Catechism Question 17

Catechism Question #17:

Question #17: Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

Answer: Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate they were created, by sinning against God

Main Proposition:

Statement of Doctrine of Application (SILVER BULLET)

“How far did we fall?”

We didn’t fall just a little bit, we fell from the very top all the way to the bottom. We lost everything.

The main thing:

Whether we like it or not, every single person that has come after Adam and Eve except for one person (Jesus Christ) is born into this fallen state. We are no better than Adam. Just because we think that if we were in that position we wouldn’t have disobeyed God, we would have. That's pride. It's what we have been talking about over the last few weeks in the evening. We have talked about it in Romans if it were up to human will, wisdom, needs, wants we know how the world would turn out. Romans 1:18-32 tells us exactly what our lives would look like: Vile, immoral, disgusting.

Intro:

Statement of proposition

God appointed one man (Adam) to represent the entire human race that descended from him. When Adam sinned, all of mankind sinned so God imputed the guilt of his sin to all those that come from him (Everybody that has ever existed). What is the result of that:

Spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1-2)

Before our conversion, we lived in rebellion against God, transgressing his law and sinning against him.

Living death: We walk around in our sin

Lived to the standards of a world in rebellion against God.

“You were” dead in your transgressions

We live in a general chaos created by sin.

Before we believed the gospel, we experienced a living death in the way of the life that we pursued

The focus on these verses is to emphasize the sinfulness of the readers’ condition prior to their conversion.

“Walked” in their transgressions

Physical death (Hebrews 9:27)

A result of sin that we don’t really talk about is our physical death. When God created Adam he was not supposed to experience a physical death. That is the result of sin and the fallen world. Yes, in Genesis 2:17 God says: “you will surely die” and taking it at face value what do we get from it? Physical death,but also spiritual and eternal death is implied. It is not immediate physical death, but it is immediate spiritual and eternal death.

Eternal death (Revelation 20:11-15)

Other texts that support

Genesis 3:6

6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Sin and temptation are never going to look unsatisfying. It is going to look intriguing and satisfying, but in reality it will always leave you empty and guilty.

Ecclesiastes 7:29

29 See, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

Man will always seek righteousness through his own schemes and his own way, but we know that ONLY God can make us moral and ethical.

Romans 5:12

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Adam passed to all of his descendants the sinful nature that he possessed because of his first disobedience.

That sin nature is present at the time of conception, making it impossible for man to live in a way that is pleasing to God.

Why does this matter?

We have to realize the significance of the fall. What were the consequences of these actions? Spiritual, eternal and physical death. We live in a sinful world now. A depraved world where our salvation is not up to ourselves to choose. You can’t choose salvation. We live in a world where we are told we can do anything we want, but the one thing that we can’t do by ourselves is save ourselves and people hate that.

Main Point #1: “If it were up to our free will, we would not walk towards Christ”

Statement

As we have read in Romans over the last few weeks talking about God’s wrath we have really seen the impact of what man would look like if it were up to him to choose morality, laws and what is right and wrong. After reading and studying what we have I think it is safe to come to the conclusion that we would not take up our cross daily and walk with Christ. We would choose our sin everyday of the week because we believe that everything that we do is righteous and good. Without Christ we are Adam and Eve.

The question I want to challenge you with is: How much do we need Christ?

Prove

God does not like human wisdom.

As we have gone through Romans so far we have seen exactly what God thinks of human wisdom. The more we think of ourselves, the more we put our knowledge and our spin on things; we break it.

Human wisdom says I think that a man can be a woman and vice versa

Human wisdom says that we can control our own lives and destiny. It is force and time and space with a little bit of luck that controls the future not God.

That is why the Bible is inerrant. It is written by man, but it is breathed out by God, every single word is God inspired. It is Sola Scriptura “Scripture Alone”. It’s not tradition, it's not human authority, it's God and only God.

We would not deny ourselves if it weren’t for Christ.

Jesus said in Luke 9:23: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let them deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Self Denial is a common message in Christ’s teaching to His disciples.

This is not a reclusive denial, but one of willingness to obey His commandments, serve one another, and suffer (perhaps even die).

As we see today, there are very few that want to deny their wants, deny what will give them that fast satisfaction. The world is full of people that talk a big game, but when pressed like the parable of the sower will falter and walk away from God.

Flowers in texts

Matthew 10:38

38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

This is a prime example of either being a slave to yourself and this world or Christ. There is no in between.

This is a self- renouncing faith

Philippians 3:7-8

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of [a]knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, [b]for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ

Gain here means profit, Loss here is an accounting term for business loss.

Paul is using business terms to describe the spiritual transaction that occurred when Christ redeemed him.

Before Paul was saved he put all of his religious credentials in the profit column, but those were actually worthless and meant nothing. So when he was saved on the road to Demascus he moved them over to the loss column after he saw the glories of Christ and the riches of Christ

Ephesians 5:25

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

We have talked about this passage plenty of times before. We talked about the type of self denial it takes. Our aim for this is Christ. We will never reach that level, but as Christians he is our aim.

Illustrations:

Marriage is a great example of having to deny yourself for your partner. Here is the thing for all you guys in here: Your wife is always right. 100% of the time. We know that we have to both deny ourselves at times in order to make our marriage flourish. There are times when we have to give up on things in life in order to keep our marriage in order whether that is a job promotion, work hours, sporting events, cleaning around the house, dishes or whatever. When you get married the person before doesn’t exist you have evolved together.

Apply or Confront

The world today is never going to ask you to deny yourself if anything it will tell you to deny what others ask if it goes against your emotions.

Christ is telling us the only way to him is to deny yourself 100%. That’s the cost 100% of yourself. Our righteousness is only perfect because it is founded in Christ and not ourselves.

