Adam- The One In Each Of Us Series

From Adam to Malachi (37 Biographical Sermons (One of over 850 messages on one data CD that may be ordered from The Pastor’s Pulpit, 2003 Lynn Ave, Anderson, SC. 29621 for $30 pluse $3.00 shipping.)

Sermon 1

(A. The Period of Beginnings - Genesis 1-11 Gen. 1:27-3:31

ADAM - THE ONE IN EACH OF US

THE WHEN

Turn to older editions of the King James Version and above Gen. 1:1 you will find the year 4004 B.C. as the date of creation. Bishop Usher derived this from an intensive study of the chronological lists of the Bible. Most scholars recognize the impossibility of correctly deriving so specific a date from chronological tables because they are filled with gaps. Modern anthropology says modern man, HOMO SAPIENS, evolved from his ape-like ancestors somewhere around 200 million years ago. Between these two extremes, probably around 10 thousand years ago God made man and woman.

THE WHO- CIVILIZED HUMAN BEINGS

Archeology reveals an amazing thing. When diggings go back more than ten -twelve thousand years, they find almost nothing - a few bones, a few burnt places and some crude rocks that look something like tools. But around ten thousand years ago an explosion of culture took place - suddenly, mysteriously, miraculously. They find jewelry, graves, altars, pottery and tools. The record of the rocks is that cultural man, intelligent man, Biblical man, burst suddenly on the scene near Nineveh. He did not evolve there he was placed there by the hand of God.

T his is the record of the Word of God. Somewhere near this time period God created man - Adam and Eve, in His own image, intelligent, cultured, and religious. He was not some grunting half-ape, eating bugs and berries until he accidently discovered fire. The first period of the Bible - THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS - in Gen. 1-11, shows man building cities (4:17); ranching (Gen. 4:20; playing music (4:21) and working with metal (4:22).

A REAL PERSON

This old argument between the Bible and science will never be settled and I simply take my stand that even if evolution is a fact (and I doubt that it is), man as we know him is not part of the evolutionary process. God created three things in Genesis 1-3: the physical universe (1:1); animal life (1:21); and man (1:27). Adam and Eve were real people, historical people, intelligent, God-like people who came forth from the creative hand of God.

A REPRESENTITIVE PERSON (Romans 5)

But Adam is more than a REAL man, he is a REPRESENTATIVE man. We are physically related to him and we are spiritually related to him. Paul writes in Romans 5: “Just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam) and death through sin, in the same way death came to all men, because all have sinned. Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness (the sinless life and sacrificial death of Jesus) was justification (being declared innocent of sin in God’s sight) that brings life for all men.

For just as through the disobedience of the

one man, the many were made sinners, so also

be made righteous.”

(Rom. 5:12, 18-19 NIV,Parenthesis Mine)

THE DEBATED MEANING

This passage points out our spiritual union with Adam and the consequences of his fall for him and us. What this actually means has been hotly debated in the Christian church. Pelagius and his followers say there is NO CONNECTION. Like Adam we are created sinless and free to choose. One only has to look at a BIBLE or a BABY to disprove this. The Bible says we were made sinners (Rom. 5:10); we are conceived in sin (Ps. 51:5), and we are “by nature the objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). A baby tells us the same. Every parent knows the one thing you don’t have to teach a baby is how to be bad.

James Arminas and his followers soften the truth and say we inherit Adam’s depraved nature but not his guilt. The Bible says the whole race was condemned (Rom. 5:18) in Adam. Most evangelical Christians agree with Augustine and Calvin that Paul teaches we inherit both depravity and guilt from the sin of Adam.

If you say, THAT’S NOT FAIR! THAT’S NOT RIGHT! I agree with you. But I also remind you that you need to hear the rest of the story, not just the bad news of what Adam did, but the good news of what Jesus Christ did. Paul says in Romans 5 that just as we are lost in Adam, sol can we be saved in Christ. He is our REPRESENTIVE MAN IN HEAVEN when we accept Him. We choose to face God after death in Adam or n Christ. We are like Adam….