Being Human - Adult SS - Lesson 5: Fallen Humanity

Welcome everyone. Before we start, we've got some book recommendations. I'll mention this

! to everyone at the end again, but you get a little preview. Two books on the bookstore that

! are very relevant to today and to all of Sunday School. First of all is the Westminster

Confession of Faith. If you didn't grab a free one last term, you're too late. You've now

got to pay a pound for this, but that's pretty cheap. One pound on the bookstall. And remember,

this is going to be our guide throughout all of Sunday School. So please do grab one there.

And the other one is Pride. I know this has been mentioned a few times over the past year,

but this is going to be really relevant to what we're discussing today about fallen humanity

and sin and kind of how to engage with all that's going on in the culture. And so I recommend

this. I'll mention this at the end again. Grab pens, handouts, and you'll need a Bible today.

We'll be flicking through a lot of passages today.

But before we begin, let me pray. Let's pray for God's, ask for God's help.

Lord God, we thank you that we can freely and openly know you and we can worship you and we can

hear from you. We don't need to meet in secret and we don't take that for granted. Thank you for the

many freedoms and liberties that we do have. And Lord, we ask for your help today as we consider

weighty things of your word, as we consider the sobering realities of who we are, this side of the

fall. Lord, please give us humility. Aid us, please, by your spirit and help us to better understand

our own hearts and what's going on in this world. And we ask this all for your glory and in the name

of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So let's have a quick recap of some of the stuff we did in the

earlier weeks. So we are creatures. We are fundamentally made of dust. And so we are entirely

dependent on God for life and breath and everything. But also we are more than just creatures, aren't we?

We are the crown of creation. We're made in God's image, in his likeness. And no other creature is

made like that. We're made to reflect and represent God. So we're made in knowledge and righteousness

and holiness, meaning we're rational creatures, we're moral creatures, and we're relational creatures.

And also we are vice regents. We're under kings. We have dominion over creation.

And so we are unique and special creatures. We have inherent dignity. We aren't just a bag of cells.

No human life, it's infinitely valuable. And we also saw that we are covenantal creatures. Do you

remember that? So every human, every human exists in covenant with God. So no one is not in covenant

with God. So we are made for him. We're made to worship him, made to obey his law, love him, follow him,

enjoy him, dwell with him. In summary, we're made to worship God. That's in our design, in our blueprint.

And this is how we are to be truly human. This is what it means to be truly fulfilled and flourish

and thrive in this life. And so far in this series, we have been following, focusing on the blueprint of

how God has designed us. So all of this has been before the fall, hasn't it? How we were originally

designed, the purpose and the goodness of it. So at the end of day six, God said, looks at humanity and

said, this is very good. And so we've been seeing what it means to be very good, how we should be.

But something has happened since then. The fall has happened. And we naturally now aren't what we

are designed to be anymore. We're designed to be with God and know God and love God. Our hearts

are made to be directed to God in worship. And we're made to be truly human in our callings as men and

women. Images of God in true knowledge and righteousness and holiness. But all that has

changed since the fall. And I want us to really see today that something has drastically changed

in us. And I want us to ask, what exactly are we now? How can we understand ourselves now? If we've

just been looking at how we were originally and intentionally designed, then what has humanity

become now? And to answer that, we need to look at the fall. So if Genesis 1 and 2 is the blueprint of

true humanity, what we're designed to be, Genesis 3 is the blueprint of fallen, sinful humanity.

true humanity. And all this is really important to understand. Because if we understand this, we

understand our own hearts. We will understand what's going on inside of us every day. And

also, it's helpful, necessary for us to understand what's going on in this crazy world all around

us. Okay? And our understanding of sin and the fall and fallen humanity, what we are now,

when we understand that, it will begin to answer all those questions. And so let's look at the fall.

The first point I have, the fall, I want to see that we have changed. We have changed. Let's read

Genesis 3 together. I want us to read this whole chapter. And really listen as we're reading, because

I've got some questions. We're going to break out into groups after this, and we're going to answer

questions about this passage. So really keep an eye out for all these details. So Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

starting with verse 1.

Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die,

for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,

and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves

together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden

in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God

among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked,

and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I

commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit

of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you have done?

The woman said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have

done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall

go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I'll put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his

heel. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring

forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam he said,

because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,

you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all

the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the

plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The man called his name,

his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for

his wife garments of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, behold the man has become like

one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand, and take also of the tree

of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to work

the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed

the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

This is the word of God. Now I want you to break out into groups and think about,

answer these questions, I want you to think about how God has originally designed us,

all that we've been learning so far, and compare that with what has now changed in that design

since the fall. So I've got six questions there for you. Break out into groups and answer them,

and then we'll gather in a minute, or a few minutes.

that was so small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small.

So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small.

So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small.

So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small. So that was small.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, let's have one more minute looking at Genesis 3.

Thank you.

