n\nContinuing on, what about this positional relationship?\u00a0 It too has been terminated; it\u2019s okay to snicker, I put that up to kind of alleviate the tension in the room a little bit, right?\u00a0 Yeah, what happened?\u00a0 God dealt with our nature and our practice, here\u2019s our positional relationship to Adam.\u00a0 Remember we said we were seminally present in Adam.\u00a0 Guess what?\u00a0 God has terminated that relationship as a believer, He\u2019s terminated that relationship.\n\nThere\u2019s our picture again of what it means to be \u201cin Adam,\u201d and there are HASTA LA VISTA.\u00a0 ADAM!\u00a0 At the cross we finally come to the very end of our spiritual history in Adam.\u00a0 Now I don\u2019t know about you but I find in my life that I yearn to have spiritual victory.\u00a0 Are you that way?\u00a0 Do you find yourself going through your life as a believer and you just think oh, man, I just fail all the time, I just falter all the time and Lord, I just desire with all my heart to live for you, to be the person You want me to be, and God is saying you already are that, believe it!\u00a0 Look what I\u2019ve done for you, trust that!\u00a0 I\u2019ve terminated, I have terminated every association that you had with Adam and now you\u2019re \u201cin Christ\u201d and what that means we\u2019ll talk about at another time more thoroughly.\n\nSo here we are, what did God do for the believer when He sent the Lord Jesus Christ?\u00a0 He terminated our position in Adam.\u00a0 He terminated our nature of sin; does that mean that it\u2019s gone and eradicated?\u00a0 NO, it doesn\u2019t mean that; it\u2019s still hanging around.\u00a0 When are we going to\u00a0 no longer have to deal with the sin nature by the way?\u00a0 Well, either through death or rapture.\u00a0 How many are looking for rapture?\u00a0 Two or three out there, okay.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking for the rapture, I hope that comes quickly.\u00a0 And He dealt with our personal sins; all those sins, past, present and future.\n\nHere\u2019s a great definition of eternal security.\u00a0 I like this, Pastor Woods has put this up before, \u201cEternal Security means that those who have been genuinely saved by God\u2019s grace through faith alone in Christ alone shall never<\/u> be in danger of God\u2019s condemnation or loss of salvation but God\u2019s grace and power keep them forever saved and secure.\u201d\u00a0 [Dennis Rokser, Shall Never Perish Forever<\/em>, p. 11]\n\nI learned a long time ago that there is a distinction between condemnation and conviction.\u00a0 Have you thought about that?\u00a0 What I\u2019ve discovered in my reading of the Word of God is that condemnation either comes from God when I was an unbeliever because I\u2019m under condemnation, right, I\u2019m a child of wrath as an unbeliever, so condemnation can come from God on the unbeliever, but where does conviction always come from?\u00a0 It always comes from God on the unbeliever to do what?\u00a0 To drive him to Christ.\u00a0 Does conviction come on the believer for any reason?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting, it\u2019s the same reason, conviction comes on the believer to drive them to Christ.\u00a0 Do you know that the Bible says in Romans, \u201cThere is therefore now no\u201d what? \u201ccondemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.\n\nAnd the only reason I mention this and why it\u2019s important to get this distinction is because as a child of God if you\u2019re feeling condemnation what should be the first thing that comes to your mind?\u00a0 Well, the world, the flesh and the devil is acting in my life to pull me away from who I am in Christ and make me reflect on who I was in Adam.\u00a0 You see?\u00a0 Condemnation is over all those in Adam.\u00a0 There is no condemnation for those who are \u201cin Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Conviction\u2014yes, conviction\u2014yes!\u00a0 And thank God for it; isn\u2019t it wonderful to know that God loves us as believers so much that His Word says He disciplines us as a father does his children.\u00a0 Now I don\u2019t know about you, maybe you had good parents, maybe you had bad parents, so don\u2019t put that in a sense of your parents, but that in the sense of God\u2019s ideal parent.\u00a0 Right, He\u2019s the ideal parent, and as a loving Father He will always discipline you and He\u2019ll use conviction in your life to bring you to a point of growth and maturity in you walk in Christ.\n\nI love the fact that this says that we\u2019re genuinely saved how?\u00a0 By God\u2019s grace through faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 For those of you that struggle with assurance of your salvation there can be no greater passage than Ephesians 2 where it deals with this.\u00a0 Look what that says there again, we\u2019re saved \u201cthrough faith alone, in Christ alone.\u201d\u00a0 What did you do to get yourself into the kingdom, or rather into the family of God?\u00a0 What did you do?\u00a0 Only one thing and the pastor has been preaching on it now for a long, long time.\u00a0 What was it?\u00a0 You believed.\u00a0 You believed!\u00a0 All right.\u00a0 When you believed you immediately became a child of God.\n\nNow, did works factor into that?\u00a0 Let\u2019s see, if I do ten or fifteen works that will be my belief?\u00a0 No, NO, not at all, belief is faith, or confidence or trust, reliance upon what God has said in His Word and what Jesus has done for you.