Good morning, Happy Sabbath. We're so glad that you're tuning in for another "central study hour," coming to you from the Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church. I just want to welcome those of you who are listening on the radio, watching on the various television networks, or watching this morning live on our website at saccentral.org. Welcome, and we're so glad that you are a part of our Sabbath school family each and every week, from across the country and around the world. We got a note in that Pastor Doug wanted me to share with you.
This is from Joel. He lives in portugal. And Joel has been attending a small church in his city for more than 6 years. And his purpose in writing was to say that, "all of Sacramento central church and all the people involved in the wonderful ministry of Amazing Facts," he is deeply thankful for each and every one of you. And he feels a part of our community.
He listens to Sabbath school every week. And "it's simply wonderful to learn the many new and amazing things with you each week by Pastor Doug." He names all the pastors here at central, don macintosh from afcoe. And he's sorry if he forgot anybody. That's okay. And when he's invited to teach his Sabbath school lesson at his church, the study at his church, he doesn't stress out, because he just watches central.
So--and he's very excited for the precious teachings that he's been learning from us. So Joel in portugal, thank you for your note. And Happy Sabbath to everyone in portugal this morning. We're gonna sing some songs as we usually do. And we're gonna start with number 50.
So turn in your hymnals to number 50. This is "Abide with me." And this I found out this morning is one of jolene's favorites. And this has been one of my favorites since high school. So we're going to definitely sing that this morning. Number 50, we're gonna do all verses.
This is from carol and Josephine in australia, patrick and sherry in Canada, alexandra and John in New York, Jacob in tennessee, luanne in Texas, and abizer in Utah, and sam in Wyoming. This is a favorite. So we want to hear you sing this nice and loud at home and here. All 4 verses, number 50. [Music] I love the last verse of that song.
"Where is death's sing? Where grave, thy victory? I triumph still, if thou abide with me." Thank you so much for that request. We really enjoyed that one this morning. If you have a favorite song that you would like to sing with us on an upcoming Sabbath, please go to our website, saccentral.org. Click on the "contact us" link, and you'll see right there where you can send in your song requests. And it is not too early to request, "silent night.
" So feel free, that one and other Christmas ones, at our website. Our opening song this morning is number 73, "holy, holy, holy." And this is from Michael in Missouri, elaina in California, nazin in Nevada, and maryanne in norway. , 1St, 2nd, and 4th verse. [Music] Father in Heaven, you are holy, holy, holy. And we come before you this morning with reverence and with awe, because you are our Heavenly Father.
You created us. You created the world. And we just thank you so much for loving us in such a way that you sent your son to die on the cross for us so that we can meet you one day. And we know that that day is gonna be very soon. We just pray that you will be with us this morning as we open up the word together and we study.
And we thank you for bringing Pastor Doug back from Texas. And we pray that you will be with us through the remainder of this day, that we will keep this day holy. In Jesus' Name, amen. At this time our lesson study is going to be brought to us by our senior pastor here at central church, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Hi.
I forgot to turn my microphone on. Thank you very much to our musicians. It's nice to have that full complement of instruments as well as the ladies' voices. Good to see each of you. It is good to be back at central church.
And I realize at the time of this live broadcast that 3 weeks have gone by since we finished the Amazing Adventure. But this is actually my first time back since we came back from Texas. And oh that was great. We had such a good experience there and are so thankful for the way the Lord blessed that program with the young people. And this also represents my first opportunity to get into our new lesson, dealing with the subject of "the atonement," "the cross of Christ," "the atonement and the cross of Christ.
And so I'm very thankful to be with you. Want to welcome our friends who are studying from all over the world and all different avenues. Some are on the radio. Some are watching on the internet. Some are watching on the different networks that are broadcasting the program.
And we thank them for carrying Sabbath school at central church. Also, if you missed this or only get part of the broadcast, you can go to amazingfacts.tv. And there it's got a library. And you can see past broadcasts of central church if you missed something for your study time. What am I forgetting? Oh, we have a free offer.
Offer goes along with today's study. And we're talking about the fall, dealing with the temptation of adam and eve in the fall and thought it would be very appropriate to offer tips for resisting temptation. We don't want you to fall anymore than necessary. None of it's necessary. Jude says he is able to keep you from falling.
