In Genesis 3 and 17, God deranged
the man before him after he had disobeyed and sinned and fallen,
and he pronounces a sentence upon Adam. And unto Adam he said,
Behold, thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles
shalt it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb of the
field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
were you taken For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. Now, notice the because in verse
17 as we go over to the New Testament and the book of Romans chapter
3, verse 10 through 18. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand.
There is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. Their throat is an open supplicar. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asp is under their
lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their way. And the way
of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes." Paul lays it out. One more verse will come before
us today. others, but in Romans 5 and verse
12, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, in that all have sin. Now, I begin with this. Most
or many that call themselves Christian, that are attached
to a church, and most of the churches that go under the banner
of Christian would admit that something happened in Adam and
to Adam that had an effect upon the other people of the world,
upon his offspring. But having conceded that, it
is also true that in most cases those same people come far short
of the full truth of the deprivative man as taught in the scripture
and as exercised in human behavior. I believe that most people, or
many, that call themselves Christian have no idea of the full measure
of the depth of the fall into which the sin of Adam took the
human race. Their belief or cover runs a
broad gamut of people who have beliefs about Adam. From some
believing that all are born in sin to those that believe that
man yet has a spark of divinity left in him that might be fanned
into his worship and communion and fellowship and a saving relationship
with God. And this they might call free
will and probably do. What they have made a Dagon-like
idol out of that teaching. Now, need we say that the doctrine
of depravity is one of the most offensive one of the most insulting
doctrines that come against us in the scripture. It is one of
the most humbling doctrines that we meet with when we come to
think upon spiritual matters. And I believe that the Bible's
teaching on the depravity of man is another proof of the divinity
and the inspiration of the scripture. Why do I say that? Because I
don't believe if men wrote the Bible of themselves that they
would ever have painted themselves in so dark a picture as the scriptures
do concerning depravity. We should never have expected
these statements about depravity if men were left to themselves
to write the scripture. And then let us remind ourselves
we're not looking today just at the fall. Now the fall is
declared in the scripture in Genesis chapter 3. But also we're
looking beyond the fall and to the far-reaching effect of that
fall and the depravity of the nature of man. Now we can sum
up the fact of the fall in a few words for our prophet this morning. And then the immediate effect
upon Adam and Eve. Here it is. God created Adam,
or man, as you know, from the dust of the earth, and Eve from
a rib out of his side. And he put them in Eden, a beautiful
place, and he gave them a law. You may eat of all of the fruit
of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the knowledge
of the tree of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat thereof you shall die. We know that the serpent
came and beguiled Eve and she ate, and the scripture said she
gave unto her husband with her and he did eat, and their eyes
were opened, and they perceived themselves to be naked, and they
went and hid themselves from the voice of the Lord among the
trees of the garden. This is in Genesis chapter 3
verse 1 through 8. Then we know that God came, judged
them, drove them out of the garden and passed sentence upon all
three of those involved, the serpent and Eve and of Adam. On the serpent in chapter 3 verse
14 and 15. He would crawl on his belly and
eat dust all the days of his life. And upon the woman, Eve,
in chapter 3 and verse 16, and upon the man in chapter 3 and
verse 17 through 19, that we read. Now, let's consider
the sentence passed against Adam as we want to look at. Verse
17, because. Let's look at that word, because. Because of what you have done. Because you have transgressed
the law that I gave you. And you listened to your wife. instead of listening unto me. And because you ate of that tree
that I forbade you to eat of under the threat of death, because
you hearkened to Eve and not to me, the result, the ground
is cursed for your sake. Cursed is the ground for your
sake. Now before we proceed, let's
be careful here to notice some things that are relevant. And that is, in both the case
of the man Adam and the case of the woman Eve, their original
state and their original calling was modified because of that,
after they sinned. It underwent a change. from what
it was before they had sinned. But the change was not for the
better. as the serpent had promised her,
the change was much for the worse. As punishment, therefore, for
their sin, and a direct result of their sin, and such as suited
their gender, the modification came upon them. To the woman
God said this, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow Shall you bring forth
children all the days of your life? Now they had already been
told by the Lord God in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 28. Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish. That is, fill up the earth. Fill
up the earth with people. People, in other words, no doubt
childbirth in Eden would have been much easier and less painful
and trouble upon the woman. Some to the woman in her original
condition, but now they would be greatly increased and performing
the work of bringing forth children. And let me say, as we've said
before and heard many times, it really hurts, the travail
of the labor, the troubles, but also the effect upon the body,
the waddling when you walk along, the nausea, the morning sickness,
gagging at food that is set before you, the discomfort, the pain,
Finally, the finale, the great pain of the travail in the time
of birth, even at a threat to her very own life. For some have
taken or lost their life in giving birth in childbirth. It's happened
quite a few times. But let's go back to the case
of the man, Adam, and his punishment for what was done by him. Also a modification, a change
from the worst, from what it would have been in his original
condition as God put him in the garden. So let's look at Genesis
2, if you're still there, and some statements that we find
here as to the earth and the creation of man before they sinned
and they fell. For example, in verse 5 and 6
of Genesis chapter 2, the earth was beautifully landscaped by
the hand of God. There were plants, there were
herbs, watered by a mist of water that came up out of the ground
to water the earth and the garden. And there was not a man to till
the earth. it said in that particular place.
