Christ and Adam

CHRIST AND ADAM

I want to speak to-day upon the subject of the two Adams. Every person in this hall to-day is either in the first or second Adam; and I want for a little wlile just to draw the contrast between the two Adams. In the first chapter of Genesis, 26th verse, we find the Lord made the first Adam lord over everything, over creation. They have in the old country a great many titled men, and a good many that they call lords. You might say that Adam was the first lord; he was the first man that was lord over creation. God had made him lord, or you might say king; and the whole world was his kingdom. He was the father of all. The second Adam you will find if you turn to the first of Mark. You will see that when Christ commenced his ministry, after he had been baptized by John, he went off into the wilderness; and there he was among the wild beasts for forty days. He was not made lord over everything. He came not as the first Adam did, but he that was rich became poor for our sakes. Then in the second chapter of Genesis, the 17th verse, you will find the first Adam introduces sin into the world. I used to stumble over that verse more than any other verse in the whole Bible. I could not understand how God said Adam should die the day he ate that fruit and yet he lived a thousand years. I didn't understand then, as I do now, that the life of the body is not anything in comparison with the death of the soul. Adam died in his soul right there and then. Death is just being banished from God's sight; for God is the author of life, and the moment the commmnication was cut between Adam and God, that was the end of life. It was then "Eat and die." Thank God! it is now Eat and live. If we eat of the bread of heaven, we shall live forever.

Then in the 3d chapter of the 6th verse, God told him not to do it; and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Now, there is the first sin that came into the world. The second man, instead of yielding to sin — he that knew no sin — became sin for us. The first man brought sin upon us and brought sin into the world; but the second man, who was without sin, became sin for us. A great many complain because Adam's sin comes down upon the human race all these 6000 years. They seem to think it is unjust in God that Adam's sin should be visited upon the whole human race; but they forget that the very day Adam fell God gave us a Savior and a way of escape; 80 that, instead of complaining about God being unjust, it seems to me every one of us ought to look on the other side and see what a God of grace and love we have. God was under no obligation to do that. If it had been any one of us, we would have come down and pulled the rebel from the face of the earth. We would have created another man, it might have been; but God made a way for Adam and all his posterity to be saved. He gave us another man from heaven, and through him all of us could be saved, just by accepting life. Through the disobedience of one, many were made sinners; but, thank God, through the obedience of another, many •re made heirs of eternal life. I want every one in this hall to just turn away from this first Adam. He has brought all the misery into this world. It came by Adam's disobedience and transgression. He disobeyed, and sin came, and death came by sin. God's word must be kept, but you turn to the llth chapter of John, and you find Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. One brought death, and the other brought immortality to life. If it were not for Christ, we should know nothing about resurrection. I pity the poor man that ignores Christ, who rejects the Son of God. What has he got to do •t the resurrection? In the 3d chapter of Genesis the first Adam lost life. In the first chapter of John, the second Adam gives it back to us, if we will only take it. The gift of God is eternal life, and all we have to do is just to take it. All the pain and sickness in this world came by the first Adam; but, thank God, the second Adam came to bear away our griefs and sorrows. "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." And you will find in the 17th chapter of Matthew, that he cures our sicknesses. Now, when the first Adam had done this, had sinned and brought death upon the world, had brought a curse upon it, he ran away and hid in the bushes. But when the second Adam came to take his place and suffer his guilt, instead of hiding away in the bushes of Gethsemane, he came out and said to these men who were seeking for him, "Whom seek ye?" and they said, "Jesus of Nazareth;" and he answered and said, "Here am I." He delivered himself up< The first man was disobedient unto death, but the second man was obedient unto death. Through the obedience of one many shall be made alive, many shall live forever. Turn back to Corinthians, 15th chapter, 45th verse. That is the most wonderful chapter, almost, in the whole Word of God. You ought to be well acquainted with the 15th chapter. "And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." Now, there is a difference between a living soul and a quickening; spirit. The first was made a living soul; but he could not impart life to a dead body. He could hand life down through his own family and his own line. He was made a living soul, and he could hare lived forever, if he had not sinned; but the second Adam was made a quickening spirit; therefore he could raise others from the dead. All he had to do was to speak to a dead body, and it would live. That is the difference between the first Adam and the second. The first was made a living soul, and he lost life; and the second was made a quickening spirit, and all he had to do was to speak to dead bodies and they lived. He was the conqueror over death; he bound death hand and foot, and overcame it, and was a quickening spirit.

