 Well, D.L. Moody was an evangelist, and he loved to talk about Jesus Christ. And back in the day when Moody preached, he would get hecklers. And so people would heckle D.L. Moody, they'd say things, and they'd write him notes. And he was preaching at a campaign, and as he walked into the auditorium, someone handed him a note, and he thought it was just going to be an announcement. So he waited to get to the very front, and he stood up and he looked at the note. It just had one word, and it said, fool, the word fool. But Moody was quick on his feet, and he said, this is most unusual. I've just been handed a message, which consists of but one word, the word fool. I repeat, this is most unusual. I have often heard of those who have written letters and forgotten to sign their names. But this is the first time I've ever heard of anyone who signed his name and forgot to write the letter. And no kidding, then D.L. Moody changed his sermon to the text, the fool has said in his heart, there's no God. America evangelicalism, and in the West, is going through a foolish state, and that is, the fool has said in his heart, I'm not a sinner. You don't understand, I have a disease, I have an illness, I have a syndrome, I have someone else or something else to blame. When man is seen as good, you don't really need biblical grace. When man is seen as not as bad as the Bible portrays him or her to be, then something less than biblical grace is needed to save, to redeem, to justify. But the other way, since man is spiritually depraved, only God's grace will suffice. When grace is cheap and man is good, what's the church to do? If you've got the wrong diagnosis, then you don't have the right cure. J.C. Ryle said, listen, there are very few errors in false doctrines of which the beginning may be traced to unsound views of the corruption of human nature. When people struggle with theological issues, it almost always goes back to sin and depravity, and what does the Bible teach about those? In other words, if you get depravity wrong, you get everything wrong. And if you understand depravity, then you realize, oh, this will help me in evangelism because I can't talk someone into the gospel and believe in it. I just have to proclaim. It'll help you with your praise life when you think, I realize who I was before God saved me. I realize what I have now in Christ and the result is, and the difference is, joy, versus what does the world say? You deserve this, and what does the word deliver? World deliver. This, and the difference is depression and sadness. But when you get depravity right, everything falls into place. And so this morning we're going to look at cheap grace and the doctrine of total depravity, our radical corruption. If grace is cheap, you don't really need the biblical view of depravity. But we're going to look today at Romans chapter five as we work through this issue of depravity. The Westminster Confession says, man, by his fall into a state of sin, has holy WH lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. In other words, you can't make yourself a sheep. In other words, everything's affected. Our mind's affected by the fall, our will, our emotions. There's no island of righteousness, our will that's not affected. Everything is affected. As the comic strip says, we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. Now total depravity does not mean utter depravity, that everybody's as bad as they could be, right? Abortion doctors are nice to their wives. Hitler spared a priest when the priest begged for his life. Even in the Bible, Acts 28, on the island of Malta, the natives, Paul said, showed us extraordinary kindness. Even unbelieving natives can do kind of things. But total depravity means whole depravity. That is not total as bad as you could be, but total with respect to every aspect of our person and being is affected by the fall. That conscience will heart. It extends to all totally. As Jonathan Gershner said, for the unbeliever there's always room for deprovement. We're not as bad as we could be. We could be worse, but we are as blind as a cyclops with our one eye poked out. Positively stated, we cannot please the Lord on our own. Dear Abbey, I'm forty-four and would like to meet a man my age with no bad habits. Signed rose, dear rose, so would I. There is nothing in us as natural men and women that can commend us to God and have him save us, to earn merit. And we believe in total depravity. We lock our doors. We close our windows. We have keys. Security systems. We don't just have promises. We have to have a contract. But this is a humbling doctrine, and lots of people don't want to study total depravity because it humbles us. We don't know the one hundredth part of sin that clings to our soul, John Calvin said. Winston Churchill, he didn't really like Clement Attlee, his rival. He hardly said anything nice about him, so his friends were surprised one day when he said, Clement Attlee is a very humble man. And then Churchill had that twinkle in his eye like he normally does, and he said, of course, he's got a lot to be humble about. In New England we have something called the New England Primer. It was in the 1700s that it was made to cataclyse children, and it went through the alphabet, A, B, C, D, all the way through to teach