The Last Adam and The Second Man

 

TEXT: Hebrews 10:14  - For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

2 Peter 1:3  - According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
 

        The work of the cross is "perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect." It matters not from what point we view or look at the cross.. It is PERFECT. Nothing has been omitted. Peter says we have been given, "All things that pertain to life and godliness," and that covers everything! The Jewish people are celebrating one of their most sacred holidays - Yom Kippur as of the writing of this message. Yom Kippur literally mean's "atonement," "covering," etc. Millions in Israel will celebrate the holiday these next few days but sadly, many of them do not recognize the fact that the Lamb of God came 2,000 years ago to not only COVER man's sin - He came to TAKE THEM AWAY! Christ IS THE PERFECT SACRIFICE and has BROUGHT US FULL PROVISION THROUGH HIS BLOOD FOR ALL THINGS! 

 

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

2 Peter 1:3
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

        The death of Jesus on the cross was a sacrifice and as High Priest, He offered Himself a PERFECT sacrifice to God through the Holy Spirit! By that sacrifice of Himself HE alone put away Sin forever! There is NO other remedy or answer to the sin nature of man except the cross!!!!


2 Cor. 5:21 - For he hath made him to be sin (a sin-offering) for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

 

        As I write these words, I cannot help but hear the echo of the enemy in my ear right now saying, "is this all you write about?" The more I ponder that statement the more excited I get in knowing that each time I study what Christ did for us at the Cross the Holy Spirit just gives another insight to the DEPTHS of how PERFECT His work was for us as believers. EVERY SINGLE ANSWER TO THE HUMAN CONDITION IS FOUND IN THE CROSS! There is no source of life and true victory found anywhere else. The church world today clamors after everything BUT the cross which is sad because those who oppose the cross do it to their own destruction.

 

        Some do this in ignorance, but MOST do it in unbelief. The cross of Christ is readily accepted by those in the church as the source of salvation for sinners, but that is as far as most take it. Satan is an expert of getting us to believe that once we come into this GREAT salvation that we can loose our anchor and faith in the cross and place it somewhere else.

 

        I have a dear friend in Knoxville whose ministry deals with the memorization of scripture. He feels that if a person will but quote scripture over and over for a particular ailment they might have, the quoting of scripture will in itself bring victory. IT WON'T! My friend is also looking for revival in the churches in the area around where we live. He, like MILLIONS of others though are looking for revival in some type of 'signs' and 'wonders' type service where God is called on to perform a side show for those involved so we can say "wow," and "ooh," and just see man's flesh get puffed up more and more. THAT IS NOT REVIVAL friend. The revival that is coming (which I believe to be already here - it's just under the apostate church's radar because they are looking for it elsewhere) is not found in an institution or denomination. It's found in the HEARTS and LIVES of every single human being who has been WASHED in the soul cleansing, Blood of the Lamb of Glory! True revival changes hearts which in turn changes people. False revival has a lot of activity associated with it but the people involved are little if changed at all.

 

        Most of what is being touted in America as revival is false. I believe the revivals we had in the mid-1990s in Pensacola (Brownsville) and Toronto were but peeks at what could happen in greater scope and intensity if the church gets in line with God's heart. Notice I said HEART, not hand. It's the most sickening theology in the world to make God nothing more than a bellhop or glorified slot machine for our formulas. NONE OF THAT WORKS friend! It's false. It's a lie. The gospel message is one of self-denial, not self-promotion and exaltation. The gospel message points men to the foot of the cross; the false message being preached by many today points man to exalt himself as a new age humanism continues to sweep the church.

 

        The answer to ALL of man's problems IS THE CROSS of CHRIST! It's the power of God UNTO SALVATION - for the Jew first, THEN the  Greek. Everything man will never need - in TIME or in eternity, whether spiritual or physical, financial or material, emotional or relational, has been provided by ONE sacrifice - the PERFECT SACRIFICE.

 

Romans 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, [19] To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

 

        As this relates to Yom Kippur, the term "perfect sacrifice," has its' meaning in the word "Atonement." In the Old Covenant and the New Covenant "ATONEMENT," is translated differently but has roots in the same meaning. In Hebrew the word "atonement," is "Kippur," which means "covering." The Day of Atonement, as recorded in Leviticus 16, was a day of covering! By the sacrifices offered on that day, the sins of the people were covered - but only for one year. The next year at the same time, their sins had to be covered once more. The sacrifices offered that day provided no permanent solution, therefore, to the problem of sin; they merely provided a temporary covering. On each successive Day of Atonement, that covering was extended for one more year.

