What we Teach and What we Believe About The Fall of Man

Now I have shared with you time and time again that this confession that we're working on, it's a living document. There'll be a couple of tweaks here and there and that's okay. I think that you see the pattern that we have developed. So last week I know several shared that they have kept their copy. Now when we get through this, we'll have this document complete and then we will have a, we kind of call it a Sunday School Edition. We'll take the same truths, we'll kind of condense them and put it in a bullet form, a little more user friendly if that makes sense.

We've all worked real hard on this and I think the Sunday School version was a brainchild of Brother Keith and I think that's very, it'll be very useful. So it's a good document, it's a good exercise. I'm going to call this an exercise. It's a good study and it has a lot of purpose. Now as we get started tonight, I want you to turn to two places. Go back to the beginning. We were in the beginning. What I mean by beginning is Genesis 1. We read Genesis 1.1 last week and then we also want to turn to Romans chapter 5. So turn in your Bible to two places, Genesis chapter 1 and then Romans chapter 5.

I definitely want you to put your eyes on the Romans verses later. I will go ahead and tell you there's going to be quite a few verses that we'll touch on when we look at Genesis and I will probably skim over some because of time. Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3 is key with what we are studying tonight. And I do say it, I know repeatedly, go back and study what we have been studying together and if there are some verses that I don't read, it's okay. You notice them and you study them. And then have that handout too because we're going to go back and forth between those scriptures and the handout.

Alright we're moving along in our study of our church confession that we are adopting and like I said, this exercise, this study is very, very good for us on an individual basis and then also on a church basis. And this really, this list can grow. There are many ways that this is good for us. This helps us all understand what we believe and what we should be working to believe. Some of the truths that we're going to cover, I mean they can be difficult but we will work to understand them together. But some of this information, some of these truths, some of what we're studying, we definitely must believe.

This is going to help our church be unified in what we teach and what we believe. We studied in Corinthians, the Corinthian church and how Paul commanded them to be unified in their doctrine and their teaching and their practice and their leadership. And this is a part of a unifying work in what we teach and what we believe. And this also will help us. We'll be able to declare to others who we are and what we believe and this will be very, very good. I've had some good conversations. I know last week one of the men came up and just asked me about some of the books I referenced. He talked about studying and that's good.

I know Jared is filling in and teaching our teenagers while Brother Keith has to rest his vocal cords and he has shared with me some things he's been studying. He's trying to keep up. And you know this is something that would be good for you to teach your children. I'm going to address this with this subject of man and sin here in a minute. Now I want us to look at Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3 and I will probably try to zoom through some of these passages and read some because of time. Your homework assignment is to go read all three chapters. Notice starting in Genesis 1, verse 27. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God he created him, male and female he created him. And God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit and you shall have them for food.

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life in it, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. That's a summation of the creation. I think we know that.

And then verse 1 of chapter 2, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all of the hosts of them and on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work that he had done." And so God blessed the seventh day. He made it holy because on it God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation. I'm going to skip on down from verse 4. I want to move on over to chapter 2 verse 15. So move over with me in the chapter. "And then the Lord God, he took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden." See earlier we see that God has created the garden. This is the home for Adam.

"And then verse 16, the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You are sure to eat from every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.' And the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man that man should be alone and I will make him a helper for him, fit for him.' Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all of the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and so every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a suitable helper. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and while he slept he took one of the ribs and he closed it up, this place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made it into a woman and he brought her to the man and the man said, 'This at last is bone in my bones and flesh in my flesh. She should be called woman because she was taken out of a man.'" See there was nothing in the creation that corresponded to Adam until that day.

"Therefore the man shall leave his mother and his father and mother and he shall hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." We know that story. Now I want to read the first seven verses of chapter three. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the other beasts of the field that the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, "Did God actually say you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?" and the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, at least you die." God didn't say that.

Notice, "But the serpent said to the woman, 'You shall not die.'" Notice what's happening? "For God knows that you will eat, but when you eat of it your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good from evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight in the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit and she ate it and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. In the eyes of both of them were open and then they knew that they were naked and they were afraid.

