Legally Dead

This past week, I read a sermon by the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon—a famous British preacher of the 1800s. It is a phenomenal sermon that explains so eloquently what happened at the fall in Genesis 3—and what the state of every human is as a result of the fall (as a result of sin). I thought on this Sunday, it would be good to start the day with an excerpt from Spurgeon’s sermon to remind us of who we really are and our desperate need of Christ:

THAT MEN BY NATURE ARE DEAD. No being needs to go after life if he has life in himself. The text speaks very strongly when it says, “You will not come unto me, that You might have life,” though it says it not in words, Yet it does in effect affirm that men need a life more than they have themselves. My hearers, we are all dead unless we have been begotten unto a lively hope.

First, we are all of us, by nature, legally dead:—“In the day that you eat thereof you shall die the death,” said God to Adam; and though Adam did not die in that moment naturally, he died legally; that is to say death was recorded against him. As soon as, at the Old Bailey, the judge puts on the black cap and pronounces the sentence, the man is reckoned to be dead at law. Though perhaps a month may intervene before he is brought on the scaffold to endure the sentence of the law, Yet the law looks upon him as a dead man. It is impossible for him to transact anything. He cannot inherit, he cannot bequeath; he is nothing—he is a dead man. The country considers him not as being alive in it at all. There is an election—he is not asked for his vote because he is considered as dead. He is shut up in his condemned cell, and he is dead. Ah! and You ungodly sinners who have never had life in Christ, You are alive this morning, by reprieve, but do You know that You are legally dead; that God considers you as such, that in the day when your father Adam touched the fruit, and when you yourselves did sin, God, the Eternal Judge, put on the black cap and condemned you? You talk mightily of your own standing, and goodness, and morality:—where is it? Scripture says, You are “condemned already.” You are not to wait to be condemned at the judgment day—that will be the execution of the sentence:—“You are condemned already.” In the moment You sinned; your names were all written in the black book of justice; every one was then sentenced by God to death, unless he found a substitute, in the person of Christ, for his sins.

What would you think if you were to go into the Old Bailey, and see the condemned culprit sitting in his cell, laughing and merry? You would say, “The man is a fool, for he is condemned, and is to be executed; Yet how merry he is.” Ah! and how foolish is the worldly man, who, while sentence is recorded against him, lives in merriment and mirth! Do you think the sentence of God is of no effect? Think you that thy sin which is written with an iron pen on the rocks for ever hath no horrors in it? God hath said you are condemned already. If you would but feel this, it would mingle bitters in your sweet cups of joy; your dances would be stopped, your laughter quenched in sighing, if you would recollect that you are condemned already. We ought all to weep, if we lay this to our souls: that by nature we have no life in God’s sight; we are actually, positively condemned, death is recorded against us, and we are considered in ourselves now, in God’s sight, as much dead as if we were actually cast into hell; we are condemned here by sin, we do not You suffer the penalty of it, but it is written against us, and we are legally dead, nor can we find life unless we find legal life in the person of Christ, of which more by-and-bye.

One doesn’t hear preaching like this much any more. I pray everyone reading this blog can say they have found “legal life in the person of Christ.”

Public Schoolteacher Using AiG Resources

Even though many public schools would intimidate or fire a teacher allowing students to hear both sides of the creation/evolution issue, we know of many teachers like this one who are doing just that:

I am a public high school science teacher. I love your website and have done much research using your search engine. So far I'm able to show both sides of the issues and give my students information that they wouldn't normally receive from teachers who have bought into evolution. I believe my students greatly appreciate being able to see both sides of the controversies and appreciate being given the respect to choose for themselves.

Pray for these missionaries within the public school system who are doing their best to teach the students correctly concerning the origins issues.

We had great attendance at the Creation Museum Friday and Saturday—the two days after Thanksgiving. I met people from all across the USA, Canada, and countries like Ukraine, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and many other nations. We praise the Lord for the way the He is using the museum to take the message of the creation/gospel around the globe.

By the way, a great time to visit the museum would be December 12 – January 4, during our “Bethlehem’s Blessings” Christmas celebration. All kinds of things are planned, including a live outdoor Nativity, a special showing in our planetarium on the star of Bethlehem, thousands of lights, and so much more.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken