In the sermon 'Adam, Your Federal Head,' Paul Thompson discusses the concept of Adam's federal headship and its implications on humanity's need for a representative champion in Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that all humans, as the seed of Adam, are conceived in sin and need to be redeemed. Thompson argues that the Bible teaches the concept of free grace, which is different from the cheap grace often found in Western Christianity. The sermon also touches upon the importance of understanding our fallen condition and our need for repentance, which is led by God's kindness. Thompson refers to Psalm 49 and Psalm 51 to support the argument of Adam's federal headship and the need for a sinless representative champion in Jesus Christ.

God does not leave reconciliation to man's invention. God's leading with the gospel in Genesis chapter 3. He covenants to save the rebel. God doesn't sit down with Adam. You notice it in Genesis chapter 3.

He doesn't sit down with Adam and say, well listen, let's think about this. How are we going to fix this? Man is already tempted to fix it by covering himself with an inadequate covering. God finds him hiding in the trees, God will come along and He will cover him with that which will be shed of blood. God doesn't sit down at the negotiation table with Adam and say, what do you think about this?

God says, that won't cut it. You're going to need to be covered by the skin, the blood of the animal is going to have to do this. And we'll even know that that even is representative. It's pointing forward to the necessity of a righteous man dying for the sins of unrighteous people. This will be your representative champion, Jesus the Christ.

So thus I make the argument you're not like Adam at all. And then I'll finish that statement up by saying you're just like Adam. Thinking I can fix this on my own. I can do this on my own accord. I can decide when I get saved.

I can decide where I get saved. I can decide how I'm saved. No, God didn't consider you when he saved you. He is your representative champion. What God does do is He's kind to you.

And His kindness, according to the Scriptures, is what leads you to repentance. As you're being seated, there is so much here, and there is good reason for us to just reside here in the text. Let me make a couple of observations about the general piece of the text, primarily from the layout of the curse upon the woman, or the curse upon the serpent, The curse upon the woman, the curse upon the man. And the emphasis and the target here has to be the sin of the man. The sin of Adam.

It doesn't remove the culpability that Eve sits in as being deceived by the serpent. It doesn't make light of the serious attack against God's creation that the enemy of God has launched here. But upon the sin of Adam is the narrative of the Gospel. That which will come from Adam will need to be redeemed. The sons of Adam.

Now we can call it the sons of Adam and Eve because obviously you can't have an offspring without Eve, but it will be Adam in which every curse of the fall of man will land upon his shoulders. That's why when we get to the New Testament and you read the Apostle Paul's exhortations about the first Adam and the necessity of his falling, of his sinning, of his rejecting the commands of God, of his behaving as the head of his household, of the protector of his household, that's out of this that all men will even see today will be reminded of a piece of text, at the best case, we'll be reminded of it out of Psalm 51 where all of humanity are conceived in sin. Meaning, from the seed of Adam, every human who has ever been born are sinners. If we reject this reality, If we reject the reality of Adam being the federal headship, the federal representative of all of humanity before God, we reject this and we think somehow, well, you know what, perhaps someone can be born innocent. By the way, there are many world religions that make this argument.

And let me follow that statement with saying they're all false religions. Any religion that makes claim that man is born innocent, his state of innocency is his original condition, he is flawed and he is not biblically thinking. We can't just make a philosophical argument that man is innocent or that man is sinful, we have to have background for it. We are a people who believe the Bible. The Bible is what gives us the evidence.

Man is born in sin. He's conceived in sin, thus meaning every human who takes a breath of air because he's first been conceived in sin will be born in sin. There is no one in a state of innocency before God. All humanity needs to be rescued. There will only be one who will not need to be rescued because he will be born of the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man.

You see that in the language of Genesis chapter 3? He's the one who will come and he will crush the head of the serpent. He's the one who will claim the victory. He will be the champion. So you can reject the federal headship of Adam if you want, but you're wrong.

And you don't want to be wrong on this. Thank you, Ruth. So we have this necessity for us to understand what does federal headship mean. And here's something, church, that I don't want you to be theologically naive of. Say, well come on preacher, that's something for the seminaries.

Why do we need to worry ourselves about federal headship? Well because if we get this wrong, we get the gospel wrong. If we don't understand that we are the kind of people in our original condition, meaning me, meaning you, that we are always in need of being rescued from our sin. If we don't see that we're in that condition, we won't want to be saved. And we won't even know that we want to be saved until Christ comes and shows us of our wicked condition before the Father.

