AS WITH ADAM, SO WITH US

by

B. Cook.

[January 2007]

 

I’m sharing some things the Lord has reveled to me and placed on my heart.  It is my prayer that it will edify the body of Christ.

 

Recently I was listening to a teaching by a preacher who made a very interesting comment about Adam.  Adam has a lesson for us that many may have missed.  It is important to see this lesson because God is showing us a principle that is crucial for us to understand and choose to do likewise ourselves.

1 Tim. 2:14.  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

 

Adam was not deceived, he knew what he was doing, and he willfully disobeyed God.  He knew God said he would die.  Why would he do this?  It was because of his love for Eve and his faith in the word of God.  He chose to join her in death.  Eve had already eaten the fruit and Adam knew what God said would happen.  He wouldn’t allow that to happen to her alone.  He sacrificed himself and joined her in death.  I never saw his love, self-sacrifice and confidence in the Word of God before.  I only saw sin and disobedience.  What a beautiful revelation. I now see Adam as the figure of Christ that scripture says he is.

 

Romans 5:14.  Adam, … who is the figure of him that was to come.

 

This same test is put to us as well.  The test of love, self-sacrifice and faith.  If we pass it there is great reward.

 

John 14:15, 23, 24.  If ye love me, keep my commandments…. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

 

Luke 9:23.  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

 

We must realize the need for love, SELF-SCARIFICE and faith to be pleasing to God and to be a recipient of his rewards. These rewards are not just for here and now but also the reward of the kingdom in the next age.  We must have the same love, self-sacrifice and faith as Adam and Christ, ‘the last Adam’.

 

Luke 18:29-30.  I say to you [disciples], there is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world [age] to come life everlasting.

 

Do not be deceived by this “other gospel” that is so popular today.  Just as Adam’s love, self-denial and faith is not realized by many.  The requirement of our love self-denial and faith to receive the [millennial] kingdom as a reward is not realized by many [regenerate] believers.  Your unbelief [as a Christian] does not make the word of God untrue.

 

2 Tim 2:12.  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.

Scripture is plain that all of the called will not be chosen.  All born again believers are the called.  Only the self-denying are chosen.

 

Matt 20:16.  for many be called, but few chosen.

 

I beg you, please don’t neglect this great salvation you have received.  Yes you are eternally secure from perishing for eternity, but there is an age to go through after this age and before eternity.  To be chosen for the kingdom age, there is the matter of self, your soul, that needs saving.  Those who deal with the soul and lay it down for His sake will inherit the kingdom as a reward in the next age.  Those who do not, have no inheritance in His kingdom, the thousand-year millennium.  They will not be chosen to enter in.  They will be cast far away from Him for that period of time.

 

The next age is an age of reward and punishment.  Do not be deceived! God is not mocked; we will reap what we have sown.  There is a reward or loss ahead for each of us.

 

1 Corin 6:9.  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

 

Eph 5:5.  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

 

Gal 5:21.  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

This “other gospel” has so many believing they have nothing to be concerned about after they are [eternally]saved”.  If this is true why was Paul concerned and what was he concerned about?

 

Phil 3:12-14.  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

Phil 2:12-13.  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you* both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

 

[*There are those regenerate believers foolish to believe the Holy Spirit will indwell a disobedient believer!  That, my friend, is a lie of the Devil: “We are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given TO THEM THAT OBEY HIM:” (Acts 5: 32) See also, Psa. 50: 11; Jud. 16: 20; Rev. 3: 1.]

 

Heb 4:1.  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

 

Heb 10:30-31.  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

We need to redeem the time growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  We must seek to come up to the measure of the fullness of Christ.  There is holiness to be perfected, gifts and talents to be used, a walk in the Spirit to be maintained, the true gospel to be preached, souls to be saved and transformed.  We are redeemed, but that is just the beginning.  We must walk in the newness of life we have received.  Our reasonable service is to present ourselves as a living sacrifice which is holy and acceptable to God.

 

If you are convinced that you need to make your calling and election sure, as an act of your will determine to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.*

 

[* That is, act as God acts, be kind to everyone, even toward your worst enemies.  Love God with all of your heart, and do unto others as you would have them do to you.  That is what the author of this tract means here.  To even imagine the ‘righteousness’ here refers to that righteousness of Christ, is beyond comprehension.  No one ‘born in sin’ could ever attain that standard!]   

 

Meekly receive the word of God.

 

James 1:21.  Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

 

[* “The salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1: 9), is a future salvation of rewardready to be revealed in the last time,” (verse 5).  It has to do with suffering for Christ now, and a future glory (after resurrection) to follow, which will be “brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (verse 13).]

 

Renew your mind.

 

Romans 12:2.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Yield to righteousness.

 

Romans 6:19.  For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

 

Put off the old man.

 

Eph 4:22.  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; Col 3:9.  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.

 

Mortify the old man.

 

Romans 8:13.  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

 

Col 3:5.  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

 

Be Spiritually minded.

 

Gal 6:8.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.*

 

[* We cannot reap “everlasting” life by sowing “to the Spirit.”  We can reap ‘age-lasting’ life in the “age” to come.]

 

Col 3:16.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

 

Make your election sure!

 

2 Peter 1:5-11.  Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

Thy kingdom come, Lord Jesus Christ!

 

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