But what does it say, "And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." Now I know that's a lot and I know that everyone knows that what we have before us in these verses. We have God creating the first man, the first woman, that's Adam and Eve and then we know that is the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Now the reason that I wanted you to put your eyes on these chapters is this. If we fully understand what is given to us in Genesis 1, 2 and 3, if we fully understand what is given to us in those three chapters, we will have the basis for a proper understanding of man.

And if we get what is in these chapters, we will have a solid foundation in our understanding and in our ability to understand the doctrine of man. Of course, there are some other passages we need to know. But if we have these chapters plus a few more passages to go along with what is in these chapters, we will have a correct understanding of the doctrine of man and the fall of man. Well, that's what we're studying. You see that, Roman numeral three in our church confession, the fall of man. So I want us to read that paragraph. It's there in your handout.

Go along with me and I'm going to ask you to mark a few lines that I will refer to throughout the message. Notice, we believe, we believe, we teach that man was the special creation of God. Haven't we read that? Made in his own image. Haven't we read that? God created man, both male and female as the crown of his creative work. Gender is a gift from God and a part of God's holy and good creative work. I want you to mark that phrase. Gender is a gift from God. That sentence. Man was created in a state of innocence and enjoyed intimate fellowship with God under the law of his maker, his maker God. Circle this word, but.

There's a transition here. But by voluntary rebellion or sin against God's law, God's commands, man fell from that holy and happy state. Holy and happy is two good words here. And as a result, sin and rebellion was brought into the entire human race, not by constraint, but by choice. Being by nature, that word is key. Nature utterly void of the perfect holiness required by the law of God or the word of God. And then this last phrase you need to mark it, the last sentence.

Where all mankind are completely predisposed to the ways of the world, a slave of his own lusts and sinful desires and held captive to Satan's, to do Satan's will and is therefore under just that word is key. Condemnation to eternal punishment without defense or excuse. That's a lie. Now this is how I want to approach this subject. I want us to work from Genesis 1, 2, and 3 and I want to explain what we have here in this statement of belief concerning man and man's sin. And really we're going to look at this in three ways. Number one, man in his original state, man in his original state.

Number two, man in his fallen state, man in his fallen state. And then number three, mankind as a result of the fall. I think you can see the progression in the outline. Man in his original state, man in his fallen state, and then mankind are humanity as a result of the fall. I'm going to give you a disclaimer. I probably don't have to give this to you. This will not be exhaustive. One of the frustrations is there's so much to cover. And let me explain what I mean. There are volumes written about these subjects.

Now if you want to hear me deal with man and the fallen man in a little more exhaustive manner, I taught a series back in 2015 on man. And in this title the series is "What the Bible Says About Man." And I take man from creation all the way to the judgment in four messages. I had it in high gear. Those messages are on the church website. I went and made sure they were there. So if you want a little more teaching here, go to those four messages. And if you need even more, I will refer you to maybe some materials that will help you. And I have said this before. Anytime you have a question here, you call. You come to me. We'll work through it.

I think we had a couple of questions last week and it was good. So this is what we teach and what we believe about what? Man. So this is what we teach and what we believe about man and the fall of man. So number one, man in his original state. Now when I say original state, I'm referring to man before the fall. I'm referring to man before man's sin. Before chapter three. And I want to point out two sets of truths concerning man in his original pre-fall state. One set of truths more simplistic. Now the other set of truths are deeper and a little more complicated. I think you'll be able to follow me. First of all, the obvious but necessary.

I call this the obvious but necessary. There are two things that we would all affirm. There are two things that I think everybody here would affirm, but we need to be reminded of first that God made man. I don't think any of you here would argue with that. God made man. And then second that God made mankind male and female. We see how God made man in Genesis 2.7. And then how God made woman in Genesis 2 verse 20. Oh, those verses there about God making woman are very beautiful. And there are two things that highlight the purpose, the seriousness and the beauty of God creating man and woman. Follow me.