Amen? So if you'd like a free copy of the book, "tips for resisting temptation," just call the number on your screen, -788-3966. One more time for those listening on the radio, -788-3966. And ask for offer number 708. Makes it easier for those who are manning the phones, offer number 708. We'll just send it to you because you asked.
Jesus says, "give to him that asketh of thee." And we're trying to do that. Our lesson today, "the fall into sin," talking about the atonement. And of course, one of the foundational issues we could address is how did we get in this mess to begin with? What happened? We have a memory verse: Romans 7:24 and this is from the new American standard Bible. That's a good translation, but you know what always is a little frustrating? Whenever you hop from translation to translation--everybody tries to memorize Scripture I hope. But if we're all memorizing from different translations, then when we quote together, it sounds a little bit like the echoes of Babylon, because it's just all a little different.
But the new American standard Bible is a pretty good translation. Let's do this out of our Sabbath school quarterlies. You ready? Romans 7:24, "wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?" And of course king James says, "who will deliver me from this body of death?" How did we get to the place where we're born with these natural propensities towards sin? Well, it all dates back to the original sin in the garden with--and the original sin in the garden is not the first sin. Before you had the sin in the garden, you had the sin in heaven. And it started with adam and eve.
But we're going to take a look at what happened here. Now keep in mind, when God made everything, did he make a perfect world? Did God malfunction some transistors somewhere? I mean if God is perfect and God is all-powerful and if the creation now was flawed, doesn't it stand to reason he must have done something wrong? No. The Bible record is that when God made everything, he made everything good. "It was good." It was perfect. Everything God does is perfect.
Amen. But something went wrong. It was because God made all of his creatures free. And especially, his intelligent creatures have free choice. Now that's very important.
You know that there are some Christian churches that say we really don't have free choice; we are predestined. And that implies that God predetermined that adam would sin. Well, if that's true, if God--if sin is violation of the law of God, and if God predetermines that his creatures should sin, then God becomes an accomplice to every sin. That makes God an accomplice to lying, an accomplice to murder, an accomplice to adultery. So that's a problem if you go down that road.
Man is free. God makes his creatures where they're able to love. And if you're not free to choose, you can't really love. If you're preprogrammed to love, it's not love. Then it's instinctive.
And so we have a choice. And adam and eve had a choice. And they chose poorly. You remember there was a garden. And everything was perfect.
And God made things in order of their importance. He starts with the unintelligent elements. They can't think. They can't choose. You know, the air and the land and the light and the sea.
And then he makes the vegetation. And it can't think. And it can't choose. And then he makes the sun and the moon and the stars. And they're bright, but they don't think.
And they can't love. And then he begins to make the more intelligent creatures as you get to the fifth day, the ones in the sea and the ones in the air. And then he makes the higher intelligent creatures on the sixth day. And he ends up with man made in his own image. And ladies really like it when you say that the crowning act of creation was not man, but woman.
Of course, there's two views on that. There's a little girl who said that after God got done making man, he said, "I think I can do better than that," and he made woman. And then you've got man's take on how that happened. God told adam he was going to make a woman for him to be a companion. "And he said, 'this person will gather food for you and cook for you.
When you discover clothing, she'll wash it for you. She'll always agree with every decision you make. She'll bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night and take care of them. She'll not nag you. And she'll always be the first to admit she was wrong.
And when you have a disagreement, she'll freely give you love whenever you need it and never have a headache.' And adam asked, 'what would a woman like this cost?' And God said, 'an arm and a leg.' And adam said, 'well, what can I get for a rib?' And the rest is history." I'm sorry. I thought that was cute. But we are talking about the fall. It's kind of heavy, so we needed to lighten the tension a little bit. So he made man, he made his creatures, the higher creatures, with the ability to love, to choose, to think, and to procreate.
In one way that man was made in the image of God is that God creates in his own image. Man, through an act of love, creates in his own image. God, through an act of love, God said, "let us," God The Father, son and spirit cooperated and said, "let us make man in our image." They didn't say that about the other creatures in that way. So there was a cooperation. And through love, they created in their own image.