the doctrines in the Bible. For instance, B, heaven to find the Bible mind. If you'd like to know heaven, it's in the Bible. C, Christ crucified for sinners died. D, the deluge drowned the earth around. Y, while youth do cheer, death may be near. X, Xerxes must die, and so must you and I. But my favorite all-time one that leads me into Romans chapter five this morning, A, in Adam's fall we sinned all. The key to understanding depravity in my mind is the fall, and so we're going to go through Romans chapter five this morning so we can get federal representation, understanding the fall. We would all know that we are sinners, but why are we sinners? What was the original sin? Sproul says when it comes to evangelicalism, I don't want to call myself an evangelical anymore because there's feminist evangelicals, homosexual evangelicals, liberal evangelicals, cheap grace evangelicals. We need a new word. We need a new term. We need to coin a new phrase and Sproul said, I think we need to call ourselves imputationalists. I love the idea it just doesn't, maybe it rolls off the tongue better in Spanish, I don't know. Hi, I'm an imputationalist. So we're going to look at Romans chapter five today with the doctrine of imputation. And here's what I want. I want you to see depravity at its origin, and then I want you to say that makes my salvation sweeter. If I realize how bad I really was, and then to know the riches I have now in Christ Jesus, the difference should be praise and thanksgiving and a wonder that God would save people like us. Now Romans chapter five verses one to 11, it's a wonderful passage. I'm not going to read it, but basically it teaches that salvation is by justification through faith alone. And it gives us the benefits of justification. So when God declares someone righteous based on the work of Christ Jesus, it is by grace alone through faith alone through Jesus alone. He doesn't make us righteous in the doctrine of justification. He declares us like a gavel in my home church study. I have a desk with computers set up, and I have a gavel sitting there that my wife got at some flea market or someplace, antique auction. And I have that gavel there to remind me that it's not that I'm made better in justification, but that God looks at me and even though he sees every sin I've ever committed and will ever commit, based on his son's work, he takes the gavel and even though Satan says I'm guilty, I really am guilty. The world thinks I'm guilty, but in God's eyes because I'm covered with the righteous robes of Christ Jesus, that gavel goes down not guilty. Sometimes when I watch those real court scenes and the person enters the plea and they're sitting there and the jury comes back and all rise and I just think if I was there and they were going to judge me to life sentence for the rest of my life and guys are swallowing hard, guilty or not guilty, and the gavel goes down and the thing is I am guilty, but the gavel comes down and says I'm not guilty. It's amazing. And so Paul is writing in Romans chapter 5 saying that salvation is through one man, Jesus alone. Think about our world today. How can salvation be through one person? You can't get there other ways, but salvation is through one person alone. How can one person's work affect so many? How can Jesus save people who were born before he was virgin born? How can Jesus save people when he was alive and how can Jesus save people two thousand, three thousand, four thousand years later if the Lord tarries? How can one man's life affect so many? That's Romans chapter 5, 1-11. So Paul says, let me tell you how one man's actions affect so many by going back to Adam. And that's where we move into Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 21 with the representative nature of Christ saving work. In other words, salvation by representation isn't a new concept because representation goes all the way back to the fall. One man representing us. Jesus Christ, one man saves. That should be nothing new because we're not just talking about the last Adam, Jesus. Let's take a look at the first Adam. And by the way, his work is far better Jesus's work than the first Adam. His more excellent work is going to be shown by Paul. And it's not against the law at all. It lines up perfectly with God's instruction. Federal representation by Jesus isn't new. It's not novel, it's not unusual, verses 12 through 14. Let's take a look at this passage and I was told this. Here's a little inside secret. I was told in seminary that if you'd like to be a good theologian, when your Bible opens naturally and normally, for those of you that still carry those things called Bibles and you don't have electronics scrolling down, when you open up your Bible normally and naturally, it should open up to Romans 5. This is the key chapter right here. So when I heard that, I was too proud to do it in school. So when I went home and I was like, Romans 5, this is it. Not because I'm preaching it, but because of what it contains. Romans chapter 5, when you get the fall down, then depravity falls into place. For me, when you say the fall where I live, they think of autumn colors in New England. What's the fall? People don't understand the fall anymore. Federal representation by Jesus isn't new and it's not novel because we've got the federal head Adam and the federal head Jesus, the first Adam, not the second Adam, but the last Adam Jesus. Romans 5, 12, therefore, you're gonna see a correlation between the acts of Adam and the acts of Christ and they both affect people one negatively, one positively. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin. Representation isn't new. It goes all the way back to Adam. The Puritans called Adam a public person. A public person, meaning he was going to be on probation in the garden and what he did affected the public, affected other people. This one man's work affected other people. Even though they weren't there, they didn't earn it, they didn't merit it, but God is going to use representation to affect other people because soon enough we're gonna see Jesus is the last representative. In God's wisdom, Adam is going to stand there as our legal representative in the garden and what he does will affect us. Not what Eve does, Eve actually sinned first. That wasn't credited to anyone's account. And right now you're probably saying to yourself, okay, I get credit for what Adam did because you go back to Romans 5, 12, what does it mean at the end there? Because all sin, that's the issue. That's where the fight is with Christians today. What does it mean because all sinned? How can we all sin in Adam? And I want you to just get this before we look at the text. I want you to think of symmetry. And I want you to think of what Adam did and what Jesus did, and there's going to be symmetry. And I hate to tip my hand early, but I'll do it anyway. Adam, what he did, you weren't there and God gave you credit for the sin. God gave everyone credit for the sin. Everybody got credit for Adam's sin. All sinned when Adam sinned. How can that work? I wasn't there, I didn't earn it, I didn't deserve it, I didn't merit it. Something's not right, there's a representative. I didn't pick him to be my representative. By the way, I think you would pick him to be a representative. We'll talk about that in a second. But there's a symmetry because soon you're gonna realize with Jesus, I didn't earn my salvation at the cross, I didn't merit it, and what Jesus did as my representative was credited to me and I wasn't there earning anything. I think you're gonna come to love federal representation, the first Adam and the last Adam. But what does it mean that all sinned? This is the battleground. Well, there's different options. Let me give you option one. It's the Pelagian view. The Pelagian view, because all sinned, well, you're born and then you personally fall. You just sin on your own. Everyone has their own personal fall. So Adam's sin is, it just gives us an example. It's by imitation that we sin. We look at Adam and therefore we sin because we imitate Adam. Now think symmetry again. If you look at Adam and then sin because of Adam's bad example, now you look at Jesus who didn't sin and do you get saved by looking at his good example? See, the symmetry falls apart. Following Christ's good example will not lead you to life. By the way, why does a baby die following Adam's bad example? More about that in a moment. We can't be saved by our own righteousness. By the way, if Adam is our bad example, then how did Adam sin? What was his bad example? So this Pelagian view doesn't work. Option two is hereditary depravity. Some people think because all sinned means that we have a physical connection to Adam. I'm a sinner because my father was a sinner because my grandfather was a sinner and that's all true but how did it start? Am I guilty of Adam's sin or not? Yes, I inherited a corrupt nature from my father but does Adam's sin get credited in my account? All sin, is it natural corruption? But when you look at the passage here, quickly it's one trust pass, one trust pass, one trust pass. I'm not even getting credit for all of Adam's sins. I don't get credit for a second sin, his third sin, his 500th sin. I'm just getting credit for his first hereditary depravity messes things up. One sin of Adam. When you look at Romans chapter five verses 12 and following, here's what you're gonna see. One sin, one sin, one transgression, one, one, one. One sin of Adam affects everyone. How is that? Now of course I'm a sinner because my father is a sinner but I'm going back to Adam. What's going on with Adam? The best option is federal representation. Oh there's another option too but we're not gonna go over that in the seminal option. Federal representation. Adam was my representative and when he sinned, God counted that sin to every person who has ever been born except for Christ. Let me show you some of these one acts. Verse 15 please, Romans 5, 15. The one act of Adam brings condemnation because he's our federal head. Think federal, think imputation, think singular. But the free gift is not like the transgression 5, 15 for if by the one transgression or if by the transgression, verse 16, tucked right there in the middle, the judgment arose from one transgression. Verse 17, for if by the transgression of the one, verse 18, as through one transgression, verse 19, through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. This is called immediate imputation, solidarity that we have with Adam as a federal representative. God chose Adam to be your representative. That's