 

        The picture of atonement in the New Covenant is totally different. We see this when we look at two passages in Hebrews - the book that deals, above all others, with Jesus as our High Priest and with the sacrifice He made on our behalf.

 

Hebrews 10:3-4
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. [4] For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Hebrews 9:26
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

        Hebrews 10:3-4 speaks of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. The central issue here is TAKING AWAY, not merely covering them. In Hebrews 9:26, on the other hand, the writer speaks about what Christ accomplished at the Cross! In direct contrast to the Old Covenant sacrifices, Christ has PUT AWAY SIN BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF!" In other words, He just didn't "push them back," or just cover them. He covered them without a doubt, but HE TOOK THEM AWAY! The Old Covenant sacrifices reminded people of the fact that sin had not been dealt with and provided a covering that was valid only for one year.

 

        When John the Baptist introduced Christ in John 1:28-29, he proclaimed that the Lamb of God had come to "TAKE AWAY" the sin of the world!" Notice he said, "SIN," not "sins," indicating that Christ would come to not only cover acts of disobedience but change the one committing those acts by changing the very nature that bred sin to begin with. He came to set the captive free. He came to destroy the power and nature of Satan in the lives of the human race for those who would but BELIEVE in what He did at the cross and keep their faith anchored in HIS SACRIFICE!

 

        God's perfect remedy for the reason is the CROSS! When I speak of the cross, I'm not speaking of some piece of metal or wood that people hang around their necks like some human talisman to ward off demon spirits, but I am talking about the SACRIFICE of JESUS CHRIST and what He did for us there on the Cross. The cross was a SACRIFICE for all humanity to destroy the very power and nature of sin that is destroying millions today:

 

Hebrews 7:27
Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 9:14-15
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? [15] And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
 

        The word, "OFFER" refers to what a priest did when he made a sacrifice. But on the CROSS, Jesus offered up HIMSELF, that is to say, He became BOTH THE PRIEST and the SACRIFICE! My Lord, I feel that. As Priest, He offered the sacrifice, but He Himself WAS the Sacrifice, the VICTIM. He offered HIMSELF. Only ONE Priest was good enough to make that type offering friend. ONLY ONE. ONLY ONE. ONLY ONE. ONLY ONE!!! ONLY ONE! JESUS CHRIST was the ONE who and HIM alone could make an offering like that acceptable to God.

 

        In Hebrews 9, the Holy Spirit shows us through the writer that Christ offered Himself "through the eternal Spirit" offered Himself without spot to God." This refers to the Holy Spirit, whose participation in the sacrifice was essential. Every phase of the redemptive process each Person of the Godhead was directly involved! That's how important man's salvation was to God. That's the depth of God's MERCY and GRACE to a fallen human race that deserves hell itself for it's rebellion, but God who is RICH in MERCY, offers salvation to!

He Bore Our Sins and Sicknesses

 

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

        On the cross, Jesus bored not only our sins but also our sicknesses and pains - both emotional and physical. BY HIS WOUNDS we are healed! Peter went further to say we "WERE" healed meaning that when He cried "IT IS FINISHED!" - IT WAS FINISHED! The message of Isaiah 53:4-5 is inescapable and eternal:

 

Isaiah 53:4-5
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
 

        The Holy Spirit, through the writings of Solomon, addressed the power of the word of God, which is the message of Christ and Him Crucified! Solomon didn't realize the totality of what he was writing more than likely, but his words were prophetic in nature pointing to the fact that the words of God would be and are HEALTH to all our flesh!

 

Proverbs 4:20-22
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. [21] Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. [22] For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

        The phrase, "all their flesh," means our whole physical body! God has provided through the word of the message of the cross that which will impart health to our bodies. Our healing is having faith in what Christ did for us AT THE CROSS! It's not some mystical formula, incantation or faith in a person laying hands on us (and we believe in the laying on of hands). It's FAITH IN THE CROSS of Christ and the blood that He shed for us 2,000 years ago. BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED!