A man and woman become one flesh. And through an act of love, re-create in their own image. That infuriated the devil that he couldn't do that. That's one reason he focused his wrath on this world. It was a--this world to the devil was exhibit-a that he was not God and he could not create.
In some ways, think about it, humans have something even angels don't have. "Angels do not marry," Jesus said, "neither are they given a marriage." They are created. They do not procreate. God says of lucifer, "you are perfect in your ways the day you were created." He wasn't born. So man is different.
And he can choose. God told him what he should do and what he should not do. I've given some Scriptures out and if someone could please read Genesis 2:16-17. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die." God said that when you-- "the day that you eat therefore you will surely die." Now was the Lord ambiguous about this? Did he tell 'em, you know, "I'd prefer--i recommend that you don't eat it?" "It'd be better if you don't eat it." Or did he say, "don't do it?" Have you found out as parents with your children that sometimes if you're all ambiguous about what you're asking them to do, they'll exploit that? And you know, you say, you know, "when you get a chance, I'd like you to get up there and make your bed." They may never make their bed. You gotta be sometimes specific, "right this minute I want you to go up there and make your bed.
" Anyway, but God was very clear. But what happened? Someone read for me Genesis 6-- I'm sorry, Genesis 3:6. "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." You know, I read again last night the account of this that you find in the book, "Patriarchs and Prophets." And when adam saw what eve had done, he was filled with horror. He was terrified by it.
But then he thought, "well, she hasn't fallen over dead." Matter of fact, she looked as beautiful as ever. And she seemed almost exhilarated by it. And he thought, "you know, if I was gonna lose her, I just as soon share her fate. I can't imagine living in the garden without her." And so sort of in a rash moment, he seized the fruit and bit it. And what he did in doing that, he put the love of his wife ahead of the love for God who made his wife.
Now we often do that. We love people and family more than God. How often I've heard somebody say, "well, you know, I'm gonna make my decision for Christ. I'm waiting on my wife." "I'm waiting on my husband." And do you put the gift ahead of the giver? Is it appropriate to love a gift someone gives you more than the one who gives you the gift? And that's what happens when you put anybody ahead of the one who makes people. It's inappropriate.
You should always love the creator more than the creation. And adam put eve first. Now what was it that the devil really put before eve as a temptation? He placed before her what he wanted. Have you ever noticed sometimes when people accuse you of something wrong, they will superimpose their own desires on you? You can sometimes read what a person wants because they assume everyone thinks like they do. And the devil, he wanted to be God.
So he said to eve, "if you eat the forbidden fruit, you will be as God." And so he thought, "well, if that's attractive to me, maybe it'll be attractive her." "God's hiding something from you." That was what the devil thought; "the Lord's keeping back power from me. And he's keeping back this existence of divinity from me." And so he really implanted within eve's mind, the very same things that he wanted, a higher state than what God had assigned. Oh, by the way, in the same book, "Patriarchs and Prophets," it says, "there are a lot of eves in the world today that are also still looking for a higher state than that which God has assigned." Just had to throw that in. Let me see here; let's go on to section number 2: "slaves of sin." Now what happened immediately after man disobeyed? What was the immediate result? Adam and eve entered into a higher existence, they felt more love for each other, there was more harmony and peace, or was it the opposite of all those things? Opposite. Isaiah 59:2.
Let me read this for you. And tell you what, I want someone to look up for me Peter 2:19 and Romans 6:16, Peter 2:19 and Romans 6:16. All right, I'll start with Isaiah 59:2, "but your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." Could adam and eve talk to God face-to-face? Yes. What was one of the first things that happened when they sinned? They noticed the separation. Now it says, "your sins have separated.
" What does and how does sin separate? Might I submit: sin will separate you from God. We just read that. Why can't we see God and the angels right now? Our sins have separated. And God does this really out of love for us, because if God should suddenly appear to us in his glory, the presence of the Lord would be a consuming fire. We could not survive it.
Sin separates from each other. Whenever I'm involved in any kind of marriage counseling, I can almost guarantee you that there's division in the family because of sin. It's never because, you know, they can't get along, 'cause they love too much. It's usually the antithesis of that. It's selfishness.