Now the first Adam was of earth, earthly. God promised him the earth; God gave him Eden, and he was all of this earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven. That is the difference between the two Adams. One is all of earth, earthly, and the other is from heaven. Now I don't see what people are going to do with these passages in the Bible where they try to ignore Christ's godhead, saying that He did not belong to the godhead. That he was not Godman. "The second man was from heaven," says Paul; and therefore he spoke as a man from heaven. When the first Adam was tempted, he yielded to the first temptation. When the second Adam was tempted, He resisted. Satan gave him a trial. God won't have a Son that He cannot try. He was tried; he was tempted; He took upon him your nature and mine, and withstood the temptation. The first Adam was tempted by his bride. The second was tempted for His bride. God says, "I will give you the church." He was tempted in this world just for his bride—the Church. He came for his bride, and instead of the bride tempting him, he overcame all that he might win the bride to himself. And you can always tell the difference between the two Adams. When the first Adam sins, he begins to make an excuse. Man must have an excuse always ready for his sins. When God came down and said, "Adam, where art thou? What have you been doing? Have you been eating of that tree?" he hung his head, and had to own up that he had; but he said, "Lord, it is the woman that tempted me." He had to charge it back upon God, you see. Instead of putting the blame where it belonged, on his own shoulders, he tried to blame God for his sins. That is what the first Adam was. We have it right here every day in our inquiryroom—men trying to charge the sin back on God, instead of getting up and confessing their sins. They say: •' Why did God tempt me? Why did God do this and that?" That was the spirit of the first \d:nn. But, thank G d, the second Adam made no excuse. He took it upon himself to bear our sins upon the tree. The first Adam looked upon the tree and plucked its fruit, and fell. The second Adam was nailed to the tree. "Cursed is every one that is nailed to the tree." He became a curse for us. The two wonderful events that have taken place in the world are these, that when the first Adam went up from Eden he left a curse upon the earth; but when the second Adam went up from the Mount of Olives He lifted the curse. The first brought the curse upon the earth, the second as he went up from the Mount of Olives lifted the curse, and so every man that is in Christ can shout Victory 1 And there is no victory until he is in Christ.

When God turned Adam out of Eden, he put cherubim at the zate with a sword; he could not go back to the tree of life. It would nave been a terrible thing if they had gone back and eaten the fruit, »nd had never died. O my friends, it is a srood thing to be able to die, that in the evening of life we may shuffle off this old Adam coil, and be with the Son of God. There is nothing sad about death to a man that is in Jesus Christ. God put a sword there to guard the tree of life. The Son of man went into the garden and plucked up the tree, and transferred it into Paradise. The gates are ajar (that is a poetical expression, but I use it for an illustration); and all we have'to do is to walk right in and pluck the fruit and eat. Men complain because Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden. I would rather be up there, where Satan cannot go, than to be in the old Eden. Tnanks be to God, Satan cannotgoup there! The tree is planted by the throne of God, and there is the crystal stream by the river, and the tree is planted beside it. If God put Adam out of this earthly Eden on account of one sin, do you think he will let us into the Paradise above with our tens of thousands of sins upon us? If he punished one sin in that way, and would not allow him to live in the old garden for one sin, will he permit us to go to heaven, with all our many sins upon us? There is no sense in the sacred history of the atonement, unless our sins have been transferred to another and put away. There is no hope unless God's sword has been raised against «n; and if God finds sin on you and I, we must die. All we have to do is to turn our sins over to him who has borne our sins in his own body on the tree. Will you turn to the third chapter of Colossians, 3d verse: "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." When Adam was driven out of Eden, all he lost was an earthly garden. God never promised him heaven. He was not a fallen man; he was an earthly man. God gave him Eden. What do we get if we are of the second Adam? The moment that God pronounced his creation good, then evil began to creep in. You could hear the footsteps of Satan coming. Satan said to himself: "Good, is it? I will mar it then;" and he went to work to destroy God's work. But no sooner had Satan left Eden, than God came right down and put man into a higher place than before. Thanks be to him, we have our life hid with Christ in God! You know Satan was once the son of the morning, but God afterward cast him out; and now God takes a man and puts him in Satan's former place beside him on the throne. We have more in the second Adam than we lost in the first Adam. There is a poor sinner that takes and hides his life in Christ; how will Satan get at him? He is secure. Our life is where Satan cannot get at it. If he could, he would get at it before we oould have time to get our dinners to-day, and we oould not have the power ourselves to keep him out; but Christ keeps him out, and we are secure. When God said to old Adam, "Where art thou?" Adam went and hid away. When he asked the second Adam, "Where art thou?" he was at the right hand of God. When God asked the first Adam, "What hast thou done?" he said he had sinned. The second Adam said, "I have glorified thee forever." He came for that purpose; that is all that he did when he was down here on earth.

