SA Ep84 - Articles of Faith #7 Fall of Man

SA Ep84 - Articles of Faith #7 Fall of Man

In this episode, we examine the fall of man. The Bible teaches that man was created upright, but through Adam’s sin fell into a state of corruption and separation from God. We will look at what happened in the garden, the immediate consequences of sin, and how that one act affects all humanity. This episode also shows why man cannot fix his condition and why the promise of redemption is necessary. The fall is not just a past event. It explains the present condition of every human heart. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Seeking Approval Podcast. I'm Dr. Chris Smelser from Iliad Baptist Church. You know life moves fast, and faith is not meant to be rushed. I want to take some time and slow down with you and have some honest conversations from the Word of God about daily living. So join me here today on Seeking Approval. If God created everything good, then where did everything go wrong? He stated many times during creation that it was good. It was very good. Then why sin? Suffering, death, brokenness, broken homes, abusive fathers, mothers who walk away from a suckling child, children who turn their back on parents, disease that riddle our bodies and minds. Well, the answer to those things is not found in evolution, environment, or in education. The answer is found in one moment in a garden where man chose to disobey God. And that moment still affects every person today. When we come to the doctrine or the seventh article of faith, we come to the doctrine of the fall of man. And we're answering with this one of the most important questions in all of life. So many times folks have grasped the side of their head with their hands trembling, saying, Where did it all go wrong? I understand in those moments that they're usually talking about a very personal thing that happened, but also can answer that question, or we can answer that question by it didn't go wrong with you. It didn't just start with your life, it didn't start with your child, with your husband, with your wife, with your sickness. It started back with Adam and Eve. And God did not create sin as people would want to believe. So where did this come from? Well, in order to find that out, we need to go back further to when Satan, who was Lucifer, the angel of light, gave his uh great uh I will statements. I will be greater, I will be mightier, I will be bigger, I will be power, I will ascend to the throne. He wanted to be God so much so that he was willing to forego his rightful place in heaven and be removed from heaven with his followers, with his band of now demonic angels, which he was uh was cast out with. And from that time it's been an ongoing war ever since. And in the garden that day, that war came to mankind. You see, I believe that Satan was not happy that God created man because God created man to be in fellowship with him. And he created man to be the light of the world. Once his son gave his life for the world, we then become and be partakers of that light, and we then share and spread that light with the world, and the angel of light surely does not like anybody taking his job or giving his credentials, in which he so uh so badly wanted and longed for more. But it was not by God's choosing. Now there's a group of people out there that will tell you that Adam and Eve had no choice, that this was the will of a sovereign God, that they would sin, and there was no choice in a matter. I had one uh tell me that not too long ago in one of our online classes where we're debunking Calvinism. But Ecclesiastes 7 29 says, God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. God made man to be good and pure and holy, to live off the love and the kindness and the generosity of a God who gave them everything. But it was man's longing, man's desire, that allowed us to follow after the wiles of Satan. Now you might be saying, well, that's not fair for us to have to pay the price for the sin that happened so long ago, over 6,000 years ago. I believe. I don't believe the world is millions of years old. Maybe you do, that's fine. Um I don't think it's worth starting a new church over. I guess it could be, but I don't think it's worth starting a new church over. But I do believe what the Bible says, that I believe in what is called a young earth. And as I'm becoming to uh realize that uh I am in a minority group when I believe that the world is about 6,800 years old or so. But um, that's neither here nor there right now, but it says God made everything upright, and man sought out many inventions. Man didn't uh begin in corruption, he didn't uh just uh uh wake up in corruption at the very beginning, he became corrupt because he sought after something better. Man began in innocence. Adam and Eve were placed in a garden, a place that was prepared by God and filled with provision and peace and fellowship, walking in the cool of the evening. There was no sin, no death, no fear, no shame. They walked with God, the lion would lay down with the lamb. There was no need for bloodshed, there was no need for someone to wield a knife to the to the to the heart of another living being. They lived in perfect harmony and peace. And had everything they needed, and God gave them one command. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was a it was just a simple command. It wasn't a burden. They didn't need the tree, they didn't need the knowledge of the uh the of good and evil, of the truth of those things. Just follow God. It was just it was a test of obedience. Because God is not a God of coercion. You see, there again, going back to, and I know I keep going back to Calvinism, but that's what Calvinism tries to make. God is he is a God of uh fixed outcomes and coercion. That you have no choice in the matter. You're either left or you're not. And that's not been that way from the beginning of time. God's knowledge of what's going to happen is not God's acting upon that or forcing that to happen. But they had everything they needed. The entrance of sin came through the temptation. Genesis chapter three shows us uh in in detail that the serpent uh questioned when he said, Yea, hath God said. It's usually where the attack