On the sixth day, God created male and female in His image. He placed the male in the garden and gave them dominion over everything that crawls on the land, swims in the sea, and flies in the air.

Together they were to be fruitful and multiply their acre of the garden until it covered the whole earth with the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea. Adam and Eve discussed the command given to Adam that they could eat every seed-bearing plant and green herb. But God commanded them not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, for if they did, they would surely die that day.

Adam and Eve agreed not to touch the forbidden Tree with their imaginations, which would stir a desire to taste its fruit. They still needed to physically touch the Tree as it was part of the work God gave them to tend the garden.

It wasn't long before Adam and Eve broke their agreement not to touch the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil with their imagination. It is possible they used the wisdom of this world not to touch while neglecting to tend to this Tree, and most likely touched it in their imagination until it manifested in disobedience to God and His command.

Jesus didn't say it was a sin to touch a woman. He said touching a woman who is not your wife in your imagination was a sin. No matter how careful you were to not touch a woman in the natural sense; if you touch a woman in your imagination, you are an adulterer at heart, and it will soon materialize in the natural world. We are not to give ourselves to the elementary principles of this world but give ourselves to the fear and wisdom of God.

But neither adultery nor the principle of this world is my message today. The above was a bonus. My message today concerns what happened the day that Adam and Eve agreed to touch a thing, and God's whole creation fell and is falling to this day.

All of creation fell when Adam disobeyed God and took the forbidden fruit. And all of creation is still falling. The fall hasn't stopped. Jesus didn't stop the fall with His death and resurrection. Instead, Jesus handed out parachutes to all those who believed in His name. And a promise that we will have a soft landing as the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil collide midair and come crashing down to the earth.

The righteous and the unrighteous face certain death because of touching and eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Every man is given once to die and then face judgment. We are all falling. The saved and the unsaved are falling alike. But for the saved, the fall's impact is lessened, the descent slowed, and the experience made beautiful.

The impact of death is lessened; for death has lost its sting for those in Christ Jesus. The descent is slowed because we have been given a resistance to the fall called a catching away or a parachute. And it is beautiful because we have a saving view to contemplate the making of the world and the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ. We have a view of a falling world through the eyes of redemption. Redemption is far greater than the fall! As the world falls without a parachute and a fatalist worldview, they only hope to enjoy something of their lives before hitting rock bottom.

Christians don't forget we are still falling in a falling world even though we are one-third made new. We didn't become sinless when born-again, although we should go from glory to glory and sin less. We are saved, but we are still falling. We have three perspectives we need to clear as believers. One that we are still falling and will dive further into this one. We, as Christians, still deal with the birds of prey that I won't go into here. And we have all kinds of winds of doctrine that want to take us off course so that our landing is the same as unbelievers. I won't go deeper into this one, either. The Holy Spirit will minister to you on the two I'm not addressing.

We all have seen scenes on media where two or more people jump from a perfect plane to freefall for a while, then pull the ripcord on a parachute to float down to a desired landing place. We see the first person to pull the ripcord get yanked back into the sky as the other person continues their descent.

Yet, the picture we see is deceptive or the very least, an illusion. From the ground, a person looking up doesn't see this illusion. The grounded person sees two people falling until one pulls the ripcord then falling at different speeds, but not someone yanked back up into the sky. Both are still falling. This illusion can affect us as Christians when we don't understand we are still falling as the person we jumped out of the plane with, just not as fast.

When driving down the highway in the left lane needing to get to the right lane for an exit and apply the brakes as the vehicle on the right speeds past you, did you go in reverse or slow down? You slowed down—the same thing as falling from the sky. Christians and non-Christians alike are still falling.

I am not saying that unbelievers hit bottom and die before Christians. I am highlighting the impact of hitting the ground, not the timing. To those without parachutes, death is imminent. To those with parachutes, death has no sting. When we hit bottom, those in Christ will be with Christ, separated from the body of death.

I say this because we Christians seem to forget everything is falling around us, and the end is imminent. Winds of doctrines such as we can make this world better before Jesus returns to judge the world is a fallacy. In Christ, we are dead to sin and are to die to sin.  Sin is not going anywhere until satan and death are thrown into the bottomless pit and God creates a new heaven and a new earth. The wisdom, understanding and knowledge of man cannot save this world. This world must die before it can be made new. It will be Jesus who puts an end to all wars of war. The best we can do, and is what we are commanded to do, is preach the gospel of the parachute in Jesus Christ.

A bit of politics. This world is falling. The kingdom of this world is falling. At best, God slows the descent of decay and death. God slowed the descent of this world with the USA. But the world is still falling. The USA is still falling. The moment the USA was given birth was the moment it started falling as well. God used President Trump to slow the descent and may do it again. But we must know not to put our hope in a recovered USA. Maybe God will give us a Josiah moment, and many will put on parachutes and be saved. But in the end, all kingdoms of the world, including the USA, will be judged and come to an end. I hope God uses the USA one more time. I don't know. What I know for sure is that it is past time to save the USA from judgment. Judgment is coming.

I want to leave you with this last bit of wisdom. Origins of the USA, or your family tree, holidays, and the like are unimportant. All of creation fell when Adam touched the forbidden Tree. Nothing birthed in this world is pure and without defilement except the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; for He was born into this world but not of this world. It is not the origin of a thing we should be consuming but rather the destination or the end of the matter. Whether I am talking about the USA or a person's soul, how you land will decide whether you live or die. Will you land with a parachute in the place marked by God?

The parachute gospel is this: sinners and saints are all in freefall, with certain death. Jesus, the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world, has given us parables to see our need for a savior, His parachute to slow down the fall and His Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to guide us down to the safe landing where we will not taste of eternal death.