And the garden and that growth supernaturally was produced. It wasn't planted, intended by
any man. God caused it to appear and it
was so. Then in verse 7 of chapter 2,
God formed man of the dust of the earth and made him a living
soul. He breathed into him the breath
of life. And then In verses 18 through
15 of the second chapter of Genesis, God planted a garden in Eden
and he put Adam in that garden. And verse 9, in this garden there
were all manner of beautiful, attractive, friendly, edible
trees. that were at their disposal. And there was the tree of life
in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of
good and of evil. Then look at verse 10. Have you
ever noticed a river flowed of water out of the garden and parted
into Four heads are tributaries, we won't look at that. But in
verse 11 and 12, it was rich in gold, minerals in some places
in that particular creation. Verse 15 then, Adam's vocation
was to dress the garden and to keep it. He was to cultivate
it and he was to till it. And he was to gather the fruit
from it that they might eat of it and have the sustenance. Calvin wrote this on Genesis
chapter 2 and verse 15, quote, this labor truly was pleasant,
full of delight, and entirely exempt from all trouble and weariness,
unquote. wasn't tired at the end of the
day because he was yet in his condition. What a difference
his sin made in all of these things. And not only upon Adam
and himself personally, but upon the earth now and its pristine
condition as God made it. He looked upon it and he saw
it and he said all things were Very good. So, if we go back
to Genesis chapter 3 and the various aspects of it. The sentence, verse 17, Cursed
is the ground for thy sake. Or literally, because of you. Because of what you have done
on your account in relation to you is the ground cursed. Consider this, Adam is now a
fallen, corrupt, and depraved sinner. His nature is corrupt. He now knows good and evil. Genesis 3 and verse 22. Whatever that means, that's always
given me some problem. But in the context, it's not
a good thing. It is a worsening of his condition. When God had finished creating,
He in Genesis 1, 31, He saw everything that He had made, and behold,
it was very good. But now He calls the ground cursed. Not because the ground, not because
the earth had sinned, but because it in some way is cursed for
the sake of Adam and his sin. In Psalm 107, And verse 34, it
also mentions much the same thing. Now think on these things. When
Adam was upright, he dwelled in a virtual paradise. Oh, we wish we could describe
Eden, have a picture of it. in our minds. It had a splendid
garden home, no pain, no sorrow, not a weed and not a thistle
and not a briar as far as he could see, sweatless labor and
so forth in that time, plentiful food and delicious. A part of
the blessing of his existence was the condition of the garden
in which he was placed. It is not meet that fallen sinners
or a whole race of fallen sinners should be granted to live in
a perfect paradisiacal earth in its original state. Must have
some relation to them as sinners. The earth and their surrounding
must have some relation to them as sinners. Some constant reminders
of it. when the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Romans chapter 1 and verse 18. And this was not restricted exclusively
to Adam's lifetime. If you'd like to flip with me
over to Genesis chapter 5, I should have marked the place. In Genesis
chapter 5, in verse 28 and 29, there's something that I would
like to read with us today. My point is this. that was not
restricted to Adam or the time or life of Adam. In Genesis 5, 28 and 29, and
Lamech lived 182 years and begat his son. And he called his name Noah,
saying, this shall comfort us concerning our work and toil
of our hand because of the ground which the Lord has cursed. So still that is before them
and upon their mind. Now Noah's an important character,
and biblical names are important. Noah's name, if you see in the
margin, actually means something like rest or comfort or consolation,
and that's what they named him. And there seems to be some sort
of a prophecy that his father intended to be attached under