Lastly, It is only through Christ that any of this is possible. We talked about the horizontal and vertical relationships. It doesn't matter how strong our horizontal relationship is if our vertical one doesn’t exist or is under a false pretense.

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Main Point #2: “We are only justified by Christ’s life of obedience + work on the cross”

Statement

Justification reminds us that God is the one who declares us to be in the right, that forgiveness is based on his grace and mercy.

Prove

- We deserve spiritual death, physical death and eternal death, but because of the life Jesus Christ lived and his obedience on the cross we are saved. Not through our doings, our righteousness, works, wisdom, but Christs’s

In order to get to the Father we must have faith in the son. We must trust in God’s son.

- Anything that we do as humans does not meet the cost at what God has demanded of us.

- We can never repay that debt, no amount of prayers, candles lit, money donated, genuflections, etc.

The righteousness of believers is only perfect because their righteousness isn’t in themselves, but Christ crucified and risen.

Let's talk through this for a minute:

If righteousness is obtained through keeping the law, then salvation is no longer based on God's promise and faith is emptied of its significance and distinctiveness.

What would the point of Christ on the cross be if we could earn our way to Heaven through works of the law?

- Christ’s act of obedience at the cross wouldn’t have any effect if his life previous to the cross were stained through sin.

-  What is the difference between Christ’s life and our own? Christ was the only person to live a perfect life. Not Adam, David, Abraham, Mary. Only Christ lived the perfect life of obedience which fulfilled all previous covenants.

- Romans 5:12-19: Paul contrasts Adam and Christ. Adam and Christ function as the two covenant heads for all of humanity. Adam as the federal head brought sin, death and condemnation to all people. Christ, on the other hand, brought life, justification to all those who are united with him by faith.

-  What Jaquane preached a few weeks ago: We trust in Christ for salvation, the entirety of who Christ is, the whole Christ, is given to believers.

- A word that is used a lot is imputation and double imputation. Christ imputed his righteousness on us and in return he received our sin and death.

Flowers in texts

Titus 3:5-7

5 He saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs [a]according to the hope of eternal life.

Romans 6:6-7

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be [c]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;7 for he who has died has been [d]justified from sin.

Galatians 3:10

10 For as many as are of the works of [a]the Law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Illustrations:

The Parable of the prodigal son: (Luke 15:11-32)

The truth that God’s forgiveness is free and unearned.

The prodigal son represents the tax collectors and sinners, while the older son stands for the Pharisees and religious leaders.

One son demands his inheritance, move away, ruins his life by indulging in pleasures, forced to work a disgusting job

Realized that there was hope if he returned to his father as long as he acknowledged his fault and was willing to love as one of his father’s servants.

The Son acknowledges his sin and unworthiness to the family

Jesus did not welcome tax collectors and sinners into fellowship and a right relationship with him apart from repentance.

Repentance: A turning to God himself and turning away from sin.

The prodigal son didn’t earn acceptance with the father by living as a respectable and godly son.

He failed at that.

But Jesus reveals the mercy and grace of God, showing that there is a way back for those who have sinned and for all of those who have wandered from God.

Those who admit their need, those who acknowledge their unworthiness, those who reach out an empty hand for help are forgiven.

Apply or Confront

I feel like in the world today we want to feel that sense of accomplishment. We want to feel that “I did it” feeling, “I’m better than you”. We want to prove people wrong. It’s our pride that gets in the way most of the time.

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Main Point #3: “Trust in the providence of God”

Statement

As we read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation there could be an interpretation that oh maybe God did not plan for Adam to sin, maybe he didn’t take into account that Satan would tempt Eve who would tempt Adam. God knew before time started that Adam would sin and the only path to redemption from this fall would be Christ; his only begotten son.

Prove

Unbelievers are going to live their life with a sense of helplessness surrounded by chaos.

They have this desire for true peace and everlasting prosperity that is very unrealistic.

This secular worldview is going to teach us that either events are completely random, luck or just down to hardwork and grit.

John MacArthur has said: “contentment can only be found through trust in God’s providence.”

Providence is how God structures everything to accomplish His purposes.

What we aren’t saying is to just be lazy and it’s all God’s providence. We are saying to work as hard as you can and be content that God is in control of all the results.

What we are saying is that you will never be satisfied, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, power, authority, 0’s in your bank account. If you don’t trust in God’s providence you will never be content in life.

Look at the mega wealthy today. (Give examples)

Flowers in texts

Philippians 4:11-12

11 Not that I speak [a]from want, for I learned to be [b]content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance; in any and all things I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering.

What Paul is saying here is that regardless of his circumstances good or bad he knew that God was providentially at work.

We need to have patient confidence in God’s sovereign providence.

We are all about now, immediately. If I order something off amazon and it takes longer than 24hrs I get frustrated. I want my new testament commentary set NOW!

Philippians 3:8

8 More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of [a]knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, [b]for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ

In Paul’s world there was nothing in this world that held any real value compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus

Knowing Christ doesn’t just mean having an intellectual knowledge of him; it's personally sharing a life with Christ is truly knowing him.

Philippians 3:10

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and [a]the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

Suffering is a profound opportunity for profound fellowship with Christ

We live in a culture now look at suffering as bad, sad and unnecessary

When we live for Christ, we live as a slave to Christ

How can you know God if you never/rarely read the Bible (His word)

Illustrations

You can only push against Gods providence for so long

Apply or Confront

It’s not our timing it’s Gods

Confront culture of False Teaching

Apply to their lives:

Put your pride and ego to the side

Pray that God’s will be done, not ours

As believers we have to believe that God’s providence is perfect.

Conclusion: