The Fall of Man

Tonight we are studying lesson three in our study of Hamartiology. This lesson tonight is on the fall of man. Next week we're going to talk about original sin, how the fall of man is passed on from Adam and Eve to their progeny. And then after that, Caleb the following week is going to teach on depravity, the corruption that results within us because of sin. And then we'll be looking at guilt, which is the objective merit of sin that comes from our sin, that we are guilty of punishment. And so we'll continue all the way on until we finish the series, which will be our last one on the events. So we have a lot still ahead of us in the series.

Tonight on lesson three, the fall of man, we're going to be looking primarily in Genesis chapter 3. So you may want to have your Bibles open to Genesis chapter 3. The verses will be on your sheet here, but it's also nice for you sometimes to underline your own Bibles as you go. The fall of man was a historical event. Some people like to render much of the Bible as being poetry or being figurative stories, but the Bible treats the fall of Adam and Eve as a real historical event and Adam and Eve as historical man and woman, the first pair that God created.

So let's begin with Bible point number one. The fall of man is found in the free — that's the first blank — the free act of Adam. Hey Russ, how are you sir? Russ, over on the table there's some handouts. Oh, you got one — okay. The fall of man is found in the free act of Adam and Eve by which they turned — that's the second blank — turned away from God. So the fall of man is found in the free act, which means they were not compelled to fall. They were not destined to fall. They freely did this, okay. Their free act of Adam and Eve by which they turned away from God.

We often talk about repentance where we turn away from sin and turn towards God. Well, the fall was the opposite of that. Remember, God created man upright when we studied our study of anthropology. He made man with his will firmly set on God. He created man holy. So what man did in the fall was to turn — but not turn towards God, but to turn away from God.

In their fall, Adam and Eve corrupted themselves, became objects of God's wrath — that's the third blank — and brought themselves under the penalties — that's the fourth blank — the penalty or penalties of law. Let me say that. The fall of man is found in the free act of Adam and Eve by which they turned away from God. In their fall, Adam and Eve corrupted themselves, became objects of God's wrath, and brought themselves under the penalties of law.

When they turned away from God, they corrupted themselves and their descendants. We'll study that in depth next week when we talk about original sin, but they first corrupted themselves. And in two weeks, Caleb's going to be talking about this corruption that we call the depravity of mankind. The fall affects everything: from our mind, from our will, from our affections. It radically is pervasive within the human soul. Every bit of us is corrupted by sin. And they corrupted themselves. They became objects of God's wrath, which means they incurred guilt by their sin because they offended a holy God. And the Bible refers to our guilt in measures such as debt and being debtors, as we owe a debt of holiness to God, right? And brought themselves under the penalties of law, which means that they would be punished — death entered because of their sin, both spiritual death and physical death.

Let's look at what they actually broke, the commandment of God. It's in Genesis 2:16 through 17. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.'" So God gave them a very clear commandment. You can eat of every tree in the garden except this one, and that's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And if you eat of that, the day you eat of it, you'll surely die. That death would have been, of course, a spiritual death immediately, followed by physical death thereafter. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death is a separation of soul from God. There would be a radical division between God and man if Adam and Eve broke God's commandment. And they did. Flip over on the back.

Paul refers to Adam and Eve as historical figures. He writes the church in 2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." He's saying, "I'm afraid for you that you're going to be deceived just as Adam and Eve were deceived. Adam and Eve fell, and they were indeed deceived by the tempter." Okay? But can they blame the devil for deceiving them?

It was their own free act, right? Yes, the devil tempted them. The devil is a tempter and he loves to trick people. He loves to persuade people. But it wasn't like they did what they did in ignorance. They knew that it was a violation of God's command and they willfully did it anyway. They asserted themselves in the place of God.

Look at John 8:44. This is Jesus speaking of the religious leaders, the Pharisees of His day. "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." The tempter is a liar, right? The devil loves to tell you all kinds of lies, saying, "This will make you feel good. This will give you satisfaction. This will give you purpose. This will give you significance." But he's a liar, and everything he says is a lie. And when we do his will, we're going against God, right? We're going against God's will.

