Last Call Digest: Death reigns-Kay Arthur

PRECEPTS FOR LIFE

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Precept Ministries International

P.O. Box 182218, Chattanooga, TN 37422-7218

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The following is an actual transcript of the PRECEPTS FOR LIFE Broadcast. For the purpose of filling transcript requests quickly, they have received only light editing. If you have questions concerning the material covered in this broadcast, Kay has published a number of books explaining the Scripture in depth. These books may be ordered by contacting the telephone number or address printed above.

 

SERIES: Romans (The Constitution Of Your Faith)

TITLE: Program 22 – A Type Of Him Who Was To Come

TUESDAY (12/15/09)

          

OPEN 

We were born with our tombstone already engraved.

Death reigns. Death is everywhere and when we are born we know that we will die. We hate it. We avoid it. We do everything we can and then all of a sudden. It comes unexpectedly.

It comes unwelcomed. It comes uninvited. We don’t want to die. And yet we live in the shadow of death. And we’re going to see how you can conquer death and welcome life.

 

PART ONE

Lying in the gutter of the street, you could see the curb, in a town in China, where little girls are not wanted because they’re only allowed to have one child and it has to be a son.

And so babies are suffocated.

Babies are put to death if that baby is a girl. And I thought, you know, death does reign. And you see it not only in the baby girl lying in the gutter, but the snapshots of the people that walk by that little baby girl and see that body lying in the  gutter, and treat it as if it is nothing. And finally it shows a picture of a little old Chinese man picking up the baby with a piece of newspaper and taking that baby and dropping it in the garbage.

Death reigns. Is there any hope for life?

Oh yes, Beloved, that’s what the book of Romans is all about, how we can move from death to life. Let’s look at it as we look at this much more of our justification in Romans, chapter 5.

And as we come to the last segment of that chapter we see the totality that comes in salvation because of one mans obedience, the total justification, the much more that comes because of one mans obedience. Let me read it to you and we’ll go through and mark it. Now as we do, there’s a word you want to mark and that’s the word “death”. So what you need to do is you need to draw a little tombstone over it and I just do it with a fine black pen. Now watch what it says.

It says, “Therefore, just as through one-man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all have sinned.”

So there you need to mark “death” and you need to mark it two times. You need to mark the word “sin” also, because death and sin go together. And what I do is I color the word sin brown. But “sin” is one of the key words in the first five chapters of Romans so now let me read it to you again because there’s another word you need to mark.

“Therefore, just as through one mans sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Now what’s the word we need to mark? That’s right. It’s the “therefore” with the three red dots almost in the shape of a triangle. And it’s therefore because there’s a conclusion here. So when you see the conclusion you need to see why the conclusion. So let me go back and read verse 11.

And it says, “And not only this but we also exalt in God through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Through whom we have received the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin, so sin spread to all men because all have sinned. For until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law.”

There has to be reconciliation because there’s sin. Okay? And there has to be reconciliation made by someone. So who is that someone? Well that someone is called the last Adam. The first Adam is the one that brought sin into the world and with sin he brought death. Okay? He brought sin into the world because he chose not to listen to God. He chose to disobey God.

God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said of every tree in this garden you may eat except one. There’s a tree and it’s called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and I don’t want you to eat that. If you eat it, the day that you eat of the fruit of that tree you will die. All right, so there’s that word death again.

All right, now what does it mean? Did Adam and Eve immediately keel over when they ate the fruit of that tree? No, no, but they died because death entered into them and death was inevitable.

“And death hung over them and then they brought forth after their likeness …,”

Genesis, chapter 5, verse 1. “… And because they brought forth after their likeness and they were sinners then they brought forth sinners.”

And sin is followed by death.

The wages of sin is …,” what, “… death.”

We saw it in Romans. Let’s go back and let’s look at it so that you make sure that you have it and that you understand it.

In Romans, chapter 3, in verse 23, it says,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Then it goes on to say, “The gift of God is eternal life.”

So there’s death but there’s a gift of God. And so he goes on to tell us that,

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”

So let’s go back to Romans, chapter 5. And this is what he says,

“Until the Law, sin was in the world.”

