a few passages here. 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and focus our attention for a
few minutes on that fourteenth verse. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. Natural man. For they are foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." Consider that as the basis of
our remarks here this evening. That's 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 14. It's imperative that we understand the nature of man and the nature of God and the
nature of salvation. Because if we don't understand
that man after the fall, differs from man before the fall, we'll
have a difficult time, almost an impossibility of understanding
who God is and who Christ is and God's total and complete
salvation. We've got to understand it. And to me, that is one of the
missing notes in today's 20th century preaching, the total depravity of man. The natural man, that's the unregenerate man. And I would say, considering all things in general, at any given time the world's population, the earth's
population, is full of natural men. natural women and natural boys
and girls. And if we be regenerate, if God
in His great mercy has quickened us and given us life, and give
us an understanding to know somewhat about God and
God's salvation, and have an interest in it and
desire to seek after it, then we are highly favored among men. Highly favored. Highly favored. There are about 50 of us here
tonight. There should be 300 or 400 people. if they had an interest. But
they don't have an interest. They just don't have an interest. They're spiritually darkened. They don't have any understanding. And they just go on doing the
best they can, some of them. Someone said, I've always, all my life, had
good intentions. I've had good intentions. That
accounts somewhat, won't it? Salvation is not based on good
intentions. But a lot of people, you'd be
surprised of the masses. of humankind who trust in their good intentions. Well, let's talk a little bit
here about this. I'm saying that neither the Bible
or the Gospel or God's salvation can be understood unless we understand
something about man in His nature and what happened in the garden.
If a man does not know what happened in the garden, he is going to
have a difficult time or an impossible time finding out what happened
on the cross. If you don't know what happened
in the garden, you are not going to know what happened on got to know something about man's
nature. Well, let us begin with the first
man, Adam. Since the fall of Adam, he fell out of being a pleasure
to God when he fell. The fall of Adam, or since the fall of Adam, since
Adam fell several thousand years ago, and there have been billions
of human beings born on this earth. And all of them are the
descendants of fallen Adam. All descendants of fallen Adam. Genealogy? Trace it back, and
you'll find, according to the Bible, that you're a descendant
of fallen Adam. Since the fall of Adam, No human
being is born with the indwelling spirit of the living God. No one, not you, not me, or anybody
else, is born with the indwelling spirit of the living God. By that I mean that no one is
born God-conscious. Nobody is born God-conscious. All men by nature are only and
always born self-conscious, but never God-conscious. And that's so because of the fall of their father Adam. That's the effect of Adam's fall. Nobody's born God-conscious but
self-conscious, concerned about self, not about God. Consequently, men and women and boys and girls
have to be taught to seek God's glory rather than their own because of the fall of Adam. The fall left Adam without spiritual
light, without spiritual power, without
spiritual without spiritual love and without spiritual guidance. And we inherited Adam's nature
after the fall. Before the fall, Adam was God conscious. He sought God. before the fall. He enjoyed God before the fall. But after the fall, he was spiritually
darkened, void of understanding, a rebel, and he ran from God. He welcomed the presence of God
in the cool of the day before the fall. But when he fell and
God came, he was nowhere to be found. He was always there to
welcome God the Father in the cool of the day when God made
his visit to fellowship with his creation. But there came
a day when God came down to fellowship. to see his creation, to see man,
to see Adam, who was his friend, in the apple of his eye. Adam was nowhere to be found.
And he had to call out, God had to call out, Adam, where art
thou? See, that's before the fall. After the fall, I'm sorry. That's
after the fall. Before the fall, he was Johnny
on the spot. After the fall, God says, Where
art thou, Adam? Adam said, I'm back here in the
trees. I hid from you. Back here. What's the matter, Adam? Ate of the fruit. So, with no spiritual life, heart and his soul is darkened. He has no spiritual life. He
has no desire after God now. He is running from God. He is
trying to hide from God. And the evidence of that truth
that the descendants of Adam display his fallen nature because
the majority of human beings on the earth at any given time
are doing their dead-level best to hide from God. They don't want you to talk about
God. Go into a family circle of so-called
good departed people and begin to talk about God. Let's change
the conversation. Let's talk about God. Let's talk
about God's Son who suffered on the tree. And you'll find
out that a silence, a gloom and doom will hang over that audience. And they're not the least bit
interested. They're embarrassed. They don't
know what to talk about. And they're doing their best
to hide from God. I heard a preacher say one time,
and I think he's right, he said, the best place to hide from God
is in the average church. And I believe he's right. Hide
from God. In the average church, you'll
never hear anything about God, because the majority of the leaders
and the guides are like, they're blind spiritual leaders. And
the blind lead the blind, and neither one of them gains the
right object, they fall in the ditch. And so there's people
that jam in the churches, not many, on a Sunday night. Most churches don't even have
service on Sunday night. But a lot of them have service
on Sunday morning and sometimes I go up the avenue there in Fairmont
and I see the old people, some of them as old as I am and most
of them older, coming down the steps. that big church there,
Fairmont Avenue, coming down with their canes and people helping
them and all that. And I know, and I'm not exaggerating, I know they never heard anything
worth retaining in that hour they were there. They talked
maybe about the sweet Jesus, boy, trying to do something,
but he can't do it. And their conception of God,
which they've received from their spiritual leaders, makes them
sorry for God. They're sorry that people cuss
and swear and commit adultery and those things. They're sorry
for God that he has to put up with that. And that's about the
scope of what they hear. So with no spiritual life, Adam's
mind was darkened. Instead of being a friend of
God, now he's an enemy of God. Just like that. It's amazing,
isn't it, how quick this happened. I don't know now that Adam, I
don't know how long Adam lived in the Garden of Paradise before
the fall. Some say, some I've heard and
read, say that Adam, created by God, and before
nightfall of the first day, Adam had fallen. I don't know whether
that's true or not. Adam could live, he could have
lived a hundred years in fellowship with God. enjoying the comfort
and the friendship of God, praising God and worshiping God. I don't
know. I don't know how long it was. But I know that when he
rebelled against God, against God's command not to eat of that
fruit, when he took that fruit in his hand from the hand of
his wife Eve, he fell. And he fell immediately and lost
everything. Adam's mind was darkened. He was an enemy of God and his
heart was blinded by sin and alienated from the life of God. And he became a lover of darkness
rather than a lover of light. And that's the way the natural
man is. That's the way you once was.
