Man is a fallen creature, not an upwardly evolving being, as evidenced by the biblical account of Adam as the first man, created in God's likeness and tripartite nature. This creation was for God's glory, endowed with intelligence, innocence, and the ability to choose, as seen in Adam's naming of animals and his initial state of unashamed nakedness. However, the fall occurred due to disobedience, doubt, and a desire for God's prerogatives, resulting in broken communion, an aroused conscience, an evil nature, spiritual and physical death, and condemnation. This depraved nature, characterized by enmity towards God, pride, spiritual blindness, hatred, deceitfulness, and evil lusts, is transmitted to all humanity, leading to rebellion, lying, cursing, stealing, murder, and sexual impurity, demonstrating an inherent inability to do good.
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man a fallen creature. Right away this raises objections in the minds of many people because the great majority of people feel that if man ever fell at all, he fell upward, beginning with some lower form of life and has evolved into what we have today. In First Corinthians, verse forty-five, it plainly says, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. Now, whatever prehistoric beings there may have been, animals of highly developed nature, or whatever, the first being, it could be properly called a man, was Adam.
And we're beginning with Adam because all of us, according to Romans chapter five, are descendants of Adam. He is our federal head. Now man was made, according to Genesis one, twenty six and twenty seven in God's likeness. This has nothing to do with shape or appearance. It has to do with character. God being a spirit doesn't have a body. in the sense that we have. So it doesn't mean that man was made to look like him. The Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, painted God as a very fat, genial old grandfather.
But God is not to be thought of in that way at all. We are made in man, made in God's likeness, in that, first of all, we were made very good. This is what he said in verse thirty-one of Genesis one. He said man was very good. And again, man was made in tripartite beams, having three parts. First Thessalonians five, twenty-three says, I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved laments. And man was made head of creation, according to Genesis two-fifteenth.
he was given responsibility not only for keeping the garden but even for naming the animals and then we're told that there's going to be a resurrection John five twenty eight and twenty nine when all men all human beings will be raised again either to life or to eternal unhappiness so man is made for eternity now the second The thing we want to notice about man's creation is that it was for God's glory and pleasure. Revelation four eleven says, For thy pleasure all things are and were created.
Well, let me mention three things about this being for God's pleasure. First of all, we were made intelligent. This again from Genesis chapter two, verses nineteen and twenty. He was not a caveman running around, but he was an intelligent being capable of fellowship with God and capable of naming all of the species. I understand there are fifteen thousand kinds of beetles, so he must have had a pretty steady job for a while. But he was perfectly capable of doing it. And then the second thing is that he was innocent. Genesis two twenty-five it says that The man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed.
And then they were created for fellowship with God because Genesis three and eight tells us that God came into the garden and walked. And the word walked there is in the tense that indicates that he did it as a habit. But when he came to find man, he found that man had sinned. Now the third thing we're going to think about in the creation of man is that he had ability to choose. And in Ephesians two and three we're told that we walk according to the desires and lusts of our own hearts.
This was true from the very beginning. It's the only way that God could make a man who could be a companion. He had to be made capable of both of choosing. And in the twenty-second of Revelation, in the seventy-first, the last part of it says, Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely, so man is still a being who is capable of choosing. Now let me notice three things that indicate that he had this ability to choose. Romans six, fourteen to twenty-three. It tells us very plainly that man may yield himself as a servant of either sin or of righteousness.
This ability to yield to whichever we wish has been given to man. Now the soul, the second thing I want to point out is that the soul that can love must also be able to hate. And in Luke, sixteen and thirteen, this was brought out very plainly, that you either can hate one and love the other, or else you can hold to one and despise the other. It's possible, if you have ability to love, it's possible also that you can hate. And the third point is that everyone is offered a choice. I've given you two references Deuteronomy thirty and nineteen and Joshua twenty four and fifteen and in both of these cases the men who were speaking to the people of God in the Old Testament said I have set before your life and death and both of them said choose today and choose rightly now this is the way man was created now coming to the second division of our study We see that man is a fallen creature.
First of all, there was a covenant made in Eden. It's called the Edenic Covenant. There are eight covenants in the Scripture, but this one in Genesis two, fifteen, seventeen was a very simple covenant. A, it was simple in its requirement. according to verse seventeen. And B, it was a matter of testing man's innocence. There is a good saying that innocence is not holiness until it is tested. Had man not been tested, his innocence would have had no value whatever.