It's sin. And furthermore, and this may sound strange, sin will separate you from yourself. Now, in "the Great Controversy," there are three individuals that you need to be aware of: God, others, and you. "Love the Lord. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
" The plan of salvation helps you; it restores you in your love with God. It restores you in your love with others. And it restores you with an appropriate love for yourself. A lot of people talk about appropriate self-esteem. And a lot of what the psychologists talk about today is really self-love first.
A lot of insecurity is a person who, it's not low self-esteem, it's too much love for themself. All they think about is themself. And so it translates into what looks like low self-esteem. They're just so preoccupied with themselves, but they don't like what they see. When you have the right heart, your heart has been recreated, and you have the love for God first and love for your neighbor, then you will have the appropriate love for yourself.
Some people are mean and bitter, because they don't like themselves. When you believe that you're forgiven by God, and you can accept yourself, you have a healthy attitude about who you are, you're not separated from yourself. And so sin separates you from God. Sin separates you from others. And sin separates you from you.
Salvation restores all of those relationships. Very simple point. Well, right away, you begin to see after adam and eve sinned, they felt a cool breeze go through the garden. And instead of feeling enlightened, all of a sudden, these robes of light that they wore--remember when Moses talked to God face-to-face, his face glowed. Adam and eve didn't wear any artificial clothing, but they glowed, especially in all the right places so that there was a modesty.
They had these robes of light. And when they sinned, I just imagine that the light kind of pulsated and went out. You've heard about--you've seen a brownout before? Had a blackout. And all of a sudden they felt a chill in the garden. They looked down.
And adam looked at eve, and he saw her the way he'd never seen her before. And eve looked at adam. And they realized something's wrong. And they ran and covered themselves. So right away sin brings shame.
They were ashamed. How often when someone says, when they're tempted, the devil will say, "ahh, this is gonna be really good. This is gonna be sensual. This is gonna be exciting. This is gonna be satisfying.
" And he tempts us. And when we give in, immediately the devil says, "oh, I got what I want. I'm not giving any more satisfaction now. Now I'm gonna give shame." See, the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He'll tempt you to do something, not because he really wants you to be happy.
You think the devil wants you to be happy? Do you think the devil wants you to be satisfied? The devil hates you. He just wants you to sin so he can then point to God and say, "see, they don't love you." Then what you feel is shame, disgrace, separation, guilt. And so it's a lie that sin is gonna bring satisfaction. Isn't that what he told eve? "Oh, a new state of experience." And what did they experience? Coldness, separation, shame. Matter of fact, I got a little poem here somewhere.
Let's see if i--i hope I printed it in my notes. Yeah. "First the why, then the lie. First the doubt, then the pout. First the bite, then the fight.
First the shame, then the blame. First the fear, then the first tear. First worry, then first hurry," to cover their nakedness. "First sigh, first cry. First stress, first mess.
" When adam and eve began to question the Word of God, all the misery and pain that you see in the world--if you've ever wondered how a little decision can play out in enormous consequences, picture nuclear explosions and thousands dying, picture plagues and millions dying, picture heartache and cemeteries that blanket the countryside, think of all the misery and woe in the world. And it all came from, "hath God said?" Questioning the Word of God. "Can you really trust what God said? Does he really mean what he says? Is it true? Can you believe it?" And look at all the problems in the world that came from doubting God's Word. Faith is the solution for all the pain in the world. Isn't that right? Doubt is the hole in the damn from which bursts all of the misery in our creation.
"Oh, God's hiding wonderful things from you." What happened to man afterward? Romans 5, no wait, Romans 3, no wait, 2 Peter--i gave out some Scriptures and then I started to become enamored with my own voice--2 Peter 2:19. Mike, I see your hand right here. And then I think I gave out to somebody else, Romans 6:16. But let's start with Peter 2:19. 2 Peter 2:19, "while they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
" Now everybody serves somebody. When adam and eve rejected the willing service of God, who did they become servants of? Satan and sin. And the devil basically took over this world, took dominion. Romans 6:16, Paul, he also expands on that, that thought. Romans 6:16.
"Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." Everybody's obeying somebody. That's what Paul said. And one mode of obedience leads to life. And the other leads to death. If we obey the devil and the temptations of the devil, it leads to death.