 

        Mankind is sick and needs healing! We ALL need healing in some type or the other in our bodies and in our souls. When a doctor gives a person medicine he always gives directions to take it which is usually on the bottle. As the late Derek Prince said, "Proverbs 4:20-22 is the Lord's medicine bottle and the directions are on it!" And as he added, "we would be wise to study it!"

 

        The first thing the Holy Spirit said was to "give attention to my words." We must give undivided attention to what God is saying. Secondly, we are to "incline our ear," meaning we must bow our stiff necks and become teachable. WE DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT DIVINE HEALING and some if not most of the traditions we have been raised on in the church are unscriptural and not biblical!!!!!!

 

        The third direction from the Holy Spirit is "do not let my words depart from your eyes." We must keep our FOCUS unwavering on the Word of God. In other words we must never lose sight of the CROSS in our hearts and lives. The church has a lot of side messages right now that are going out left and right behind pulpits. We love trying to teach people how to organize their time, have better marriages and manage money. We NEED to be preaching CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED and making THAT our focus!!! When the focus is right - all these other things will be in focus and right too!

 

        Finally, the Holy Spirit says, "keep them in the midst of your heart." The next verse in Proverbs says this: "keep your heart with ALL diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." Whatever we keep in our heart, in other words, will determine the course of our lives. We cannot hold wrong attitudes in our heart and live right, nor can we have the right attitude in our heart and live wrong! the course of our lives are always determined by what fills our heart. If we will receive the WORD OF GOD (the message of the Cross and Christ Crucified) through our ear gates, our eye gates, and admit it into our heart, the LORD WILL DO EVERYTHING HE HAS CLAIMED and do abundantly MORE than what He has promised to do! Oh, Hallelujah. Oh, Praise God. That's shouting ground there. That's the words of life that will change your heart and life friend. That's better than some humanistic based purpose driven life message that tries to work its way into God's favor. This is not about works - it's about the power of the perfect sacrifice that will bring HEALTH to your flesh and soul!!!! Glory to God.
 

The Perfect Sacrifice

 

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

        The death of Christ on the cross was a sacrifice ordained by God, in which Jesus as Priest offered Himself on behalf of the whole human race to God the Father. It was not just any sacrifice, but a PERFECT sacrifice! Nothing was omitted, nothing will ever be added. It is perfectly perfect, completely complete! Every need of every descendant of Adam has been totally provided for through that one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We must NEVER let our attention wander from this sacrifice!

 

        As we said earlier, the church gets so involved and busy in many forms of teaching, ministry and Christian activity that may be good in their own way (some is not!). But if this activity is separated from the CROSS OF CHRIST and the sacrifice of Christ - neighbor it is DUNG! It will accomplish NOTHING! Souls will not be saved, bodies will not be healed, believers will not be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of lethargy and drunkenness will descend upon those listening to the siren song of Satan in lieu of the Lord's imminent return! We need to be getting ready for the rapture, not getting ready for 40 days of purpose! The WHOLE GOSPEL centers on the CROSS. The cross is the CENTER of ALL God's Provision! Everything we need IS IN THE CROSS!

 

        If we need a house, it's in the CROSS. If we need a car, it's IN THE CROSS. If we need to get out of debt, it's IN THE CROSS. If we need healing, IT'S IN THE CROSS! And listen closely to this next statement for it is very important as it ties to these last few previous ones. When we view our needs in these terms what we are doing are embracing the WILL and the TIMING of the LORD! We glory in the CROSS instead of glorying in the fact that we have obtained some type of mystical or psycho-babble formula and when we receive something from heaven it's because of "our" faith or "our" believing. YES, it takes faith, but this faith is not blind faith. It's an anchored settled fact in our heart that ALL THINGS COME THROUGH CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED. If I am believing in CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED and I pray for a house and that house don't come, then I know that maybe the Lord's WILL for is not to have that house right now. His timing may be later than mine. My faith is not shattered then if I don't get it because I am not having faith in the fact of the house - MY FAITH IS IN CHRIST NO MATTER THE ANSWER! I've learned this lesson through tears and many disappointments in my own personal life so what I am writing is not something I'm taking out of a book. It's something I've lived.