Okay, let's bring it together.

don't worry if you haven't finished everything we'll go through all the questions together

so first question what is change in our body so we're looking at uh how we were designed

thinking about all the stuff that we've been thinking about up until now and comparing that

to what is now changed in in the fall so what is changing our bodies uh nicola nicola wells

what's changing our bodies pain yeah pain and childbearing and

hard work and death yeah yeah suffering and death to sum it up something's changed in us we are now

mortal okay we were never intended or designed to die but now something has changed something

has changed in reality death has entered and now we are mortal and what's changed to our destinies

um uh paul phoenix

yes yeah yeah yeah that's good yeah you could if we think back to the covenant of works yeah

we we were designed to have eternal life that was always the direction the purpose of

of humanity and that was promised in the in the tree of life but but now what's happened we're

shut out from the tree of life our destinies as humanity has changed it's not eternal life it's

eternal death now uh what's changed between man and woman um uh david wu um conflict and disunity

perfect yeah good words so so man and woman and all of humanity were meant man and woman was meant to

complement each other and humanity was designed to be united but now look uh what what happens in the

curse what what what is said uh to the woman your desire shall be for your husband and he shall loathe

you so so the word actually for desire shall be for your husband it's actually it's an opposition

um so it's going to be a so if the woman if man was designed to be head and protect her

the woman is is now going to wants to strive for that position okay so there's now going to be an

opposition and when it says he shall rule over you the word rule it is not actually a good rule like

man was always meant to be head and protect but that this is a bad rule in the next chapter

that this word for rule is is used for sin sin is going to rule over humanity well actually the

husband is now going to rule in that dominating crushing way over his wife and so uh they were

meant to be complimenting but now they're opposed uh they were meant to be united but now they're going

to be blaming and in competition and what's changed between us and gods um uh let's go chinwa

um yeah that's brilliant yeah so we were designed to enjoy god to love him and now what do we do we

fear him adam and eve are scared of him and we were designed to dwell with him we were always meant to

walk with him in the garden and in all the worlds to to actually be in his presence but but now we

want to hide we don't want to be with god so something's changed in our hearts but we don't want god

and what's changed uh with our dominion uh marius

so we

say it again

yes yeah sorry dominion over creation yeah

yeah exactly like we were meant to have control over creation it was meant to be an enjoyment we're

meant to rule over it but but now it's going to fight back and actually could say we were meant to

rule over nature nature's now going to rule over us and you can even see that in florida that's what's

happened this week that nature's starting to rule does rule over us now and what's changing our minds

our moral compass um chris kitchen

that's that's that that's that that's that that's that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that

like we're just seeing the seeds of all this here we're going to unpack more of the bible later

but but we can even see it in this instance that okay that they were given god's law

and now how do they treat that that they were meant to love and obey god's law but

but now that they don't care about god's law that they trusted satan and not god's

and eve and adam that they became wise in their own sights right they were meant to have wisdom

from god and understand the world in by what god says and now they're saying it and now they're

defining things in their own wisdom and you can even see that but by what they're going for that

the knowledge of good the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but by grasping that eve thinks that

she can define good and evil for herself and yeah and there's shame now that there's guilt in us and so

what's happened to our moral compass our moral compass was designed to point to god right

that that was what truth is that's what goodness is but now it's pointing all over the place it's

pointing at herself so something's changed in our moral compass and also i just want you to know

something our minds are broken what do they do when god comes down the almighty all-seeing god what do

they do they think they can hide in a bush and not be seen by god and again it's just the seed a little

glimpse of what's changed but but something has changed in our thinking we don't think about god or the world

as we should and so what i want us to see is that in the fall something has actually and drastically

changed in us it's not just the case that god made us one way and we're still basically that that same

way but but now we just happen to do bad things now and again just bad things called sin no it's not that

we see in the fall that something has actually changed in us the blueprint of god's original design was

one way but now we aren't like that anymore we are now a broken corrupted distorted version of that

design in a word we have become sinners we don't just do sinful things now we are sinners and this is

the first sub point i want us to see we are sinners so so so what have we seen so far if this is how we

were designed for god's uh to be for us to be dependent on god and man to be head over and love and protect

his wife and together we would have dominion over the creator what's happened now that now uh creation

has dominion over us okay and woman is is now seeking to be head of man and so there's a destruction

and a disunity and a brokenness there and there's a brokenness but between the dominion of uh of our

dominion over creation and in our broken moral compass what do we think about god we think we can

rule over god we don't need god but we can define good and evil for ourselves and we're separated from

from god he casts us out the garden and so there is a break there's an inversion and a break of god's design

and in particular something has drastically changed in our hearts and so look at genesis 6 5 i've got it

printed out there there for you on your handouts so just a few chapters after the fall look how god

sees humanity so genesis 6 5 the lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that

every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously

these are heavy words aren't they so let's just take them seriously like do you see how

just all these words of wickedness and sin that they're just heaped up on top of each other

every intention not just one intention every intention

of the thoughts of his heart was only evil not sometimes continually

god says we are not good we are evil all our intentions and thoughts and desires are only evil

continually we don't get a break from being sinners in this life we always are and notice the contrast