James 1:14, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." When we talked about anthropology and we talked about man's will, we said that man never does anything without a reason, right? God has given us a rational mind that we can contemplate and choose between motives, and the motive that most pleases us is usually the motive that we act on, right? We can't say, "Al is tricked. Al is deceived." James tells us, "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire," right? So it's always our fault, right? And in the fall of Adam and Eve, though Satan tempted them, it was their free act of revolt against the Lord. Okay?

The application is this. When we sin, who — that's the first blank — who do we turn away from? Yeah. We're making a choice when we sin. I'm not going to do it in God's way. I'm going to follow my own path. I'm going to follow the devil's path. I'm going to follow the ways of the world when we sin. So it's a very personal thing. It's a who that we're turning away from. It's not that, "Oh, we're turning away from the Ten Commandments in the abstract," or "We're turning away from the teachings of the church in the abstract." We're turning away from God Himself when we sin.

Bible point number two. Eve excluded herself from both Adam and God in listening to the tempter instead of rebuking — that's the second blank — rebuking him and fleeing — that's the third blank — rebuking him and fleeing. Satan was a fallen being. Adam and Eve knew who he was. They knew that he was a murderer from the beginning. They knew that he was a liar. So she excluded herself from Adam, who was her covenantal head, and from God, by even entertaining or listening to the tempter. She should have rebuked him, right? And should have fled from the devil. That's what we should do, right? When we are faced with temptation, should we not rebuke the devil and run, get out of there, right? She didn't.

In this initial selfishness — this is the fourth blank — selfishness, Eve isolated herself from God. She also isolated herself from her covenantal head, Adam. Eve chose to seek her own pleasure without regard to God's will. That's the fifth blank, will.

Eve excluded herself from both Adam and God in listening to the tempter instead of rebuking him. In this initial selfishness, Eve isolated herself from God. She also isolated herself from her covenantal head, Adam, and Eve chose to seek her own pleasure without regard to God's will.

Why do you think that Satan went to Eve to begin with and not Adam? First of all, was Eve present when God gave the command, "You shall not eat of the tree"? No, she wasn't made yet, right? So the command came to Adam. Adam was the head of his wife Eve. Eve came from Adam, and it was Adam's job and duty as head of his family to instruct the family. That's why men are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of their families, right? And so she did not hear the command directly. She heard it from Adam. So because she did not hear the command directly, perhaps Satan reasoned — and probably reasoned rightly — that she would not think of having the responsibility to obey as Adam did. Adam was responsible not only for himself, but for Eve as well, right? So that was one of the reasons perhaps why Satan addressed Eve directly rather than Adam.

Another reason we can think of is simply this. What's the quickest way to Adam's heart? Eve. Did not Eve come from his side, right?

Isn't Adam going to want to please Eve, right? Isn't Adam going to listen to his wife? Of course. She's near and dear to him. And so Satan figured, "If I can get Eve, maybe I can get Adam too," right? And he was right. He got them both, right? It was both Adam and Eve who were at fault. Sometimes Eve gets the brunt of the blame because she's mentioned so much in these first seven verses of Genesis chapter 3. But it's every bit as much Adam's responsibility as it is Eve's. Should not Adam have been keeping the garden and keeping the snakes out, right? Should not Adam have been right there making sure that no one out of sorts is talking to his wife, right? So they're both responsible in this.

Eve chose to seek her own pleasure without regard to God's will. That's the nature of sin, right? It's again to try to enthrone herself, to seek our own will apart from God's will.

Look at Genesis 3:1. "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made," and we're going to stop at that point. We won't read the whole verse. "The serpent was more cunning." What does cunning mean?

Slick. Slick, yeah. Very tricky, yeah? Sneaky. Exactly right. Sly. Exactly right. Crafty. There you go. Yeah. Charismatic. I'm sure he was very charismatic. A slick-talking used car salesman, so to speak. Not to bag on used car salesmen, but you know what I'm talking about. One who can persuade you of anything, right? And he makes an appearance as an angel of what? An angel of light, right? But he's not. So the devil is very cunning.