 

        I remember when I first felt the call of God on my life to preach I was so excited. I felt like that door after door would swing open and all things would be grand and great. What I never stopped to realize was that the Lord's timing was not the same as mine. The call was there but the fulfillment of that call needed years to develop and mature. In my zeal to go ahead and move forward without the Lord's timing and will I lost nearly 10 years of my life wandering in a wilderness of failure, sin and disappointment. There were even a few times in this wandering that I nearly lost my soul. Neighbor, your faith and my faith MUST BE IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST. We must TAKE UP THAT CROSS DAILY AND FOLLOW HIM, not follow our own whims and wishes. That is the formula for destruction if we do the latter.

 

The Center of the Bible

 

        It's interesting to see that there are 66 chapters in Isaiah, the very same number of books that are in the entire word of God. There are two major sections in Isaiah, Chapters 1-39 and 40-66 (or 27 chapters). Similarly, there are 39 books of the Old Covenant and 27 in the New Covenant. The latter 27 chapters of Isaiah have often been called the GOSPEL of the OLD TESTAMENT because most of those chapters deal with the prophetic view Isaiah was given by the Holy Spirit of the coming sufferings of Messiah. These 27 chapters are divided, in turn, into three sets of nine chapters each - Chapters 40-48, 49-57, and 58-66. One feature of these three sets of nine is very significant: Each one ends with an emphatic declaration that God will never compromise with sin. The last verse in each of these three verses say this:

 

Isaiah 48:22
There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.

Isaiah 57:21
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Isaiah 66:24
And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

        The two statements in Isaiah 57 and 48 are nearly identical. The last verse of Isaiah portrays the end result of all those who reject the Cross - HELL ITSELF which will be a fire that cannot be quenched. The truth is the same in all three verses - those who have transgressed and not repented will represent an eternal spectacle of the judgment of God. In spite of God's mercy, there will NEVER be compromise with SIN!!! The middle section of this part of the book of Isaiah is 49-57. The middle chapter of this middle section is Isaiah 53, but the prophecy really begins in the last three verses of chapter 52:

 

Isaiah 52:13
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

        The word "BEHOLD," introduces the word MY SERVANT - the title given to Jesus in this prophecy. If you add the last three introductory verses of chapter 52 to the 12 verses of chapter 53, you get five sets of three verses:

        The middle set of this middle chapter of the middle section is Isaiah 53:4-6! This is divine appointment because the truth it reveals lies at the CENTER and HEART of the total message of the GOSPEL:

 

Isaiah 53:4-6
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

        The translators say "griefs and sorrows," where the Hebrew for these terms means, "sicknesses and pains." The meaning of these two words for sicknesses and pains have been unchanged from Moses to now. Verse 4 says, "SURELY HE!" That tells us that is in settled in heaven that SURELY CHRIST has done these things! My Lord, I feel the Holy Ghost right now. When you're fighting for your spiritual life neighbor - SURELY HE! When you are facing the darkness of the powers of Satan coming against you - SURELY HE! When temptation grabs hold of you and you don't know where to turn - SURELY HE! SURELY CHRIST has come and died and offered His blood to destroy the powers of darkness and heal us of our sins and sickness.

 

1 John 3:8-9
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. [9] Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
 

        The third verse of this middle set of the middle chapter of the middle section of the last part of Isaiah says this:

 

Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
 

        That is the problem of the human race period. THIS IS THE DIAGNOSIS of our problem friend. This is the reason you and I battle things like depression, fear and unbelief. Some reading this may not have committed adultery or gotten drunk, nor stolen. But we ALL have done this: WE HAVE TURNED OWN OWN WAY, WHICH IS NOT GOD'S WAY. God says this is INIQUITY! The best modern term for this is REBELLION! The root problem of ALL humanity is REBELLION against God. In that sense we ALL are alike no matter our economic social status. Man is a sinner. Man needs a savior. Man needs to repent of his rebellion against God by coming to Christ and accepting what Christ did for him at the Cross! The blood of Christ is the only COVERING for the rebellion of our hearts - be it JEW or Gentile. Many Jewish people celebrate the feast day of Atonement without knowing THE ATONEMENT - the LORD JESUS CHRIST! Sin's depth and depravity takes more than a feast day to stop! It has a power to it that cannot be treated with money, education or power. There is no cure for it outside the atonement of Christ. Man needs deliverance! Christ IS that deliverance. The CROSS is the central message of the Bible and it's the CENTRAL focus of ALL things eternal in heaven!