So you reject the federal headship of Adam, and if you do so, then you're also rejecting the representative champion, Christ. So where you land on this theologically, these two cannot be separated out and dealt with independently. The federal headship of Adam, meaning all who are born in Adam, and by the way we have the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts that shows us that all of humanity are from the seed of Adam. So we have the argument for it in the Old Testament and we have the defense for it in the New Testament. You and I are all sons and daughters of Adam.

Every one of us. And because of that, we bear his sin. We are held accountable for our own sin, but we are conceived in sin, bearing the representative head, Adam, on our own life. And to reject that is to reject your need for the representative champion, Christ, who the Apostle Paul will make the argument is the second Adam. He is the perfect Adam.

Now this also means we have to be better theological thinkers than perhaps we have to be more disciplined. And boy isn't that something your preacher realizes how important it is to be a disciplined thinker. Sometimes you can just say something and then realize, well, that is what I'm ending with is the right thing, but how I said it was the wrong way. And so we want to be good biblical theological thinkers. And so we need to, if we're going to see and we're going to acknowledge the Bible teaching us that we are the seed of our federal head, Adam, then we need to understand this, that you and I do not or are not a sinner because we sinned.

This is important. You sin because you are a sinner. Your sinning isn't what... You're not a sinner because of some lie that you told. That is true and that's good and accurate, But that's not the root of it.

You sin, you lie, because you're a sinner. Why are you a sinner? Because you're born under the federal headship of Adam, who sinned, disobeyed God. That's why David will make the claim in the 51st chapter of Psalms that he was conceived in sin. He's referring to Adam, His federal head.

He is of the bloodline of Adam. You and I, of the bloodline of Adam, conceived in sin. So then we begin to get a better understanding of what is the argument of Scripture. Is it an argument for free grace? Or is it an argument for free will?

Well, we'll have to deal with free will or free will agency, and by the grace of God, we get to, but we're not going to today. We're going to deal with this from the vantage point of Free grace you and I are the recipients we have we have the capacity given to us by God when He illuminates our eyes and our ears to hear when we hear the Gospel that we are sinners, and that our first great need of understanding is grace. We'll get to free will. We'll need to understand what free will agency and how that fits upon a man conceived or a woman conceived in sin. And that conceived in sin doesn't mean that the circumstances of your parents were necessarily sinning in their condition of marriage or wedlock.

That's not a blanket statement that, well, had David's parents been married when he was conceived, we have every reason to believe they were married. Conceived in sin is representative of the federal headship of Adam. Because of Adam, Irregardless of the good condition of the wedlock of the parents, humanity is born or is conceived in sin from the very beginning because of the federal headship of Adam. So we don't want to pit free grace against free will, but I'll make the argument we can't understand free will agency until we first understand this condition of free grace. And then to do so, we also have to understand that free grace is not the same thing as what most evangelical American Christianity would be more defined as cheap grace.

Many in Western Christianity are participants of cheap grace. I mean, we don't really consider exactly what God did by giving us free grace. Something he gives to sinners who need and are in condition of being rescued from the Savior, from the Lord, from the Redeemer. Cheap grace means if I pray this prayer, God is obligated to save me, and thus I can do whatever I want to do. That's cheap.

The death of Christ is no cheap act. It's because it's the only way that your sin could be paid for is by the death of your representative champion. Your original condition is under the federal headship of Adam. Your saved federal headship is under the representative champion Jesus the Christ. Now that's grace.

You deserve the wrath of God. You deserve to drink the wrath of God. But you've been given the opportunity of grace. And it's a grace you cannot buy. You cannot buy it by certain numbers of sacrifices you offer at the temple.

You cannot buy it by certain indulgences you make to the church house. You cannot be bought off by buying off man. It can only be paid for by your representative champion, the federal head Jesus the Christ, the second Adam. So the problem here is not with the holiness of God. The problem that humanity sees is his own sin.

The issue is not that God is holy, the issue is that you're a sinner. That's a big problem, isn't it? The problem is not that Adam chose to sin. The problem with most is that we are born like Adam or we are born in the condition in which Adam came to. See, Adam was created in a perfect estate.

