This morning we are going to be looking at the Garden of Eden, briefly. Before we go there, I wonder if you could just imagine something for a minute. Imagine that you have been very, very sick and that you have been to a lot of doctors. In your imagination, you finally wind up in my office and I have been flown in to see you from a great distance. For example, I am the chief consultant in cancer of the American Cancer Society. You look at me and I say, “Look, this is the worst part of my job. You have been treated for cancer and nothing has helped. Your cancer is totally out of control and I am sorry to have to tell you that you are going to die in the next few days. There is no hope. You are going to be dead in the next few days, so I would advise you to gather your family together and to meet with your friends to explain to them that you are about to leave this world.”
That is awful news, is it not? It is terrible, yet it happens sometimes. More often than not, people die suddenly because they do not know that they are going to die.
But the news that I have to give you this morning from the Word of God is far worse than this news. This is terrible news, and I hope that it does not happen to you, but the news that I have to give you is far worse than this.
Scripture teaches that you are already dead. You are already dead. Remember, in Matthew 10, the disciples were going to go out with the Gospel and Jesus warns them that they are going to receive abuse. He tells them, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
You may say to me this morning, “I am alive. I got out of bed this morning. I put my feet on the floor and I began singing, ‘Oh, what a beautiful morning!’ I am alive. You are kidding with me. You are exaggerating!”
I am not exaggerating. You are not alive this morning. Turn to Ephesians 2:1-5:
And you hath he quickened (or made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation (or lifestyle) in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath (or anger), even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
So, spiritually, we are dead and God has warned that this is the consequence of sin. Turn to the first two chapters of the Bible. In the Garden of Eden, here is a really perplexing dilemma. In Genesis 2, God has made the Garden and He has made Adam and Eve perfectly. We read in Genesis 2:16-17:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Did they die? They ate the fruit. Did they die? Anybody with ordinary common sense, if there is such a thing (which there is not), would say, “They did not die.” But it says in Genesis 2:16-17:
And the LORD God commanded the man…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Either God is telling something that is not true here or this is mis-recorded, and I tell you from God Himself that this is not mis-recorded. Actually, they did die and we are going to see this.
Turn to Genesis 3:1-3 to see how Satan uses this:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Here is Satan acting like Satan, and he says in Genesis 3:4:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
I want to say to you this morning that this is the issue of your life for you. You have to come to grips with this. Was God correct in the Garden, or was Satan correct?
There is no possible middle ground here. When I had asked if they had died, some of you already said, “No, they did not die.” They had at least five children after this, right? “Adam…begat sons and daughters.” Three sons are named, so we know that they had at least five children.
So this appears to be true on the surface, but remember that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. This reminds me of Adolph Hitler who once wrote that if you lie to people long enough, they will believe you. Just tell a lie long enough.
God has said here that we are dead. We are grandchildren of Adam and Eve, and they died. They actually died a horrible death, more horrible than cancer could ever be. The Scripture says that we are “dead in trespasses and sins,” but it is far worse than this.
Turn to Romans 7 where Paul is talking about his wrestling with sin. He says in Romans 7:24:
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
We are still in dead, decaying bodies, even as believers, and these dead, decaying bodies are warring against our spirit. Every man is born in “death.”
We are “dead in sins,” in “trespasses and sins.” We just read this. We are under the wrath of God, which is everlasting. It never ceases.
We have a temporary reprieve. It is of His mercy that we are not consumed. We should have been sent to Hell immediately, but we have been given a temporary reprieve. We have also been given a test as to whether or not we are going to believe Satan in the Garden or God. Lord willing, we will see some implications of this.
Scripture says that we are dead in such a way that we have become the “enemy of God.” Adam and Eve were God’s friends and actual companions in the Garden of Eden. They became His enemy. As every one of us was conceived in our mother’s womb, we were conceived in the womb as enemies of God, under His wrath and under the death sentence of eternity. We are locked in the “prison house” of sin, the Scripture says.
John 16:8 is a verse that I like to refer to, actually, whenever I speak, because it is the best summary that I know of the Gospel. God promises that He is going to send the Holy Spirit and says in John 16:8:
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (or damnation):
Twice in Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel 18:4 and 18:20, God reminds us:
The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
We are subject to this death.
I recently received an e-mail from a gentleman that I do not know. This e-mail was concerning women, because there had been a little debate going on about whether woman can teach the Bible and to what extent. This gentleman wrote an e-mail to which he had copied 500 people and said that we have to understand that women are godly. Women are godly.
