Sunday, August 10, 2014

War In Your Heart # 25

Defeat Through the First Man in Eden (continued)

Consequences of Defeat (continued)

Sin had brought its own terrible penalty to Adam and Eve, even before they met the Lord God as their Judge. His broken law had already been fulfilled in their condemnation. Sin had brought them into its captivity. It  had begun to reign over them. They were already its bondslaves, for they had committed sin.

John 8:34: Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Everyone that committeth sin is the bond servant of sin.

Sin is a hard taskmaster. It demands its own wages. Adam and Eve had already paid them.

Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death.

They were dead to God and alive to sin. In them was not one spark of God's life. There were spiritually dead. But that instant spiritual death was but the forerunner of future physical death.

Genesis 5:5: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

Had sin taken its full toll with Adam's death? Genesis 5 has thirty-two verses, and how do they read? "And Seth lived ... and he died." "Enos lived... and he died." "Cainan lived ... and he died." "Mahalaleel lives ... and he died." "Methuselah lives ... and he died." "Lamech lived ... and he died." Truly this is Adam's family lot in the cemetery and thee is a great similarity in the epitaphs.

But the end is not yet. Does your family have a cemetery lot? Have you ever had to lay a loved one in the grave? Has death ever entered your home and robbed you of the dearest treasure of your heart? Sin is the greediest of all monsters; it swallows mankind in death. Sin is never a merely personal thing. It is inevitably collective in its effects. Adam's sin in Eden meant the death of the human race.

Romans 5:12: Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned.

1 Corinthians 15:22: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

In China there was a missionary family with a family altar, where the deep truths of God's Word were taught. One day that horrible monster, death, entered that home and laid its icy hand upon its dearest treasure - a darling baby. A few days after the precious baby had been laid away in the cold grave, the little four-year old in the family, whose heart had been broken by the separation, said to his mother; "Oh, Mother, I wish Adam hadn't sinned, for I would still have my baby brother." Oh! haven't you too wished that Adam hadn't sinned?

God had said: "Thou shalt surely die." satan had said: "Ye shall not surely die." Which was the liar, God or satan? satan was not only the liar, but we see him in his last role in Genesis 3 before he meets his Judge. satan is the archmurderer from the very beginning to the very end of time on this present earth.

Hitler and his cohorts murdered their millions, but satan murdered the human race. But not for this crime alone did the Lord God judge and sentence him without trial, but for the crime of crimes, the murder of murders was he consigned to an eternal lake of fire - for the murder of the Son of Man. Listen to our Lord's own words:'

John 8:37, 40: Ye seek to kill me ... But now ye seek to kill me.

John 8:44: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murder ...

John 13:2: The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

Acts 2:23: Him ... ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

Our Lord knew that the devil hated Him with a hatred that knew no bounds, and that he would never rest until He had been put out of sight and hearing: until a stop was put to His ministry of redemption and restoration.  He constantly plotted to take His life and finally succeeded in "bruising his heel" on Calvary's Cross; only to compass his own bruising.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 26)

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