Now catch the fairness of God. “For until the Law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed, put to our account where there is no law.”

All right now, what is he saying? From Adam and Eve, until Moses gave us the Law on Mt. Sinai, sin was in the world. Why? Because Adam and Eve sinned. Because Adam and Eve reproduced little sinners. So death reigned.

It was written on the tombstone of every single person that would be born, because every single person was going to die because every single person was a sinner. But, sin was not put to their account. It was not imputed to them because there was no law at that time to say, “Thou shall and thou shall not.” But death reigned.

So God did not take all those sins and add them to man’s account until after the Law. But they still were sinners and they still died.  

And so then he goes on to say, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses …,” which I just showed you, “… even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam …,”

Now watch what it says, “… who is a type of Him who was to come.”

Now Adam is a type. Adam is a figure. Adam is an example to us. He is something in the past that is going to reveal to us a truth in the future. Adam was a type of Christ and he’s going to show us how Adam was a type of Christ. And he’s going to call Christ as I told you, the last Adam. And we’re going to see that. But I want you to understand that although the Law had not come and defined sin, from Adam to Moses people were still dying, because they were sinners. Although they didn’t sin in the likeness of Adam’s sin, they were still sinners and death still reigned. And then he comes on to say that after the Law then the Law defined sin. Now we’ve marked Law in the past and you want to mark Law all the way through the book of Romans. So take verse 13 and draw your tablets like the Ten Commandments and color them and then do it again in verse 13 twice.

Now Law there is capitalized in the first incident and it’s a small L in the last, so it could be where there is no law, it means where there is no principle or precept set forth. But either way I would mark both of them. All right, now watch what he says.

He says,

“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type or a figure of Him who was to come. But the free gift, is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, many died …,” mark the tombstone.

“For if by the transgression of one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

You say that is a complicated sentence, isn’t it? Paul’s know for his long sentences. All right, but what I want you to do is first of all, we’re going to mark it. Okay and what I want you to mark is I want you to mark the word “free gift”. Pick any color you want and just color it that color, the “free gift”.

All right so now he’s going to talk about a free gift. We want to see who this free gift is given to and  what this free gift is. All right so we’re going to mark “free gift” because that word gift is going to be repeated again.

The other word we need to mark, is the word “transgression”. Transgression means you cross over the line. Transgression means that the boundary is set and you say, hey, I’m not going to pay any attention to the boundary. Transgression means that the law has been confirmed and you break the law. That’s what transgression is.

All right, so it says, but the free gift, this free gift that he’s going to talk about, we’re going to see what it is, the free gift is not like the transgression.

Now what’s the transgression? The transgression is Adam and Eve’s sin, their disobedience to God, mankind’s sin.

It says, “But the free gift is not like the transgression …,” okay? “… For if by the transgression of the one, many died.”

Now who’s the one that transgressed that brought death into the world? You got it. It was Adam. All right, so Adam is the one that sinned. Adam is the one that introduced death. All right now, through Adam’s transgression, who dies, all die. It says many die.

It means all die.

Why? Romans 5:12, this is a good verse for you to memorize.

“For by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin, so that in, all men die because all men have sinned.”

So Adam’s transgression brought death to all mankind. But you know what? The free gift’s not like that. You say, explain it. I’m so glad you want to understand it, because really it’s the answer to your fear to death and we’ll talk about it when I come back.

Verse 15, “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by grace …,”

so mark gift again; “… nd the gift by grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to many.”

In other words, if through one mans transgression, sin wiped out every human being on the face of this earth and brought death to them, “… much more through the free gift of grace, through Jesus Christ, life will abound to many.”

So there is a cure for death. It doesn’t have to be living in the fear of a tombstone.

Because you know what? If you really know Jesus Christ then what happens when you die is your Spirit simply leaves this body. They can do anything with it they please because you’re not going to be wondering, am I going to be cold in that ground. Bury me in a mausoleum. Don’t bury me in a tomb. Make sure that you have a watertight coffin. Honey, none of it, will make a difference because you won’t be here anyway. You’ll be in the presence of God. And you’re going to get, as I told you last week, a brand new body.