 

        The human problem is universal. ALL OF US, JEW, GENTILE, CATHOLIC, PROTESTANT, ASIAN, AMERICAN, AFRICAN, without exception has gone our own way. We are all in the same category - we are rebels. The marvelous message though is that God has laid on Jesus the iniquity, the rebellion, of us all. One translation says, "God made to meet together in Him the iniquity of us all. All men of all races, all ages. Our iniquity, our rebellion, came on Jesus as He hung on the cross."

 

        The word for iniquity in Hebrew is "Avon." It means not only rebellion, but all the evil consequences of rebellion, the punishment of rebellion, and all that rebellion brings on those who are guilty. There are three passages in the Old Covenant that use this word. The first one is from the story of Cain. After he heard God's sentence on the murder of his brother, Cain said:

 

        "My punishment is greater than I can bear!" (Gen. 4:13) The word for punishment here is AVON. Cain's iniquity and the punishment were both included in one word. They were greater than he could bear - AND NEIGHBOR IT'S MORE THAN WE CAN BEAR! The second example is that of Saul when he asked the witch of Endor to bring up Samuel for him in a séance, because the punishment of witchcraft was death, he also promised her:

   

        "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." (1 Sam. 28:10). The Hebrew word once again is AVON. Saul assured the witch that she would not be held guilty for her action and that punishment would never come upon her. Saul, sadly, could not make that call. He was not God. God was and is the judge of our iniquity. Thirdly, we see the word AVON twice in Lamentations 4:

 

        In Verse 6, "the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people" uses two words, "punishment," and "iniquity." Both in Hebrew there is only one word, AVON.  In verse 22 it says, "the punishment of your iniquity is accomplished." Again, the word punishment is the Hebrew word, "AVON." It means rebellion, the punishment for rebellion and all the evil consequences of rebellion. When we see this in light of Isaiah 53 we understand that the Lord laid on the suffering Servant the REBELLION of us ALL. The punishment of our rebellion and ALL the evil consequences of rebellion. All the evil due, by justice, to come to us, CAME ON JESUS - the PERFECT SACRIFICE. As a result, all the good due to Jesus, earned by HIS SINLESS OBEDIENCE, has been made available to us:

  1. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven

  2. Jesus was wounded that we might be healed

  3. Jesus was made a sin-offering with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with HIS righteousness

  4. Jesus died our death that we might share HIS life

  5. Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing

  6. Jesus endured our poverty that we might share His abundance

  7. Jesus bore our shame that we might share His glory

  8. Jesus endured our rejection that we might enjoy and HAVE His acceptance

  9. Our old man DIED in JESUS that the new man might LIVE IN US.

        At the cross neighbor, man was not redirected to refine the old, the OLD DIED there! There was a divine exchange and as the beautiful song says, "He gave us the best of the trade!" He traded with us SIN for salvation! He gave us peace and rest for fear. He have us acceptance for our condemnation. He gave us freedom for our guilt and sentence of death! Glory to God.

 

        And neighbor this is the message of Yom Kippur - we will NEVER be able to find any reason we deserved this exchange. It is the outworking of God's sovereign GRACE. It is the expression of His measureless LOVE. In addition to these exchanges there were five aspects of deliverance that we receive when we put our faith in the cross of Christ:

  1. From this present evil age (Satan)

  2. From the law

  3. From selfs

  4. From the flesh

  5. From the world

        The key word in ALL of this is GRACE. Grace is something we can never earn or deserve. Most religious people do not enjoy God's grace because they are trying to earn it - and I'm talking to believers here. There is NO way to earn what God did for us through the death of Christ on the cross. There is only one way to receive it - BY FAITH. We must put our FAITH and TRUST in what HE DID FOR US AT THE CROSS and as a result receive this perfect sacrifice to be sanctified forever.

 

        Why does God love us so? The Bible really don't offer an explanation and eternity will be too short to find one. We do not deserve it and we did not earn it. There is NOTHING in us to warrant His incredible sacrifice. It was a sovereign choice of an Almighty God.

 

  The Perfect Provision

 

        The sacrifice of Christ provides us with a perfect provision or covering for all our needs. To understand this more we must look at two titles of Jesus found in 1 Corinthians:

 

1 Cor. 15:45
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
 

            Many calls Jesus the "second" Adam, but actually the Holy Spirit calls Him "the LAST ADAM."