In some sense, we can maybe understand why he would say this. There is a lot of crime in the world, crime that is mostly committed by men, and a lot of disorder. But let me assure you, Scripture says that all—women and men—suffer from what 1 John 2:16 says:
…the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…
If you have problems in your life in this area, and I do, you will probably have problems in each of these three areas. The “lust of the flesh” is moral impurity. The “lust of the eyes” is a love of this world and its possessions. And the “pride of life” is to put God at number two in your life, at least, if not at number ten or number fifty. The “pride of life” is to put yourself and your interests at number one and to put Him further down the list.
Women are sinners just like men. In fact, women are discussed in 1Timothy 2. This is perplexing. I once heard a preacher preach on this and apologize that he even mentioned it. We read in 1 Timothy 2:8-14:
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Salvation is then discussed here and we read in 1 Timothy 2:15:
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing…
This is the bearing of the Lord Jesus Christ as a baby in Bethlehem. It continues:
…if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Some people are angry at the Apostle Paul because of this writing.
Scripture says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” This applies to men and women.
This is a hard thing to read, but let us look at Psalm 58. What about babies? This man wrote to me and said that women are godly. Are babies not cute? I have two little grandsons and they are so dear to me; they are wonderful little guys. But this is what the Scripture says of all men and all people. We read in Psalm 58:3-8:
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear…
These are very poisonous animals. It continues:
…which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
Children are sinful. They “go astray” from the womb, even infants.
This is a teaching that is just hated by the entire world. I once had a family doctor who knew that I professed to be a Christian. He wanted to discuss this chapter in the Bible to show how “nutty” Christianity was. “How can you say these awful things about babies? They are like poisonous snakes?”
They are. Turn to Romans 3. Of course, while I am talking about these things, I am trying to remind myself to look in the mirror. This is about me. Forget somebody else’s baby or somebody else’s poisonous little serpent. I am reading about me, and this is about you, folks, whoever you are. Romans 3 is the great chapter on the doctrine of sin. Some of you may not know this, but as Paul wrote this to the Romans, under God’s hand, he is quoting eight or nine different passages in the Old Testament and he has collected them in the great doctrine of sin in the Bible. In case you are confused about the doctrine of sin and what God thinks about man, let us begin reading in Romans 3:9-13:
What then? are we better than they (the Jews)? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher (which is a grave); with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Here it is again, the “poison of a serpent” is “under their lips.” You and me, when we open our mouths, it does not matter whether we have good breath or bad breath, the Bible here is accusing us of having mouths filled with “poison.”
We continue in Romans 3:14-15:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood:
Have any of you killed anyone recently? Have you? 1 John 3:15 says:
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer…
Have you ever hated someone? If so, you are guilty of murder and “swift to shed blood.” We continue in Romans 3:16-23:
Destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested…
Here is salvation.
…being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Salvation is in the faith of Christ and not our faith. It is in His faith because “all have sinned.” We are sinners. We are “desperately wicked.”
The Psalms is a hymn book. If you are not convinced of the sinful nature of man, take a look at the first eleven hymns that God wrote in the book of Psalms.
Psalm 5:4-5:
For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Here is one the verses that Paul stated, Psalm 5:9-10:
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
Psalm 9:15-17:
The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Psalm 10:13-16:
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it: for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
Psalm 11:5-6:
The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence…
“Violence” in the Bible, by the way, spiritually, is the twisting of God’s Word. It continues:
…and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
Well, men are “desperately wicked.” Babies are born in sin. Do you believe God when He said, “Thou shalt surely die”? All of Adam and Eve’s descendants were deluded. We are deceived.
We are Americans! American ends with “I can,” the last four letters. You can do anything that you determine to do. Is that not right? The great American mentality is wonderful, is it not? We have walked on the moon. Do you mean to tell me that Neil Armstrong is a dead man? I think that he is still alive. He lives in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He walked on the moon! There was not anything dead about him! He is a great American hero!
Actually, we are as men who are born “dead” when we are born. This is a horrible thing. Turn to Job 3, where we will see the ravages of sin. It is as if we are born “dead” people. Job, by the way, is also a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Job 3:1-5:
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
This is his birthday that he is talking about, and he is talking about your birthday, too, but only the Lord can show this to you. Job 3:6:
As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
Do you know what he is saying? He is saying, “Oh, forget my birthday! It was horrible! Do not let it be remembered!”
Do you remember your birthday? Do you have a party at home? Job’s wife just told him before this to “curse God,” but Job did not curse God because Job knew that God is righteous. Here is what Job said about himself instead in Job 3:7-13:
Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb…
He is talking about his mother’s abdomen where he was carried by his mother, little Job.
…nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me?...
