I. INTRODUCTION
A. Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12
B. This lesson is divided into three sections:
1. Sin separates man from God.
2. Sin causes man to be ignorant of God.
3. Sin causes man to be unlike God.
II. DISCUSSION: The only way for fallen man to be redeemed and reconciled to God is through Jesus Christ. It is the purpose of this lesson to show the sorry state man is in without Christ and how he got that way.
A. Sin Separates Man From God
1. The Nature of Man - "created in the image and likeness of God." See Gen. 1;26,27; 1 Cor. 11:7. [Gen. 5:1; 9:6; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; 3:10]
a. What does "image" mean? In the OT: shadow, in the NT: outline or profile. The idea is resemblance, not an exact copy or clone.
b. Man is no more a clear reflection of God than a man's shadow is a clear reflection of man. God cannot be defined in terms of man, nor can everything about God be known by observing man.
c. When Christ as a man is compared to man, Christ even as a man is shown to be greater. Heb. 1:3 ( a different Greek word for "image.")
d. What then is the essence of man? The essentials, if you will?
(1) He is essentially a spirit, Rom. 12:1.
(2) Our bodies are only a temporal residence.
(3) It is in our spiritual essence in which we are the closest to being God-like. It is in our spirits that we are made in God's image.
e. Our spirits are made up of three components: intelligence, emotion, and will. God possess a perfect measure of each, while man possesses only a shadow.
f. God originally created man in His own image to live in union with Him. A union based on the character and conduct of man.
(1) When man is in a right relationship with God, his intelligence is still limited compared to God's, but at least man understands what God has in store for him. In this Godly relationship man emotionally will love God with all his heart and let his will be energized by God's superior will.
(2) Man's outward behavior is ultimately an expression of his inward intelligence. When man is in a right relationship with God, his works prove it.
g. God created man and placed him on probation. Man's nature is therefore encompassed by his will. In other words, God allowed and allows us today to choose whether we will stay in a right relationship with Him or choose to leave that relationship.
(1) Without this freedom of choice man would be nothing more than a automaton, that is a robot!
(2) In the garden of Eden, man was made the king, yet answered to God, man was independent yet dependent, man had the right to choose, yet he had the right to make the wrong choice.
(3) In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson:
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours to make them Thine."
2. The Process of Man's Temptation
a. Satan made woman believe her liberty was being restricted by God. Her rights were being violated. Even though the restriction placed on Adam and Eve was to their benefit, Satan's lie convinced them it was not.
b. Satan's device was to slander God's character. This made man question the goodness of law.
c. By making man think that God was restricting his knowledge by forbidding the fruit. Now man's emotions are brought into play and eventually man's will is won away from God.
d. The essential characteristic of the actual fall of man was one of independent action. That is, Adam and Eve failed to consult their Father first before taking action. By taking action on his own man dethroned God and enthroned himself, thereby separating himself from God and from God's kingdom, in this case, the garden. The inward and spiritual fall of man manifested itself physically in the act of taking the forbidden fruit.
3. God Separates Himself From Man
a. Because man violated the covenant he is removed from the benefits of the covenant.
b. What was lost to man? His holiness of character, his righteousness of conduct, his immediate contact with Infinite Knowledge and the perfect will of God. His intelligence is darkened, his emotion is deadened, his will is degraded.
c. With the loss of his spirituality, man will turn to material things to satisfy his intelligence, emotion and will. Hopefully for man, God hears the call and sees the need for a Deliverer to bring man out of this most pitiable condition.
B. Sin Causes Man to Be Ignorant of God. Man sinned because he thought that God was withholding knowledge that was rightly his. In his attempt to transgress the God given limitations and attain this knowledge man actually stunted the growth of his intelligence. Three questions come to mind: What was man's original capacity for the knowledge of God, what became of this capacity when man fell, and how did the fall lead to idolatry?
