THE ADAM BALM
When God's Remedy Preceded Man's Ruin
Jeremiah 8:22 — "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"
Romans 5:19 — "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
*Prayer:* Father, we have tried fig leaves long enough. Show us the Balm today. Amen.
TWO BOMBS
On July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert, scientists watched the first atom bomb explode. Oppenheimer whispered, "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Man finally had the power to end the world in an afternoon.
But 6,000 years earlier, in a perfect garden, another bomb went off. No mushroom cloud. No sound. Just a bite.
We call it the Adam Bomb.
Romans 5:12 — "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
The atom bomb can destroy the body. The Adam bomb destroyed the soul, the marriage, the planet.
Today we are afraid of the wrong bomb. Washington talks about Iran, Russia, North Korea. But the real weapon of mass destruction is still inside us — selfishness, pride, rebellion. The fallout is still killing marriages, churches, and children.
And so Jeremiah's question is still our question: Is there no balm for this kind of wound?
Thank God, there is. And it's called The Adam Balm.
THE FALLOUT - WHY WE ARE SO SICK
The first Adam was supposed to be a gardener. He became a bomber. One act of disobedience dropped guilt, fear, shame, and death into the human genome. We were all born in the blast zone.
> Psalm 51:5 — "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
> Jeremiah 17:9 — "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
> Isaiah 1:5-6 — "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."
You can see the fallout everywhere:
*Adam hid* — and we still hide from God and each other.
*Adam blamed* — "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me" — and we still blame.
*Adam covered himself* with fig leaves — and we still try to cover ourselves with fig leaves of good works, vegetarianism, correct doctrine, and busy church work.
Fig leaves will never heal the heart. That's why Jeremiah asks, "Why is not the health of my people recovered?" Because we are putting band-aids on a bomb wound.
"Man was originally endowed with noble powers... But through disobedience, his powers were perverted, and selfishness took the place of love. His nature became so weakened through transgression that it was impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil." "It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken." STC, p. 17-18
A lifelong Adventist can have 60 years of fig leaves and still not be healed inside. The law can show us the wound, but the law cannot heal it.
"The law does not have a particle of life in it to give to the man who has broken it. It is death. It cannot make a righteous man out of a sinful one." - Christ Our Righteousness, p. 44
The law is a mirror. You don't wash your face with a mirror. You go to water. The law shows us we need a Physician. It is not the Physician.
WHEN MAN TRIES TO BE GOD
The atom bomb is the final expression of Babylon.
What is Babylon's spirit? Isaiah 14:14 — "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."
The atom bomb says: We have become as God. We have power over creation itself. That is Laodicea in uniform: "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Revelation 3:17
The atom bomb can end civilization, but it can't change one human heart. It can vaporize a city, but it can't cure one person's guilt. It is power without healing.
And that's what many of us have tried in church — willpower instead of healing. We try to blow up bad habits with more effort, more guilt, more programs. It doesn't work.
THE ADAM BALM - WHEN GOD BECAME MAN
But God didn't send an army. He sent a Second Adam.
> 1 Corinthians 15:45 — "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit."
> 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 — "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Think about this: We read of a tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2. That tree was planted long before there was a nation. We read of a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8. The remedy was in place long before the malady. God never has an emergency. He had the Balm before the Bomb.
And here is a beautiful mystery: That four-letter word B A L M is the L A M B. Jesus is the Adam Balm.
The first Adam took from the tree and brought death. The Second Adam hung on a tree and brought life. The first Adam disobeyed in a perfect garden. The Second Adam obeyed in a terrible garden — Gethsemane — where everything was terrible, and He said, "Not my will, but thine, be done."
Why does this Balm have power to heal you?
A balm in a bottle heals no one. It must be applied and rubbed in daily. This is how we LIVE righteousness by faith.
*1. The Balm has power because the Balm is Creator.*
> John 1:3 — "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
> Colossians 1:16 — "For by him were all things created..."