In the language of chapter two verse seven, we really have a picture. We have a picture of a master craftsman working and molding and shaping a work of art. Listen, when God formed Adam out of the dirt, it wasn't just a clump of dirt. It was more than mere dirt. We have a master craftsman. And as a master craftsman, God formed Adam physically just as he desired perfect in every way. And when his earthly body was formed, God himself breathed the breath of life into that body. And what does Paul say in first Corinthians 15? He quotes, he references this account.

He says, "Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being." So what do we see here? We have a great picture of a master craftsman forming Adam, yes, from the dirt, but breathing into his body, into him, the breath of life. Next in the language of Adam in chapter two verse 23. Here Adam really gives us a beautiful poem, a beautiful poem. Look back at chapter two verse 23. This at last, see he's been looking at all of the creation. None of the creation corresponded to him. This at last is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She should be called woman. That word woman is key because she was taken out of man.

Here Adam really gives us a beautiful poem. Adam is expressing his happiness, this happiness in his heart when he sees the companion that God had formed for him. When Adam names the woman, he gives her a name that reflects her origin. The word woman speaks of her being taken out of his own flesh. Also this name reflects her physical condition and place alongside Adam as his helpmate. The root word of the word woman in the original speaks of something that is soft and tender. So first the obvious, I went a little deeper than the obvious, and it should be obvious.

God made mankind, God made mankind male and female, and God's creation of male and female was good. It was perfect in every way. Now stop right here. This is why we need to look at this. We have an entire world out there trying to convince us that gender is bad. The world is trying to convince us that being male is even worse. And the world is trying to convince us that we can have some kind of a third gender or we can be fluid in our gender. Look the categories and identifications are endless and they will continue to be endless. But look, mark it down. Don't worry about the classifications and the identifications.

Mark it down, God made man and God made man either male or female, period, paragraph, in any perversion of that truth is demonic. I'll let you in on a little secret. When I was a little boy, I played with dolls. That's a loaded statement. I had a sister. I have a sister. She's 18 months younger than me. And you know, we played together and you know when she got out of Barbie dolls, I played with the Barbie dolls. I got in trouble one time for cutting the hair off. But you know, I didn't have a problem understanding that I was a boy. It's because I was taught that. This wasn't a problem in my day growing up, you know.

And it was okay that I played with my sister. I understood the difference in boys and girls and dresses and boys clothes and all of that good stuff. But see, we've been inundated. I talked about your children. These are some truths. We need to make sure they hear this is elementary is fundamental, but look at the onslaught. Look at the attack. Okay. I wanted to pause there because this is really important. But look, notice second, the less obvious, but this is necessary. This comes out of chapter one, verse 27. Here we see that God created man in his own image, in the image of God. Oh, it gets a lot more complicated.

And then in chapter two, verse seven, here we see that God breathed in the man, the breath of life and he, that's man, became this living being. Explain that. Now, what does that mean? Again, there are volumes written on what this means. I mean, I have all of my resources out and it goes on and on and on and on. But we need to kind of condense this. We need to get our minds around it. First, we need to see that God himself breathed in the man, the breath of life, not simply animal life. God had already created the animals, but it was different. It was different here. Man had a different life.

Simply man was created with an entirely different life. Man can function in relationships because he is in the image of God. He is like God. Also man has a unique relationship to the creation. Other men and God. Man can and should exercise dominion over the creation. He can experience unique relationships with others, with other men, with other women, with other children, or with family. We could just keep going on. And ultimately because man is made in the image of God, man can do three things. Man can rule over the earth. The creation can't rule over the earth. Man can. Second, he can have a unique relationship with other men, mankind.

Third, he can have a unique relationship with God, his creator. You see? That's a quick summary of what that means. So the less obvious, man was created unlike all the other animals. Man can rule over the earth. He can have relationships with others. And ultimately he was responsible to have a proper relationship with his maker. And here in Genesis 1 and 2, they had a proper relationship with their maker. It was all just right. Now an application here. We must see that we have the entire world telling us that man is not unique. The whole world is telling us man's not unique.