that. Some expectation from Noah, the son that he had begotten. And he did find grace in the
eyes of the Lord, chapter 6 and verse 8. In the days of great
corruption, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now,
We wonder about them. They had some expectation of
Noah. Did they perhaps think that this
was the seed of the woman that had been promised back in Chapter
3? Some comfort concerning us, they
say. And so they had some kind of
expectation that Noah would be a blessing. Verse 29 actually
speaks of their special desire and their hope. Here it is, the
curse made their agricultural work. That is, the curse of the ground
made their farming and their living off of the land much more
difficult and much more labor-intensive, as we might say it today. The
earth begrudgingly now yielded up her fruit, but willingly and
freely brought up all manner of thorns and thistle and briars
and weeds and undesirable plants. Now remember this if we go along,
that Adam and Eve were to dine on the fruit of the trees in
the garden. Genesis 1 and 29 and 2 and 9
and 2 and 16. They were to eat the fruit of
the tree of the garden. That was their diet. That was
their daily diet. after the fall, look at 3 and
18, to eat the herb of the field. And an old-time writer, Matthew
Henry, pointed out after the fall, both the matter and the
manner of their eating were changed. No longer the delicacies of the
fruit of the garden, but the herb of the field, green growth,
and not in peace but in sorrow, in the sweat of his brow." And
this is the complaint in chapter 5 and verse 29, the difficulty
of getting a living from the earth that brought forth grudgingly
against them. The fight, the constant fight,
the yearly fight against the thorns and the briars, the droughts,
the floods, the storms and other things. that might affect their
agriculture. Then remember something else.
While they ate of the fruit in the garden and herbs after the
fall, in Genesis chapter 9, after the flood, as the human family
began over in Noah's line and family, God enlarged their food
supply. In verse 3, Every living thing
that lives shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have
I given you all things." Now what this says is people could
now as freely eat the flesh of animals and fowls and fish and
such like as they ate the herbs before so that both of them now
were a source of food to them and in a way a blessing and a
help from God. Now scripture has a lot to say. about man's sin, what we might
call nature or the weather, drought, pestilence, those kind of things. Now the first and foremost of
those, of course, was the great flood in the days of Noah in
Genesis. Now this great flood was not
the result of global warming or of climate change as we hear
the terms today, but it was the expressive or rather the excessive
sin of the race that God brought the flood upon the world in Genesis. 2 Peter 2, verse 5, Peter said,
God brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly. 2 Kings 8 and 1, the Lord has
called for a famine and it shall also come upon the land seven
years. Psalm 105 and verse 16, He called
for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread. God can, God does, either bless
or punish by controlling what we call the weather or nature,
whether flood or drought, as the pleasant and seasonable rains. God is able and does bless and
hinder our thing. Now let's turn to a passage from
Paul in Romans chapter 8 concerning a running much along the same
line and I'd like to read it for us to consider. It's Romans
8 verse 19 through verse 22. Then we'll ask ourself the question,
why did Paul put this in? How does it fit with the context
in that particular place? But here it is. In Roma chapter
8, Paul is giving assurance to the children of God and he is
declaring no condemnation to them in Christ throughout the
chapter. Now, verse 19 through verse 22. For the earnest expectation of
the creature. You might find that creation
in some versions or margin. The earnest expectation of the
creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature
was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him
who has subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now."
