(Christ--the Way God Makes Man Righteous) 3. the Fallen State of Man — Denny Kenaston

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Good morning, brothers. You all ready to go?

Amen. Another day to live, huh? The Lord is good to us. Let's see, I'm getting myself synced here, right? I'll give you your assignments for tomorrow. And just a little encouragement on your homework.

We'll finish the reading of this book, the section of this book that I want you to read in. We will finish by the end of this week. Then you'll have a break from reading for this class for a week. And then you'll start reading again.

We have another book coming that I want you to read. It's probably about another hundred pages. So, you'll have a little break from this one for next week. But I'm sure the other teachers will help me out on that.

Reading Romans and Memorizing Regeneration

So, your assignment number one is to read chapter 12 and 13 in the commentary on Romans. And then also to memorize the word regeneration. Regeneration, that's a key word in our study of the doctrine of salvation.

Defining Righteousness and Salvation

All right, let's work a little bit on our memory work. Justin Miller, you want to give us the definition for the word righteousness? You want to stand and give that, good and loud?

Right standing and right living. Conformity to the will of God in thought, purpose and action. Good.

Let's see, I can't remember your name. Yes, brother, you want to try? Amen, good. Nathan Yoder, you want to stand and give salvation? Hold a fast one on you.

...present and the presence of the same future to the glorious liberty of a righteous life.

I'm going to preach, won't I? It's interesting how that thing came out. I didn't do it on purpose. But it's a little easy to remember because you have that word past, present and future. That kind of ties it together.

That's good. I appreciate you lifting up your voice. I think that's important that we learn to lift up our voice. I've found that many, many men and lots of young men are afraid of their voice. They don't like to hear their voice.

And therefore, they don't lift it up. But we need to learn to project our voice when we speak. Amen? You know, I don't need this PA. I could do the whole class without a PA.

Preaching Without a PA System

I'm not a big man. I don't have a big, strong voice.

Only thing is, I've learned how to project my voice. And I'm not afraid to let my voice go forth. You understand? A few weeks ago, I was in Scotland for a conference over there. And one of the men that I stayed with, he took me to one of these old cathedrals, which was built, I think, in about 1240 A .D.

Imagine a church building that's still around 800 years later. And this was a huge cathedral. It probably seated 2 ,000 people. It was a huge building. And I walked into that thing. It wasn't quite open yet, but the people who watch over it, it's kind of a museum.

I think they use it on Sunday morning, but I'm afraid it's a museum on Sunday morning also. But anyway, I walked in there and went back into the back part of the thing. I wanted to see. I heard that they have these things built in such a way that you don't need a PA system.

In 1240 A .D., there were no PA systems. So, men had to be men back then. And use their voice. And not be afraid to use their voice. So, I walked into this building and went way back in there. And I just stood back there and I started like this.

Hey! And I mean, it just... It filled the whole place. And I thought, wow, that's something. It just filled the whole place. And I thought, I'm just going to preach a little bit here. And I just started.

I just went ahead. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And it just... It just went out into this whole building. So, then I headed back out and met all the museum directors there at the front as I was going on my way out.

And I said, man, that's beautiful. I guess they don't need a PA system in here, do they? And the man looked at me a bit, kind of hung his head and said, Well, actually, the men who minister in this place, they haven't learned how to project their voice like you do.

They all use a PA system. And I thought, yeah. They just kind of stand up there and talk. The Bible says. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we love you this morning. God, we are excited again this morning.

And we know why we are excited. Because you are inside of us. Thank you. Lord, we do quiet our hearts before you. We just want to acknowledge that any good thing that is in us comes from you. We do thank you, Lord, this morning that you are a transforming God.

And you can take a quiet, shy, introvert who is insecure and make him as bold as a lion. Hallelujah. God, we pray this morning that you will again teach us what we need to learn. I pray that you will sit here with us, Lord.

I pray that you will fill us all with the Spirit of the Living God. That we may be able to behold the things of God. Have mercy upon us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, this morning the title of our message is The Fallen State of Man.

The Need to Understand the Fall of Man

We are shifting our direction a bit. Out of introduction and now we are getting right down into the thick of this study of the doctrine of salvation. The fallen state of man. We are going to study the doctrine of man today.