The whole world is trying to destroy the simple but yet profound teaching here. And notice what the world is telling us. And this is an attack on what we've just looked at. The world is trying to tell us that man wasn't created. He just evolved. The whole world is trying to tell us that man is not to subdue the creation but to worship the creation. I'm going to get to that. And that men are not to subdue and use the creation but to submit to and worship the creation. Look, that's what most of this environmentalism is, this worshiping with creation. Go study Romans chapter 1.

The whole world is telling us that man is not unique in his relationships to other men and animals. He is simply an evolved animal just like all of the other animals. Notice how the world has warped man's relationships to other men and animals. Stray dogs and cats have more rights than unborn babies. You see? You see the attack? That's why it's important for us to see this. The whole world does not even acknowledge that man can have a responsibility towards God. They deny the existence of God. You see? And we can't let the world convince us that man is not created in man's image.

Man was created to rule over the earth, manage the earth, take care of the earth, and to have a unique relationship with other people, other men, and all of the creation. And man was created to have a relationship with God. But what kind of relationship? A sinless relationship. Again, this is before Genesis 3. But there's one more important thing we need to see here. Man was created by God. Both male and female. Man was created unique. He was not created like all of the other animals. But man was sinless. Prior to the events in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were sinless. They were perfect.

Both Adam and Eve had a perfect unbroken relationship with God. And then Genesis 3. But notice verse 8. I didn't read it earlier, "And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden, in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, God among the trees of the garden." Genesis 3.8 says that God came walking in the garden after Adam and Eve sinned. Of course, they hid from God. But scholars say that it seems that this was God's habit. Scientists say that it seems that the text implies that this was not the first time that God came to visit Adam and Eve in the garden. So what is the point?

Before the fall, Adam and Eve had a perfect unbroken relationship with God. They were sinless perfect. They had not broken God's laws or commandments anyway. And see, in their original state, there is a lot here. Go back to the first part of the confession. We believe that man was the special creation of God. Special creation of God made in his own image. God created him both male and female as the crown of his creative work. And you know, this next statement is not a part of the original 1833 confession, but in our day and time, it needs to be there. Gender is a gift from God and part of God's holy and good creative work.

Man was created in a state of innocence, you see, sinless and enjoyed intimate fellowship with God under the law of his maker. That's what we've looked at. That's what we've studied. Real quickly, man in his original state. And you see how it is important for us to look at and remember and digest all that. Our children need to hear this from us. Number two, I want us to see man in his fallen state. Number two, man in his fallen state. Now I do think you see just how important it was for us to visit all that we looked at. Refreshing our understanding of those fundamental truths, even some that we might not have noticed before, it's vital.

I think you see it, but what's next? We need to see what happens next in the story of man or mankind. And that's sin. And that's Genesis three, man fell from that holy and happy place. Isn't that what it says? The statement. Now what does this mean? I don't want to go back all the way through the chapter because of time. I have it in my notes. Let's read through Genesis chapter three, but time will not permit. But we need to see some important information here. First, we need to see that God did not sin. He did not create sin, nor did he force man to sin. You need to get that. God did not sin in Genesis three.

He did not create sin, nor did he force man to sin. God cannot be blamed for Adam and Eve's choices. Now I will get to these events here in a few minutes, but a couple of other important things we need to see. Before Adam and Eve's rebellion against God, sin was present in the world. Remember Lucifer? Remember the story of Lucifer and those angels that rebelled against God in heaven? They had sinned. We have the story of Lucifer rebelling against God with those rebellious angels in Isaiah chapter 14 starting in verse 12. So sin was present in the world, but God did not make Adam and Eve sin. It was their choice.

What does the statement say in the confession? But by voluntary rebellion against God, Adam and Eve were created as volitional beings. That means they had a choice. They were not robots. What did they do? They disobeyed. You know, I've often wondered how long it took them to disobey. We don't know. The scripture is silent, but they disobeyed. Both Eve and Adam ate the forbidden fruit. It started off with Eve. Sorry, ladies. And they broke God's command. They sinned and they fell from that original place of innocence that we mentioned in chapter 2 verse 25. And in their actions, we see that innocence was replaced by what? Guilt and shame.