So let me read to you, verse 16, and it says, “And the gift ….”

Again you want to mark the word gift.

“And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.”

Now who’s the one who sinned? It’s Adam, the first Adam.

It says, “For on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression, just one transgression resulting in condemnation.”

In other words, resulting in the fact that not only you’re going to die, but you’re going to spend eternity in the lake of fire,

Where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.”

It means eternal separation from your creator, the one who created you. So he says and watch so you don’t miss it.

“For on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation.”

Mark the word transgression. “But on the other hand the free gift …,”

Here it’s yours, totally, completely, absolutely free. I’ll pay for it. No, you can’t pay for it. I don’t deserve it. It doesn’t matter whether you deserve it. But you don’t know. I’m your enemy. I still want to give it to you because I love you. But I’m helpless. I could never pay for it. You don’t have to pay for it. I could never return it. You don’t have to return it. I could never earn it. You don’t have to earn it. It’s totally and absolutely free.

Now listen to what he says,

“But on the other hand the free gift …,”

you want to mark free gift,

“… arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.”

This is the much more of justification. You see one man, one sin makes many sinners. Now all these sinners, all the sinners from Adam and Eve to the coming of Jesus Christ, all these sinners, all these ones that refused to receive Jesus Christ, all their transgressions, every sin that they ever committed, Jesus paid for them all, totally, completely, absolutely, so God can give you the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

It is one transgression that ends in condemnation and then it is many transgressions that end not in condemnation, but in justification.

And so he says,

“Resulting in condemnation, that’s Adam, but on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.”

Justification means that you are declared righteous despite all your sin. It says,

For if by the transgression …,” mark it again.

If by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one “

Now who is that one? Adam. That’s right, you got it. All right, when you think of the first Adam always think the first Adam, sin and death; the first Adam sin and death and condemnation. The last Adam, many, many sins, but resulting in justification, because His blood paid for all your sins.

So, “If by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more …,”

here’s that word much more again,

“… much more those who receive the abundance of grace …,”

Now what is grace? That’s right, it’s unearned, unmerited favor. It’s everything that Jesus Christ is and has made available to you and He has and He is life. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life and He gives you life. So that death no longer reigns in your life.

So he says, “Much more those who receive the abundance of grace …,”

mark grace there. “… And the gift of righteousness.”

So once again through God’s graciousness, through His unmerited, unearned favor, what does He give you? He gives you the gift of righteousness. It is the much more of justification that we’ve been looking at.

The gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

So all the way through your life, if you know Jesus Christ, if you have been justified, if you have received Him as your Savior, you have been justified.

You are no longer under condemnation and death no longer reigns. Life reigns in your life. So you don’t even think, you don’t even live in the shadow of a tombstone. Why? Because to be absent from the body as it says in 2 Corinthians 5, is to be present with the Lord. In Philippians, chapter 1, to be absent from the body is much better.

It’s much better to go and to be with Jesus because you don’t pass from death to death, you pass from death to life when you get saved. And once you get saved it is life from there on in. I mean you just leave this body. You leave it because it’s old and because He’s going to give a brand new one.

Verse18, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men.”

Now who’s the one transgression that brought condemnation to all? The first Adam brought condemnation to every single person.

All right, it says,

“Even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.”

Now what was that one act of righteousness?

That one act of righteousness was Jesus saying to the Father,

“Not My will, but Thine be done,”

and going to the cross and dying there as the Lamb of God who came to take away your sins so that you could pass from death to life and never ever die again. That’s what it is.

He says,

“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One, the many will be made righteous.”

So now watch. What are we going to put on our chart under Adam and Christ?

Verse 18, “One transgression brought condemnation to all. Under Jesus, one act of righteousness brought justification and life to all. And then one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners, one man’s obedience, many were made righteous.”

Verse 20, “And the Law came in that the transgression might increase.”

In other words the Law was given so that you might see what a terrible sinner you are. The Law drew the line and you saw the line and you saw you were always crossing over the line and you think I’m a terrible sinner.

He says,

“And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

So under Adam sin reigns in death, but under Jesus grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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