Let me ask you this. Application — actually, before we do the application, let's flip on the back. Let's look at James 4:7. What should we do when we are tempted? Yes. James 4:7 says, "Therefore submit to God." When we give in to temptation, we are submitting, but we're not submitting to God's will. Whose will are we submitting to? The devil's will, right? It says, "Submit to God. Resist the devil." It means to give him a Heisman stiff arm, right? "Keep him at bay. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." If you submit yourself to God, say, "God, I'm Yours." And if you resist the devil — "I'm not going to listen to him. I'm going to turn from him and walk away" — that's the safest action you can do, right? Because the devil is cunning and he is sly. We don't try to talk to the devil. We don't try to reason with the devil. Trust me, his intellect is great, right? If not for Christ and the Holy Spirit within us, we would not be able to resist him. But praise God for the dependence that we have on the Holy Spirit and the power that He gives us to overcome.

Right. Well, what I meant by rebuke is what Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan. He just goes to Scripture, and that's the rebuke of the devil. It's trusting God's word over Satan's word. Yes. We were not to... No, no, I agree. We're not to address the devil in the sense of saying... Yeah, in the context here we're talking about heeding God's word instead of Satan's word. And that's the rebuke. You just let God's word do the rebuking. Yeah. You do just what Jesus did when He was tempted. Every time He was tempted in the wilderness, He would bring up Scripture. Right. And again, we're not to converse with the devil. But on the flip side, the devil can play games with you and he can, through the power of suggestion, bring things into your life. And even though he may not physically be right there across the table from you, whenever you have temptation, you rebuke that temptation with Scripture. That's simply what you do. We don't rebuke it in the charismatic sense of saying, "I rebuke you and..." Maybe it's some manner of saying something in the prayer. That's a very good clarification. Yes. Thank you.

Look on the back. Proverbs 4:14 through 15 says, "Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it and do not go on it. Turn from it and pass on." So when temptation comes, you get out of there, right? You get out of there.

Flip back over on the front. How do we know — this is the application for number two — how do we know and follow God's will? Eve chose to seek her own will in opposition to God's will. Well, how do we know, and how do we follow? The first blank is know. The second blank is follow God's will. In Scripture. Exactly right. We don't lick our finger and see which way the wind is blowing and try to determine God's will that way. We don't throw some bones, so to speak, as the witches do, to try to determine God's will. We simply go to Scripture, because Scripture is where we find God's will, and how we follow it is simply obeying Scripture, right? This is all the revelation that we need — it is in God's word.

Bible point number three. Eve entertained doubt — that's the first blank — by listening to the cunning serpent who said, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" So the first blank is doubt. Second blank is indeed. And the third blank is every. When Eve listened to the tempter, what the tempter says is, "Is God being true? Has God indeed — has God really said — 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" We see Satan already twisting God's words, and he's trying to plant the seed of doubt about God's veracity and about God's nature in Eve, right? So what happens when she listens to that? Isn't the seed of doubt being planted there? That's why we don't listen to the devil, right? That's why we resist and get out of there.

Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?'" Did God say, "You shall not eat of every tree in the garden"? Only one. So Satan actually turns God's command upside down, right? As if God is withholding all these good things from you — things that were meant for you, that He created for you — and He's withholding them. He's distorting God's word. And Satan loves to do that. Loves to distort God's word. And as we see with Eve, when you listen to that, seeds of doubt are planted.

Men and women — especially parents — that's why it's really important for you to take heed to what you listen to, what biblical teaching you listen to. Sometimes you may say, "Well, I'm going to watch a little bit of TBN here. Maybe something good will come on." Yeah, you may find one splinter of goodness in a sea of junk, right? It's not worth it. It's not worth opening your ears to the tempter, who can then plant seeds of doubt, right? If it's not clearly expounding what the word of God says faithfully, then find a different teacher, right? Find a different YouTube channel to watch. You say, "Well, they have some good stuff and some kind of crazy stuff." That should be a warning right then and there, right? We don't want to have seeds of doubt about God's goodness, about God's character planted in us. As Eve was doing, she was entertaining doubt by listening to the tempter.

Flip over on the back. Matthew 26:41, Jesus says, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Now, it is okay for you to understand, in an apologetic sense, some of the arguments that may be put out in opposition to Christianity, right? But don't dwell on them too long, right? Stick with the truth, right?