Our blessed Lord was innocent, but when he was tested, he also proved to be holy. Man did not. Now, number two, the conditions of the test, according to Genesis two, were a well-supplied garden. Now, in contrast to this, Mark one, twelve and thirteen tells us that the Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after being hungry for forty days. So, all the conditions were excellent. They were clearly defined by God. But the condition of the test also included, this would be the third division of this, number two, that Satan was permitted to lie to them, Genesis three, one, and five.
So these were the conditions of the test. They had very good surroundings. They had God's word, definitely said, and then they had to choose between that and Satan's lie. Now third, the reasons for the fall. according to Genesis three, and there were four of them. First of all, Eve was not subject to Adam. She was told to be. Women still are told to be, and they still are not. Many of them are not. Christian women are. The second thing is they fell because they listened to Satan. The third thing was that they doubted God's word.
and most seriously of all, they really wanted God's rights. They desired to take the prerogatives of God away from it. Now I have inserted a note in your notes that Satan fell by invading God's rights. And the fourteenth of Isaiah describes this in detail. In contrast to this, our blessed Lord was always obedient and totally dependent. This was a marvelous thing for us to remember. Our Savior never wanted to take out of his father's hand the right to direct his path.
And since I'm speaking mostly to those who have professed to accept Christ as Savior, remember this, the first man fell by trying to take God's rights away from him. And we as Christians should emulate our blessed Lord and leave everything in our Heavenly Father's hands. Now, number four under this second section, man is a fallen being, the results of the fall. Let me name six of them for you. A, the communion was broken. Genesis three and nine tells us. God came into the garden and said, Adam, where art thou?
And he ran and hid the trees of the garden. B, his conscience was aroused. Romans two fifteen tells us that we have a conscience which either accuses or else excuses us. Have you wondered where you got that conscience? Well, it's God's watchdog that he brought the light when man sin. It's not dependable unless it's enlightened by the Word of God, but it began to work immediately when man fell. The third thing is that we have an evil nature. Ephesians two, one and three, tells us very plainly.
Now, he doesn't describe any sins in the first part of Ephesians two, but he tells us our tendencies, the nature within us, is wrong. The third thing that happened was that we died to God spiritually. Colossians two thirteen, among other many other passages tells us that we died spiritually the day that Adam sinned. That is, you'll notice a little later, he passed this on to his posterity. Now he didn't die physically for nine hundred and thirty years, but he did die spiritually that day. Now the fifth thing that came as a result of the fall was physical death.
Romans five and twelve says by one man sin enters into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men because of all of sin. And the last thing is that we were condemned. Romans five taking that whole section from fifteen to twenty one shows us very plainly that condemnation came on the human race, not simply when we do something wrong ourselves, but as a result of the fall in the Garden of Eden. All men were brought under condemnation. When you're dealing with a non-Christian, don't dwell on what bad things he's done, and therefore he's going to be condemned for these.
Point out to him that he's condemned already. This is what he says plainly in a number of places. Condemnation came as a result of the fall. Now let's go to the third section, and this one is a very important one. The third point we want to make today is that man is depraved. I have never preached on this without having some Christian, not a non-Christian, but some Christian object to this truth. And usually it's a fond mama with sweet little children. and she cannot believe that those children were born with evil natures.
Now, they're not responsible for that evil nature, but every child is born with an evil nature. If not, where does he learn to do all of these bad things? When he falls down on the floor and kicks and has a tantrum, did he learn that from watching Mama? Where do you get this nature, which is evidently much more prone to do wrong than it is to do right? Well, let's find out. First of all, the internal indications of a depraved nature. The seventh chapter of Romans is taken up with this whole thing. Read through the seventh of Romans, and you'll see that there is inside of us many things which are not right.
Let me name a few of them. A, enmity to God. Romans eight and verse seven says, the carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. There is something inside of us which does not want to do what God says. A father said to his boy, sit down. And because he said it plainly, the boy sat down. He said, I'm sitting down outside, but I'm standing up on the inside. This is the enmity that's in the human heart. And then the second thing is pride. Every human being is cursed with pride.