You and I were conceived in a sinful estate. Adam... A problem with many modern evangelicals is we like to think of ourselves just like Adam. Well what we'll need to do today is we'll need to first say, we're nothing like Adam. And then we'll have to say, we're exactly like Adam.

And both of those can be true. And both of them are true. You and I were not created perfect like Adam. Adam was not born like you. So you see, in one sense, you and I have nothing at all in common with Adam.

Adam is created by God Himself. You were born from the womb of the act of man and woman, conceived in sin. You can begin to see that there's a beautiful thing of what God does by giving us a full-grown adult representative head. Isn't it a good thing? I mean, think of how bad it turned out as it did.

God gave you an adult, a perfect adult representative head, Adam, and he's saying, can you imagine if God gave you a toddler to be your representative head? Well, in all reality, we behave like Out of control toddlers in most of our unrepented conditions. God gave us, so we should really weigh out the costliness of what God did in the first place. He gave us someone who actually had the capacity to obey God and actually had the capacity to disobey God. He had both.

And both are true. Just as you are of Adam, so you are like Adam, but in all reality you're nothing like Adam. God gave you someone as a representative who did fall, who did sin, But He gave you someone who could have obeyed Him. Now, there's a lot of jumping off spots into philosophical observations that I think are really fascinating. To think about the condition of Adam and the estate of what it was like in the garden.

And it's beautiful and I think even healthy for us to think about those things. But today what I really want us to do is walk away with a robust hunger and thirst for wanting to appreciate what God did for us in our condition of being the seed of Adam. And the seed of Adam is in the condition of the fall of man. And so let me do a couple of things. We're not leaving Genesis chapter 3, but we're going to add to our robust appetite here for the thinking here from the text.

If you're able to make way to the 49th chapter of Psalms, we see that we are given some helpful conditions to think about. In the 49th chapter, I'll read verses 1 through 9. Here's the exhortation, hear this all peoples give ear all inhabitants of the world both low and high rich and poor together My mouth will speak wisdom and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will express my riddle on a harp.

Verse 5. Why should I fear in days of adversity when the iniquity of my foes surround me, even those who trust in my wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches? No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him. Verse 8, for the redemption of his soul is costly and he should cease trying forever, that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay." Well, there's a lot here. I have already benefited from meditating on these verses and will long to in coming days as we continue to land in this third chapter of Genesis.

But do you see the clearest, the simplest of the text without considering the proverb piece of it, the riddle that is put to the harp, in other words, to song. The simple of this is found in the seventh verse. No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him. So here's the condition of the fallen state of Adam and everyone born of the seed of Adam are sinners in need of being rescued. You think about humanity.

Certainly one can build some kind of an argument that there are some people who are better than some others. But at the end of the day, we're all sinners. What is the standard? What is the criteria for the good? Well, you can begin to see there are ways in which we can say, well, this person is better than that person.

Or it'd be better to have this kind of a neighbor than that kind of a neighbor. It'd be better to have this kind of a parent than that kind of a parent. But in all reality, it doesn't matter how good your brother is, he cannot save you from your sins. You will need a representative champion to save your brother, To save you. Not so your brother can save you, but so that you can both be saved equally at the foot of the cross.

So the problem is not the holiness of God, the problem is the sin of man. No man, the Apostle Paul says to the church in Rome, no one is righteous. No one is good. None. Not even you.

Not even you in your fallen condition are good. Not until you are under your federal representative champion, Jesus the Christ, can anything be credited to you as being good. So it'll be the righteousness of God that is imputed to you. It's accredited to you. It is Christ who represents you on His goodness, not yours.

The problem here is not even that Adam chose to sin. The problem with most is that we think we are born like Adam was created. Perfect. Innocent. We cannot, and let me exhort you, you must not think of yourself in that condition.

In that sense you are nothing like Adam. But in this sense of needing to be saved, you and I are just like Adam, fallen and broken. You and I, where God has already stated, not born sinless, We would consider Psalm 49 for this argument. We're going to need a sinless representative to save us. Not another man, not another fallen, not another man of the seed of Adam.

We're going to need one born of the seed of woman. This is heady stuff, this is theological stuff, yes, but why don't you devote yourself to understand these things? Why wouldn't you want to better understand this? I want to, and I want you to. Again, looking at that 49th chapter in the first four verses, You see that this is where every religion on earth goes wrong except for Christianity.

Look again at the first four verses of Psalm 49. Hear this all peoples, give ear all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, both rich and poor together. All of you, my mouth will speak wisdom and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb and I will express my riddle with a harp. Every religion except for Christianity makes the fatal flaw of thinking man is right in his original condition.

All of humanity, every one of the seed of Adam are like Adam was before he fell. We are not. This is why world religions put all of the emphasis upon earning your way to heaven. Doing so much good and doing good to overcome your negatives, because world religions believe you have the capacity to do this. When the Bible teaches you never have had and you never will and nor will another born of the seed of Adam have this condition of which to stand as the representative champion of humanity.

God does not have, or God does not leave reconciliation to man's invention. God's leading with the Gospel in Genesis chapter 3. He covenants to save the rebel. God doesn't sit down with Adam. You notice it in Genesis chapter 3.

He doesn't sit down with Adam and say, well listen, let's think about this. How are we going to fix this? Man is already tempted to fix it by covering himself with an inadequate covering. God finds him hiding in the trees. God will come along and he will cover him with that which will be shed of blood.

And he does it. God doesn't sit down at the negotiation table with Adam and says what do you think about this? God says that won't cut it. You're going to need to be covered by the skin, the blood of the animal is going to have to do this And we'll even know that that even is representative. It's pointing forward to the necessity of a righteous man dying for the sins of unrighteous people.

This will be your representative champion, Jesus the Christ. So thus I make the argument you're not like Adam at all. And then I'll finish that statement up by saying you're just like Adam. Thinking I can fix this on my own. I can do this on my own accord.

I can decide when I get saved. I can decide where I get saved. I can decide how I'm saved. No, God didn't consider you when he saved you. He is your representative champion.

What God does do is he's kind to you and his kindness, according to the scriptures, is what leads you to repentance. It is not your intellect that leads you to repentance. It's not some kind of a rational conclusion because in your fallen state you think, I'll just do it myself. This is what Adam did. Here's one of the ways you're just like Adam.

I can do it. I got it covered. I have the intellectual capacity to know that I need to cover myself. This is what Adam is doing. He knows he's naked.

He's bare. He's sinned against God. And his conclusion is, I need to cover myself. He's correct, but he's wrong. He can't cover himself.

He's going to need a representative champion to cover him. Think about some of those ways in which we're just like Adam and ways in which were not at all like Adam. We've already made a couple of those observations. Adam was not conceived. You were not created as a grown male.

Adam was not conceived, Adam was created. Adam was created a rational man. Adam was innocent until he was not. God established all of humanity through the seed of Adam. This sin, which God is holding Adam accountable for, had to happen extremely early.

Now here's where I'm going to make some statements and know here that there's room for some argument. I don't think there's a lot. I think there's room for some. How early along does Adam sin? I think that matters.

I think we have to come to a conclusion that it obviously has to be rather quickly. It has to be. I mean, the wiggle room that I'm willing to give is about nine months after the first Lord's Day. So we don't know how quickly Adam and Eve conceive a child in the womb. But we have to know this.

Adam has to fall before that conception can take place. Or Psalm 51 is wrong. So I think we have to at least say here it has to happen before. Now this is going to be some of those other things that we kind of sit out here on the on the edge of how do we figure everything out out of Genesis chapters 1 through chapter 11. They're going to sit out there, we don't know exactly.

But they're going to have to sit somewhere inside of some kind of a time limit. God created man to bear, to be fruitful and to multiply. That's the command he gives them in their perfect estate. So we know that that's what God intended for them to do. Now here's where when we get over into Cain and Abel, and after Cain kills Abel, and the Scriptures would describe to us that Cain goes off to other cities, that's where he finds his wife.

Here's where world philosophy or human philosophy or the inventions of man gets to be really dicey. So where do these other people come from? I mean I've even asked these questions. I don't think that I'm even unique in asking them. Probably because I've read books where people ask these questions.

And then I read foolish answers that world philosophies, humanistic philosophers give answers to that, OK, that might make sense. But if we're going to we're going to have a Psalm 51 at play here, and we do, then we have to make the argument that Adam and Eve could not have had any other children in their perfect estate. All of humanity, the seed of Adam. Otherwise, also we have a Psalm 49 we have to contend with. If there are perfect people conceived in perfection, then your brother might be able to save you.