That word “prevent” can also mean “allow.” It continues:
…or why the breasts that I should suck? For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept (or died): then had I been at rest,
Job continues and I am not going to read the whole chapter, but it just goes on and on and on. A “stillbirth,” that is me. That was you.
You may think like an American, “I can.” You can not! You can not! Stillborn, you should have been stillborn, even physically, according to Job. “Dead in trespasses and sins.” Ezekiel 37 looks out over a valley of dry bones, “and, lo, they were very dry.” Dead as a doornail—me and you, everyone, you—dead!
In our pride, we deceive ourselves. We think that we are very much alive, especially in the area of God and where we are going to go when we leave this earth, so you are going to accept Jesus as your personal Saviour. No, you are not.
God has faithfully, from beginning to end in His Word, told us that we are dead. We are dead especially in the sense that we are incapable of knowing Him or choosing Him or believing in Him. We just read over and over again, “there is none that seeketh after God.” Not a one of us. We can not do this.
“In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Was God joking with you? Was He serious? “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” Who was right there? Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die.”
Let me warn you from the Scripture. God spoke the truth. You were born “dead in trespasses and sins.” This is why later on Jesus said to a Bible teacher at night, “Ye must be born again.”
As a little boy, I grew up near here. I never missed Sunday School. I had perfect attendance. In fact, the only way that I could afford to go to summer camp was if I could memorize all of the verses and maintain perfect attendance. I won a couple of weeks at camp, which was a lot of fun for me.
From a little guy, I believe way, way back, I can recall being taught, “Ye must be born again.”
A ruler once came to Jesus by night
To ask Him the way of salvation and light;
The Master made answer in words true and plain,
“Ye must be born again.”
“Ye must be born again,” for it is the only way to Heaven—not some new way, just the old way. “Ye must be born again.”
You must be “born again?” If you need to be “born again,” you are a “dead” man! You are a “dead” woman! You are a “dead” boy or girl! Jesus was teaching the very same thing, over and over again, practically on every page of the Scripture.
I heard someone who said, “Let me tell you all about salvation. I can believe in the Lord Jesus and be born again.”
No, they can not. They can not believe anything. In fact, this is the upside-down gospel. I am really sorry to tell you that some of my most beloved hymns, and yours, too, are teaching this same thing.
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Is this true? No. Have you ever heard of putting the cart before the horse? “Ye must be born again,” before anything. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” If you have any “faith,” you have already been born again. You have already been saved. It just flows out of the consequence of something that God does to you.
Do you mean that God would command us to do something that we can not do? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
You can not do any of these things—not truly, not savingly. Yes, the Scripture is filled with the commands of God that you are not able to do.
Turn to Ephesians 1, as we now talk about salvation. We are “dead in sins.” Now, let us talk about man being saved. Ephesians 1:4-5:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ…
You will find that this is actually a hated verse in the Bible when you are witnessing to people the Gospel. First of all, it is utterly avoided by most people who profess to be Christians. Professing Christians want to go around this verse.
In truth, the Bible says that our faith and our salvation were decided “before the foundation of the world.” Part of the reason is because we are dead. We can not affect our salvation. We can not reach out to Jesus—not a dead man. We can not choose Him. We can not decide—“I have decided to follow Jesus.”
Scripture makes the other side of this, the salvation side, very clear. A book was compiled, this book that we just read about. Let us read some more about it. There is an actual book. Whether or not it contains physical pages or not, it is certainly known to God. Revelation 17:8:
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world…
Here is the book and here are those whose names are not there. Ephesians 1:4 just said, “before the foundation of the world.” Turn back just a couple of pages to Revelation 13:8. Here comes the book again:
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
“Now you have really done it! You mean to tell me that I can not do anything? I am a dead man? And God decided all of this before He created the world?”
Yes, this is what the Bible teaches. By the way, it teaches this hundreds of times. Some people talk about the doctrine of election or predestination as if it is some strange little doctrine hidden in the corner. The Greek word for “election” is found twenty-three times in the New Testament, and that is only the beginning.
Who is it that is saved? Look at Matthew 25 where we read about the end of the world, the Olivet Discourse. Jesus is explaining how the world is going to end and He gives a great parable. This is a hundred verses right here about the end of the world. We read in Matthew 25:34:
Then shall the King (the King of kings, the Lord Jesus) say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Well, we are “twice dead.” Our bodies are dead and dying. Our souls are dead. We are dead as a stinking corpse, as Lazarus was dead four days. We are as dead as the “dry bones” in Ezekiel 37. Something has to happen to us that is called being “born again.” We are going to just briefly mention what this might be.
This is not really fair, is it? Do you have a good sense of justice? Is this fair? God wrote a book before the Garden of Eden and He decided whether you were going to be in there or absent from it?
