Interlocked Week 10

Consequences of the Fall

Review:

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3 institutions

Responsible Dominion

Marriage

Family

Creator-creature distinction.

God is personal, sovereign, ultimate authority.

Non-biblical worldviews

continuity of being (not a big difference between gods and man. You can be anything and anything can be gods)

Fate and chance (no one is in charge) - there is no personal god.

Ultimate authority is the self.

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Today we are going to begin talking about Consequences of the Fall.

So what is the fall?

The Fall is really the beginning of evil.

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IF you look at the top of the graphic you will see God.

He is infinite. He always has, always is, and always will be good.

IF you look at the second level though, this represents creation.

You may remember when God created he said it was “good.”

However, at the fall, now there is both good and evil.

There is normal and abnormal.

What we will focus on for just a moment is that:

I. Evil is not forever.

Read Revelation 21:1-5 “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.””

Revelation 21:8 “8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.””

He goes on to say that in heaven…

Revelation 21:27 “27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

This tells us that there will be a permanent separation of good and evil forever.

*So how do we get from Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinning. To the final separation of good and evil forever?

Let’s read Genesis 3:14-15 “14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

Immediately after the fall, God promised a Savior.

“He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:15 is referenced as the first promise God makes that He will send a Savior.

Let’s look at a few of the things here mentioned just to show how awesome this is that it points clearly to Jesus.

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A. The Savior would be born of only a human mother. “Between you and the woman...” Isn’t it interesting that the man isn’t mentioned?

It would make sense this would be talking about Jesu

B. The Savior would be harmed by Satan. (bruise his heel = the cross)

C. Savior would overcome it and deal the death blow (Resurrection)

Obviously Adam and Eve would not see this at the time they heard it.

But what is clear to them and us is that Evil’s day is temporary.

God’s victory is forever.

But, even today, the world is still fallen. There is still sin in the world.

We have redemption through the cross, but we still live in an imperfect world.

II. What happened to the perfect world after the fall?

What were the consequences of sin on:

Man

nature

divine instructions (responsible dominion, marriage, and family)

Body, Soul, Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 “23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

the 3 parts of man.

Body - our physical self

Spirit - our identity (alive or dead)

Soul - personality,

SO when God said, Genesis 3:19 “19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””

we see that death now has entered the world.

note, death was not part of God’s original design but was a direct result of sin.

The Bible talks about death in 3 ways.

Death of relationship between God and man.

There is a divide.

Some say God can’t be in the presence of sin, but I do not think this is true.

Did God stand in the presence of sin in Job 1 when Satan comes to him?

Did God come to Adam and Eve in the garden when after they sinned?

Genesis 3:8 “8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Did Jesus himself not come and live on the earth for 33 years with sinful man?

The key here is that in heaven, God’s holiness cannot dwell with sinful man.

Death of the body (physical death)

separation of man’s spirit and soul from his body.

Why didn’t Adam and Eve die immediately?

If you go out and cut flowers today for your mom. The moment you cut the flowers what happened to them?

They began to die.

When they die is uncertain, but what is certain is that the dying process has began.

When we sinned, that’s what happened.

Adam and Eve didn’t drop dead, but the dying process began and like them, all of us when we are born, we are alive, but even at the moment of our birth, the dying process has began.

Second death

The final destination for those who reject the gospel.

Matthew 25:41 “41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Note here that Hell was not made for humans. It was made for the Devil and the other angels that followed Satan.

But for those who also reject God that is where they will go.

What do we know about Hell?

It is eternal (Matthew 25:41. again said “eternal fire.”

We will be separate from God forever (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 “6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,”

There is endless torment (Revelation 20:10 “10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Hell is real. And we need to remember, All evil will be there forever.

It doesn’t matter how much crossfit you do, how healthy you eat, how many vitamins you take or how many surgeries you have, we all will die and we all will spend eternity with Christ or eternity in hell.

But don’t forget the lengths Jesus has gone through to show us, that place isn’t for us.

It will be if we reject Him, but oh what Grace from Jesus that He came to us.

That he came to Adam and Eve in the Garden,

That he came to the Israelites throughout the OT

That he came as Jesus

That he still comes to us today through His word.

Jesus is not hidden. He wants to be known, so what a tragedy it is for us not to share him.

What a tragedy for people to reject the good grace of Jesus.

But what about Sin’s damage to Man’s Spirit?

Our Spirit (according the 2 Thessalonians) is alive or dead.

That’s it.

Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Apart from Christ, we are in sin and in death. Our Spirit is dead.

In Christ, our spirit is alive.

Our soul is different from our Spirit.

Our soul is where our mind, will, and emotions live.

How was that affected by the fall?

Does our mind/will/emotions naturally fulfill what God called us to do?

Are we responsibly ruling the earth?

Are we glorifying God through our marriages?

Are we glorifying God through our families?

Our choices and consciences were definitely affected by the fall.

Romans 3:10-12 “10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

Before the fall, our Spirit glorified God

after the fall, our choices became rebellious and defiant toward God.

Before the fall, our Spirit glorified God in our conscience.

We evaluated ourselves based on God’s standards.

After the fall, our conscience now tends to do what is right in our own eyes.

Romans 1:32-2:1 “32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”

APPLICATION:

Here’s something we can all take home from this today.

What are the consequences of the fall?

We are messed up without God.

Without God we will continue to move further and further into the mess.

When you look at whats advertised to us today, how much of it is self-help stuff?

Take this supplement to lose weight.

Read this book to gain confidence.

Eat this diet to gain strength and lose fat.

Listen to this podcast to gain mental health.

Get into this school so you will get a good job.

Work hard so you get this scholarship.

Go to this doctor to get the right medication.

But here’s how we need to look at things guys.

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Man has a solution for everything.

But there’s really only one solution that matters.

Do i realize that in sin, I am lost.

My body soul and Spirit are condemned.

Satan always wants to diminish the sin problem we all have.

He wants to think our problems are just normal.

But we have a Savior who died for us.

We have a Savior who realized how abnormal sin is that He took on flesh and came to us.

But he didn’t just stay dead, he finished the mission by rising from the grave!

As we approach Easter.

DO we realize that everything hinges on that fact?

That we are alive, because Jesus came back to life and rose from the grave?

Are we staking our lives on that fact?

I hope so, because without the resurrection, we are just trusting in man’s solutions and man’s solutions always fail.

But in Christ, again, we have an anchor. A hope for our souls.

We have life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Let us hold on to that.

In Christ, we are made new.