But we don't have that in Psalm 59. Psalm 59 says it can't happen. Well, let's talk about those things. Let's nibble on these edges out here that, and I know I'm speaking with some levels of great assertion toward this, I'm hoping as I pray to God that I'm making these assertions from the bedrock of Psalm 49, Psalm 51, Romans chapter 7, and most likely the entirety of the book of Hebrews. So again, where we're thinking about how we're not at all like Adam or how we're just like Adam, all of humanity of the seed of Adam are in this condition of sin, then that would mean this sin has to happen really early.

I've read some making the argument this sin happened on Monday, the eighth day. That's how quickly. Now that's an argument made from observation of Scripture. That's where I'm going to land on the issue. I'm willing to think, well maybe it was the ninth day.

But I don't think I can go much further than, I can't go any further than nine months, I don't think. I mean we don't know exactly how quickly they concede, but can you imagine perfect man having perfect relations with a perfect woman? They're going to conceive really quickly, if not immediately. So, preacher come along. Let's move, I know you need to encourage me, Get back to the text here.

These are interesting things to think about. And I've laid them out here of some of these things of how we're just like Adam and how we're not at all like Adam to make the argument We need a redeemer. We do. There's no other way around it. All of humanity needs this.

Every seed of Adam needs it. And if any seed of Adam is not born in sin or not conceived in sin, then we have a gospel issue we've got to deal with. All right, Psalm 51. Again, we're looking at how we're like Adam or how we're not like Adam. Here's where we're just like Adam.

We're sinners now. Psalm 51, we'll talk about those being conceived. Adam was not conceived. Eve was not conceived. They were both created.

So we're not like Adam here, but because we're of the seed of Adam we're just like each other. Adam will be cast out of the garden. Now here's where the overarching biblical narrative really continues down this beautiful story, this beautiful biblical narrative of what God's doing. God will cast Adam out of the garden in Eve. Mankind will not be born in the garden, He will be born outside the garden.

He'll be born, if you will, outside the gate. When we get there in chapter 4, chapter 5, we'll see here that God cast him out of the garden. He establishes a gate and he guards the gate. Adam is cast outside the gate. The children of Adam and Eve are born outside the gate.

Do you have any idea where Christ will ransom humanity? He'll do so, according to Hebrews chapter 13, outside the gate. He'll go to man where he's at in his condition of sin and he'll rescue man outside the gate. There's no reason to rescue the man inside the gate, because he doesn't need to be rescued there. It's not until he's cast from the glory of God that man needs to be rescued.

Christ does not redeem humanity based on man's appeal from outside the gate. No man's outside the gate and he likes it there. He likes his sin. Romans chapter 1. So Christ does not redeem humanity based on man's appeal, because man has, because man naturally knows who God is.

No, God will need to tell us who He is in this condition outside the gate, outside the garden. And so we're like Adam in this, that he did not see himself as in need of a different covering than what God would provide. We're just like Adam to think we are in great condition here and we're in good condition because I can come to this condition of seeing I need Christ. Well when you come to that condition all you can do is say, bless be the living God that He has opened your eyes and opened your ears that you need a Redeemer. Because otherwise you like your condition.

I liked my condition. Mankind conceived in sin likes his state outside the gate. God is the one who solves the issue. Adam plays no part of solving the condition. You and I are just like Adam in this.

We have no part of the deciding of how God will save us. You and I, we learn of the need of a sufficient covering. That's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Your appeal to God or your appeal to God is the grace of God. It's not your deciding you need God.

It's the grace of God showing you you need God. It's the kindness of God that leads us here to this condition. Adam's condition could not be settled by any kind or any table talk or negotiating of the nations of the world to come together and say, here's our agreed upon condition of how we will be made right with God. This is all God's work. Adam's condition was addressed by God, Genesis chapter 3.

Where are you Adam? Why are you hiding yourself from me? He's addressing the condition of which Adam is seeing himself in now as a sinner. Adam's condition was initiated by God. Notice Adam wasn't hiding in the bushes saying, hey God, I'm here!

God initiated the condition. He initiated the conversation, the condition in which man would need to see he needs God. Adam's condition, not only was he addressed by God, Adam's condition was not only initiated by God alone, but Adam's condition was solved by God alone. This is where you and I are just like Adam. You can insert here, Paul's condition was addressed by God.