This is what theology books would call the doctrine of man. Today we want to validate the need for God's so great salvation. The very word implies need. Salvation. Lord, save me. These very words validate the great need.

Besides this, it helps us to see the extent of man's fall when we reflect a bit on what man was like when God created him. So this morning we are not only going to look at the fall of man, but we are also going to look at a bit what man was like before he fell.

Because we cannot understand the depths of that fall unless we recognize where man was before he fell. That makes sense, doesn't it? We are not going to be able to recognize it. And I know, we are going to just take a shot at it and an attempt at it here this morning, but we can't recognize it.

God doesn't give us a whole lot of insight on where man really was. But he gives us enough to know that he was a very different creature than what we are today. When God made man, he was the height of his creation.

He was the crowning manifestation of God's glory. I mean, think about it. If the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament around us shows his handiwork, how much more when God created man in his own image.

Oh my, man glorified God, showed the glory of God in manifold ways. Genesis, you can turn there, Genesis 1, verse 26 -28. We find these words, going back to the creation. And God said, let us make man in our image.

And I want you to note that, and you should circle those couple of words there. Let us make man in our image. I believe what that saying is, those are plural words, and God is plural, amen? Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Look at the vision that was in God's mind there. Let's make man in our own image, and let us make a man that will rule over everything on this earth that we've made. That gives you a little insight into what Adam was like.

Because, see, you look at all the other things that God made, and you see how so beautifully they fulfill all of that, and how God put within them everything they need to do, everything that He made them for.

And if God made man to rule over this whole earth, my, what He must have been! So, God created man in His own image. In the image of God. In the image of God. Created He Him. Male and female, created He them.

And God blessed them. That must have been powerful and beautiful. And God blessed them. And said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

So, even reading these verses, we begin to get a glimpse into what this man was like. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, we get a little more insight into the creation of man. So beautiful. And the Lord God, in 2 -7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.

Now, I want you to picture that. There's a beautiful picture there. That word formed, it gives us the picture of just like a potter would take a bunch of clay and try to make something out of it. That's the picture there.

That word formed. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth. That's what the Bible says. How many believe that? Yeah. But I want you just to look at the picture there for a moment. Because God formed man of the dust of the earth.

And there lay this man. Just a pile of dirt, right? I think that's important for us to keep in our own mind, you know. Lest we get high-minded at times. There lay this pile of dirt, all nicely shaped, you know, formed out of the dust of the earth.

But amen, it's not going to stay that way. I mean, when God gets in contact with something, it's not going to stay that way. And so, the account continues on there and says,. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Now you've got to picture that. You've got to go look at that.

Here's this man laying here, made out of the dust of the earth. Here he is down here and he's got a nose down there. And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Let me tell you something, brethren.

When God breathes into something, something happens. And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And that word life there is not just talking about that which makes the animals walk around on this earth.

If that's all man needed, God could have done that easily. He made all the other animals that way. But this creature called man is going to be a very different creature than all the other creatures that God made.

And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And one of the most profound statements follow that in that scripture. And man became a living soul. The God of the universe breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul.

This is no little thing that happened here. It's more than just breathing. It's not just that all of a sudden now Adam is alive and he can jump up and run around like the other animals. It doesn't mean that.

It's more than that. Amen? We can see that from those verses. Man became a living soul. What does that mean? What happened? Number one, man became an eternal living soul. Right? The soul of man never dies.

The soul of man never dies. Man became an eternal living soul that day. Number two, man's physical body received life. Man started to live and move and breathe and have his being upon the earth. And number three, the life of God, the light of God, the spirit of God flooded man's being.

And Adam woke up. And I mean, when Adam woke up, oh, he woke up. When he opened his eyes, he was in the presence of his Creator. When he opened his eyes, he could see his Creator. He could sense his Creator.

Yes, man became a living soul that day. And I thought about it in my meditations last evening. What a staggering thing that God did. Because we also know that he made woman out of man. And blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

You think about what God did there. Every human being born from Adam and Eve. They all became living souls which live for eternity. So that was no little thing when God went and breathed into Adam. Oh Lord, help us to understand, God, how powerful you are, how intricate we are.

Man, in his inner man, in his spirit, became aware of God that day. Yes, and man became a living soul. Spirit, soul and body. Spirit, soul and body. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23 and 24, Paul said it this way.

He said, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly in every way. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, and by the way, faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it.

Man is a tri-part being, brethren. There are places in Scripture that imply bi-part. Where it talks about soul and body or heart and body. But Paul makes it very clear here in these verses in Thessalonians that man is a tri-part being.

Spirit, soul and body. I want to put a diagram here on the board. Good. Get a good marker here. And this is just a diagram to help us to understand the three parts of man. Paul said, spirit, soul and body.

And by the way, I believe that the order that Paul gave it is the inspired way that it should be. Man should be spirit first, soul second, body last. Amen? That's kind of been turned around, though, through the fall.

But for now, that's the way it should be. In the center is man's spirit. This area around here, and I'd like you to draw this circle in your little booklet there. I think that would be very helpful. Draw that circle.

This part around the circle in the middle, that is going to represent man's soul. And the line which makes the outer circle will represent man's body. I have chosen to use this off-use circle diagram.

This is not inspired. It just helps us understand the inner man and the outer man and how the one affects the other. Man has a spirit, right here in the center, by which he knows God, sees God and communicates with God.

That takes place right here in the center. Man has a soul, that's around here, by which he reasons, thinks, feels emotions and chooses. The soul is made up of the mind, will and emotions of man. We all know we have a mind.

We all know we have a will, don't we?

And we all know we have emotions. Those three fit underneath this category of the soul. And then you have the body. The body by which man relates to a physical world around him through his five senses.

We relate to this physical world around us through those five senses. I have eyes, I can see. I have ears that I hear from. I can feel with my hands. I can touch things. I can smell. What's the other one?

And I can taste. Ah, yes. A good lunch we'll have today. Through this body, man relates to the physical world around him. Let's go back to Adam and consider what he was like in the beginning. He had a spirit.

The spirit is the center of man's being. Adam had a spirit, which is the center of man's being. That is the place where God dwells. Adam's spirit is filled with light and life and glory. He was made in the image of God.

Adam had a soul. His mind is clean and clear and sharp and pure as a little baby. His will is yielded to God and powerfully free, by the way. Powerfully free. See, God made man with a free will. If God didn't make man with a free will, it makes no sense at all.

Why would God make a robot that will do everything he wants it to do without any choice? God wanted to make a man that would choose to love him and therefore glorify him through that love. And it's the same today.

And Adam had emotions. His emotions are filled with pure love for God. And Eve was there. So, his emotions also were exercising themselves in his love for Eve. As he looked upon her and said, This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

I will call her woman, for she was taken out of man. By the way, he was naming all the rest of the creatures. And also, Adam had a body. His body was way beyond what ours is. It is perfect. It was innocent.

It was pure. And way beyond what ours is. I mean, even after the fall, that body lived almost a thousand years. Very different than ours. And some of the creation scientists seem to think that maybe man was way bigger than what we are.

I was pondering that yesterday and I thought, you know, there might be something to that. It's one thing for a tiger to come upon a man that's five foot six. It's another thing for a tiger to come upon a twelve foot man walking around on the earth.

I mean, you know. Meow! Amen? Oh, those are just speculations. Please, that's all they are. I might add that Adam's soul and his body was untrained, untested and innocent. Everything was new. This man is one beautiful, glorious creation of God.

Adam's Glory and Humanity's Created Dignity

Hebrews chapter two, verse five through seven says these beautiful words. Quoting from the psalmist, Psalm eight, which is David, I believe. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come.

Circle that and go back and study it later. The world to come. For unto the angels he, God, hath not put in subjection the world to come. Whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man, that thou visitest him?

Thou, God, madest him, man, a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. We can only imagine what he must have been like if God made Adam a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.

He must have been one glorious creation of God. Yes, God's crowning work in creation. There is a verse in Romans that beautifully describes the state of Adam here in the beginning. Romans 11, verse 36.

Paul, speaking of God, says this,. For of him, of God, and through him, and to him, are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. All things come from him, God. All things live through him, through God.

And all things center in him and end in him. This verse beautifully describes what the life of Adam was like before the fall. It's very important for us to grasp at least a measure of what I'm saying about what Adam was.