Now let that verse or passage sink in. First of all, that question,
how does this fit in with the context? What relation has this? It is some kind of an example
and so it is intended. Could it be intended therefore
to emphasize and illustrate what Paul had just said in verse 17
and 18 about present sufferings in this life are not worthy to
be compared with a glory that shall be revealed in us, says
Paul. For I reckon that present sufferings
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed in us. That is, in the saints, in the
children of God, in the elect, the born again. Now while here
we groan within ourselves. Look at verse 23. We groan, he
says, within ourselves. But we have hope and expectation
of deliverance from these present circumstances. Paul uses therefore
the example of creation and that in verse 20, it was made subject
unto vanity. In verse 20 he talks about is
bondage and corruption. And in verse 22 the whole creation
groans and travails in pain until now. The inanimate thing is said
to do that. Now compare Genesis 3 with Romans
chapter 8. Cursed is the ground for your
sake. The creation was made subject
unto vanity. Who cursed the ground in Genesis
chapter 3? God. Who subjected it to vanity
in Romans chapter 8? Who but God subjected it unto
vanity. Now here's some points not to
miss in looking at this, but to emphasize and they are as
follows. Number one, The curse and subject
came with or as a result of man's sin. Cursed is the ground for
thy sake. Now sometimes the scripture connect
the suffering of the land with the sin of its inhabitants. And we'll look at that in Genesis
3 and verse 17. But listen to Isaiah 24 and 5.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof, because they have transgressed the law, changed the ordinances,
broken the everlasting covenant." The earth is defiled by that. Jeremiah 12 and verse 4. How long shall the land mourn
and the herbs of the field wither for the wickedness of them that
dwell therein. They're connected together. Hosea
chapter 4, 1 through 3, because of the great evil in that generation. We read in the third verse of
that chapter, therefore, shall the land mourn and everyone that
dwells therein shall languish with the beast of the field and
the fowls of heaven and the fish of the sea." In Leviticus 18
and 27, we read that such things as incest, adultery, fornication,
bestiality, and homosexuality defile the land. Leviticus 18 is a strong chapter
on the depravity of man and with each one of them God said these
things defile the land. Now this is not to impute intelligence
or feeling or morals to inanimate things or to the world or to
the earth. Says Paul, this subjection was
not willingly. It was not entered into willingly,
but by him that passed the sentence and subjected it. But he did
so in hope. Who subjected it in hope. Now the second thing. The bondage
of creation, I've already given it away, is in hope. And then
we are saved in hope or by hope. Verse 24, Romans 8. Creation
groans. In verse 22, we groan. In verse 23, we groan in this
tabernacle. And it runs parallel with what
Paul calls, in verse 19, the manifestation or the revealing
of the sons of God. And in verse 23, the adoption
of the sons of God. Their son-placing is in relation
to these things. Another thing, the way Paul speaks of the reconciling work of Christ
in such text as Ephesians 1.10, Colossians 1.20, 1 Corinthians
15.24-28 indicate that the breach caused by the
entrance of sin is more than the effect that it had upon the
human family, that that disruption extended even into the creation
itself. It affected heaven and earth,
men and angels, so that the whole creation was affected by sin,
so the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ has an effect
upon the whole creation. To subdue the enmity caused by
sin, because that enmity is very far-reaching. It is enmity between
heaven and earth. It is enmity between the seed
of the serpent and the seed of the woman. It is enmity between
religions. It is enmity between the races. or the nationality. It is enmity
between the Jew and the Gentile. It is enmity between the church
and the world, so that this enmity is far-reaching. And it is even
at times between the genders, men and women. And so one great
and devastating result sin entering in the world. Paul tells us in
Romans 5 and verse 12 through 21. We won't read it, but the
reign of death is a result of the sin and the corruption of
Adam. Now this according to the Word
of God is the immediate result of sin entering into the world
and by one man. And in Romans 5 verse 12, death
passed upon all. Sin entered by one man, and death
by sin, and then death passed upon all. Not only passed, but
look at verse 14, death reigned. Reigned. from Adam to Moses,
even over them, verse 14, that had not sinned after the likeness
or the manner or the similitude of Adam. Verse 21, Romans 5,
sin reigned unto death. The wages of sin is death. Now, what was the word of God
to Adam again? Genesis 2.17 concerning the eating
of the forbidden tree. In the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die. Sometimes the margin has it like
this. Dying thou shalt die because
it includes death in all of its form. How therefore in the very