Paul's condition was initiated by God. Paul's condition was solved by God. Your first federal head, your parents are guilty. They're a guilty head. You're born under that head.

Adam sinned. You sin. And why do you sin? Because you're a sinner. And because of that, all conceived conditions of all of humanity are conceived, all humans are conceived outside the gates.

All are outside, and because they're outside, they must be rescued. You don't get to stumble into the kingdom. You must be rescued, Paul to the church in Colossae. Christ rescued them from the kingdom of darkness. Where is it?

The darkest, but outside the righteousness of God. And all of humanity are born outside of the gate. And what are they doing outside the gate? Their condition says they don't want God. They don't need God.

They like their condition in which they're in, but comes along the kindness of God and gives us a second federal head who presents you before God, no longer guilty, but innocent. Here again, how are we like Adam and how are we not like Adam at all? Adam was created in a state of innocence, a state of perfection before God. Here you can only be like Adam in that condition when God rescues you and God credits you with his righteousness. Can you be presented before the Father as righteous, as good?

I want to conclude just with the words of the Apostle to the church in Rome in the book of Hebrews in the thirteenth chapter. Let the language, Let the argument be from the Word of God here. This is in Hebrews 13, v. 7 and following. How is it that we who are born outside the gate, how are we going to be rescued?

We're not going to be rescued by a brother who's also conceived and born outside the gate. Listen to how the writer of Hebrews puts this. Verse 7, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Sidebar side note here, here's one argument among many of why it's so beneficial to read the ancients. They are closer in proximity to the gospel, to the living color gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ in front of them.

That's why it's good that you read your Bible and that you build your theological conclusions on as oldest of documents and oldest of arguments that are not declared heresies by the councils of the church. You can't just say any old writer, we've got to go do what he says because many of them were tagged as heretics. In other words, they liked pursuing their salvation in their own intellect, in their own ways, in their own explanations. Get as close as you can here to the Word of God that was spoken to you and consider the result of their conduct and imitate their faith. Verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by food, not by temporal things, through which those who have so occupied were not benefited. Verse 10, We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. In just a moment, we're going to gather at the Lord's table. And we're going to do something that only the redeemed have permission to take of. You don't eat from this table to be redeemed.

You're welcome to the table because you've been redeemed. Who have you, who's redeemed you? Well Christ has redeemed you. Not your brother, not your intellect, not your pursuit of your own ambitions, but by Christ you've been redeemed. Verse 11, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned, notice this where they're burned, outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered, notice the location, outside the gate. So let us go into him outside the camp bearing his reproach for there we do not have a lasting city but we are seeking the city which is to come. Through Him, verse 15, then let us continually offer up sacrifices of praise. Praise is to who? To God!

That is the fruit and the lips that give thanks to his name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls." Notice they keep watch over your souls, they don't save you. But they have a duty given to God to make sure that we think right, that we behave right, that we understand biblically about this. So verse 17 after he speaks about those who give watch over your souls as those they will give an account for you, let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you.

Pray for us that we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things, and I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you the sooner." so we conclude here with the language that we see will soon be familiar to us in Genesis chapter 3 of the casting of the fallen man out of the gate, out of the garden, And there He is left there without sufficient coverings. What is the sufficient covering but the righteousness of Christ, which is what we claim when we come to the table every Lord's Day. Adam's condition was addressed by God. Has God addressed your condition? Adam's condition was initiated by God.

Has God initiated this condition with you? Adam's condition was solved by God. Are you still trying to solve your own condition? Your federal head represents you under your federal head of Adam. He represents you, he presents you guilty before the Father.

Because you are conceived in sin, your sin that you've committed, because you're a sinner, you present yourself as guilty before God. Your second federal head, he presents you righteous, good before God. This is a condition of which you would find yourself in of those who are born again. What must I do to inherit eternal life? You must be born again.

Repent and believe the Gospel. The grace of God is that you're under the preaching of the Word of God and you've found yourself in a condition where someone is telling you, you must repent and believe the gospel. This is God addressing your condition. This is God initiating you in this condition. This is God solving the condition.

And He stirred you. He has woken you from your dead trespasses and He's called you to repent and believe the gospel. What is forbidding you and why are you delaying today? Come to Christ, your representative champion, and be saved. This is the cry we make to our children.

This is the appeal we make to the nations. So we must.