And as a Christian father, you may have to preview something that your kids are listening to, and you may find that it's not that good, right? But don't stay there too long. Don't play or flirt with temptation. The flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak. I'll give you an example. When I was in seminary, I loved the library, and this was when the internet was just kind of being born. I know I'm old, but I loved it. They had a great theological library at Southeastern Seminary. Some great works, being there all the time, reading different theologians and whatnot. And for theology classes, we had to read many of the German theologians, the higher critical scholars who denied the veracity of God's word and denied the authorship of God's word by the apostles and by the men whose names these letters bear. And there's one in particular — I'm not going to mention his name — but he was persuasive, you know? And you start reading it and he was altogether wrong, but he wrote so well and he made such good logical arguments, even though he was not right. What I'm getting at is, be careful what you listen to, okay? Don't enter into temptation. Pray that you don't even enter it — that's what Jesus tells us to do in Matthew 26:41.

Flip up on the front. The application is this. Is it safe to converse — that means speak — with the tempter? Is it safe to converse with the tempter? No, it's not. Jesus did. He was being tempted, and this was part of God's plan for Him. Actually, the Spirit of God led Him into the wilderness, and the Spirit of God was with Him the entire time, and He left the wilderness by the power of the Spirit of God. This was part of Christ's testing. And temptation may come your way, but don't converse with the tempter, okay? Know God's word. Converse with God. Ask for help. When you feel temptation coming on, rebuke that temptation in the sense of bringing out Scripture. Let God's word have the final say at all times. But we don't converse. We don't carry on with the devil, right? Avoid that temptation altogether.

That's why we see that in the apostolic ministry, and we don't really see that today, because there are no more apostles, so to speak.

Let's look at Bible point number four. Eve exhibited resentment — this is the first blank. Notice how she first excluded herself — we saw that in Bible point number two. Bible point number three, she entertained doubt by listening. Now Eve exhibits resentment by exaggerating God's command as recorded in Genesis 3:2 through 3. This is the beginning of resentment for what Eve viewed as an unfair — that's the second blank — an unfair restriction of her activity. When Eve adds, "Neither shall you touch it," she shows her belief that God's command has been unreasonable. Did God say you shall not touch it? No. She added that because what she is doing is beginning to resent God. She's saying, "You know what, I'm listening to the tempter, and he's putting doubts about God's character in my mind, and I'm thinking that God's commands are restricting my free activity and that's very unreasonable." So she adds to God's commandment, which is a way of actually defaming the character of God. Exactly right. So she's basically calling God unreasonable, and she's beginning to resent God because God is not giving her the freedom that she desires and is longing for — evilly, wickedly, apart from God.

Let's read this. Genesis 3:2 through 3. "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."'" So she corrects the serpent. The serpent had told her, "You can't eat of any tree in the garden," and she says, "No, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said" — she's putting words in God's mouth — "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." So she's beginning to show her resentment towards God by adding to His commandment to place Him in a light that He's unfair, that He's telling you, "You can't even touch it." And that's not what He said.

Flip over on the back. 1 John 5:2 through 4 says this, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not" — what? — "burdensome." God's commandments aren't burdensome. He's not trying to give you a list of dos and don'ts, hoping that you're going to goof up and accidentally touch the tree and therefore be estranged from God for eternity. Not at all. They're not burdensome. "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith."

Let's flip back over on the front. The application is this for number four. Are God's commands for you or against you? That's the blank — is against you. Are God's rules there to protect you, to bless you, to reveal His character? Are they against you? Is God a petty, vindictive God who is trying to deny you your way and trying to deny you any pleasure in this world? Which is it? Is He for us or is He against us? His commandments are not grievous to us, praise God. His commandments are for our protection, right? For our good, and to reveal God's character so we can know Him.

Bible point number five. Eve evidenced unbelief. Notice again, we've gone from her excluding herself from Adam and God by isolating herself, to entertaining doubt by listening to the devil, to exhibiting resentment and exaggerating God's commands and thinking that God is against her. Now she evidences unbelief. That's the first blank. Eve evidenced unbelief in heeding the serpent in Genesis 3:4. Eve's doubt and resentment of God led her to believe — that's the second blank — believe the serpent and disbelieve God. So her doubt and resentment led her to unbelief, led her to believe the serpent over God.