 

1 Cor. 15:46-47
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. [47] The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
 

        Jesus is called first the LAST ADAM and the SECOND MAN. On the cross, Jesus was the last Adam. He was not the last in the sense of time; there have been millions and millions of descendants of Adam born since then. But HE was the last in the sense that the evil inheritance of the whole Adamic race came on him in its entirety as He hung on the Cross. The total evil inheritance of our sin-cursed race came on Him. And when he was buried, it was ALL buried with Him. Our evil nature inherited from Adam was put away. Finished, put out of sight. It doesn't mean it's gone totally as many Christians know full well during our sojourn on earth but the power of that nature was BROKEN at the cross!

 

        Then Jesus rose from the dead, He arose as the SECOND MAN, a new kind of man, the beginning of th Emmanuel race, the God-man race. Everyone who is born again through faith in Jesus' death and resurrection becomes part of this new creation. It's called a BORN AGAIN experience!

 

        In 1 Peter 1:3 the apostle compares the resurrection to a birth from the dead, and in in Ephesians 1:22-23 Paul says Jesus is "Head over all things to the church," which is HIS BODY. The head is a guarantee that the body will follow. When Jesus Christ, the HEAD of the CHURCH was resurrected from the dead, He became the guarantee of our resurrection one day. Because He lives, we shall live also! He died the last Adam and arose as the Second man! Glory to God. Glory to God.

 

        On the cross, Jesus bore our rebellion and all it's evil consequence. Jesus as the last Adam took that rebellion, died and was buried with it. When He rose again, he rose as the second Man, the head of a new race. The wounds were open and they were septic. The cross was an ugly scene! That is why the appearance of our Lord was "disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness." That is the outworking of rebellion and friend that is why we ALL must humbly recognize the fact that we're saved by GRACE today and nothing more. It was MY sin and your sin that did this to Him. This is why we don't glory in the flesh - but we GLORY in the Cross of Christ. Forbid it Lord that we should ever boast save in the DEATH of CHRIST OUR LORD! When I survey the wondrous cross - I see what my sin did to Jesus and what Jesus did to my sin. My sin put Him there but Praise God, Praise God, He willingly took it upon Himself as a PERFECT SACRIFICE that He would one day PERFECT me forever.
 

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

 

He Has Given Us ALL Things

 

2 Peter 1:3  - According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue

 

        Through the cross, the Lord with large-handed generosity has given us ALL things! These things pertains to the fact that the Lord Jesus has given us EVERYTHING we need regarding life and living. The KNOWLEDGE of HIM is the knowledge of what Christ did at the Cross which alone can be provide us with "GLORY," and "VIRTUE."

 

        Christ is the perfect sacrifice and the full provision for our lives. We don't need to add anything to this great message of redemption. Sadly, the church world today is being drawn away to so many other things which is why the spiritual state of the American church today is very troublesome. Look to the cross today. HE is your COVERING.

 

        As I close I want to address my Jewish friends. Many of you are celebrating Yom Kippur this week. It's a glorious celebration that in prophetic terms points to Israel's national day of Salvation when they will receive Messiah in full and recognize the sacrifice He became 2,000 years ago. Before this time Israel is going to go through one of her darkest hours in all her history known as the Great Tribulation. It's not ironic that Yom Kippur occurs during the NEW MOON which is Israel's darkest lunar cycle. At Israel's darkest hour in the future when Antichrist will have seemed to have all means necessary to destroy her, the LIGHT OF THE WORLD will appear and save her in what will be the greatest event in earths history - the SECOND COMING OF MESSIAH. Those days are rapidly approaching neighbor.

 

        I pray today you know this Messiah. Yom Kippur means NOTHING to the unbeliever. It's just another celebration. But to the BELIEVER, Yom Kippur points to THE covering - the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we write. That is why we preach. That is why we sing. That is why we rejoice. That is why we shout. Because the perfect sacrifice brought perfect, full provision and perfect full covering for our rebellion and shame. He has given us the best of the trade. He has not just "covered," our sins, but He has TAKEN AWAY our sins as well! I pray you know this Christ today. it's getting late neighbor. Time is short and we know not when our time on this earth will end. I pray you have made your calling and election SURE today. Embrace the cross - the perfect sacrifice. He has shed His blood for YOU!

 

 

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