why it's wrong when you say when does mankind really become sinful? That's a wrong question to ask because God as one commentator says eternally contemplates every person as sinful because of Adam's sin. John Murray, because all sin, that's where the battleground is. I'm actually glad Adam was my representative because otherwise every one of us would have to be on probation and Adam was older in terms of his faculties. We'd have to be tested when we first were born as babies. Adam was in a perfect place. Adam had a lot riding on it as a representative. We would fall much faster. God has ordained this, that Adam is the first head, the first representative. Actually to use a language that comes alive in my mind, Thomas Goodwin, the Puritan said, every man is hanging on Adam's girdle. I never thought I'd say girdle from the pulpit ever. And just preach him as they come. God credits Adam's sin to every person and as a consequence people have sinful nature. One transgression of Adam brings death and condemnation. And by the way, since Adam was my representative, I'm still gonna be looking soon to another person who could be my representative. I've got the one representative, God's ordained that and there's another representative that God has ordained as well. I'll put it this way. One day you're going to die and you'll be put in a grave and ask yourself the question, why? And the answer is because Adam's sin was imputed to your account. And as a consequence, then you sinned. Two Adams influence the world. You say, yeah, but wait a second, federal representation, I don't know if I like. The curse of Canaan fell on all his children. This is the way God works. Sins of the fathers implicate the children. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, 10 commandments. When Pharaoh sinned, all of Egypt was affected. When David sinned, all of Israel was affected. Federal representation. And by the way, we live in what kind of government? Do you have senators here in Florida? Two senators maybe? And they represent you. And when they vote, you vote by imputation, binding. I did find it interesting that in 1941, when we declared war on Japan in December, one person in the US Congress, the first lady Congress person, Jeanette Rankin said no. But you know what? She said no to the war, but as a US Senator, US citizen rather, she voted yes for the war when the federal government voted yes for war. Binding implications for all. So it is with Adam's disobedience. Therefore, let me read the verse again. Just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned. How can all people sin because of federal representation? And it's answering the question, how can Jesus one man save many? Well, Adam one man condemned all, Jesus one man can save many. The all wise God determining through imputation by God's own free will. And what does Paul do? Think about this big picture for a second. The Jews are always running back to Moses. The Jews are always running back to Abraham. Father Abraham, he's our father in Judaism and kind of myopically looking at Judaism and what Paul does is he takes them back past Moses, past Abraham, all the way to Adam. Take your eyes off Father Abraham to Adam. One man affects many people. This is just, I mean, who writes this? American atheist journal. Christianity has fought, still fights and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution. Because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus's earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and original sin and in the rubble you will find the very sorry remains of the Son of God. The American atheist journal said, if Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing. Do you want to know why there's attack on Adam now via evolution? Because if you can get rid of the first Adam, you have no need for the last Adam, Christ Jesus. And then Paul gives a little parenthesis in verses 13 through 17, resuming with the main thought down in verse 18. See, he'll pick it back up again in verse 18. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all. But right now he's going to go on a little parenthesis saying that there's solidarity in the human family. When Eve sinned nothing happened, but as one man said, when Adam sinned all hell broke loose. One person said, sin is not found in the apple in the tree, but on the pear on the ground. It's funny, but it's not true because it's Adam, not the pear, Adam. And when you think of the fall and this tree and this fruit that they're not supposed to indulge in, medieval times said, oh, that was the sex act. Some people say, well, it's fruit that ferments and then you get drunk and so they got drunk. It was a test of man's obedience and dependence on God. It was a test of faith. It was a test of belief. It was a test of do you trust what God says are not. I like the old country preacher who said, Adam used to take his boys to the entrance of the Garden of Eden to show them what sin did. And he'd take his boys there and he would point in the garden and say, take a good look in there boys. That's where your ma ate us out of house and home. But it's not true. It's Adam's sin imputed to our account. You say, well, that's not fair. That just shows us how depraved we really are when God of the universe doesn't run the