Fellowship in the Word

Guest (Male): Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bil Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: Every person identifies with Adam or Jesus. Now, the point of the identification is this: if you identify with the first Adam, you inherit the Adamic nature. You are by nature sinners. Now, after Christ comes, if you identify with Jesus Christ, you can be placed in Christ.

Now, why is that so important? Everybody who is born inherits an Adamic nature because it comes through Adam. Jesus doesn't have the Adamic nature. Why? He doesn't have an earthly father. He has a heavenly father; that's the Holy Spirit coming upon him. So, the reason that Jesus Christ is virgin born, well, he does not have an Adamic nature and he's called the second Adam.

Jason Gebhardt: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Next week, the entire Christian world will be celebrating Easter, the day of the resurrection, rightly so. It's the biggest holiday on the Christian calendar. But I think one of the things we never think about is this: there are two prerequisites that have to occur to even have Easter.

And the Lord thought these prerequisites were so important that he instituted an ordinance so that you and I would never forget them. Let me put it from another point of view. He wants us to remember one thing so that we end up with a very deep appreciation for what was accomplished on Easter Sunday.

The first one is that he talks about his body as just bread. And he says you need to do this in remembrance of me. The second thing he talks about is his death, his agonizing death on the cross. And we call it the cup. And what's interesting about that from my point of view is that as the church has celebrated the Lord's table over all these years, I don't think it met the goals that the Lord had in mind.

We kind of viewed them in some cases we made it a ritual. We made it something completely different. But most of the time in the Christian church, it's sort of like we just go through the motions of this. We just do it, go through the motions, and then say look, we accomplished it. That never should be the case. That's not it at all.

And so what I want to do this morning is I want to try to remind you of what these two prerequisites are that make next Sunday such an important Sunday to us. I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one.

And I want to deal with something we all know. We talk about it more so at Christmas time than any other time, but that Jesus Christ is born of a virgin. And we always talk about that story. And one of the things you often hear at Christmas time is that the reason he was born of a virgin was because Isaiah prophesied it 700 years before he was born.

Isaiah did prophesy it 700 years earlier, but that's not why. That has nothing to do with why. And that's what I want to look at now. Notice this account. Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming in he said, "Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation that was. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus."

"And he will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him a throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will be without end." And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be since I'm a virgin?" And he said, the answer he said to her is "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God."

So there's the first statement. Three times the word virgin is used in that passage. Jesus was born of a virgin. But most importantly, why? You see, why is Jesus born of a virgin? For that, I want you to go with me to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five and verse 12.

Paul says this starting in verse 12. He said, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." We know that story; that's Adam and Eve in the garden. Adam sinned.

But there's something that Paul wants to tell us here that's very important, not just that Adam sinned, and eventually we all sinned. He says in verse 14, "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 of him who was to come."

One of the things you have to understand about Adam's relationship with Christ is it goes kind of vice versa. Several times in the New Testament, Jesus is called the second Adam. There was the first Adam, and there's the second Adam. And everybody in the world identifies with the first Adam or you identify with the second Adam.

Now notice he'll go on and explain this. Look at verse 17. He said, "For if by the transgression of one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ."

So then, as through one transgressor there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 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.

Now what you're describing there is what theologians call headship. Headship means to identify with. Every person identifies with Adam or Jesus, the first Adam or the second Adam. Now, the point of the identification is this: if you identify with the first Adam, you inherit the Adamic nature. You are by nature sinners. That's why Paul said you all sin. That's who we identify with.

Now, after Christ comes, if you identify with Jesus Christ, you can be placed in Christ. Now why is that so important? Everybody who is born inherits an Adamic nature because it comes through Adam. Or maybe put it this way: it comes through males. It comes through us. That's the Adamic nature.

Jesus doesn't have the Adamic nature. Why? He doesn't have an earthly father. He has a heavenly father; that's the Holy Spirit coming upon him. So the reason that Jesus Christ is virgin born—not to show that he's really cool or he did something no one else could do—the reason for it is simply he does not have an Adamic nature. So he is born without that nature.