begins, is when Satan will begin to question God's authority, begin to question God's word. People ask all the time, well, why do you harp on versions of the Bible? Why does that matter? We're all reading the Bible, are we? That would be my question to you. Why is the burden of proof upon me? Why why is it my my job to prove to everyone or to anyone who asks why I want to adhere to a standard Bible that was issued, that was translated, there was many things that went into the works for this thing. Why should I have to be the one that that doesn't that that wants to prove why it's not good to constantly maneuver God's word? I don't know, it's just a simple question, I guess, that maybe rolls around the old noggin from time to time. But Satan tried that. He took God's word and he he changed a little bit. It became a um more of a thought-for-thought, dynamic uh translation. He says, Yeah, he hath God said. Are you sure it's what he said? You know, read that again. Uh you might be able to find something different in there. If the enemy can get the person to doubt what God has said, then he's opened the door to at least thinking about it. And now if you're thinking about disobedience or sin, that's the first step. You know, the Bible tells us not to even entertain one thought of it. Not to even give it a second thought in your mind to think on the things that are good and pure and holy, righteous before God. Think on those things. Don't think on the things of evil. Don't give it a place. Give it no place for the devil. But if he can get us thinking about it. And we start to reason with it. Then we start to say, you know what? Maybe I do deserve to know the difference in good and evil. Maybe I do deserve. I do deserve better in life. I deserve a better relationship. I deserve more money. I deserve a fancier car. Not that having a fancy car is a sin, I guess, unless it puts you into financial hardship in your family. And then he moved into straight-out contradiction. You shall not surely die. You're not gonna die? Watch. But what he failed to tell them is, no, you're not gonna die today physically. But you just died spiritually. You just brought death upon people, upon generation after generation. Follows the same pattern which we see today with Satan, is always questions truth, he denies the consequences, and he appeals to our desires, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And we get so enamored with those three things, or one of those three things, or sometimes all three of those uh three things at the same time, that we forget there's consequences to this. Always say there's internal and external discipline. If there's a third type, please let please let me know. But uh internal and external is about the most uh simplified as I've ever been able to get it. Internal discipline is um when we're able to control ourself, control our mind, our thoughts, our desires. And uh, you know, it's uh it's hard for us to not uh not to have things that cross our mind, but it's another thing to act upon those things. We've got to have discipline at times. Internal discipline. But if we don't have internal discipline, then we've got to rely on external discipline. Many people do that every single day whenever they rely on the guys with handcuffs and guns and blue lights on their car to bring discipline in their life and order by putting them in a confined space to where they cannot harm themselves or anyone else, breaking laws. That's external discipline. What separates that person that's behind bars or whatever the situation they may be in, and you and I that are probably sitting here freely right now listening to uh a podcast by some you know country hillbilly preacher out of the East Tennessee area. The only thing that separates that person and you and I is that uh fortunately we've had a little bit of internal discipline and maybe uh maybe a little luck along the way. I don't I don't believe in luck, that's a provision of God, but uh you know I say that tongue in cheek, a little bit of luck along the way that we didn't get caught whenever we did something that we ought to have been handcuffed for. But we had a little bit of internal discipline. And uh if Adam and Eve would have had a little bit of internal discipline, maybe we wouldn't be where we're at today. But God knew that. In Romans 5.12, Paul writes to the Christians in Rome, he said, Wherefore as by one man, notice it didn't say one woman, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned. So sin didn't begin with us. So when you're sitting there right now, and maybe you have been entrenched in sin in your life, maybe you're thinking about sin right now, or maybe you're looking at some play pretty of the world, whether it's uh uh the kind that uh we we you know would drink down at the local watering hole, or the time that we would uh snort up or smoke down or whatever else. Maybe it's the the uh the the uh pretty person at work that uh is not our spouse, whatever that enticement is that maybe you're living in right now, and you say, Where did I go wrong? Where did it all begin? It didn't begin with you. It began way back sixty, eight hundred years or so ago in a garden with someone who questioned God's word and questioned the consequences, and um here we are today. Now I'm not not excusing my sin or your sin. I'm not saying, well, it's okay because it was somebody else's fault, it's not what I'm saying. But what I am trying to say is you know, probably need to ease up on yourself a little bit because um this has been from the beginning. The immediate effects of the fall were dramatic. The first thing that happens after the fall, after the awareness of sin, their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. That's when shame now entered. The nakedness of man is shame. The nakedness of man to other people is the the revealing of sin. That was the first thing that revealed the sin in their life. That's why today people were like, why do we walk around with with you know having to wear clothes all the time? There's you know, indigenous tribes out there that never, you know, wore the first stitch of any garment. You know, why do we have to do that? Because we understand what the scripture says, and