universe the way we want. Friends, I'm happy Adam was my representative because I would have sinned sooner. I think we've already got together in a congregational vote and said, we all want to vote for a representative. Who do we vote for? Pastor Mike, he's out for sure. Pastor Mark, he's better than Pastor Mike but he's out for sure. Who else is going to be nominated? Do I hear a second Roberts rules of order and the list goes on? We would all come together and say, God of anyone who could be our representative, let's pick Adam. G.S. Bishop said, the race must either have stood in full grown man with a full orb intellect or stood as babies each entering his probation in the twilight of self consciousness. And by the way, if Adam would have made it, if Adam would have lived for 70 years, let's say in probation and fulfill the laws of God and walk by faith and trust, we'd be singing now praise Adam from whom all blessings flow, but he fell. James Boy said, Adam was possessed of his full faculties which were undoubtedly superior to our own. He had a perfect companion and lived in a perfect environment. But as Hosea 6.7 says, like Adam, Israel has transgressed against his covenant. Moses tells us what happened in the garden historically, Paul tells us what happened in the garden theologically. Imputation of Adam's sin to all those who would ever be born except for Jesus. The one man's first offense. And by the way, why do you die? Let's read verse 13. For until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there's no law. Well, wait a second, between the time of Adam and Moses there's no mosaic law. How can you go to die if you haven't broken the law? Answer, Adam broke the law and you got credit for it. You weren't given the imputation of mosaic law broken because there was no mosaic law. God wants you to draw this conclusion. There's an earlier law broken. Adam broke the law and I got credit for it by federal representation, verse 14. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses. Ever ask why a baby dies? They don't sin aggressively, purposely, but they've been affected by the fall through Adam's imputation. Even over those who sinning was not like the transgression of Adam who has a type of the one who was to come. I'm certain if I was in the garden I would have sinned sooner and I'm certain that I'm certainly glad I have a last Adam who's my new representative. How are people saved through the act of another via imputation? Crediting, what does imputation mean? It means to credit, it means to reckon, it means to put to my account. Representation is not novel and Paul goes on further in verses 15 through 19 to say it's greater through Jesus than it was through Adam. It's not novel and it's greater through Jesus the last Adam. Take a look at verses 15 and following verse 15. He makes the same point multiple times in all these contrasts. Christ's doing more for his people but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. You ought to get yourself a little book. It's called Interpretive Outline of Romans by Steele and Thomas. I don't know if you have that here but you should order it. If I have one book on Romans, oh, it could be Doug Moe, it could be Shreiner, it could be John Murray, it could be S. Lewis Johnson. But this is the one I want and it's about that big. Interpretive Outline of Romans and you can just stash that in your Bible. Here's what Steele and Thomas said. The works of the two differ in that Christ did much more for his people than just to remove the imputed guilt of Adam's one sin. He also made complete satisfaction for all their personal sins and in addition imputes to them perfect righteousness as a free gift causing them to reign in life. The one man Adam sins and affects all but Jesus, his work, takes care of all the sins of all the let whoever were born and he gives us his own righteousness to cloak a sin. That's the much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of God abounded for many. Verse 16, and the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. Adam was dealing with this one act of sin and disobedience. Our Lord's act involved many sins, thousands, millions. The free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation but the free gift, look at the contrast, following many trespasses brought justification. Which representative did a greater job, a more grandiose job, lavish a grace more? Adam or Jesus, we know the answer. I love this passage because it just makes me stop and kind of go slowly. I'll give you a key to Bible study. Here's hermeneutics 101, read slowly. We're so busy, gotta read my Bible, speed reading. I got five chapters and I missed yesterday so I gotta read another five. I'm all for reading the Bible any year. If you understand it, if you don't understand it, it doesn't mean anything. So you just settle in and you just go slowly and you go, okay, every day for the next month I'm gonna read Romans chapter five. I'm just gonna settle in with my same Bible and just say, okay Lord show me what's going on and I wanna get this. Verse 17, for if because of one man's trespass, that is the one trespass, death reigned through that one man. Here's another much more. Preachers love these much mores from the lesser to the greater, from Adam to Jesus. Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. Did you get that? The abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. I like representation. Oh, Adam, what he did got credited to my account. I wasn't earning it, I didn't deserve it, I didn't merit it but I've got a greater gift than not just for me but everyone else. I didn't deserve that work of Christ. I didn't merit it, I could never earn it but I get it and that was affecting people but this affects more people. I like representation, I like federal governments. Free gift of righteousness, reigns through one man. Oh, now big picture, Romans five. Justification through faith alone, Romans five, one to 11. One man saves. How can one man's actions affect a bunch of people? Answer, Adam. Verse 18, therefore, as one trespass, see the one, the one, the one. You didn't get credit for Adam's second sins, third sins, fifth sin, hundredth sin. The one trespass led to condemnation for all men. So one act of righteousness, there's another kind of imputation. There's another kind of imputation where God imputes to the sinner's credit something that he didn't deserve or she didn't merit. So one act of righteousness, perfect righteousness, leads to justification and life for all men. If you don't listen to S. Louis Johnson, I think you should. And he said here, when a father strikes oil, the children get rich. And we have hit a gusher in the last Adam. Men are justified on the ground of imputation, just like we're condemned by the result of imputation. And Jesus is our representative who gives himself as our substitute. Jesus was our substitute, but he was also our representative. I just haven't tried to roll off my mouth as much as I can. That Jesus is my representative, Romans five, and he is my substitute. The acts differ in a degree. Adam's lesser Jesus greater, but the point is they were acts of another. The acts of another determine my eternal condemnation. If it wasn't for the last Adam and the last Adam undid what the first Adam did. Much more. I'm gonna read verse 18 again. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. Now there's different ways to look at this. Shriner would say it's possible that his whole life, Jesus' whole life is in view. Cranfield said Paul meant not just his atoning death, but the obedience of his life as a whole. His loving God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength and his neighbor with complete sincerity, which is the righteous conduct God's law requires. Robert Peterson says it's the lifelong act of Jesus culminating in the cross. Everything Jesus did summarized by one act of righteousness, just put together his life, his death, his representation, his substitution, everything put together, one act of righteousness. All unified. Of course, culminating at the cross, Philippians 2, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Jesus was born under law, lived under law, and how can we separate what Jesus did on earth and his crucifixion, so Paul just lumps them all together, obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Verse 19, for as by the one man's disobedience, see all the singulars again, the many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made, are classified by declaration, are constituted as righteous. Your identity is either found in Adam or in Christ, but Adam doesn't have the last word if you'll look to Christ through repentance and faith. What Adam did isn't the final determination for people whether they go to heaven or hell because we have a later representative, the great representative, Christ Jesus. Bobnich said the cross is the culmination of the whole life of Christ's obedience. One act, the text doesn't even say one act, but it's implied. Calvin said, here's the translation, therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon men under justification of life. Two men, two acts, two results, imputation. Can you imagine God credits to our account, perfect righteousness? You know, we say justification a lot and the children have their definition just as if I've never sinned. You know, we have these little cute things. We say faith, forsaking all I trust him. Good, but how about justification just as if I've never sinned? Well, that just brings me back to neutral. How about when I'm declared righteous based on the work of Christ Jesus who's a better representative than Adam? God declares me righteous and it's not just as if I've never sinned. God will see me as if I never ever did sin, will sin, and that God sees me as I perfectly kept all of God's requirements in his law, in his word, and God sees me as perfectly obeying. That's why I get this. People say, well, I sinned today, God must love me less. Is that what you think? Well, I sinned today, I'm loveless by God. If you're seen through Christ's righteousness, God can't love you less. I'll put it the other way, it doesn't sound as good, but for the sake of effect, God can't love you more because he loves you as much as he loves his son. Now, should we sin? No, may it never be. But when you do sin, I can put it this way. My kids sin, well, sorry, when they sinned, they're Kim's kids. You're kids. But when our kids sin, I don't say you're no longer an Abendroth, because I love you. And if my frail, weak, finite, sinful love says, I'm