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"THE FALL OF MAN"
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE FALL OF MAN?
A. We read that God said, "Let us make man in our image and our likeness." We mean that man has fallen from the image of God.
1. When you look about on mankind today, you do not see him as God created him, nor how God intended him to be.
2. We mentioned that God was a superior trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, while man was an inferior trinity of spirit, soul and body.
3. As the result of Adam's disobedience man became only body and soul. His spirit died.
a. Man became a dichotomy rather than a trichotomy.
b. Man fell from the divine plane to the animal plane.
4. The Bible has two definitions for death.
a. The absence of the soul or consciousness from the body.
b. The absence of the consciousness from God.
c. Paul wrote, "And you has He made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins."
5. He wrote if one lives only for pleasure, they are dead while they are still alive.
6. This is what Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about in
John 3 when He told him that he had to be born of the Spirit to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The spirit that died as the result of man's sin must be reborn in man.
B. We mean that man has fallen from fellowship with God.
1. The word fellowship means oneness. A holy God cannot be one with sin.
2. John said that if we say that we have fellowship with God and we are walking in darkness, we are lying for that is an impossibility.
3. Paul asked, "What fellowship has light with darkness?" and the answer is obviously none.
4. You remember that after Adam's sin, God came to walk with Adam in the cool of the day, and Adam tried to hide himself from the presence of God. God cried, "Adam, where are you?"
5. Man was created for fellowship with God thus the very purpose of man's existence is now thwarted.
C. We mean that man has fallen from the kingdom of God. He was no longer ruled by God, but under the rule of Satan.
1. When God first created Adam, He created him in the kingdom of God. God's kingdom is a kingdom of light and life.
2. Man fell into the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of death and darkness.
3. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians he speaks of those whose spirits have been born again, he said:
EPH 2:2 Whereas in time past you walked according to the course of this world, which is directed by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:
EPH 2:3 Among whom also we all once lived as we were controlled by the lusts of our flesh, our chief goal was to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4. The purpose of preaching the gospel is to bring men back into the the kingdom of God.
a. Jesus told Paul that He was sending him to the Gentiles,
Act 26:18 To open their eyes, [and] to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Jesus.
II. HOW DID MAN FALL?
A. By listening to Satan's lies.
1. Notice the first thing that Satan did was to question the word of God. "Hath God said?"
2. He next contradicted the word of God. "You will not surely die."
3. He next deceived them with a lie. "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
4. It is interesting to me that Satan still uses the same line with people today. "You shall be as gods."
a. What is the goal of the Mormons?
b. What is the hope of the New Age movement? They talk about the next evolutionary transition of man will be the evolving of the consciousness into the god state.
c. Why do people pay fortunes to go to India to sit at the feet of Si Baba? To learn how to make the transition into the god state, that they believe he has done.
B. By disobeying the clear commandment and warning of God.
1. "You shall not eat of it, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die."
2. I believe that the death that God was warning against was spiritual and that it led to physical.
III. WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF MAN'S FALL?
A. Sin entered the world, and death by sin.
1. This beautiful world that God had created would now be marred by sin.
2. Sin by it's very nature is destructive.
a. It destroyed man's spirit.
b. It destroys man's mind. In just a few chapters we will read that God saw that the imagination of man's heart was only evil continually.
c. It destroys man's body.
3. Sin spoiled God's good creation. God saw all that He had created, and it was very good. But now things have changed.
a. The ground is now cursed, "Thorns and thistles will it bring forth."
b. They say that a thorn is an undeveloped blossom. That brings up some interesting possibilities for the new earth over which Jesus shall reign, for we are told that the desert will blossom as a rose.
c. The thorns are a result of the curse of God against sin. It is interesting that when God sent His Son to reign over the earth, that fallen man crowned Him with thorns.
d. Paul wrote:
GAL 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:
B. I live in a body that is in the process of decaying, the catabolic forces are taking their toll.
1. My body is subject to all kinds of diseases.
2. I believe that all sickness is the result of the original sin.
3. Sin always brings pain, sorrow, suffering and death.
IV. WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN TO ME?
A. I was born in sin with a sinful nature. Paul says that we were all by nature the children of wrath even as others.
1. As such I was alienated from God.
2. I was without hope in this world.
B. I live in a world that is suffering because of the curse of sin.
1. All of the wars and killings come from man seeking to satisfy the lusts of his flesh. James asked:
JAM 4:1 Where do the wars and fights originate? Do they not originate with with your lusts? You feed your lust, yet are never satisfied, you kill and desire to have more.
a. There is an interesting phenomena about lust, the more you feed it, the more it grows. I will give you just one example, pornography.
b. Lust can never be satisfied.
c. You cannot kill it.
d. Paul spoke of how we who are in these bodies groan and travail as we wait for the redemption of our bodies.
2. All of the violence of man against man comes from the fallen nature of man.
3. The hatred of others, especially that of those who are living a righteous life comes from the fallen nature of man.
a. I will give you one example, they crucified Jesus.
b. If He went to San Francisco they would do it again today.
C. I need redemption.
1. God began to develop a wonderful plan of redemption for fallen man who had become a slave of sin.
2. This will be our subject for next Sunday.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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