Look what it says in Genesis 3:4. "Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You shall not surely die.'" In other words, if you break His command, you're not going to die. Now, is this something that Eve believed? Yes. She chose to believe the testimony of a cunning serpent rather than the testimony of her holy Creator, right? She disbelieved God saying, "In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die," but she believed the serpent. She's harboring unbelief against God.

Flip over on the back. Jesus begins His ministry, Mark 1:14 through 15. It says, "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, 'The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.'" Repent and believe — those are imperatives, those are commands, right? Are we not commanded to believe the gospel? Are we not commanded to believe that God is for us and that God loves us and that Christ, the Son, came to die for us and rise again? Every man and woman is commanded to repent and believe.

Look at John 3:18. Jesus says, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the only Son of God." Unbelief is condemnation. You're condemning yourself. You're bringing God's punishment on yourself when you do not believe.

Look at John 16:8 through 11, speaking of the Holy Spirit whom Christ would send. This is in the upper room discourse. He says, "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment." Look at verse 9, "Of sin because they do not" — what? — believe in Me. Unbelief is sin, right? And Eve already, before she actually takes the bite of the apple, she's fallen inwardly. She's believing Satan and disbelieving God.

Application for number five. Is unbelief neutral? That's the first blank — neutral? Is it a minor — the second blank — minor sin? Some believe it's neutral. Is it okay to say, "Hey, you believe what you want to believe and I believe what I want to believe and we'll be best of friends and it's okay. You find God your way and believe what you want to believe"? Is unbelief neutral? No. It brings condemnation, right? If you do not put your trust in Christ, you are condemned already — that's what the Bible tells us. Is it a minor sin? You know, if you were to murder someone, that's a big sin, right? In our minds. If you murder someone, can you be forgiven of that sin if you repent of it? Yeah. However, if you have unbelief, unless you repent of that, unbelief condemns you, right? It's not a minor sin. It's not something we can treat as, "Oh yeah, your own choice. Do whatever you want to." It's the most vital thing that we do. We are commanded to repent and believe.

Bible point number six. Eve embraced pride in believing the serpent in Genesis 3:5. Not only do we see unbelief, but we see pride welling up in Eve. Eve thought that she should be God's equal — that's the second blank — equal in every respect, and no longer His subject — that's the third blank — subject. She should no longer have to obey God and follow His will. Instead, she should follow her own will. She thought that she should be equal with God.

Let's look at Genesis 3:5. Satan says, "For God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Satan's lying to her. He's promising her, "You're going to be like God."

Yes, sir. Good question. It depends on what their core beliefs are. If they believe in the orthodox view — that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is for us, if they've repented, turned from their sin and turned towards Christ, and they are trusting in Christ for their salvation — they're justified by faith, yes, but they can still be stilted in their walk, and it's going to affect their sanctification by listening to bad doctrine, right? They need to say, "I believe; help my unbelief." That's what they need to be praying. They need to grow in spiritual maturity. If we trust in Christ for our salvation, and in Him and Him alone, they can be saved. They believe — that's the definition of being saved. But you can still be saved and believe some rather unorthodox beliefs. You think about the charismatic movements, some of the wacky things they believe there. You shouldn't always write them all off. Sometimes you can say, "Oh, well, these are beliefs so different from me, they must not be a Christian." It takes just the smallest amount of faith, and if that faith is set on Christ as Savior, your soul is united to Christ, right? Even though they may believe vastly differently in faith and practice and so many things that we believe. Exactly. Sometimes only God is the perfect fruit inspector who knows, right? So it can be difficult, because we often know people who are following some bad doctrines — like, "How are they saved?" But you have to get to what are they placing their trust in? What's the basis of their salvation? Is it Christ alone? Christ plus nothing else? Then they're saved. The just shall live by faith.

So for Bible point number six, Eve embraced pride by believing the serpent, and she believed she should be God's equal. She loved the message that Satan was telling her: "You will be like God if you eat of the tree. You're not going to die, and you're going to be like Him." Look over on the back.