You notice, did adam and eve die right away? They did spiritually die. They experienced--you see before, their cells and their body, they were just gonna live forever. They were gonna heal. They weren't gonna get old. They weren't gonna age.
As soon as they sinned, something happened. And they began to go through what every other human goes through. From the time of birth, babies are born perfect. And from that point, they may grow up, but they start to die, the imperfections, the scars, the residue of different disease. I mean we don't heal the way God intended us to.
Romans 3:9, let me read this to you. It bears out the idea of the slavery of sin. Romans 3, I'm gonna read verse 9-12. "What then?" Are they, "better than they-- "are we better than they? No, not at all. We have previously charged both jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
As it is written: 'there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They've all turned aside; they have all together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.'" So how many have sinned? All. You can read also in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Someone read for me job 14:4, one more verse on this subject. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one." And job is a perfect and upright man. And yet, he recognized that, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
" Well, that leads us into--i want to read a quote from the book, "steps to Christ." Did something happen to mankind after sin that every man is born with? How was adam different in his nature when he was created than we are? What did adam feel that made temptation different for him than it is for us? Did adam have the natural bent and inclination towards sin that we have? You know, we're born with iron in our natures. And sin is like a large magnet; we are attracted. Adam did not have any iron in his nature. He did not feel that attraction. In one sense it was worse for adam and eve when they sinned than it is for us, in that we're born with the tendency.
They were not created with that tendency. Now this is very important for us to understand. When Jesus came into our world, did Jesus have the attitude and the nature of adam or of us? He had the fallen nature because he's an example of victory for us. Was Jesus tempted? Was he tempted like adam was tempted or was he tempted like we're tempted? The temptation of adam was different than our temptation. We have this natural inclination, this natural pull towards sin.
"Jesus was tempted," the Bible says in Hebrews, "in all points as we are." Otherwise, how could he be a faithful high priest, yet without sin? How could he be our high priest if he was tempted like adam? We already know. That's what makes Jesus the second adam. Adam was tempted in a garden without the natural inclination towards sin. And he fell because he chose. It was a rebellion.
See, and that's what we're talking about. It's a rebellion. Jesus was not tempted in a garden; he was tempted in a desert. He had the same inclinations we have, yet he resisted. That's why he is such a great high priest for you and i, because he overcame with the same tools that are in your box and mine.
So you and I can't say, "well, of course, Jesus overcame. I mean, he was Jesus. He was unfallen. He didn't have that same nature." But why do you think Luke and Matthew go through all the genealogy of Jesus and give all the sordid history in his family tree? It's telling us he did have our dna. And yet he overcame.
Why even go through that? This is an important truth for us to understand. Am i--does this make sense? That's why the second adam is such a wonderful example for you and i. "Spiritual death," our next section. Romans 5:12. I would--i see a hand up here.
Romans 5:12. And while we're looking that up, I'm gonna read Psalms 51:5. I hope we're gonna get a microphone over there. I think he's gonna take the scenic route. "Behold," king David said--I'm in Psalms 51:5, "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
" Now is David saying that marital intimacy between jessie and his wife was sin? No. He's just saying that we've all got these sinful natures and we're just born with it. I mean when a baby's born, they're cute and they have no record of sin. Is that clear? They have no record of sin. But is that baby a loving creature or a selfish creature? Selfish.
You try to reason with them when they want what they want. And see if they're gonna put love first, your needs first, or their needs first. They need to be taught to love. And when a person is called "immature," you know what that means? They still have not learned to think of others. They think about themselves.
They react as a selfish creature. Babies, one of the way you teach maturity, you teach them to think of others. You teach them self-control. These things are not natural. Okay, so what was I gonna read next? Romans 5:12, do we have that? Romans 5:12, "therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
" You know, there is a beautiful passage in "steps to Christ," that talks about where we're at now and the difference between our natures now and the nature that adam had. "Man--" this is "steps to Christ," page 17, "man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind." I believe adam had a photographic memory. I left the quote to say that. Now I'm back at the quote. "He was perfect in his being and in harmony with God.
His thoughts were pure; his aims holy." Is that natural for us? No. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked. Like sparks fly upward, we are prone to evil. "But through disobedience, his powers were perverted." And here it is, "selfishness took the place of love." When God made man in his own image, the image of Christ is love. God's nature is one of love.