That's the way I once was. I went for years and years and
years being aware of a self-conscience, but not aware of a God-conscience. Just looking out for me and mine,
that's all. That was my only concern, being
able to go to work and have a payday, pay the rent. That's all. Self-conscious. Not conscious of God or anybody
else, just conscious of myself. Adam lost that self-God consciousness. Now he's self-conscious. He has
no spiritual power at all. He's void of spiritual power. The will of man, the will of
Adam before the fall, came under the dominion of sin. Before the
fall there was no sin in Adam and there was no sin in the Garden
of Eden. But when he fell and gave his
allegiance to the enemy of God, He became a child of the enemy
of God. Ye are of your father, the devil,
who's a liar from the beginning, and your children, the natural
man, all the result of Adam's fall. That's the effect of Adam's
fall. He had no spiritual life, no
spiritual power, no spiritual knowledge. He was under the dominion
of sin, looking out for self only. And as a result of Adam's
fall, all of his descendants, which were part of him, no longer
willed to seek God. We were not born in seeking God's
will. sought God, we was on the run,
running from God. And if God had not took the initiative
and sought us and run us down and quickened us with the life
of God, we'd still be on the run. Our pictures would be on
the wall, outlaw, rebel, murder, sinner of the darkest wrapped up in the arms of Satan,
his father, no longer willed to seek God
but to run from God. So, with no spiritual knowledge
whatsoever, Adam lost the capacity to receive or to understand spiritual
things, the natural man. And that calls him the natural
man because he's the fallen man. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He does not receive any spiritual
things from God. It's not to say that the natural
man does not receive bountiful blessings of God to enjoy a safe
place in this world. The sun shines upon the just as well
as the unjust. They enjoy the blessings of God
in reference to creation and everyday. But spiritual matters. That's what matters in the life
of a person. Does he have spiritual life? If he has not been found and
regenerated and brought to God in Christ, then he's far off
from God. And he has no appetite for spiritual
things. Why would a man automatically get up out of his bed and dress
up on Sunday morning and get in his car and drive to the Katie
Baptist Church to hear the gospel? Why would he do that if he does
not have some spiritual appetite? has no spiritual appetite, has
no spiritual knowledge, and he's lost the capacity to receive
or understand spiritual things. So with no capacity to love spiritual
things, Adam's heart was bent and set upon evil. That's what Adam was before the
fall. Or after the fall, his heart
was set bent on evil. I meant to say, before the fall,
Adam had a sweet disposition. He had a great love for God the
Father. And he had a free will. Adam
had a free will. choose or he could refuse to
choose. He had a free will. And when
Adam fell, he lost that free will. He didn't have that free
will anymore. And being without spiritual knowledge,
spiritual power, spiritual privileges, the consequence of it is that
his children do not have that free will. You see, after the
fall, Adam is altogether different than he was before the fall.
Adam had a free will before the fall, but he lost his free will,
and now his will is not free. His will is free to sin. And I've said before, say again,
poor illustration, it's all I can think of. Man, after the fall, he's like a frog in a snake's belly. He's free to move around. But he's not free to get out.
He's bound and he can't get out of his situation. And he is so
far off from God that God must come where he is and must change, give him a heart
of love and thanksgiving. Well, Mr. Adam had a fall, and Mr. Adam lost it all. And all the king's horses and
all the king's men could not put Adam back together again. Only God, who made him, can put
Adam back together again. And we're so desperate in our
need, desperate in our depravity, that only God can put us back
together again. Salvation is all of God. It's all of him from start to
finish. Man by nature has no spiritual
life, no spiritual appetite. He's not God-conscious, he's
self-conscious. And God has got to take the initiative. And he has got to do a work of
grace in the individual's heart. And
the effects of it is, His eyes are open to Himself, how wicked
He is. And His eyes are open to the
love of God that God so loved His Son, for so loved the world
that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him might have eternal life. And God wounds Him back by His
love. Only God can put us together
again, like old Humpty Dumpty. They had a great fall. And all the king's men and the
king's horses and all that couldn't put them back together. Only
God can do it. You see, there's a difference.
There's a difference after the fall of Adam. We're different
now than what we was before Adam fell. Adam was doing right. Adam had no problems until he
exercised his free will. And he listened to the devil. And he took a bite of that fruit.
And when he did, he broke down. And we inherited
all of Adam. The effects of that fall we inherit.
We've got no hope. Bless God, the Spirit quickens
us and gives us life. We won't even understand things
unless we understand that we're different now than what Adam
was before he fell. We're depraved. Every part of
our being is touched by that monster sin. Sin is in us. Sin runs rampant through us.
Our biggest enemy is ourselves, our sinful selves and the devil. We are no match for him. If it were not for God and His
providence to keep us from the hands of the devil, he would
have every one of us.