I want to call your attention to the natures of the two men. It is one of the most important truths that can be brought out, I was a Christian for twelve or fifteen years before I understood the two natures. I had a good deal of doubt and uncertainty, because I did not understand one thing. I thought when a man was converted God changed his whole nature. We very often talk about a change of heart. I do not think that is a good way to put it. You cannot find those words in scripture. All through scripture it is a. "new birth;" it is a new creation; it is a new life given; "born from above of the Spirit;" "born again." If it is a new birth, it must be a new nature. I believe that every child of God has two natures. Some people say, "Why have you Christians so much conflict? You are always struggling with yourselves, and having conflict. We don't have it. Why is it?" Because we have two natures; and there is a battle always going on between the worlds of light and darkness. Once there was a judge who had a colored man. The colored man was very godly, and the judge used to have him to drive him around in his circuit. The judge often talked with him; and the man would tell the judge about his religious experience, and battles and conflicts. One day the judge said to him: "Sambo, how is it that you Christians are always talking about the conflict you have with Satan? I am better off than you are. I don't have any conflicts or trouble, and yet I am an infidel." That floored the colored man for a while. He didn't know how to meet the old infidel's argument. The judge always carried a gun along with him, for hunting. Pretty soon they came to a lot of ducks. The judge took his gun and blazed away at them, and wounded one and killed another. The judge said quickly, "You jump in and get the wounded duck;" and did not pay any attention to the dead one until the wounded one was safely secured. The colored man then thought he had his illustration. He said to the judge, "I think I can explain to you now how it is that Christians have more conflict than infidels. Don't you know that the moment you wounded that duck, how anxious you was to get him out, and that you didn't care anything about the dead duck until after you had saved the other one?" "Yes," said

the judge. ^uWell, I am a wounded duck; and I am all the time trying to get away from the devil; but you are a dead duck, and he has you anyhow, and does not bother about you until he gets me for certain. So the devil has no conflict. He can devour the helpless and the widow, and it does not trouble him; he can drive a sharp bargain, and get the advantage of a man and ruin him, and not be troubled about it; and he can heap up such things all the time and have no conflict within. Why? Because the new nature in him is not begun. When a man is born of God, he gets a new life. One is from heaven and comes from Christ, that heavenly manna that comes from the throne of God. The other is of the earth, earthy, and comes of the old Adam. When I was born of my father and mother, I received their nature; when they were born of their parents, they received their nature; and you can trace it back to Eden. We then received God's nature.

There are two natures in man that are as distinct as day and night. With that old Adam in us, if we do not keep him down m the place of death, he brings us into captivity. I do not see how any one can explain the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans in any other way. People sometimes tell me they have got out of the 7th chapter of Romans; but I notice they get back there again, always. The fact is, we do not know ourselves. It takes us all our lives to find out who and what we are: and when we think we know, something happens that makes us think we are not much further than we were when we started. The heart is deceitful above all things. In the 6th chapter of Romans, it is written: "Knowing this, that the old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." And in the llth verse there are just three words to be specially considered: "Reckon yourselves dead." If we were really dead, we would not have to reckon ourselves dead; but if we were dead, aa it means there, we would have to think of it and "reckon" about it. Judicially, we are dead; but in reality we are down here fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil., Some people seem to think they have got away from the flesh, and that they are soaring away in a sort of seventh heaven; but they get back again sooner or later. We find them wandering off down here. You cannot make the flesh anything but flesh. It will be flesh all the time; it will bring us into captivity. If we do not put it off and crucify it, and keep it in the place of death, it will keep us there forever. What if a man does yield, and says it is not he, but it is the sin in him? It is but one man after all, not two men; and one man is responsible. If I am led astray by Satan, I may protest against it as much as my accuser does. I say, I know I have been wrong; I was off my guard; I was not watching; but I hate it as much as any one does. That is the reason why, in the 7th chapter of Romans, he calls it, "I protest." But protestation does not excuse us. A man went into court having been arrested for something. He said he did not do it; and when it was proved on him, he said he did not do it—it was the old man in him. The judge said: "Well, I will send the old man to prison; the other may do what he can." If we yield and sin, we hare to suffer.

And at the very time that we are doing good, Satan comes along and says, "That is a good action;" and goes on and gets us all puffed up. There are a good many that have been ruined by spiritual pride. This very time we are trying to do good, the devil is present trying to get us to do it with some impure motive. We are to put him off; he is no longer our master. We have been redeemed, and we belong to the new man. We must starve out the old man; give him no food at all; not let him speak. The more we put him down, the weaker he gets, and the more the new man speaks through us, the more power he has and stronger he gets. As the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker, the house of David grew stronger. If you feed the old Adam it will go right on growing. If you go on with the world, and go to the theaters and to dancing-halls in preference to prayer-meetings, the old man will get stronger and stronger.

A friend of mine said that when he was converted and began preaching, he talked a good deal about himself. He said one day he saw in one of the hymn books left by a godly woman who had a seat in the church, a fly leaf on which was written these words,: "Dear Harry; not I, but Christ; not flesh, but spirit; not sight, but faith." These words my friend pasted in hisBible, and never preached or thought any more about himself. He kept himself out of the way. That is just what the old man does not do. With him it is self, self, self. If it is the new man, it is not I, but Christ. If it is the new man, it is not flesh, but spirit. If it is the new man, it is not sight but faith. In the old Adam, it is death; in the new Adam, it is eternal life. We all come under the two heads. Which, my friend, do you belong to, the old creation or the new? Let us pray that we may stand by the throne of God, clothed in the righteousness of the second Adam.