You need to see that. Innocence was replaced by guilt and shame. We see that in the confession and we see that in the text. Now right here, I want to take a minute to describe their sin and show how their sin relates to all sin. I ran across something in Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, that gives insights here. What I'm trying to show you is this, how their sin relates to all sin. So I'm going to read some of this information and I'm going to make a few comments. And this is going to help us see the magnitude of what they did. First, their sin, Adam and Eve.

Their sin struck at the basis for knowledge, for it gave a different answer to the question, what is true? Whereas God had said that Adam and Eve would die if they ate from the tree, Genesis 2.17, the serpent said, what? You will not die. Eve decided to doubt the veracity of God's word and to conduct an experiment to see whether God spoke truthfully. So sin, their sin, it questions and it attacks the very truth of God. Then second, their sin, it struck at the basis for moral standards, for it gives a different answer to the question, what is right?

God had said that it was morally right for Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruit of that tree, that one tree in Genesis 1.17. But the serpent suggested that it would be right to eat of the fruit and that in eating it Adam and Eve would become like God. Didn't he say that? Eve trusted her own evaluation of what was right and what would be good for her rather than allowing God's word to define what is right and wrong. So sin, their sin redefined what was morally right and wrong. Third, their sin gave a different answer to the question, who am I?

The correct answer was that Adam and Eve were creatures of God, dependent on him and always to be subordinate to him as their creator and Lord. But even then Adam succumbed to the temptation to do what? To be like God. Thus attempting to put themselves in the place of God. So sin replaces God with man. To sin is to place man on the throne. And then finally last, we should note that all sin is ultimately irrational. It is irrational. It really did not make sense for Satan to rebel against God. It really didn't. And it didn't make sense for Adam and Eve to think that they could get any gain in disobeying the words of their creator.

They were foolish. These were foolish choices. The persistence of Satan in rebelling against God even to this day is foolish. It's a foolish choice. And in this decision on the part of any human being, it is to continue in a state of rebellion against God and it is irrational and it is foolish. So sin is irrational and it is a total act of foolishness. So what do we see? I know I gave you a lot. Adam and Eve did not just fall. They were not just flawed because of sin. They attacked God's truth and they replaced his truth with their own definition of truth. They redefined what was morally right.

By their choices and actions, they determined what was morally right and wrong, not God. Then they redefined who they were. They replaced God with self. They determined to put self on the throne. They tried to replace God as the sovereign one over their lives. And last they became totally irrational and foolish. And with one series of choices, because it was a series of choices, they became fools in every way. So we see that Adam and Eve's fall was so much. There is much, much more that we could say. And this is very much a quick review. Now an application, I want us to see what sin does in our lives.

We make the choice to sin just like Adam and Eve did. And in our sin, we question God's truth. We replace God's truth with our own truth. We look at God's commandment and we look at the choice and we say no, our truth is the truth. And we act on that truth. Also we define what is morally right and wrong. We ignore God's standard and replace his standard or redefine it with our own standard. Then when we sin, we determine to put self on the throne. We dethrone the only sovereign God and put self on the throne. And last when we sin, we are totally irrational fools. This is just a brief description of man's fallen state.

And it's a brief description of how we live. So what do we see? Man in his fallen state. Oh, we're describing Adam and Eve, but we're really seeing that this describes us. You see? Now third, mankind is a result of the fall. Mankind is a result of the fall. Now this is going to be a little shorter and I promise I am not going to do Romans chapter five justice. But I do want us to turn to Romans chapter five verses 12 to 14. Now to me Romans five 12 to 14 really are some of the most classic verses that teach us the results of Adam and Eve sin. And I say results. It's plural because they're more than one result. There are many results.

There's a lot going on here. So I want us to read these verses and then we're going to address these passages in two ways. And it kills me as a preacher not to take our time here. Verse 12, really verse 12 is to be tied together to the end of the chapter. So you can go read all the way down to verse 21. Notice, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man. Well, who is that? Well, that's Adam. We know the story and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sin for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.

But sin is not counted where there is no law yet death rain from Adam to Moses, even over those who sinning was not like the transgressions of Adam. It was a type of the one who was to come. Now there are two ways I want us to address this first sin and death entered the world through one man. You need to get this sin and death entered the world, entered the world through one man. I've alluded to this already. But Paul is explaining here what happened as a result of Adam's sin. Verse 12 is Adam. Because of one man's sin, sin came into the whole world. Because of one man's sin, sin and death came into the world because of that sin.

Simply sin and death spread to all men. You can say it like this, sin and death were inherited from Adam. And who inherited sin and death? Verse 12 tells us, all men. All men. All mankind have inherited sin and death. Now Paul is not talking about man's individual sins. He deals with that later. Paul here is talking about a sin nature which is passed down from Adam to all mankind. There's a theological term here. It's called imputation. This is an imputed guilt, an inherited guilt. Adam passed on to all mankind an inherent sinful nature that he possessed because of his sin.

And that sin nature is present in all mankind at the moment of conception. David speaks to this inherited sin nature in Psalm 51 verse 5. That verse he says, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me." Was he talking about immorality? No. He wasn't saying that his mother conceived him in sin. No. He's talking about this sin nature. He's saying that in the womb he possessed a sin nature. Where did it come from? Adam. So man possesses Adam's sin nature. It was imputed, handed down to all mankind. And as a result, sin and death enter the world all through one man Adam. Right? And the way G thinks Adam.

Application? Men are not good? Mankind's not good, folks. Men are evil. There's a state farm commercial that just galls me. I'm going to quote it loosely. Talking about natural disasters. I think I'll see it on the weather channel. I don't have the weather channel at home, but when I'm at our family place and I'm deer hunting, we have Dish Network. Somebody in the family has Dish at the old camp. And I get to watch the weather channel. But the state farm commercial talks about natural disaster and it talks about human nature overcoming nature. That's a flawed view of human nature. You got to see man is not good.

By man's standard, one man may be good, but by God's standard, God's saying that there is a sin nature that's been passed down to all mankind. Second, sin and death are the result of all men's choices. Now we're moving from the nature. Sin and death are the result of all men's choices. Now we move from the inherited or imputed sin nature to man's volitional choices. Man chooses sin. Let me connect this all. Yes, all humanity is born from Adam, descended from Adam, and through man, producing, through procreation, man, Adam, produced other sinful men. They have all inherited that fallen sin nature.

And because of this imputed sin nature, we can say that all sin in Adam. It's important for you to see this. When God saw Adam's guilt, he actually saw all men as guilty. But mankind are not sinners because they sin. Mankind sin because they are sinners. I know it kind of sounds like a tangled up mess, but we got to see it. All men are sinners in action because they are conceived in sin and in guilt, Psalm 51 5. But all men who are guilty and seen as sinners because of their sin, man is guilty before God because they willfully sin. So notice what we see. It's the result of Adam's fall. It destroyed it all.

Because of Adam's sin, all men are born into sin, possessing a sin nature guilty before God. Remember, when God sees Adam in his guilt, he sees the guilt of all mankind. But as a result of an inherited sin nature, all men sin. They act out. And mankind are not sinners because they sin. Mankind sin because they are sinners. I know I'm going back and forth. Look at the second part of the confession. Remember, I asked you to mark the word, but. But by voluntary rebellion against God, his law, man fell from that holy and happy state. Adam was happy in his holy, innocent state, a perfect holiness, a perfect happiness.

And as a result, sin and rebellion was wrought, passed down into the entire human race, not by constraint, but by choice, being by nature, utterly void of the perfect holiness required by the law of God. And we could continue. We will here in a minute. So notice, man is completely what? Predisposed to sin. Hardwired. It's his nature. I've used this illustration, especially with teenagers, for years. If you drive up to my house, be careful. My old squirrel dog is old, she's blind, she's deaf, and she's got arthritis, and she can barely get out of the way. But oh, back in her day, did she hate squirrels? She hated squirrels.

She can't see them now. See she was bred, what, to tree squirrels? And by nature, all she did was tree squirrels. When we lived in town and had that fenced in backyard, when my wife wanted to sleep in on a Saturday morning, no, that little brown squirrel dog was out treeing squirrels. Oh, she would lay in ambush, she would hide behind the kids' toys, and every now and then she'd catch one. She hated them. Where did it come from? It's her nature. You couldn't teach her to act like a cat and be a cat for anything. It's her nature. You get it. So what we must see is mankind is by nature a sinner, and by nature he sins. This is a result of what?

The fall. Again, this is where we say, "Gee, thanks to our grandfather, Adam." Now one more thing in dealing with this result of the fall. This is a big one, okay? We're going to move on towards the conclusion. I know we're running out of time. One big thing. What have we seen? Man is the original state. Man was sinless. He was a perfect fellowship with God. Then man and his fallen state, man, fell from his holy and happy place. He became alienated from God. God came to the garden. What did he do? Hide. And then mankind as a result of the fall. All mankind are affected. All men are sinners by nature and by choice, by choice and by nature.

But notice the ramifications, the last sentence. "Therefore, all mankind are completely predisposed to the ways of the world." It's hardwired to go towards the world. "And a slave of his own lusts? Why does man sin? It's that lust inside of him. And his own sinful desires? Men act out on those desires within them and held captive to do what? Satan's will. And therefore, under the just, right, righteous condemnation to eternal punishment without defense or excuse." What's the ramifications? Death and damnation. One verse, Romans 6, 23. "Really the first part, for the wages of sin is death.

Simply man deserves an immediate physical death upon sin." Listen, folks. Every second that a man lives without physical death is grace. He deserves to be destroyed. But yet as a result of sin comes spiritual death. And also man deserves what? Eternal punishment. We're going to get to the eternal punishment. We're going to get to the damnation that man deserves in section 17 and 18. Now in closing, why is this important for us to understand? Why? I know it's a lot. Why is it important to possess a solid theology when it comes to man and man's fall? Listen, folks. We'll never understand society unless we understand this.

This is why society is coming unhinged. Mankind is not good. Yes, there are pockets of common grace, common grace, which all men experience are a grace gift from God. Let me say something. It's a miracle our country has lasted this long. You've got a government by the people and for the people. Well, who are the people? Sinners. It's a miracle that it's lasted this long. We got to know what man is and who man is so we can properly understand society. Second, in understanding this, this helps us relate to our children. Listen, I love your kids, but they're born sinners. They're born liars and thieves and everything else.

And if you give their flesh an inch, they'll take a mile. And don't raise your children telling them that they're good little boys and girls. No, you better teach them what God's word says. We understand how to relate to our children better. Look, I'm not saying we browbeat them. No, we instill in them good things. We want to love them and nurture them, but they've got to know they're sinners to the core all day long. And then third, a proper understanding of man is essential if we're going to evangelize folks. Listen, only lost people get saved. Only lost people can get saved.

If you've got a man over here and he thinks he's righteous, he'll never come to faith in Christ. But if you've got somebody over here and they know they're a dirty lowdown rotten sinner and they deserve to go right straight to hell, that person can get saved. This is proper evangelism folks. And this ties in with how we evangelize our children. And then fourth, this helps us understand ourselves. This helps us with the age old question, who am I? You ever pondered that? Who am I? I remember as a kid pondering that, pondering my name, my parents, my family, just pondering who am I? And you know the question, who am I leads to other questions?

Why was I born? What am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do? What is my future? And what about life after death? These who am I questions? Who am I? This is what we are outside of Christ. So what have we looked at? This is a zoom, a zoom through folks. Man and the fall of man. We need to get this. So many ways this applies. All right, let me pray over this real quick. And I do want to look at a couple of prayer needs. Let me pray.