1. Man's Capacity for the Knowledge of God.
a. Jn. 1:1-4: "the life was the light of man." This capacity (or light) was given to no other living animal or plant, save man. This ability to know God was available in the beginning to mankind, but lost to him in the fall.
b. We can see in the NT that the ability to know God is restored through His Word (Christ).
c. Our capacity to love is a direct result of knowing God. 1 Jn. 4:19. That is, proper knowledge of God leads to the ability to truly love. True love is an undegraded emotion that guides our will to appropriate action.
d. The only way to have completely free will is to be insane. Otherwise there must be some governing principle behind our decision making processes. Some authority commands our will. The unfallen man looks to the love of God and submits to God's will as his standard of authority.
2. Man's Capacity for the Knowledge of God Disappeared.
a. By allowing his own will to preempt the will of God, man's intelligence actually diminished.
b. When great minds of science try to explain this universe without God they only develop more questions than answers.
3. Where Did the False gods Come From?
a. All men worship something, if nothing more than their own intellect. If they choose to reject God, they replace Him with something else. Something or someone fills the void.
b. In creating a god of his own, man has only one place to look to pattern his creation himself. Hosea 13:2
c. The OT emphasizes three false gods of man's imagination: Baal, Moloch and Mammon.
(1) Those that worshipped Baal deified nature, thus ultimately leading to a worship of the most marvelous fact of nature reproduction. Free love, temple prostitution and other forms of sexual expression in the name of religion will not be far behind.
(2) Moloch represents the antithesis of love, namely hate. featured here are human sacrifices, especially that of children the terminal act of cruelty.
(3) Mammon, Mt. 6:24 The worship of wealth and the power that wealth brings. Everything due God is given over to the search for and possession of wealth and power. Power over other men.
(4) In Baal we have worship of imperfect knowledge, in Moloch the worship of a prostituted emotion, and in Mammon the adoration of a degraded will. In each case man's idolatry is based on lust, not love.
d. In his own ignorance man calls out for a Messiah, for the true light, for the one true God. Acts 17:22-28
C. Sin Causes Man To Be Unlike God. A man is always like his God. Ps. 115:4-8. When man creates his own god, the gulf between man and the true God widens all the more. Hosea 13:2 (as already read); Eph. 2:12. This first lesson of our study draws to a close with the following points: first, separation causes man to be unlike God, second, in what way is fallen man unlike God, and finally, how this situation demands the coming of Christ as its only solution.
1. Alienation from God = loss of spiritual life.
a. Spiritual death occurs when man is separated from God. The good news is since the spirit is not perishable, this separation does not have to be permanent.
b. When a man cannot see God in nature, or on the face of a newborn child then his spirit is truly unconscious.
c. A man who does not know God cannot truly know himself. Without God, the union of body and spirit that makes us healthy, both mentally and spiritually breaks down. The result: discord between man and himself!
2. How is fallen man unlike God?
a. If unfallen man was more akin to God spiritually and the outward manifestation of his physical body reflected this, then obviously when man did fall, he fell spiritually and deteriorated physically as well.
b. Think of the most intelligent people that ever lived, their minds do not hold a candle to God's. How can man compare his intellect to God's? Gen. 1:1 or Job 26:7
c. Emotionally man is unlike God. Apart from God man becomes selfish, Mt. 5:46. Even evil men can love those that love them. God's love is selfless. Man's love apart from God does not compare to God's love.
d. Man's will is entirely unlike God's. Man desires mastery of all he sees and imagines, while God has man's best interests always at the forefront of His will.
e. When man lost his sense of spiritual beauty then the attractiveness of the flesh was sought out as a poor replacement.
3. Fallen man is out of harmony with God in every respect.
a. (1) His character is at variance with God.
(2) His conduct is antagonistic towards God.
(3) His personality is depraved compared to God.
b. As such, man is of no use to God. There is no logical reason (in man's mind) why God should salvage man. Our logic would tell God to cast man aside and either forget it or begin again.
c. However, within the nature of God, lies a reason for man to have a chance at redemption GOD IS LOVE.
III. CONCLUSION
A. God is not bound to do anything for man. By sinning man forfeited his claim upon God.
B. Thank God, God is Love! If he had been anything else, man would be lost forever.
C. Jesus Christ came to earth to follow a road of pain and suffering so that man might be rejoined with God, and in doing so fulfill the reason God created man, thus satisfying God's purpose, namely love.
[END SECOND SERMON]