\u00a0 This is a point of assurance of salvation, if I understand that then I recognize there\u2019s not anything that I can do.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing that I can do in any way, shape or form that could ever pull me out of Christ; I can\u2019t be taken out of being \u201cin Christ.\u201d\u00a0 I can never be put back into Adam, it can\u2019t happen!\u00a0 What\u2019s standing between in Adam and being \u201cin Christ\u201d?\u00a0 What is between those two?\u00a0 It\u2019s the cross\u2026 it\u2019s the cross!\u00a0 Praise God for that.\n\nJohn 3:16, \u201cFor God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 Do you believe that?\u00a0 Do you take God at His Word.\u00a0 God says if you believe you have eternal life.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but you know, I sort of sometimes talk to myself and sometimes I talk to the enemy a little bit too, I try not to talk to him too much, I don\u2019t like to give him too much credit, but you know, whenever I, in my early life as a believer I had terrible times of insecurity because I didn\u2019t know God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And I had terrible struggles with assurance, God, how could You really love me?\u00a0 Lord, you know, look what I did, I\u2019m supposed to be a believer, look what I just did.\u00a0 How can I possibly be a believer when I\u2019m acting this way.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m not trusting in what God says about me, see?\u00a0 I\u2019m listening to the world, the flesh and the devil.\n\nJohn 5:24, Jesus is speaking here, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has\u201d what? \u201ceternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.\u201d\u00a0 John 10:28, oh my goodness, if you don\u2019t have this marked in your Bible, please mark this in your Bible, if you\u2019re taking notes take notes, if you\u2019re not taking notes get the notes, this is so important.\n\nLook what this says, John 10:28, \u201cAnd I,\u201d this is Jesus speaking, \u201cgive eternal life to them and they will never perish.\u201d\u00a0 We read this verse in the English all the time but let\u2019s look at it for a second and see what it really breaks down to mean.\u00a0 This word \u201cperish,\u201d the one I\u00a0 have underlined down in the lines below, that\u2019s Greek, and I know we have some Greek scholars sitting out here but I\u2019m not going to call upon you to come forward and read this for us, the word \u1f00\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 [apol<\/em>\u014d<\/em>ntai<\/em>] is the word that\u2019s being translated \u201cperish\u201d here.\u00a0 And this, for those of you that care, I\u2019m kind of a language guy, I get into this, right, but this is a third person plural, aorist middle subjunctive.\u00a0 Okay Jim, so what?\u00a0 Who cares?\u00a0 Right?\n\nWell, let\u2019s go on a little bit more; let\u2019s talk about this.\u00a0 There happens to be this thing in Greek and sometimes grammar is really, really, really important.\u00a0 In Greek there\u2019s this thing called an emphatic negation; an emphatic negation is indicated in the Greek text when you find this expression \u03bf\u1f50 \u03bc\u1f74 [ou <\/em>m\u0113<\/em>] plus the aorist subjunctive. Wait a minute, I think I heard about that before, let\u2019s see, third person plural, aorist middle subjunctive.\u00a0 Okay, so here we have a qualifying passage\u2026 you\u2019re way ahead of me, you\u2019re telling me I\u2019m done?\u00a0 I can\u2019t see anything you\u2019re showing me.\u00a0 Three minutes, okay, speed it up Jim.\u00a0 I\u2019ll leave you to read this but bottom line is, let me come over here, the fact this is in the middle voice what this ultimately is saying is that this passage is telling you that there is not even the potential for you to be able to destroy yourself; you can\u2019t pull yourself out of God\u2019s hand.\u00a0 And then it goes on to say in the passage that not only can you not do it but nobody else can do it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what verses 28-30 say.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to skip through that quickly because I\u2019m getting waved at.\n\nAll right, so we\u2019ll finish up with this, we said then our two foundational axioms are we cannot become what we already are in Christ until we know what we were in Adam.\u00a0 And we talked a little bit about that this morning; everything in Adam is the ground of sin and death; everything in the Lord Jesus is the ground of growth and life.\u00a0 This is the picture that we will see at a later date and time when we\u2019ll talk about what it means to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d\u00a0 The one thing I want you to see on that picture, notice where the sin nature is; in the unbeliever the sin nature is a part of him.\u00a0 In the life of the believer the sin nature is no longer a part of him, but still exists.\u00a0 Ah, that should peak your curiosity.\u00a0 Let\u2019s close in prayer.\n\nFather, thank You so much for this day, thank You for the Word of God which is faithful and true, and always sets us free, and we give You the honor and the glory, may this be meted out to our hearts, our minds, our souls; may You receive the glory and my we walk in assurance of our eternal life, in Jesus name, Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t