day. how the very day Adam lived 930
years before his body actually died. As Adam's life before he
sinned consisted in body and in soul, so likewise his death
was in body and in soul, spiritual and then physical. Calvin wrote,
quote, under the name death is comprehended all of those miseries
in which Adam involved himself in his defection from God. That as soon as Adam sinned,
death entered Adam and it began its reign in him. Now here Paul again in Romans
5 and 12, and so death passed upon all. The connection being,
sin entered by death and death passed upon all men. My Marshall Interlinear has it
this way, if you would. So also, to all men death passed,
unquote. And the connection, for as much
as all sin, because all sin, it penetrated, it permeated,
into all people. It passed through all. Not only
did it pass all the way through our being, into every faculty,
but it also brought about physical death. Not as a contagious disease,
as if to catch it. It's not something you catch
from another, similar to a plague, but as being corrupt in nature,
and because of that. Linsky owned the words. The death
went through all men, points out that the tenses, Lenski was
pretty good on the tenses in the Greek. He says it is in the
historical eroist, that may not mean much to us, but it does
to those who understand the Greek. Death went through. And then
he notes that there is another historical heroist in verse 12. Sin came into the world. And that's also historical heroist. And he called these two mates. came into the world, death went
through. Those historical eras, not only
throughout the individual being, but throughout every individual
being and in every place. Now a point you may not have
thought about as we begin to make our way to the end. And
that is, have you ever thought and counted or considered or
thought upon or written down the economical impact of depravity
upon an economy, city, state, nation, whatever it might be,
business, individual. Have you ever think how much
depravity costs you directly and in taxes? Now, I admit, some
people find depravity very profitable. Some people make a lot of money
off of depravity. They make a good living from
it. I would give you the example of Hollywood and the bars and
the clubs. Whole industries owe their existence
to depravity. Their success, such as selling
burglar alarms, burglar bars, cameras, and that kind of thing. Most laws that are passed. are passed with the intention
to restrain or punish depraved acts. murder, assault, theft,
embezzlement, you name it. The cost of depravity? Think
about it. Police departments, jails, courts,
judges, lawyers, and so on. Prison systems. Millions upon
millions. Do these things cost because
of the depravity of man? Nearly every business has to
spend big money on security system surveillance, upon cameras, and
security guards to guard their business. We have insurance to
cover the theft of our property. Why do we have it if man is basically
good? Because most people are not good,
but are depraved in heart. And therefore, stealing, looting,
burglary, Many get their living from this exercise of their depravity. They steal for a living. They
rob for a living. And that's what they do. And
so we see that home invasions, drugs, bootlegging, if you can
remember that, con games. Yes, depravity costs all of us
money. Depravity has a big impact upon
the economy. Now, another thing. We're all
confronted with depravity every day of our life. It affect us
at any time it might have an effect. You can be eating out
and thugs burst in and begin to shoot you, rob you, steal
what you have, pistol whip you. You can see and hear or perhaps
be a victim of a depravity-driven act. Well, how does the news
begin every night? Breaking news! We're covering
breaking news. Three people shot in an apartment
project. Two found dead in a car. Every
day, every evening. You know what actually blows
my hat in the creek? All the people who still deny
total depravity. that all people are basically
good-hearted and they're just good people. Also, they attribute
such behavior to other causes. They don't admit that it's biblical
depravity. Oh no, it's a psychosis of some
kind, therefore they need treatment, therefore they need professional
help. And that's how it's being used
today. They had a bad childhood or they've been on drugs or Life
has been unkind unto them. Sure, these can be factors, no
doubt they are, but only because they had a corrupt nature that
twists toward perversion and depravity. Now depravity is a
fact of life. Call it whatever you will. Call
it something else. Give it a fancy name. It is taught
in the scripture and it is manifest constantly in human behavior
every day of our life. And it alone explains human conduct. This is the only true explanation
for why people are wicked and mean and kill and murder and
have animosity and commit atrocious acts, depravity. Biblical depravity
is the only answer, and yet the world, our country, our society
has gotten away from that now, and we've got under political
correctness and all that stuff, and now we call it something
else. Hardly ever hear the word sin
anymore in public, but you used to hear it a lot. Anyway, may
the Lord use these things to bless us, and we think on them
even later. Thank you.