Because remember, salvation is restorative. God is going to want to restore this man. And that all doesn't happen here and now. But I'm telling you what, there's a lot that God can do in you to bring you back to the place where Adam was.

So it's important for us to see how high this man stood in those days. This verse describes Adam's early life to a T. Of him, through him, and to him. That's my whole life, says Adam. To whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Man was created for God. For God's pleasure. To love God and fellowship with God. To know God and to grow in his knowledge of God. Mark that. Remember, Adam woke up and he was. God always was.

And all his attributes.

And there's God. And there's Adam who woke up when God breathed into him the breath of life. But Adam doesn't know this God. Does he? But he was made that he might have fellowship with God. And get to know God.

Let me tell you something, brethren. You are also made for the same reason. That you might love God. That you may know God. And that you may grow in your knowledge of God. From here on out into eternity.

Let's not miss our chance. Amen. I can imagine the fellowship of those first days. Between God and Adam. God speaking words like this to Adam. Adam. Yes, Father. I'm all you need. I made you, Adam. My life is flowing in you in every way.

I know, Father. Adam, live of me. Live of me, Adam. Trust me. Lean upon me. Let me be your all in all. Do you hear the voice of God saying that to some other Adam this morning? Can you? His heart is the same to every one of us.

Adam, I am your highest good. Don't look for another Adam. I am your highest good. Oh, what a beautiful childlike simplicity. Such innocent dependence upon God. Oh, how far away we have strayed from that simple, childlike, innocent dependence upon God.

The Command in Eden and the Entrance of Sin

Genesis chapter 2 verse 15 through 17 says these words. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden and gave him something to do. To dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

I wonder how many different kinds of trees were there. Huh? A hundred? Two hundred? Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, Adam.

For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Circle that. Thou shalt surely die, God said. I'm all you need, Adam. I'm your all and know what you need. I'll take care of your every need.

I'll be everything you ever need. I give you only one commandment. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Warning, Adam. You will die if you eat of that tree. You will be separated if you eat of that tree.

Because that's what death means, by the way. It is separation. Death is when the spirit and the body, when the spirit leaves the body, the body is left there by itself. That's death. Now, we all know the story.

We all know the sad story this morning of what happened from there. The Bible doesn't tell us how much time went by. But we know the story. Satan convinced man through Eve that he was missing out. That God was not all that he needed.

Sound familiar? Oh, I need this, I need this, I need this. Oh, and I need this, and I want this, and I want that. No. All you need is God. Satan convinced man through Eve that there was wisdom that he needed.

That God was holding out on him. And that there was a higher good than that which he had. Sound familiar? This gets pretty close to home, doesn't it? There is a higher good than that which you have, Satan said.

Let's turn there in our Bibles. If you're already there in Genesis, just flip over to chapter 3. And let us read there. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said? I circled that in my Bible. He's been saying that for about 6 ,000 years now, hasn't he? Yea, hath God really said? You can put all kinds of verses in there.

Because he's been doing that for 6 ,000 years. No new trick, amen? Yea, hath God said? Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto 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 hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Now Eve had it a little skewed there. God didn't say that.

But maybe Adam said, Don't even touch it, Eve. Because remember, God said that to Adam. Before Eve was made. So maybe Adam said that. Look, Eve, let's be safe. Don't even touch it. But anyway, she had that information.

Neither shall we touch it,.

Lest we die. Okay, we can see by that,.

That she has the proper information. I mean, the message that God gave to Adam, Adam clearly passed it on to Eve. And she knows. She knows. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die?

Next question mark. You won't die. For God doth know. Look at these lies. Filthy lies. He was a liar from the beginning. Look at these lies. You will not. If somehow, if somehow we could have pulled the veil back and let Eve look at all the corruption and the destruction and the pain and the misery of believing that lie would bring.

She would not believe that lie. But she listened to what he said. And it's the same with us, by the way. You know, Satan comes and lies to us. And if somehow we could pull back the veil and get a good long glimpse at the results that will come in the lie that we believe, we wouldn't do it either.

But we hear him, you know. It won't affect you the way they say that it will. Ye shall not surely die? For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

God is holding out on you, Eve. You'll be something better than what you are now if you'll eat of this tree that God told you not to eat from. God is holding out on you. Go ahead, do it your way. And when the woman saw, oh, by the way, I wrote this in the margin of my Bible.