Pride is such an evil, wicked sin, right? Proverbs 16:5 says, "Everyone proud in heart is" — what? — "an abomination." Among the things the Lord hates, right? "It is an abomination to the Lord. Though they join forces, none will go unpunished." We know that when Satan fell, pride is said to have been basically the root of his fall. And with mankind, it's no different, right? When we disbelieve God, we are taking what is rightfully His — the throne — and we're sitting on it. We're saying, "I know better." So pride and unbelief go hand in hand, and we see this in our first parents.

Application is this for number six. How does man attempt to dethrone God? How does man attempt — he can't dethrone Him — but how does man attempt to dethrone God? Sinning, yeah, exerting his own will, right? In the place of God, saying, "I'm not going to follow Your scepter. I'm not going to bow to Your crown. You bow to mine. I'm going to do it my way" — that's what the sinner says. A little bit messed up there. We're made in His image, but we're a finite representation of His infinite.

Now, let's look at Bible point number seven. Eve went from starting — again — with isolating herself from God and from Adam, to doubting by just listening to the serpent, seeds of doubt being planted, to beginning to resent God and His rule and exaggerating God's command, to evidencing that resentment, to unbelief by believing the devil over God, to embracing pride by willing to be in God's position. And number seven, you see Eve engaged in evil desire — desire, that's the first blank — for the forbidden fruit as a means of independence and knowledge in Genesis 3:6. She desired that fruit because it would make her free from God, and it would give her the mind of God, so she believed.

Eve was persuaded by her appetites, eyes, and pride. We'll look at that when we read the verse here in just a second. It was her desires or appetites, her eyes, and her pride that persuaded her. Mankind thus chose not to believe God and willfully began to serve — that's the second blank — serve himself. Man's heart and desires became corrupt. Therefore, man fell inwardly — that's the third blank — inwardly, before the outward — that's the fourth blank — outward act of eating the forbidden fruit. He fell by one fundamental determination, whereby he made the supreme choice of self — that's the fifth blank — self, instead of God as his chief end.

If you desire something that God has told you not to desire, is that a sin? Yeah, but it's not an outward act, right? But it's a sin. It's an evil desire, right? And that's what Eve did. She desired what God had told her not to. She desired that forbidden fruit as a means of making her independent and wise, giving her independence from God and knowledge apart from God. So she began to serve herself. She's choosing self over God, and she fell inwardly before that outward act, right?

When we talked about the nature of sin in week one, we talked about sin being like an iceberg. And an iceberg — what you see above the water is only 10% of its mass. 90% of it lies below the surface. There are some people that when you observe their life, they look like a Christmas tree: shiny and bright, no evil or bad that you can think of or see. But you don't see the heart, right? We look on the outward appearance, don't we? But what does Samuel tell us? God looks upon the heart, right? People can be pretty and gussied up and shiny and bright on the outside, twinkling, and everything looks great, but their heart can be far from the Lord.

Look at Genesis 3:6. "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise." We see that it was good for food, so it's her appetites, her wants; that it was pleasant to the eyes, it appealed to her eyes, it was pretty; and a tree desirable to make one wise — she wanted the knowledge of God. She wanted God's wisdom. She wanted God's place, right? So all these things acted upon her will and served as motives, but they didn't make her do it, right? Motives don't make you do it. They can persuade the will, but they don't force you to do it, right? We have to exert our will, and we are the only ones who can exert our will. And she willfully fell into rebellion.

Flip over on the back. Look at James 3:14 through 16. "But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there." James is saying, "Guard your heart," right? Because what proceeds from your heart is that outward sin, right? Guard your heart.

James 4:1 through 3. "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and you cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your own passions." Your heart is twisted. You are seeking the wrong things, right? And your desires are leading you away from God rather than toward God.

Flip back over on the front. This is an application for number seven that you should know based upon what we talked about in week one, the nature of sin. Is sin a rebellious — that's the first blank — rebellious act, disposition, or state? All three. Exactly right. You all got that — way to go. It's all three, right? It's not just an external action, but it is just as much an action as it is a disposition, it is a desire, it is an attitude of rebellion that we have in our hearts — along with a state. It's who we are. We're sinners, right? Corrupted by sin, and that corruption darkens our mind, darkens our will, leads us to sin more and more and more.

Bible point number eight. Eve entered into outright disobedience. So we see it finally come to a head here. What started off as her isolating herself from Adam and from God, then by entertaining doubt by listening to the tempter, then by exhibiting resentment by adding to God's commands — showing that she had a fundamental distrust of God and thought Him to be against her — to actually disbelieving God, to her unbelief and believing the testimony of the devil that she would surely not die, and by exhibiting pride, wanting to take God's place and be exalted to God's state if she were to eat this fruit, and engaging in evil desire because she desired it because it could make her wise, it could make her like God, it was pleasant to the eyes — right? And who wouldn't want that, as the way she was reasoning? It finally comes to fruition.

In the eighth, Eve entered into outright disobedience along with Adam. So the first blank is disobedience. Second blank is Adam. We've been focusing a lot on Eve. Remember, Adam and Eve fell together. Adam is not off the hook. He can't say, "That woman you gave me, it's all her fault," right? It's his fault. In Genesis 3:6, sin revealed their wills as thoroughly corrupted and alienated from God. That's the third blank — corrupted. The fourth blank — alienated.

Eve entered into outright disobedience along with Adam in Genesis 3:6. Sin revealed their wills as thoroughly corrupted and alienated from God. They had already fallen inwardly. They were already distrusting God. They were already thinking God was their adversary and not for them, that He was withholding something good from them. And they were choosing willfully to believe the devil over God. And they were welled up with pride, ready to take God's place. And so their outward sin revealed what was in their heart, right? That they had already become corrupted and alienated from God.

Genesis 3:6, "She took of its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate." Notice — with her. Adam is with her in her sin. He is approving of her sin. He is approving her testimony that God is unfaithful, that God is not for them, that God is not true, and that God is withholding good things from them. He was a willing participant in this sin.

Flip over on the back. Romans 5:10 through 11 says, "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." When Adam and Eve sinned, they became enemies against God. They became in opposition. They left the kingdom of light and joined the kingdom of darkness. They were now following Satan rather than following God. They were adversarial now towards God. No longer going to walk in His ways — going to walk in their own ways. They lost their holy affection and their love for God. They were now estranged from God. They loved themselves more than God. Their affections were supremely set on themselves rather than on God.

But praise God for His grace. This passage here in Romans says, "For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God" — which means brought back to God, made whole with God, made right with God — "through the Son. Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." God loved us while we were still sinners, while we were still rebels, while we were still dead in our sins, in our unbelief, and in our pride, and in our distrust of God, shaking our fist at Him, saying, "I'm a rebel. I'm going to do it my way." Christ came to die for us. And that's every single one of us, right? This fit the bill for us before we put our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ.

When you witness to people in this world, perhaps it's someone at work, perhaps it's someone in your family, and they're acting like the devil, they're walking like the devil, they're talking like the devil — so did you, right? At one point you did too, before you were in Christ. But Christ died to reconcile even the most rebellious, vile sinner to Himself. He paid our price. He never sinned. He never went against God's will. He said, in fact, at Gethsemane, "Not my will, but Thy will," and it cost Him everything, right? He laid down His life for us, and He took it again because He was perfect and He wasn't deserving of death. Death could not hold Him because He was altogether righteous, right? And He rose again. So whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. That's the glory of God's grace — that He would die for sinners such as I, that He would die for a rebel such as I, that He would die for someone who shakes his fist at God and is content to leave God and no longer be in His glory, to follow his own wicked desires. God breaks into that darkness to save us.

Put that cover on the front. The application is this for number eight. How are our actions a window to our soul? How are our actions a window? If someone is walking in darkness, doing evil deeds continually — that is the pattern of their life — what does that tell you about their soul? Dark, right? Who's on the throne there? Not God, right? They're pursuing the world, the flesh, the devil, themselves — anything but God, right? On the flip side, as Christians, our testimony to this world should be — it's not always, but it should be — an exemplary path of righteousness. When people see our lives, what should that say about our soul, right? What does Scripture say? Be ready always to give an account to anyone who asks of you, right? When they see your good works, then they can glorify God. They say, "Well, why are you doing this? Why are you so kind? Why are you forgiving me? I've treated you horribly, but you're treating me kindly." It should be — your actions should be a window to your soul.