And he's called the second Adam. That is part of this idea of what we call the bread or the body of Christ. But there is a second aspect to it. And I want you to go with me to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter four, verse 15.

And the writer writes something here. And hopefully you've thought about this verse from time to time. I know I have, wondering about it. I think I've learned some things about it though. He says in verse 15, "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses."

Now remember this. There are two offices in the Old Testament. You have priests and you have prophets. The priest represents the people to a holy God. The prophet represents God to the people. And so the high priest, of course, is the highest-ranking person in the structure of the nation Israel.

But he says, "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but the one who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin." That's an extremely important thing. He is tempted in everything just as we are, and yet without sin.

Now I don't know if you've thought about this, but when I used to read that passage, I used to think something else. I used to sort of in the back of my head say, I don't think he was tempted like I am. I mean, remember, I know he was born perfect. He's the Son of God; he's the God-man. And when I'm tempted, it usually works.

The temptation usually works. He has never faced the kind of temptation I face. And that's true, but exactly the opposite of the way I thought. Jesus Christ is tempted so much more than you and I have ever been tempted. A lot of us think no, he was just tempted in the wilderness.

The devil tempted him three times and that's it. No, he was constantly tempted. And in fact, if you think about it from another point of view, I'll say he is much more tempted than we are.

John MacArthur writes this: he said there is a degree of temptation that we may never experience simply because no matter what about the level of our spirituality, we succumb before we ever reach it. But Jesus Christ had no limitation since he was sinless. He took the full extent of all that Satan could throw at him.

He had no shock system, no weakness limit, no deterrent to turn off temptation at any certain point. Since he never succumbed, he experienced every temptation that he had to the maximum. And he experienced it as a man, a human being. In every way he was tempted as we are, and more.

The only difference was that he never sinned. Therefore, when we come to Jesus Christ, we can remember that he knows everything we know about temptation. And he knows a great deal more than we know about temptation, testing, and pain.

I never thought about that. You get tempted and you resist it to a point and then you sin. Or you can keep resisting to a point. Jesus was that way with everything. Every temptation, remember, there's no sin in being tempted. There's no sin in being tempted. Only when your temptation converts to lust and it conceives sin. There's no sin to it.

But every temptation that Jesus had never stopped. You've heard me say this often with his own disciples. I'll read an account, I'll say something and I'll say right here Jesus must have rolled his eyes. Like oh gosh. Now think of how many times, how disappointing they were and how many times they failed. Just over and over and over and over.

Now think of your own life. You got someone you work with or someone works for you or a friend, and they just keep failing you over and over and over again. Do you ever fight the temptation to think "I'm going to say something here"? Do you ever say something? Like "Are you ever going to get it? Do you see what's going on here?"

No, he did it over and over and over again. Now think of this: everyone who sinned, sinned against him. Every time he sees sin, it's against him. That's not the case for us, but that's the case for him. Think of him talking to the Pharisees or the scribes.

He comes to the nation Israel, he's there to be their Messiah, and what do they tell him? "You're Beelzebub, you're the devil." Now he addresses it. He said, "You have stolen the kingdom of heaven, you blind guides of the blind, you whitewashed sepulchers." But he did it without sin. And by the way, he's going to the cross to die for what? Sin.

And he experiences it all the time. So that's why the writer says look, he is tempted every, he has really been tempted the whole way through and he says and yet without sin. So he's virgin born, he has no Adamic sinful nature, and he was tempted just like we are and much more.

Now go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. And it says there, "Therefore," and this is a positive verse, "if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things passed away, behold, new things have come."

Now remember, I said you're either in Adam or you're in Christ. The moment you believe the gospel, you've been in Christ; now you're a new creature. All of us and new things have come. He said now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. Even gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. What Jesus ended up doing on the cross reconciled you and I to God. A holy God and a sinful person because of what he did on the cross.