it says that that nakedness of man is the is his sin, it's his shame to be seen by other people. So they had fear now. They hid themselves. And the the one that they used to walk in the the the garden with in the cool of the day, now they were trying to avoid and hide by tree behind a trees. That's what the sin that's what sin does to us. Sin separates us from God. We can see also the blame shifting that happened. Adam blamed Eve. He said, God, the woman you gave me. God's all your fault. You believe that? I can't believe I ever say that. Oh, wait a minute. People still saying that today. God is your fault. Shaking our fist at the sky, God, if you hadn't have done this, Eve then blamed the serpent. Well, God, you made him. He was one of yours. Now look at this. And it was like no responsibility taken. I mean, have we all not done wrong? Have we all not had a moment where we need to stop and take responsibility? Lord, I have. I mean, I I don't know why. I mean, I I I get our analytics right out of this podcast and especially of our sermon audio information. I mean, thousands and thousands of sermons preached around the world every month. I think we were something at 10,000, 11,000 sermons last month around the world. I mean, that's hundreds of sermons every day. And I'm sitting here thinking, why would anybody want to listen to this guy? I know this guy. I know the guy that's talking to you right now. Why would anybody want to listen to this guy? I mean, you talk about a nobody, unworthy. I've had to raise my hand many times and take responsibility. Like, hey, I'm sorry, it was my fault. I should not have done that, shouldn't have said that, my mouth outran my mind. Uh I mean, all kinds of things. Separated himself, and nobody was willing to take responsibility for what was done. Then we see the curse that came. God gave judgment, he pronounced judgment. So here comes external discipline now, in consequence. The ground was cursed, labor became difficult. Adam worked, but he didn't have to work by the sweat of his brow. It was work became easy. I'd like to go back to that time. One thing I'd like to go back to. Pain entered life, death was introduced, spiritual death occurred immediately. The physical death became its own process of time, which has shifted over time as man used to live, you know, six, seven, eight, nine hundred years in the case of some of the uh the early fathers. Perfect world that God created now is broken. What was once very good after God created Eve, he said it's very good. Now has been stained with suffering and decay. Wilting the thorns and thistles begin to grow amongst all the berries. They uh they say that's why the rose has the thorns on it. Don't know if that's the case or not. Uh I don't know why there's thorns on the rose. The evolutionists will probably tell you that those grew over time to keep the uh creepy crawly things away from the rose blooms, but maybe it was because God made something so pretty as a rose, something so tasty as a blackberry. And he said, if you want one of these now, you're gonna have to suffer for it. I don't know. One of the most important truths of doctrine in Adam's sin affects all of humanity. And in 1 Corinthians 15, 22 it says, For as in Adam, listen to that, for as in Adam, all die. Adam was not just acting for himself whenever he lost control of his home. He was the representative for the entire human race, and when he fell, we fell in him. Which means that we are not sinners only because we sin. We are sinners also because we have a sin nature. We are born in what I will say depravity. Do I believe in depravity? Absolutely. I believe man is born with a sin nature. I don't think you have to tell anybody how to do wrong. I don't think I've ever had to teach a kid how to do wrong. But I've had to teach a whole heap and helpin' of them what it means to be wrong and what is wrong and why it's wrong and how to do right. I mean, that's just come from twenty-five years of servicing thousands of children each year. So no amount of religion or effort or good works or election or selection can undo the fall of man or the sin, the broken nature can't be repaired just simply by uh willing itself, by saying, you know, I want to be better. That's where many people go wrong. They try to take something that is broken in a spiritual way, and they try to fix it in a material way. And it can't happen. We need to be made new, we need to be made whole, and there's only one way that can happen. And it's the shedding of blood. And all throughout the Old Testament, the blood began to shed whenever God killed the animal to make the coat of skins for Adam and Eve. The blood began to flow at that point in Scripture. And from there the blood continued to flow all through the Old Testament, millions upon millions upon millions, tens and tens and hundreds of millions of sheep and oxen and turtle doves were all uh slaughtered, crucified, to give their blood for the for the remission of man's sins for a period usually of one year. But finally there was one who came and did not have the blood of bulls and goats, but it was the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And he provided the way of redemption. He provided the eternal security, the eternal life through his blood that was shed for you and I. So in this seventh article of faith, we believe that the fall of man happened in the garden. It does not start with you and I, but it has not ended with you and I either. We're only in the middle ground of all this. It started with Adam, and sin ends with Christ, and that's the only place where we'll find an ending to all of this and to where all these old things can become new and become new creatures in Christ. Christ has given us everything, every hope to rescue us out of our fallen condition, and I pray today that you know Him as your Redeemer. Thank you for joining us today on Seeking Approval. You know our faith oftentimes grows in quiet places. I hope today's conversation gave you something worth carrying throughout the rest of this day. And join me, Dr. Chris Smelser, again next time as we continue thinking, learning, and walking together. Until then, grace and peace to you from Seeking Approval at Gilead Baptist Church.