It is fair. You boys and girls, do you want fairness today from your mom and dad? The Scripture says that it is because of His mercy that we are not consumed. Do not ever ask for fairness. You would not survive for one second.
Did you just hear what Job wrote? We never should have come out of our mother’s belly. We do not belong here. We are on probation and given just a brief period of time, like Adam and Eve, and the test is whether or not we are going to believe Satan or God. God said, “Thou shalt surely die.”
If God is right, all of us in this room, which is a large crowd, anyone, you are a walking dead person, a walking dead man. Do you want fairness from God? They used to complain in the Old Testament, “The way of the Lord is not equal.” God is equal and He is of great mercy that He has given me one more second; my heart has beaten a few more thousand times just in the last hour. Why did He let that happen? I should have been smothered in my mother’s womb.
You say, “Tom, are you trying to make this difficult? God is love.” Yes, “God is love,” but He is also Just and He loves His own and He wrote a Book and He wrote His own in that Book before the Garden of Eden. There is justice in that He has mercy on anyone.
Do not ever ask God to be fair with you. You are in big trouble, if you ever ask for fairness from God. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” You should not have survived your first sin, and how many thousands of sins or millions of sins have I committed? Practically every breath that I take. The verse that scares me the most is when Jesus said, “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
Any of you have “idle” words? My whole life is idle words! Sometimes I just speak maybe to just hear myself talk. My whole life is filled with idle words. My mouth should “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” “His praise (should) continually be in my mouth.”
Scripture says in James 1:13 that we are never to blame God for our sins. The condition that we are in, as a walking dead person, we set it up ourselves. James 1:13-14:
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Men sin when they are carried away of their own lusts. The sin is inside my heart as a dead man and John 3:19 tells us, “men loved darkness rather than light.” Do not ever blame God for the sin in your life.
Why do you sin? Why do I sin? Because we love it! We love it! Sometimes, we can not wait for the next occasion! Scripture warns us to not give an occasion to prepare ourselves for wickedness. We love our wickedness. We love our sin.
“Do you mean to tell me that men do not have free will? Are men robots of some kind? God wrote the names in this Book and took away all chance that I might have?”
First of all, we do not know what chance we have to be saved. That is God’s business. I do not know what is in that Book and you do not know. You do not know whether you are there, “on the page white and fair,” as the old hymn says. It could be that you are there, but you do not want to jump the gun and blame God for what He did or did not do toward you. Oh, that your names would all be there!
Well, what can you do to be saved? There are actually two things in the Bible that God allows. He does not say that He is going to save this way, but there are two things that are important for you to know.
First of all, you are commanded to study the Scriptures. “Search the Scriptures.” “Study to show thyself approved unto God.” This is because God speaks only in His Word. Yes, God speaks in nature, but nature is corrupted by sin and my mind is so corrupted by sin as a dead man, a walking corpse, that I can not understand nature.
A famous professor once said that if man only knew, they could just bend over and pick up any rock and underneath it would say, “Made in Heaven.” It does. Everything in nature screams out the creation of God and His kindness, but we do not know it. On my drive down here this morning, fifty to sixty miles, I can not say that I was praising God for all of the trees that I passed and for the beautiful sunshine. We should be.
Being a Bible student is not going to get you saved. In Jesus’ day, He said to the Bible scholars of His day, to the Pharisees, “How can ye escape the damnation of Hell?” Just studying the Bible is not a promise, but is a way where if you are in the environment where God saves, God could save you if He chose to. “For many are called,” “but few are chosen.”
I can not tell you whether God will choose you, but I do know this. If something is happening in your life where God is moving you, you will be in the Scriptures constantly. You will be in them day and night, Psalm 1 says. You will “meditate day and night,” thinking on them.
Secondly and finally, God allows you to cry out to Him. “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.”
You can come unto God and if you are one of His children, “He will abundantly pardon.” He is very gracious. In fact, Luke 18:7 says a very important Scripture. If you are saved, pay attention now, it says that you will “cry day and night unto Him.” Do you do this? Do you cry out to God night and day?
What do you cry out? When the Lord moved in my life, I did not know what words to say. I just started to say anything that came into my mind. There was a time in my life when I just cried out to God, “Do not let me go to Hell!” I knew quite well that was where I was going, for a long time. God opened my eyes. I hope God opens your eyes to this. Hell is real. It is forever. Cry unto Him night and day.
Well, it is not hopeless. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” This is the Gospel, an old Gospel song:
In loving-kindness Jesus came,
My soul from deadness to reclaim,
And from the depths of sin and shame
Through grace He lifted me.
From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me;
From death and night to life and light,
Oh, praise His Name, He lifted me!