Now Jesus says we're his ambassadors, we're to tell other people how they can not be in Adam and can be found in Christ. Then this last verse: "He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

This leads us right into the cross. The one who knows no sin becomes sin. Think of that. He knows no sin, he's perfect, he becomes sin. Now in the Bible it says if you have one sin—Jesus said one thought that's sinful—it'll separate you from God forever. One sin, you're separated from a holy God.

Now he becomes sin. Whose sin? All of ours. How many? All of them. He becomes sin for us. He becomes sin. Cursed is he who hangs on a tree. He becomes sin for us so that, and it's interesting, he said so that we might become the righteousness of God.

That word might is subjective in mood. What's that mean? You might or you might not. It's up to you. That's your choice. If you put your faith in Christ and his finished work, you will. If you don't, you stay in Adam and you'll be judged. So we might become, but notice what we become. It's not just saved, you might become saved.

No, it doesn't mean that. He says we might become the righteousness of God in him. So when you come to Christ, you become the righteousness of God. How righteous is God? Perfect, right? Do you realize that's exactly what you became in God's eyes the moment you trusted Christ?

It's called imputed righteousness. You became perfect in God's eyes. Now he's talking positionally. As you all know, experientially you're still working on that. That's a different thing. But you are declared—that's what called justification—you're declared righteous by God because you put your faith in Christ.

How many of your sins have been forgiven at the cross? All of them. Everything in the past, present, and future. You become the righteousness of God just like Jesus Christ. This is an amazing thing. We sing a song and it's true: the cross, because of your faith in it, made you flawless.

From God's point of view. By the way, if you were flawed, you're not going to heaven from God's point of view. This isn't now I'm going to work it out myself and I'll never sin again. No, you won't. You'll still sin. You'll still have to acknowledge your sin. But he's declared you justified. You have the righteousness of God.

It's hard for us to imagine that, but that's how big of what happened at the cross. That's what happened to us when we came to Christ. So the first element, the bread here, he was virgin born, he didn't have an Adamic sinful nature, and secondly, he was tempted just as we are and much more.

And yet he did it without sin. All so for the second point, what we call the cup, which signifies his agonizing death on the cross to make this all happen. Go with me now to Matthew 26, verse 36.

Now with that in mind, I want you to sort of try to figure this out. It's hard for you and I to think like the Son of God would think. But we can identify with the fully human part of Jesus Christ because he's a man just like we are.

Now as Jesus seems to be in control of everything and he says I must go to Jerusalem, I'll be arrested, they will crucify me, I'll rise from—it's like he's got this. He's got this figured all out. This is going to be pretty good for him. But I want you to see what happens on the night before he's crucified. Verse 39.

Jesus went a little beyond them, that's the disciples, and he fell on his face and he prayed. And here's what he said, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." That's this cup. That's the death of the cross. He said, "Father, if it's possible, let's let this pass."

Wow. By the way, was there a lot of intensity in it? Well, does the Bible say on that night he sweat droplets of blood? How many times have you done that? So I would say his emotional depth was deeper than anything you've ever experienced. And he said, "Father, take it from me." Isn't that amazing?

He understood why he is doing that. Well, he's a human, he doesn't want to be crucified because that's a rough way to die. No, that's not it. He did die physically on the cross. No doubt about that. But remember, he was scourged Roman style. They took all the flesh off his back. They beat him, they mocked him, they spit on him. Did he cry out when they did that? Nothing.

He could take that. What he is concerned about is the spiritual death on the cross. How do I spiritually bear the burden of all the sins of the world? What does the holy God—if one sin can condemn me forever, what would it be like to bear all the sins for everybody for all time?

What would that be like? Here's the right answer: no idea. I have no idea and you don't either. It's so far beyond what you and I could imagine to become this sin-bearer. So he prays that prayer and notice the next thing he says: "Yet, not as I will but as you will."

He prayed it because of his agony. He didn't pray it because he was trying to change God's mind. He said, "Look, I know this is why I'm here and I'll do that. But this is agonizing to me." And it should be agonizing.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bil's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online or if you prefer you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience.

And remember you can do all this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcno.org. For Pastor Bil Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.