Jesus, when he came into our world, he felt the selfish pull of adam's nature, but he chose love as we can. You see the difference? Can love be a choice? Jesus was given the new heart as we can be given the new heart. Even with our fallen bodies, we can have new hearts that are motivated by love. "Through disobedience, his powers were perverted, selfishness took the place of love." That statement there is so simple, but really it describes everything. What's the difference between Christ and the devil? Devil's motivated by selfishness; Jesus is motivated by love.
When you are tempted to sin, who are you thinking about? I mean, when people lie or when they lust or when they murder, I mean, you just look at it for a moment and you'll see selfishness is at the core of that. And when we chose to obey, or when we choose to do God's will, love is at the foundation of that. It all really splits into two great motives. Is it me and myself? When the devil wanted to be God--you ever read that passage in Isaiah? "I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne.
I will be like the most high." It's all i, i, i, i. Someone says, "the devil had 'i' trouble." And a lot of us, we naturally think about ourselves. It's only the new birth that gives us the ability to put others first. And so I haven't finished my quote yet. "His nature became so weakened through transgression, that it was impossible for him in his own strength to resist the power of evil.
He was made captive by satan. And he would have reMained so forever had not God specially interposed," had not God intervened. "But God so loved the world," he got involved. He intervened. He came to our world.
And so we read the passage there in Romans 5:12, "just as through one man," adam, "sinned entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." So that's what happened. And there's only been one who's never sinned. You'll find no record in the Bible of Daniel's sin. You really find no record in the Bible of Elisha's sin. But you know they sinned.
John the baptist, well he had some doubts in the prison. But he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit from childhood. But the Bible says, "all sinned." Enoch was translated without death. That's wonderful. Oldest man who ever lived is Enoch.
He's still alive, right? That's a health supplement you want: walk with God. But did he sin? "All sinned," except Jesus. All right, Ecclesiastes 7:20, also talks about this natural tendency we have. And I don't know if somebody has that one ready in their holster. If not, let me read that to you.
It's a short one. "For there is not a just man on the earth who does good and does not sin." There's "not a just man on the earth who does good and does not sin," all of us. Jeremiah 17, "the heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" Jesus said in John 3:6, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." We're all born of the flesh with these selfish natures. In order to overcome that, what do we need? Second birth.
We need a new birth. We need Jesus to be born within, to be born of the Holy Spirit. If we're only born once, we're dead. We must be born again. Let me read something to you.
This is from the book, "Patriarchs and Prophets," page 60. "The warning given to our first parents, 'in the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die,'" this is under the section of "spiritual death," "in the day you eat thereof, you will surely die." "It did not imply that they were to die on that very day they partook of the forbidden fruit." Meaning they weren't gonna fall over. "But on that day, the irrevocable sentence would be pronounced. Immortality was promised to them on the condition of obedience. By transgression, they would forfeit eternal life.
That very day that they sinned, they were doomed." That day they died spiritually. That day they were doomed. Now let me give you one more way that that verse is true. "In the day that you" sin "thereof, you will surely die." There are three or four verses in the Bible--oh, one of 'em I think is 2 Peter 3--is it verse 8 or 9? "A day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day." I think it's verse 8. Yeah, "a thousand years in your sight are as a day when it is gone," in Psalms.
Did any man live over a thousand years? And if a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and God says, "in the day that you eat thereof you will die," and adam lived years, did he die in that day? That first millennial day he died. No man lived beyond that day. It's interesting; they all got so close. You got methuselah who's the second oldest man. His father was the oldest.
He lived 969 years. Thirty more years he could have set a thousand. But no one made it beyond that first millennial day. Andy, you got a thought? Can I share something that-- well, you'll have to say it so I can repeat it. All right, there's a microphone.
I just wanted to share. I looked this up in the Hebrew a long time ago. And it says, "dying you will die," which means the process would begin immediately that would inevitably lead to death. That's right. And that supports what we just read.
Ellen white says here in "Patriarchs and Prophets," "in dying you will die." So some people read it and they think it means that adam and eve were supposed to just drop on that spot when they disobeyed, or at least in that 24-hour period. But the gift of eternal life was withdrawn. They began to die. And of course that's demonstrated by the light going out. Let's move on here.
