Understanding Original Sin and God's Redemption Plan

we resume this evening our consideration of the biblical doctrine of original sin we began our consideration of this uh Doctrine last Friday evening but it's such a great and theast subject we were only able to deal with a portion of it we're considering in general the consequences of Adam's sin Adam's original sin and transgression which led to his thought and in him and through him to the fall of the entire human race [00:00:13]

now we come to consider the second aspect of this doctrine of original sin and that is what is known as original pollution because you remember the moment Adam sinned two things happened at once one was that he became guilty the second was that a change took place in him he was not the same as he was before changes took place in him which we have considered now the doctrine of original sin says that both those consequences that happen to Adam devolve upon us also [00:01:30]

this pollution from which we all suffer as the result of Adam's sin is not merely a disease it is a sinful and therefore a guilty condition it is merely that we are suffering from a disease but we are guilty because we are polluted it is something which must be regarded therefore partly in that legal manner another thing we must be careful to observe about it is this we must not say that it mean that it means that there has been a change in the substance of the Soul [00:03:14]

the Bible says that sin is positive it isn't the absence of goodness it is the positive presence of evil and of Badness man not only is not what he ought to be he is what he ought not to be and that is something which we must emphasize because it's emphasized constantly as I'm going to show you in a few minutes in the scriptures themselves [00:05:28]

what do we mean by total depravity now here again is a term that's often attacked and indeed aless there are Christians who dislike the term almost invariably because they don't know the meaning of the term they attach a false meaning to the term and they say they can't abide this idea of total gravity if you ask them what they mean by it you will see that it's one or the other of these false definitions which I'm now about to give you [00:06:41]

positively it means this that Fallen men or man in his Fallen condition has an inherently corrupt nature which extends to every part of his being every faculty of his soul and body it means that men as the result of the sin of Adam and of the Fall has this corrupt condition which applies to every faculty of his soul and of his body another thing it means is this that there is no observe the adjective there is no spiritual good in it [00:09:40]

men in a state of total depravity every unregenerate men is at enmity against God that's a great characteristic always of total depravity he is naturally at eny against God and God's holy law and another way you can put it perhaps is that all his powers are misused and perverted Genesis 6:5 listen and God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually [00:10:48]

no man can have a true or adequate understanding of the scriptural doctrine of salvation or no person can appreciate his or her own salvation truly unless such a person realizes the nature of the disease the condition out which we are to be saved by the gospel in other words we must understand the truth about ourselves in sin we can never really know the love of God until we realize this the way to measure the height of God's love is to first of all measure the depth of our own depravity [00:14:46]

man is a victim of himself you yourself and I myself are our greatest enemies the curse of life is that we're all self-centered we live for self instead of for God and thus we are selfish we are self-centered we are jealous and we are envious as Paul puts it we are hateful and hating one another why well because we're all out for ourselves instead of all living to God and in worship of God and to the glory of God [00:28:11]

the Bible teaches that man is totally incapable I'm emphasizing both terms man is as the result of sin totally incapable what do I mean by that well again I don't mean that he cannot perform any natural good of course he can it's obvious it doesn't mean that he's incapable of civil or Civic good and righteousness of course he is his history proves that even though it doesn't even mean that he's not capable of an external kind of religion he is capable of that [00:31:28]

he cannot do any act which fundamentally meets God's approval he cannot do anything which fundamentally meets the demands of God's law there is none righteous know not one all have sinned and come short of the glory of God you read the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans and there you'll find it stated very clearly all the goodness of the world is as filthy RS all the goodness is as dung and refu and loss ultimately it has no Val because it cannot satisfy God's ultimate approval or his law [00:32:53]

thank God we all know the answer there is into that awful condition there came a promise and the thing I think that will Fascinate us and charm us throughout eternity is this is that the promise came from the very God against whom men Rebel and still more amazing and remarkable is that it came almost immediately after man had rebelled for the promise was given to men even before he was Thrust out of Paradise [00:39:39]