In Mark seven and verse twenty two he says, out of the heart comes pride. We even think that pride is a good thing. I'm not now talking about what are sometimes called pride, the desire to do things well. I'm talking about being proud of ourselves and our accomplishments. And see, spiritual blindness. How's a great deal said about this blindness? In Second Corinthians four three, for instance, we're told that the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of them which believe not. And in First John two and eleven, we're told that he who hates his brother is in darkness.
That is, he is spiritually blind. This is why he hates. I'd like to say a little something about the fourth point here, hatred to others. Titus three in verse three says that all human beings are hateful and hating one another. Now you may deny this, but if you're just watching long enough, you'll find that that's sweet little child has got a very hateful disposition at times. This isn't something that flies in from the outside. This is something that is born on the inside and grows on the inside.
In John fifteen, verses eighteen and nineteen, the Lord Jesus told us not to be surprised if the world hates you who are believers. It hated me. before it hated you. And he said, it hated me without any cause. So a world of human beings are capable of hating the Lord Jesus. Certainly must be depraved. And the next thing is deceitfulness. Among Jeremiah seventeen and nine, we read, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That means literally incurably wicked. And in second Timothy three and thirteen, he says that all human beings are deceiving and being deceived.
We spend our lives playing games, we call it, fooling each other. Even the closest of relationships, husbands and wives, are constantly deceiving each other. And deceit is of the devil. It's an evil thing that's within us. And the last one under this first section is evil lusts and desires. I referred to Mark seven a while ago. You should read this whole section and you'll notice how many evil things come from inside of the man. And Ephesians two and verse three tells us that we have these evil lusts and desires.
We usually think of the word lust as being open and flagrant sin. But God considers what we would call legitimate desires as being evil when they are selfish. And if you'll notice, most of yours are distinctly selfish. Now, the second section under this study of our depravity has to do with the outward manifestations. And I have given you some verses here, Mark seven, twenty one and twenty three, Ephesians two and three, which will tell you very plainly that we have within us many things of which we are ashamed.
In the first chapter of Romans, you have a list of things that are hardly fit to read in public. They include such things as sexual perversion and people who not only do wrong but they encourage other people to follow in their paths it's unthinkable and yet it's very true we know that these things are happening within us read that section Romans one twenty one to thirty two carefully and also Galatians five nineteen twenty one and you will find that there he lists a number of things which we do.
Now let's look at them one by one. A rebellion. Proverbs seventeen and eleven says that the evil seeketh only to rebel. It is no matter occasionally I have a hard time conforming. It's simply that this is my nature. Mama says don't put any beans up your nose. So all the children put beans up their nose and have to be taken to the doctor. There's a natural rebellion in the human heart against doing what we're told to do. And the second thing is lying. This is a universal trait.
Psalm hundred and sixteen and eleven, David said, I said in my haste all men are liars. Someone who said he could take any time and still said it. Because it's true. They are no sooner born than they go about speaking lies, another passage says. First Timothy four and two refers to this habit of ours, of lying. A third thing is cursing. In Romans three, fourteen, he says their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Now if your mouth is full of something, that doesn't mean that you spit any of it out, but it's there in case you want to. As the little boy said when the preacher asked him if he ever swore, he said, No, but I know all the words.
And so all of us have within us a resentment toward other human beings, which may or may not come out in the form of cursing other people. This is an indication, an outward manifestation, that we have a depraved nature. The fourth thing is stealing. And in Romans two and twenty-one, he says to the Jew, he said, Now you teach people not to steal. Do you steal yourself? And of course, this is an embarrassing question to ask anyone. Why is it that we want to take things that belong to other people?
Christian servants were exhorted in one of Paul's letters not to be purloining That means picking up things around where you work. It's just as wrong to take a postage stamp as it is to embezzle a million dollars from the bank. You may not receive as long a sentence for it, but it's all part of the same nature, you see, it's sin. And the fifth thing is murder. In case you think that this lets you out, remember that first John three and fifteen says, he who hates his brother is a murderer. It isn't a matter of doing it. It's a matter of having it inside.
If it never comes out, it's there anyway. And the last one I'd like to mention is sexual impurity. Ephesians four and nineteen warns Christians against this. You and I live in a day when sexual impurity is rife. It's looked upon as the norm now. But God says that it's an indication that of man's depraved nature. Now, sex is not evil. God created it for the procreation of the race and for the enjoyment of married people. But God put some fences around it. And when you cross those fences, you have proven that you have a depraved nature.