Bible point number nine. Man alone is responsible — responsible, that's the first blank — for his sin. God can't be sin's author — that's the second blank — author — by creating man to necessarily sin or withdrawing a supernatural grace necessary for holiness. Let me stop right there. There are some theologians that have taught that God created man to be sinners, that He made us with a bent of the affections not towards God, but a bent of affections towards evil.

If that's true — and it's not, it's contrary to Scripture's testimony — but if that were true, does that not make God the author of sin by creating mankind to be sinners? Did God create even Satan as a fallen being or as an upright being? As an upright being, right? God is not the author of evil. There have been some theologians that kind of split hairs and they'll say, "Well, God created Adam and Eve upright, and He gave them sustaining grace to be able to depend on the Holy Spirit to not sin, and if they would have continued in that path they could have been confirmed in righteousness — they didn't have to sin — but God withdrew that special grace so that they would fall." I ask you, where in Scripture does it say that? Nowhere. Exactly. Adam and Eve were created upright. They were finite, which means that they had limits, but they could have trusted in God, and through the power of the Spirit of God they could have stayed upright. But they didn't. They fell. That's the story of humanity. We are fallen, and we can't blame God. We can't say God made us defective, right? That He made us sinners. We can't say God withheld something from us that was necessary for us to walk righteously. Not at all. He gave Adam every benefit, right? What did He do in the garden? He gave him this beautiful garden, right? Told him he could eat of every tree but just one, right? But he wanted to eat that one that God had forbidden him to eat.

Sin originated in man's free act of revolt against — that's the third blank — against God. It was the act of the will, though inclined toward God, that was not confirmed in virtue and was still capable of contrary choice. When we talked about anthropology, when we talked about the will of man, we talked about every act of the will leading us towards or away from an object of desire, right? If we have our mind set on the Lord as a Christian and we have Him as our end, we hopefully will be walking in righteousness, and every time we follow righteousness, it becomes easier, right? Because you get a path, a rut so to speak. "Hey, I've been walking faithfully for the Lord. He's given me grace." And hopefully you should have an upward trajectory. It doesn't mean you're not going to sin — don't get me wrong. We're going to sin on this path. But you should have a walk, looking back as a Christian — if you've been a Christian for ten years or more, a Christian who's reading God's word and going to church — you should have a walk that's markedly different from that of the world, shouldn't you? And I can look at your lives and I can tell you, you do. I can see the difference in your lives when compared to those who are lost and apart from God. You walk differently as a Christian, right? And that should have been the path for Adam and Eve. They should have continued in the original righteousness that they were created in, but they still had the power of contrary choice, right? And they sinned. And in doing so, they dethroned God, right?

You can say, well, he's God, right? You have to look, though, for example — Adam and Eve had every benefit in the garden, did they not? Well, no — I was going to use that as an example. Adam and Eve had every benefit in the garden. But what about Christ in the wilderness? Did He have every benefit? Not really. He had 40 days without food, right? He was tempted in every point like we are, except without sin, right? He hungered, He thirsted, He suffered, right? So He was subject to human frailty in His humanity, right? He had a divine nature and a human nature, but He depended on the Holy Spirit, right? He was anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure. And the Bible tells us that in Christ, what has been shed abroad in our hearts? The Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit has been shed abroad in our hearts. In Christ Jesus — that's what the book of Romans tells us — we have the Holy Spirit. Problem is, we don't always listen to the Holy Spirit, right? And we rebel. We still have depravity within our nature. Even we as Christians — our sin is forgiven. We no longer have guilt because Christ has taken that away. But we will be struggling with depravity all of our lives. And Caleb's going to be talking about that in just two weeks. This all kind of builds on each other.

The application for number nine: can we blame our sin on anyone else? You can blame Adam, but you can't stick it on Adam, because you have ratified Adam's decision. We're going to talk about that next week when we talk about what we call original sin. So everything that Adam and Eve did — yes, we are guilty from that — but we also incur our own guilt, and it is for our own deeds that we are going to be judged, as the book of Revelation tells us.