He said to Eve, God knows that you will be as gods. I'm telling you, they already are. They already are. In the image of God, created He them. Male and female, created He them. Ye shall be as gods, little G.

They already are. Don't you know, Eve, that this will make you like devils? Not like God. It will make you like devils. Oh, not right away. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, saw that it was good for food, the lust of the flesh.

Oh, and that she saw that it was pleasant to the eyes, the lust of the eyes. And a tree to be desired to make one wise, the pride of life. All three, right there. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

And the eyes of them both were open. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And I wrote in the margin of my Bible, shame enters in to the world.

All of a sudden, they were ashamed. Ashamed in each other's presence. They knew that they were naked. And ashamed in God's presence. Imagine. I mean, I don't know how many days God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they heard His voice.

But up before this day right here,.

Their hearts must have thrilled when they heard that voice. Oh, and they ran to meet Him.

This day or the next day, when they heard the voice of God in the cool of the day walking in the midst of the garden, they ran and hid themselves because they were afraid. Here in this sad account, man took his first step of independence.

He took his first step of unbelief. His first step of disobedience. All of them are there. I don't need God. I need this. I'll make my own decision. I don't believe that God meant what He said. Unbelief.

Death, Separation, and the Fallen Nature of Man

Paul described it this way. Let me say this first. There are many deep and far-reaching effects from this first step that Adam made. It was not a little step that he made. And Paul described it this way in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12.

Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death, or separation, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Something died in man that day. God said to Adam, you're going to die.

If you eat, you'll die. And I can imagine, you know, them a little bit like us, you know. I can imagine them thinking, we didn't die. We're still here. We still breathe. But something died in man that day.

How do you know that, brother Denny? Because God said, you will die. In the day that ye eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. And death means separation. Something deep within man's being changed that day.

We can see it. We get glimpses into it. Their eyes were opened. They knew they were naked. They were ashamed. Something changed. The theologians call it the fall. And I guess they call it the fall because you look at what man was and what man became through that bite.

And you have to say, Oh my! What a fall! What a fall! So, the theologians call it the fall. And I'm sure it is because of what man was and what he has become as you read through the Old Testament and look at history.

Very evident. Something major changed inside of man's being. It is not that man's first step of independence led to another, and then another, and then another, and led to a road downward. That's not it.

Something changed in man's being. His whole nature is different. He is now self-centered and independence rules his life. Looking at the illustration up here again, I'm just giving you my thoughts on this.

But again, it helps us to understand the issues of the inner man. I'm writing on the center and the circle of our little diagram the word death. I believe that's where man died. I mean, Adam and Eve were still alive.

They still had their bodies. They were walking around. They had their minds, their will. They had their minds and their wills. They had their emotions. They could make choices. They figured out somehow through their reasoning abilities to sew fig leaves together to cover up their shame.

They're very much alive. Their body's very much alive. Their soul is very much alive. But something is not the same in man. And I believe what died is right here in the center. Man died in the center of his being.

There came a separation in the center of man's being. His choice put him in a whole different realm with new authorities and a totally new way of living. Look at the diagram again. Man's body is still alive and still quite a creation.

I mean, it still lived a thousand years. His body is very much alive. Man's soul is still alive and working. He thinks, he reasons, he chooses, he feels. But man's spirit, what about there? It is because of this death that all death has come.

Physical and eternal. Let us reason together. If spiritual death brings physical death and ultimately eternal death. Right? Man lost the reality of God and the ability to commune with God and to see God when he ate of that fruit.

When he made that step, that first step of independence, that first step of disobedience, that first step of, I'll do what I'm going to do. Man lost his ability to fellowship with God. Something died in the center of man's being.

Before, God ruled from the center in man's spirit over soul and body. Now, the spirit is dead. Cut off from God. And the soul and the body, they're left to themselves. Think with me. Reason with me. How different this man is going to live over process of time if all of a sudden you took God out of the center of his being and you left him there that way.

How different he's going to be. The spirit is dead. Cut off from God. And soul and body are left to themselves and to evil spirits who influence him. What a curse! What a plight has fallen on man. Man fell from a God-centered being to a man-centered, self-centered being.