From Glory to Ruin: The Fall of Humanity

We examined as far as we can in the light of scriptural teaching what this image of God in men really means we found that he was in correspondence with in fellowship with God reflect something of the glory of God happy care free able to live without tiling eating of the fruit of the Garden in a state of bliss and possessed of an original righteousness an uprightness his moral being and character corresponding to the god with whom he was thus in Fellowship. [00:34:33]

The whole picture is entirely changed and the question to which we must address ourselves obviously therefore is what is it that uh has produced this change we look at men's present moral and spiritual and even physical condition and I say that we see something entirely different we are confronted by a new series of phenomena with regard to life and death and the whole character of human nature and human life in this world. [00:56:36]

There are those who would say that what the Bible calls evil and sin is just uh a kind of resistance that is an essential part of human nature and has which has been put there by God in order that men might have something to overcome and by overcoming it that he should grow now X develops you muscle or if you're using any kind of instrument the way to develop your power is to act against a resistance. [06:09:00]

The whole statement in this chapter is given to us as history there's no suggestion of allegory here at all it offers itself to us as plain unvarnished fact and history and if you begin to say that it isn't history or that parts of it are not history you'll find yourself in an utterly contradictory position for instance we are told there about the punishment that followed men's sin and transgression in verses 14 and 15. [12:43:00]

The first thing he tells us is this that evil and sin and temptation came from the outside they came from Satan using the serpent the thing I'm anxious to emphasize is this there was nothing in men's own Constitution that produced it there was no physical necessity at all to produce it it was nothing sensual in men that produced it it came to men enti enely from the outside and he had a perfect free will to decide what to do with it. [18:26:00]

The woman began to listen to the Slanders of the devil against God she began to doubt God's word and began to doubt God's love then you remember we are told she began to look at the thing at which of which God had prohibited to look then having looked at it and having seen that it was good to eat she began to lust after it and to desire it this thing which had been prohibited and that in turn led her to a definite Act of Disobedience. [20:15:00]

Sin is only only possible to men and was only possible to men at the beginning because he has a free spiritual personality it isn't possible to an animal it's only possible to men men's being made in the image of God in a most extraordinary way made sin possible for him because of his free personality because of his free will the very fact I say that he was made in the image and like of God exposes him in and of itself to this possibility. [27:09:00]

The results are described here very clearly the first thing that we are told is that they became conscious of their flesh it's an extraordinary thing this man as he was made originally by God was quite unconscious about his flesh and about his body the men and the women were naked and that was no trouble to them at all but the moment they said the moment they fall they become conscious of their flesh they become ashamed of it a shame develops in connection with the body. [29:32:00]

The break of this link with God produced a spiritual death in he's he's in an entirely new state and condition the next thing that we are told about him is that he was driven out of paradise out of the garden and not allowed to return there in and of himself and by his own valtion you remember the Flaming sword that was there to guard and to Bar his entry in and of himself he's sent out of paradise he's not allowed to come back. [32:21:00]

There was subsequently a very great decline in men's intellectual and moral and all his other faculties as you see described in the sixth chapter of This Book of Genesis but it didn't happen at once sometimes people think that the moment Adam sinned and fell he fell as far as men can go he didn't he fell in the essential way I've described but there was a decline and a degradation consequent upon that you see he didn't die at once he died some time later. [36:49:00]

When men fell he did not cease to be men he was still men he didn't lose any of his essential qualities or elements or attributes what he lost was that original righteousness that correspondence to God but his intellect remains his power of self analysis remains his understanding remains his will remains these things remain we'll come into to that later in Greater detail but he lost his original righteousness he lost that fellowship with God. [38:09:00]

Men as the result of the Fall reminded him of some of these great buildings which you see in London and in the country and in various Eastern countries where there was once some great palace or great building it's now fallen to ruins and there's a sign outside and the sign says centuries ago such and such a king once dwelt here and John how suggested that written over men everywhere as the result of the Fall is this inscription here God once dwelt. [39:54:00]