Or you even desire to cross those fences. He who looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart, Christ said. Call your attention to the fact that the lists of sins in Scripture are samples and are not complete. Now, the third section has to do with our inability to do good. I don't think anybody questions that we have the ability to do wrong. Do we have ability to do good? Well, in Romans three, verses nine to eighteen, we have fourteen indictments carried over from the Old Testament, quoted from the Old Testament, in which he tells us that it is totally impossible for us to do what is pleasing to God.
Now, first of all, there are none who keep the law. John seven and nineteen, the Lord Jesus said to the law teachers, the leaders among the Jewish nation. He said, None of you keep the law, and you go about to kill me. Wasn't the law given to keep? Oh, no, it was given to show us that we're sinners. That's the purpose of the law. It's a measuring stick to show you how short you are. The second thing is that we are without strength. Romans five and six says so very plainly, when you were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. And then the third thing is that we are servants of corruption.
Now, Second Peter, two-nineteen tells us that some leaders, Christian or rather religious leaders, who are false teachers, promise you liberty, but they themselves are the servants of corruption. There's a great movement today toward what they call liberty, but the people who are the heads of this modern rebellious movement toward liberty are the worst slaves of their own passions. Many of them are dope addicts, sexual perverts. They've got all kinds of things to indicate that the liberty they're talking about, they don't possess at all. The sad part of it is, Jeremiah, Thirteen, Twenty-three tells us that we are totally unable to change.
He says, Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard he spots? Now he said, if they can, then you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. Now that would leave us in pretty bad shape if we didn't have something more to talk about than this. Well, one more thing we must look at, the fourth section of our study, is that this is transmitted to posterity. It wasn't simply that Adam sinned. This is evident in universal behavior, according to Romans Verses nine to twenty-three, section to which I referred to a while ago. In this section he tells us that universally men are sinners.
He even goes so far as to say there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the twenty-third verse of that section. There's a difference in how much we've seen. and how he is sinned, but there's no difference in the fact that we are all sinners. The second point is that this was evident in the antediluvians and the people immediately following the flood. Now, this is going back into the ancient history of the human race. And I'd like to give you four cases which you can look up. A. Cain in Genesis four, one to sixteen. The first boy born became a murderer.
The second one is Seth in Genesis five three. And there you read that Adam begot a son in his own likeness. It was not a matter of his being looking like his old man physically, but he was like him morally. The third one is Nimrod in Genesis ten. And he was called a mighty rebel in the revised version. And he founded the first system of idolatry. And the city that he built was called Babel. Put that down under the fourth one in Genesis eleven. And this was a city of rebels. Now the third point is that it was evident in Israel's history.
Isaiah one verses one to four gives us this from the prophet Isaiah. He says, ah, sinful nation, laden with iniquity. And this was true, the nation of Israel, in spite of all their advantages. They were a sinful nation. Now, one proof of this, put down under A, that sin is recorded in practically every Jew's life history. in the scripture. There are possibly one or two, but even great men, like the founder of the Jewish race, Abraham, made some very serious blunders.
B. It was acknowledged by David in Psalm fifty-one and five. He said, I was born in sin and shapen in iniquity. This doesn't mean that his mother was unmarried or that she was a bad woman. But born in sin and shaped in iniquity means simply that he inherited from his parents a wicked nature. And Isaiah in chapter one and verse four, or rather chapter six and verse five, Isaiah very plainly said, Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips.
Now fourth, I'd like to point out that it is evident in Gentile history. Jeremiah sixteen and nineteen. And here it says that all the Gentiles shall one day own that they are sinners. It is seen in idolatry. First Chronicles sixteen and twenty-six. The Lord told the Jews, speaking to them, through the prophets. He said, don't do like the nations around you. And it's evident in Gentile history and immorality, according to Leviticus, eighteen and twenty-five. And it's evident in their incessant wars, James four and one.
He says, where do wars come from? They come from the lusts in your own heart. And the United Nations and nobody else is going to change There will be wars till the end of time. Now, number five, the new birth is the only solution. We'll talk about that more in our next study. The new birth is the only solution. You and I cannot improve. We must be born again.