You've got the physical death and the eternal death. "Death is not just a simple biological phenomenon, but it is a fearful awareness of our eternal separation from the source of life, a separation that leads to eternal extinction." This is from the lesson. "With the entrance of sin into the world, the human race was an endangered species about to disappear from the universe, if God did not intervene." Now the promise is made. This is not only talking about sin. We want to talk about the atonement.
The atonement was you've got the first adam and eve fell. There is a second adam and eve. And by the way, you know right now in California, time of this taping, there's a lot going on. It's very disturbing that we have to vote soon on a proposition in California that declares that marriage is between a man and a woman. Actually, this will be the second time Californians have voted on it.
We voted on it, and it passed overwhelmingly. And a handful of Judges overturned it. And now we've got a proposition 8, voting on the constitution. And by the way, the church leaders are supporting a "yes on proposition 8." I mean it seems sad that we would have to say we're voting that marriage is between a man and a woman. One of the things that's undermined by this is the whole plan of salvation is in the context of a man and a woman.
The first prophecy in the Bible was between a woman and the seed of the woman. It's about a marriage, Christ and his church. All of that unravels through this perverted concept of marriage. In any event--so, you've got the first adam and eve fell. There's the second adam.
There's the second eve. See adam went to sleep. God opened his side and brought out a bride. Jesus said, "it is finished." He went to sleep on the cross. A spear opened his side and the church was born.
You've got the new eve. So you've got the first adam and the first eve that fell. Christ and his church--that woman that you see in Revelation 12 is a symbol of God's church. How does the Bible address the church? As the saints. They're holy in God's eyes, because they've washed their robes and made them white.
They're not naked now; they're clothed with white robes washed in the blood. And so you've got the second adam and the second eve, which is the church. "The rebellion of one: the first adam; then you've got Jesus, the submission of the other. The first adam: one lost paradise in a garden; the second adam regained it in a wilderness," when he was tempted. "The side of Jesus was opened and out came his wife," just as the side of adam was opened and out came his wife.
"Adam was buried after years. Jesus was buried in baptism after 30 years." Kind of interesting. "Satan ruined all men in one man," because of the fall of adam, all men were ruined. "And God redeemed all men in one man, Christ." That's Ephesians, by the way, 1:3. "By transgression of one, many died.
But much more did the grace of God and the gift of Christ through that one man Jesus abound unto life in many." Through the sin of adam, many have died, but through faith in Christ, many will be made alive, resurrected. "Judgment arose from one transgression, which resulted in condemnation. But the free gift, the mercy of Jesus Christ, the last adam, resulted in absolution, atonement, and justification." So, so many fell under judgment and condemnation because of the sin of the first adam. So many are absolved and forgiven because of the atonement of Jesus, the second adam. Let me ask you a question this way.
I'm not quite done here, but I just want to make sure you're grasping the importance of this. How many of you have physically experienced the problems of the first adam? It's real to you. Do you really experience death and aging and temptation? Do you experience the fall? Is it just a philosophy or is it very real to you? So as real as the problems of the first adam's fall, that's how real the victory of the second adam's victory should be to you. Feeling the encroachment of death from the fall of the first adam, it's very real, through faith in the second adam, the life he offers should be just as real. Most of us don't have problem believing in the death sentence of the first adam.
Do you believe that you can have life from the second adam? It should be just as real. And so this is what the Bible's saying. Yes, we've all got this problem because of the fall of the first adam, the rebellion. Through the submission of Christ, all of us can partake in that. We didn't have a choice, because of the first adam's decision.
Have you thought before when the children of Israel went down to Egypt, a few generations later the whole nation found themselves slaves. And you know why they were slaves? Because of a decision their fathers had made. They didn't want to be a nation of slaves. "Whatever got us here in the first place?" "Our fathers made a decision." "It's not fair." "Well, your fathers did it." "Under the third and fourth generation?" Tough, you gotta suffer." It's not fair that adam did it. Well, we can't do anything about that.
But Moses came. And they had a choice to be free. Because of Jacob going down, they became a nation of slaves. Because of Moses coming out, they became a nation of Kings and priests. And that's the plan of salvation.
