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The Fall of Man: Sin and
its punishment
I believe it is safe to say that the subject
of sin is the most unpopular subject known to man. It is an offence to our
innate sense of personal achievement. We don’t like to hear its mention …
sometimes not even Christians want to hear it spoken about! It shows up our
shortcomings; it shows up our failings; and it shows us up for what we
really are!
The Shorter Catechism describes it, “Sin
is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God”.
I worked with men and women, - many of whom
denied they had a problem. Many of them had lost loving families, good jobs,
money in the bank and a comfortable lifestyle. They exchanged it all for the
booze that was accompanied with a life that left them living in vagrancy on
the streets of London. It was sin that drew them further into its clutches
than they had ever meant to go … but yet, they would have no thought of
Christ.
We live in a world that seems to go from one
major catastrophe to another. How do we deal with the alcoholic? I
know of alcoholic refuges where alcohol is given to the alcoholics so they
don’t fall into crime or go wanting. Similarly, drug addicts are taken into
pharmacies and given a heroin substitute … and the ‘birds in the trees’ know
these addicts are still being supplied the heroin from their dealers as
well! They laugh at you when you mention Christ.
The official figure for those who died of
AIDS in 2004 is 3.1 million … while a further 39.4 million are living today
with HIV/AIDS. The remedy? … safer sex, and teach the children more about it
from the age of five years old!
In a part of the United Kingdom, how do you
deal with murderers who kill men, women and children? … Answer … you give
them jobs in government, with respect and hundreds of thousands of pounds to
keep them there.
How do you deal with young people who already
are prolific criminals? Answer … You seek to appeal to their ‘better’ nature
and give them privileges they never would have had if the State had not
granted them.
Someone driving home from a party under the
influence of alcohol; they knock an innocent person down and kill him as he
walked along the footpath … what does the driver get for it? … He gets
banned for five years and fined £500.
And yet, mention the subject of sin and the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ to defeat sin and you are lambasted as being
a fundamentalist … no better than the Middle Eastern terrorists (or
insurgents, as they are called nowadays).
You can easily understand how Habakkuk felt,
1:3 Why dost thou show
me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are
before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. 4 Therefore
the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth
compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
How far has humanity
fallen in his sin?
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We have covered this before so often … and
yet we need to have it always before us. |
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It’s not a matter, - as some of the
liberals would tell you - of those Bible-believing traditionalists wanting
to keep you in the Dark Ages by scaring you into submission. |
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Instead, it is a matter of simple Biblical
fact. The Bible says it! |
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Consider the tremendous spiritual height
from which humanity has fallen. |
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Man was made in the image of God … but yet
he consciously and deliberately and selfishly exchanged that privilege in
order to follow his own desires. |
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Man had a perfect relationship with God. He
had the kind of relationship with God that will be renewed in Glory. Man
dismissed this privilege as he sought his own pleasure and promotion. |
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Man had a perfect relationship with his
wife … a relationship that would have been mirrored in their children, had
the parents not sinned. |
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Man had a perfect relationship with the
whole of creation. He could stroke a lion and it wouldn’t bite. He could
hold a cobra and it wouldn’t strike. He lived in perfect harmony with all
that God created. |
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And then one day, along came a serpent and
spoke with the woman, - … if the Bible says that’s what happened, then
that’s what happened! |
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He came up to her and she ought to have
known something was not just right; when he said,
3:1 Yea, hath God said, Ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
… she lingered. |
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When he was subtly and gradually
introducing doubt on God’s Word … she listened. |
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When the serpent spoke about the tree in
the midst of the garden … she looked. |
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And the more he spoke about it and the more
she looked … she longed. |
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And because she lingered, she listened,
she looked, she longed … it was only a matter of time before she
lunged! |
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He spun his yarn and she was wrapped up in
it! And there at that moment sin entered into this world … and it has
never left it since! “Sin is any
want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” |
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How far has sin pulled us down? Sin has
pulled us so far down that it is impossible for humanity, - in our own
strength or desire, - to ever pull ourselves out of it. |
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The Bible says we are spiritually blind, -
how can a blind man know where he’s going! He doesn’t have an aid. If he
turns one direction it is darkness … another direction, it is darkness.
The Bible says we are spiritually blind. |
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It also says we are spiritually deaf. We
can’t hear a thing spiritually, - that’s why when you bring a loved one or
a friend to hear the preaching of the Gospel you can hear it
so plainly but they can’t! It’s because of this spiritual deafness
and spiritual blindness. |
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But the Bible says it’s a worse situation
than only being spiritually blind or deaf or losing any of our other
faculties … the Bible says the sinner is spiritually dead!
That is the effect of sin! |
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It is not because of the age of a person,
or the mental ability, or anything else. It is because every person that
has ever been born, - with only one exception! – has been born
dead in trespasses and in sin. That’s the truth, that’s what the Bible says. |
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Jesus said,
Mt. 7:18 A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. |
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It is a spiritual impossibility for a
spiritually blind, a spiritually deaf, spiritually dead person to call out
for spiritual life. It is a spiritual impossibility! If it were
even remotely possible you would find about every grave in the graveyard
empty! |
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In the Garden of Eden humanity has
spiritually fallen to deathly proportions! |
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“How does all this effect me? I wasn’t
there. I didn’t disobey.” … Go to
Gen. 5:3 And Adam lived an
hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his
image. What does that mean? … Look
at Rom. 5:12 as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned: … 14 Nevertheless death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression. That’s how
serious it is! That is the legacy of Adam’s image. |
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Can you make yourself ‘undead’? Of course,
you can’t! This is how serious this ‘spiritual death’ actually is! |
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You and I have no more power to save
someone and to raise them from spiritual death and sin as we have to raise
anyone from physical death! |
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Rom. 5:12 as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned … That
is how deadly sin is! |
In his sin, how
capable is man of rising out of his fallen state?
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The answer is simple. Man is totally and
absolutely and completely incapable and unable to rectify himself. It is a
hopeless situation! There is nothing he can do … for he is
spiritually dead! |
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In this state of spiritual death humanity
is under God’s wrath. … “Now, hold on a minute … if he is spiritually dead
how can he be under God’s wrath; how would he then be able to feel
God’s punishment?” |
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Yes, he is spiritually dead … and this is
evidenced by the fact that he sins. Despite the goodness of the grace of
God being all around him his sin is the blockage to him regarding God as
God. |
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Read through Revelation 16 and you’ll find
a world whose nature is totally at war with God. |
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They are without excuse … and the Bible
says that at the coming of Christ the Gospel will have been preached and
heard by all nations. The world counts its wages in terms of money,
riches, and popularity … but the Bible says
the wages of sin is death. |
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How can he then feel God’s
punishment? Rev. 20 begins with the devil being thrown into the bottomless
pit … then he’s loosed; in v.10 you see him being cast into the lake of
fire and brimstone, along with the beast and the false prophet. … |
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Next comes the most frightening part. It’s
the judgement of God upon all mankind. The Bible says,
v.
11 And I saw a great
white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to
their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged
every man according to their works … 15 And whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. |
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Every man, woman, boy and girl will be held
accountable for their sinful nature and their practices because of their
“transgression against the law of God”. |
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Sin is an awful subject. Even before you
start talking about hell … sin is an awful subject. |
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It is terrifying, frightening. “Stop
talking about it! We don’t want to hear!” |
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The Confession of Faith says,
“Conceived in sin and by nature children subject to God’s anger, the
servants of sin and the subjects of death, all men are now given up to
unspeakable miseries, spiritual, temporal and eternal, unless the Lord
Jesus Christ sets them free.” … That last bit … beautiful,
absolutely beautiful. |
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And not only beautiful, but marvellous
that the Son of God should step into the place of punishment for the
Redeemed. |
Man’s Only Hope
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Jesus Christ and Him alone, - there is no other Saviour, or saving
religion or philosophy, - Jesus Christ is the only Saviour that God, - the
Creator of this world, - provided.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. |
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How privileged we are that along the road of life God directed us
to the Gospel and to the Saviour. |
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He stopped us where we were and how we were and He breathed into us
that Holy Spirit breath of spiritual life. As new creatures alive in Him
we began to see, - we were no longer spiritually blind, - we began to hear
and to feel His promptings. |
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And the all-powerful God drew us graciously unto Himself. …
Do you see anything of man in his salvation … anything he can boast about?
No, there’s nothing he can boast about,
salvation is of the Lord.
Jer. 1:5 Before I
formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of
the womb I sanctified thee. |
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Sin binds … but Christ sets free! Sin puts to death … Christ brings
to life! Jesus Christ is man’s only hope … and as long as man is alive
there is hope for his eternal welfare, but only in Christ. |
Conclusion
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Just a couple of miles from where Pearl and I come from a young
ten-year-old boy was in the car with his older sister. Another car
collided with them and the young boy was killed. Just the previous evening
he came in from a children’s meeting, all excited, “Mum, I’ve something to
tell you, I’ve got saved!” Just a few hours later he left the arms of his
mother and was lifted into the arms of his Saviour. |
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Sin is the darkest of subjects. It affects us all, - it even
affected Christ as He hung on the cross … such was its power. |
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You still have loved ones who are bound and shackled in sin, - yes,
it’s a terrible knowledge to have that if they died this very moment they
would be swallowed into the torment of hell forever. |
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But there’s an even greater knowledge to have … and that is
Jesus Christ saves! He can save them. No matter what they have done,
what they are doing, what they are planning to do. God in His
all-sovereign mercy can interrupt them where they are and irresistibly
draw them with those cords of lovingkindness. |
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The same God that sent Jesus to save you can bring your loved ones
to the same saving faith. It was God that saved you, it is God that can
save them. Pray for them. Believe God can do it. Pray for them some more …
and keep on trusting in God to save them. |
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It’s an awful subject to speak to anyone about, but why speak about
sin to believers? To remind you of its terrible power and its
consequences, but also to remind you that we have a Saviour to whom there
are no obstacles to anyone’s salvation. |
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