"The power of redemption is the power of creation. The same power that created the worlds out of nothing is the power that can create a clean heart out of nothing." - COR, p. 26
The atom bomb uses created power to destroy. The Adam Balm uses Creator power to recreate. When God says "Let there be light" in your dark heart, it happens just as surely as in Genesis 1. You don't have to try to be good. You have to receive a new creation.
> Psalm 51:10 — "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Only a Creator can answer that prayer.
*2. The Balm has power because the Balm IS Righteousness.*
> Jeremiah 23:6 — "And this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
> 2 Corinthians 5:21 — "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
"Righteousness is not something that Jesus has and gives you like a package. Righteousness is what Jesus IS, and He gives you HIMSELF. Righteousness is life. It is the very life of God in the soul." – COR p. 62*
You don't get a thing called righteousness. You get a Person. When you have Christ, you have everything. To try to be righteous without Christ dwelling in you is like trying to be light without the sun.
> "The law requires righteousness — a righteous life, a perfect character; and this man has not to give... But Christ, coming to the earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus men have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God." - *Desire of Ages, p. 762*
What does a balm do that a bomb cannot?
*A bomb destroys from without.
A balm heals from within.
* The atom bomb changes your address.
The Adam Balm changes your heart.
*A bomb is indiscriminate.
A balm is personal.* The leaves are for the nations, but you must apply it yourself. "Lord, heal ME."
*A bomb ends with fear.
A balm ends with finishing the work.* God's last-day message is not an atom bomb message of fear: "The world is going to end!" It's an Adam Balm message: "There is healing for what Adam broke."
That's the Three Angels' Messages:
- 1st Angel: You are healed to worship the Creator again — not self.
- 2nd Angel: You can come OUT of Babylon — out of pride, confusion, self-exaltation.
- 3rd Angel: You can keep His commandments — not because you have to, but because your healed heart _wants_ what He wants.
HOW TO LIVE IT - APPLYING THE BALM DAILY
A balm in a bottle heals no one. In Bible times, a balm was rubbed in daily. How do we LIVE righteousness by faith? Not as a doctrine, but as a daily life?
*1. We Apply the Balm by Confession — We Stop Covering.*
> 1 John 1:9 — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The balm can't help if you say you aren't wounded. We are in a hostage situation. The devil held Adam's race as captives.
He said, "It will cost you more than an arm and a leg." Jesus said, "I will give My life for theirs. They are priceless and I can't bear living in eternity without them." Love settled the debt.
> "Christ is the great Physician... He heals the diseases of the soul as well as those of the body." - MH, p. 111
> "When it is in the heart to obey God, when efforts are put forth to this end, Jesus accepts this disposition and effort as man's best service, and He makes up for the deficiency with His own divine merit." - FW, p. 50*
That is so encouraging! God accepts your best effort and makes up the rest with His merit.
*2. We Apply the Balm by Beholding — We Look at Jesus Until We Become Like Him.*
> Romans 1:17 — "The just shall live by faith."
> 2 Corinthians 3:18 — "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
> Hebrews 12:2 — "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."
"Faith is simply believing that God will do what He says, and depending upon Him to do it. It is trusting in Christ's life to do what we cannot do."
> "It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones." - *Desire of Ages, p. 83*
> "Let the soul contemplate Christ until Christ is his only thought, and he is lost in the contemplation of His perfection. Then self is forgotten. His righteousness is my righteousness, because He lives in me." - *COR, p. 91*
Look to self — you will be depressed.
Look to others — you will be distracted.
Look to Christ — you will be transformed. Faith is not trying; faith is beholding.
*3. We Apply the Balm by Abiding — Letting Him Live Through Us.*
This is where we fail. We try to keep the commandments in order to be righteous. God says you are made righteous in order to keep the commandments.
> "We do not keep the law to become righteous; we keep the law because we HAVE been made righteous by faith and Christ's life in us naturally keeps it." – COR p. 52
> John 15:4-5 — "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me."