We can be redeemed. There's this great atonement that's promised. Where was i? I want to read this. "Through the one man's disobedience, we were made sinners. Through the obedience of the one, Christ, the second adam, we who believe are made righteous.
With the first adam, it was eating the forbidden fruit with his wife. The covenant was lost. The tree looked good. Through Jesus, the second adam, a new covenant is made when they ate the bread and through that we find life." Isn't that interesting? "One was given clothes to cover his skin. The other gave away his clothes to cover our nakedness," Jesus at the cross.
Oh, it's just such a--it's such a beautiful story. You've got when they looked at the tree, it says in 1 John 2, you've got three things that lead to the fall, three categories of sin. This is 1 John 2:15-16. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." "The first adam looked at the tree." It says, "it looked good for food. Lust of the flesh: food.
It was pleasant to the eyes: the lust of the eyes. It was desirable to make one wise: the pride of life. The second adam, he was told to command the stones to become bread, but he put the Word of God, the bread of life first." The devil showed him all the Kingdoms of the world, and said, "I'll give this, all this," the lust of the eyes. Jesus said, "no, you're to worship God only." And third, he said, the pride of life, "throw yourself down. Prove that you are God.
" And he wouldn't. He humbled himself. Ye shall not tempt the Lord. In the same areas where the first adam was tempted, the second adam was tempted. First adam fell; second adam was victorious.
I would like to vote for the second adam. How about you? That I would like to have the Spiritual dna now of the second adam. As real as I've already experienced the problems of the first adam, I through faith can have the experience of the second adam. That's good news, friends. "God's reaction to human sin.
" Romans 5:18-19, and this sort of summarizes what we've been talking about here. "Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." Oh, I think it's interesting that in the first three chapters of the Bible--if you'll open your Bible, you'll find in the first three chapters, God has the Tree of Life. Man is in paradise. He's eating from the Tree of Life.
He's peaceful. By chapter 3 there's a serpent and it is lost. And the serpent is cursed. Then you go to the last three chapters of the Bible. It says that sin is destroyed.
The serpent is destroyed. Judgment falls on the devil. He's cast in the lake of fire. The Tree of Life is restored. Man's robes are restored.
And he is now in the paradise again and he has eternal life. And so the whole Bible is basically telling us how do we get back to that edenic state of the Garden of Eden. And of course it comes through faith in Christ. So here you've got the panorama of the fall of man. And the solution to the fall is faith in Christ.
God said, "don't eat it." Man ate from the wrong tree. Does God still have a Tree of Life? It's called the cross. You know, I think it's interesting that the Bible says zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus. And we must climb a tree to see Jesus. We are crucified with Christ.
Jesus looked up in that tree and he found fruit. He found no fruit in the fig tree, and it was cursed. But in that sycamore tree, which is a cheap fig tree--did you know that? When he saw zacchaeus up in the tree, he found fruit. Was zacchaeus converted? That's the kind of fruit that God is looking for. And for us, the Tree of Life is the cross.
Jesus was the fruit on the Tree of Life. He says, "except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life." Well, I think that this is a wonderful study that we're getting into, "the essence of the atonement." I'm very thankful for that. I also want to thank our friends who have been studying with us during this time. And our book, I think is something very practical. We've talked a little bit about the fall and the temptation of adam and eve.
Do you believe the Lord can keep us from falling? Is there counsel and promises, exceeding great and precious promises, in the word that we can lay hold on these and it can keep us from falling? We've got a special offer we'd like to make available to anybody just for asking. And it's called, "tips for resisting temptation." It's filled with Scripture, good Bible promises and common sense on things that we can do to avoid being overcome. If you'd like a free copy of that, just ask for offer number 708. Call the number, 866-788-3966. And God bless you, friends.
Thank you for studying with us here at Sacramento central church. And if you'd like to know more about being one of our cyber members, maybe you're isolated, and you don't have a neighborhood church you can go to, then just go to saccentral.org. We'd like to welcome you to the family. If you'd like to get one of these new study guides, we hope that you will visit your neighborhood Seventh-day Adventist Church and ask them to give you a copy of it. I'm sure they'll be happy to provide that.
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