not gonna kick you out of the family because I love you, well, what about God's? I have no sin in my account because Jesus paid for it at Calvary. And I have all Christ's righteousness cloaked over me, and so when God sees me, he sees his son. And so when I sin, I don't get loved less. Jesus, the perfect, holy, spotless lamb, escaped the sin of Adam, was not tainted with it. John Flavill said, because he came into the world in an extraordinary way. Now the birth of Christ was on this wise when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the holy ghost. That means if you look to Christ by faith, through repentance, trusting in his representative work and his substitutionary work confirmed by the resurrection, you are as justified as you could ever be. You're as justified as every other person in this room who are all justified to the same degree. All believers are justified alike. There's no degrees of grace in justification. Can't say, well, my friend, he's more justified than I am. My wife's more justified than I am. The Virgin Mary, after she looked to Christ through faith, was just as justified as Mary Magdalene was justified. Oh, there might be a weak faith person, an immature person, but they're still justified just the same. By the way, think about justification for a minute. When Jesus justifies us, it's a perfect thing. It lasts forever. Can you become unjustified? Of course you can't become unjustified because it's a fixed, permanent thing. Today you say I'm a Peter, but you know what, maybe I'll fall into sin and tomorrow I'll be a Judas. The doctrine of justification prevents that because it's Christ's work as representative. It's not what I do. It's not what I did. When I read about men praising God for justification, listen to Thomas Watson. Because of justification, because you have a greater representative than Adam, you have Jesus as your representative, here's what Thomas Watson says. Adore the infinite wisdom and goodness of God that found out a way to justify us by rich grace and precious blood. We were all involved in guilt. None of us could plead not guilty. And being guilty, we lay under a sentence of death. Now that the judge himself should find out a way to justify us and the creditor himself can try a way to have the debt paid and not to stress the debtor, should fill us with wonder and love. The angels admire the mystery of free grace in this new way of justifying lost men and the apostle cries out, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. What's the last time you said, God, the wisdom that you have, creating this eternal plan of redemption. I thank you that Adam was my representative because I have a greater representative now, Christ Jesus. Isaiah 53 says, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities. Now sometimes Luther was very abrupt and sometimes Luther said kind of insulting things. There is actually a website. It's called something like Luther's insults. And so you just click it and it gives you one of his insults to people as he was arguing for divine grace and arguing for the bondage of the will. And so you just click on it and it says, insult me again. And you click on it, it's a new insult from Luther. And so he just was kind of tough and he was vulgar sometimes in his language. And he was usually overstating things. He'd say crazy things like, if God's word tells me to go across the street and eat dung, I would rush over to do it and do it with joy. I think maybe he was a youth teacher at the time, said that. So he's always doing this hyperbolic overstated language. But then for emphasis he says, all right, when it comes to justification by faith alone, one man's acts can determine the eternal life of many. Jesus Christ, I get credited for his righteousness. Jesus got credited for my sin. God confirmed it by raising him from the dead and Luther said to explain this, it was a fortunate exchange. A fortunate exchange. Two garden scenes. One garden scene with Adam falling. Another garden scene saying, Lord God, I'll do it if it's your will. I'll go to the cross. Obedience of Christ Jesus. Cheap grace these days is denying the active obedience of Christ's righteousness. And when seminaries fire men because they deny the active obedience of Christ being imputed to our account. When seminaries fire men because these men only teach forgiveness. Jesus just paid for our sins. But his life didn't matter. When men teach that essentially you can just have Jesus come down from heaven on good Friday, die on Friday, be raised three days later and go to heaven and that would capture salvation. When seminaries fire men like that, I say praise the Lord. You need to be fired. You should have been fired a long time ago. Christ obeying the Father. Putting his will above his own. Choosing to die. Ramifications for the whole human race. His life mattered. What one man does affects many and Jesus did fulfill the law righteously. Verse 20 and 21. Just so people don't think we missed out on Moses jumping straight over Moses, over Abraham all the way back to Adam. Paul wants to make sure everyone gets it. You can be a Jew and revere Moses and we know he's a significant figure. But just to make sure you understand that Paul's not saying the law didn't matter it says here in verse 20 and 21. Now the law came in to increase the trespass but where sin increase grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The law had various purposes but one purpose was that the transgression might increase. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God that is righteousness, sanctification and redemption. So what kind of takeaways can I give you as we wrap up session one? Number one, the glories of Christ salvation are exalted when you see yourself as the Bible portrays you. In other words when I realize that I'm dead in my trespasses and sin I offer nothing to God my spiritual condition is dead. When my spiritual condition is by the way has anybody here been to Niagara Falls? Some have. It's pretty awesome isn't it? Next time you go to Niagara Falls and you wanna think about depravity bring your dog. Bring your dog up to the precipice of Niagara Falls Canadian side's better. And stand there and you feel the spray. You smell the spray you experience you hear this thunder and to think we've even kind of got it dammed up a little bit so it's not as forceful as it used to be because there'd be too much erosion and you stand there and you just are in, oh. I want you just for a quick second to look down at your dog. And your dog's not gonna be going, oh. The splendor, the majesty. And by the way if a dog doesn't see that then a cat would be absolutely 10 times worse. I know dogs don't have souls but cats have demons that's the last time I checked. I'm alive physically before I'm saved but I'm like a dog at Niagara Falls. I don't see the wonder, I don't see the majesty, I don't see the grandeur of Christ Jesus the savior. I'm dead and so then when God makes me alive he quickens me, he redeems me, he reconciles me, he makes propitiation for me in my place all through Jesus. Then as when you say, oh Niagara Falls except it's not the Falls it's who God is. I was not seeking God. No one seeks after God and God found me. Don't ever put on your bumper sticker ever again. I found it. Some of us are old enough to remember that. My mom used to have one of those. I remember driving to school with my mother. She'd listened to Chuck Swindall and Jimmy Swiger one after another. I found it on the bumper sticker. Now if it's in quotations because it's God speaking about finding the elect, I'm with ya. It's all reader response. What does it mean to you? It means to me God found me. I once was lost but now I'm found. I was lost because God credited Adam's sin to my account. He's the God of the universe. He can do whatever he wants and God loves representation because he knew because the eternal councils of the triune God there'd be another representative and where Adam failed Jesus succeeded and we got credit for Adam's sin and for those who trust in Christ Jesus' substitutionary death and representative life confirmed by the resurrection we get credit for Christ's righteousness. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Could you ever say this to yourself? I've come to Jesus without the power of the Holy Spirit. That's why when you get to heaven I don't think you're gonna be fist bumping God saying we did it. What we did is we were in Adam and we sinned in Adam. That's what we did. Thomas Erskine wrote something called the Arminian's address. Arise ye dead Arminia's cries. Arise ye dead in sin. Unstop your ears. Unclose your eyes. A new life begin. Why will ye die ye wretched souls ye dead? Why will ye die? Quicken and make your spirit's whole to life eternal fly. Erskine wrote a response. Deluded seer. But man will lie still as senseless stone. And you yourself stand fooling by till both are quite undone. Unless almighty power be moved by God's free will, not thine, to quicken both and make his love on both your hearts to shine. Who can make the clean out of the unclean? Job chapter 14. When you think of representation, you should say I'm glad. I have a representative Adam, but I have a greater representative who determined my eternal standing and that is in Christ Jesus. And if you get imputation down, you'll get depravity and you'll see cheap grace a mile off. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are very thankful this morning. Although we were bound in the chains of sin and shackles of disobedience and following the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, but God being rich in mercy. Thank you for saving us by grace. And it wasn't cheap at all. It was costly. It cost you the best, your son Christ Jesus. And we're thankful this morning that you're wise and in your wisdom, you had Adam stand for us. And in your grace, you had Jesus the last Adam stand for us. We're so thankful that while the world might lie in the power of the evil one, we are of God. We are in Christ Jesus and have all the blessings of Christ Jesus credited to our account. We didn't deserve it. We didn't earn it, but your son in his love and by your own love have determined to make it so. And so I pray for Cornerstone. I pray for the visitors here that you would undergird them and that you would let them understand depravity not to roll around in it forever, but to think with Paul in Romans 6. Thanks be to God though you were slaves to sin, you've now become obedient from the heart. Thank you Father for a great salvation in Jesus' name.