The Jamaicans say it best. Listen to this truth sweeter than a Julie Mango: “To be Divine, stay in De Vine”.
> Galatians 2:20 — "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God."
> Philippians 2:13 — "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
Righteousness by Faith is not you trying to live like Jesus. It is Jesus living His life again in you.
> "When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness." - COL, p. 312
> "Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, 'Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee.' This is a daily matter." - STC, p. 70
THE FINAL VICTORY - PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS
Revelation tells us how the remnant wins. It is not by overwhelming power, but by abiding faith.
> Revelation 14:12 — "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
The Greek word for patience is hupomone — supernatural, steadfast endurance under extreme pressure. How do they survive the final crisis over worship? Not by willpower.
> "The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought. The enemy of God and man is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken." - GW, p. 161
- *Legalism says:* Patience = Human effort to try harder.
- *Righteousness by Faith says:* Patience = Total surrender to Christ's timing. His patience living in us.
- *Legalism says:* Commandments = Rules to keep to be saved.
- *Righteousness by Faith says:* Commandments = A transcript of Christ's character, written in the heart by promise: "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Hebrews 8:10
- *Legalism says:* Faith OF Jesus = Believing IN Jesus. Even devils believe.
- *Righteousness by Faith says:* Faith OF Jesus = Allowing Jesus to live His obedient life _through_ you.
Revelation 3:18 — "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed... and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."
Gold = Faith that works by love.
White raiment = Christ Our Righteousness.
Eyesalve = The Holy Spirit — the Adam Balm that lets you see clearly again.
The world is waiting for the next atom bomb to drop. God is waiting for a people to finally drop the fig leaves and pick up the Balm.
Malachi 4:2 — "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings."
Jeremiah 30:17 — "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD."
Exodus 15:26 — "I am the LORD that healeth thee."
So I ask you two questions today:
*1. Where do you still have Adam Bomb fallout — pride, hidden guilt, a critical spirit, a marriage wound — that you have covered with fig leaves instead of bringing to the Physician?* Bring it to Him now. Confess it. He won't blow you up. He will heal you. His Creator power will make a new heart.
*2. Who will you carry the Adam Balm to this month? Who is your ONE?*
The atom bomb says, "I am become Death."
The Adam Balm says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10
> 1 John 4:4 — "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."
> 2 Timothy 1:7 — "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Let's choose the Balm. Let's choose to abide. Let's let Jesus live out His life in us, today.
You cannot keep the commandments of God unless you first possess the faith of Jesus. Obedience is not the root of salvation; it is the fruit of His righteousness credited to you. In Greek, "patience" means steadfast endurance under extreme pressure.
Everyone within the sound of my voice, can be a part of the remnant church and the finishing work just before our Lord returns in the clouds to take us home. We have a work to do. It is not easy. The Bible says all things are possible. It doesn’t say all things are easy.
It has not been an easy ministry for our Lord, has it? We enter this finishing work not out of fear, but out of supreme love toward Him who first loved us and gave His Son as a ransom to buy us back out of a hostage situation. The ransom has been paid. Now, we and all Heaven long for the reunion. Oh, what a glorious day it will be when we all get to Heaven and all generations that have ever been will finally be together in one place at one time for eternity. From the very first Adam to the 144,000th saint who passed through great tribulation.
The Lord wants that not one of us be absent that day when the roll is called up yonder! I’ll be there! What say you? Don’t you long for heaven? Tears fill my eyes everytime I think to kiss whose wounds…no those beauty marks of Jesus.
Sweet lambs, we need not fear. 2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." God is the real Superpower.
That hungry old lion with his pride and that old dragon with his legeons seek to destroy, deface and dismember anything and anyone that has anything to do with the Kingdom of Light. Oh but when our when our chains are loosed, when we are untethered from this world and travel to countless other galaxies. Will those heavenly beings salute us with a holy hand near their golden-crowned brow and say to us: "Thank you for your service to our King. Well done!"
Let's pray.