how this contrast to how day six ends so day six ends says god saw he looks down he saw everything

that he made he saw humanity and behold it was very good but what happens now the lord saw

that the wickedness of man was great in the earth

and notice god doesn't just say oh look now they do bad things they just do them

no he looks into our hearts and he sees something has changed he sees we are corrupt we are sinners

and so this is god's moral assessment of of all of humanity every heart

and so so what are we now let's just ask that what are we now if we are designed

to be the image of god reflecting who he is and representing him

are we no longer the image of god well here's here's the answer we are the image of god

but we are broken images of god so in actually in one sense we still are the image of god

so so genesis 9 6 um in this it talks about why murder is so bad these are god's words of why

murder is so bad and one of the reasons he says it's so bad is because we are still the image of god

but when you murder someone you are murdering the image of god and so it's such a travesty because

it's such a precious thing and genesis 3 9 uh james 3 9 sorry um he talks about how bad cursing is

and it's so bad because other people are made in the likeness of god so so we are still the image

but now we are a broken image a corrupted distorted image so if we are designed to reflect god we're

designed to be mirrors reflecting who god is and be an image of who he is you can now think of us

we are shattered mirrors or think about you know those bended warped mirrors you can get at like

in a house of mirrors in a fun fair and you look at it and it's reflecting something but it doesn't

reflect who you are very well at all does it it's all distorted and warped and it's it's a weird version

of you that you see well that's like us now we are just this ugly distortion of the image of god

and this is why being a sinner is such a tragedy and just so awful because we should be something so

much better we've fallen from such a great height so it's like if i if i just made on a scrap bit of

paper now like a little portrait and i showed you and i just scrumpled up and threw it away

you wouldn't care right it's just nothing but if i went up to the mona lisa and i tore it and i

scrumpled it up screwed it up and i threw it away how do you feel that that would be disgraceful if i did

that right well that is why to be a sinner is such a bad thing we have screwed up the mona lisa

and so how can we sum up what it means to be a broken image of god's well we now have corrupted

natures that's my third sub point we have corrupt nature we have corrupt natures and so this is the

language the church in the confession is used so look at these um articles from the westminster

confession of faith this is our guide i'll plug this later it's on the bookstall if you need it

this is our guide and all that we're doing so 6.2 by this sin the original sin in the garden by this

sin adam and eve fell from their original righteousness and design and communion with god

and so became changed and became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all parts and faculties of soul and

everywhere and then 6.3 they being adam and eve being the root of all mankind the guilt of this sin was

imputed remember this word paul's paul's sermons it passed on to us counted to us and this that same

death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed passed down to all their posterity their descendants

descending from them by ordinary generation ordinary birth and then 6.4 from this original corruption

whereby we are utterly indisposed disabled and made opposite to all good and wholly inclined to all evil

do precede all actual transgressions all kind of physical out there transgressions

so what's this saying we have corrupt natures

a human nature so what is human nature a human nature it's just everything about us okay it's all

the it it says that all the parts and faculties of soul and body 6.2 so so it's everything about us heart

mind body desires thinking everything okay and corrupted it means rotten poisoned ruined

so our very being has now become corrupted with sin which means it's not functioning properly

it's functioning now in an evil way and that's what we saw in genesis 3 isn't it adam and eve

weren't functioning properly but we still are the image of god we still are human with human natures

to be human is to be an image of god but we are a corrupted version of that

and so we aren't as bad as we possibly could be so just listen to what i'm saying here we aren't as bad as

we possibly could be we aren't a hundred percent saturated with evil no it's more like every part of us

every thought and desire and ability every kind of compartment everywhere in us

it's all been stained and corrupted with sin

so it's like if my glass of water here

it's water if i got a big dollop of poison and i dropped it in there

uh it wouldn't be a hundred percent poison would it

right but but the poison would have touched every part of that this water you couldn't taste a little

bit this water without tasting poison but it's not a hundred percent poison

but that's like us now

there's not a bit of us anywhere that that hasn't been touched and corrupted by sin

it's touched every minute part of us and so

even the non-christian can still do outwardly good things you know love and be kind give to charity

but even then the heart that that comes from is corrupted everywhere

even those outwardly good works are tainted with sin

and so just while we're here just a side note flip your page on page two

just a side note this nature that we have now it's been passed down to us from adam

so do you see that in 6.3

they being the root of all mankind the guilt of this sin was imputed

and the same death in sin and corrupted nature

conveyed passed down to all their posterity

all their children and children's children descending from them by ordinary generation

ordinary generation which means ordinary birth right giving birth

and this is what paul tells us in romans 5

it's all from adam therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin

and so death spread to all men because all sinned

we all sinned with adam then

and in verse 19 for as by the one man's disobedience

the many were made sinners

when adam fell we were made sinners we were changed

guilt and death and a corrupt nature was passed down to us

adam was representing eve in that moment but he was also representing all of us

all of humanity when he sinned

so if adam was a pool of water

that pool of water was corrupted and poisoned

and it all flows down to all the generations after that

and it's passed down through ordinary generation

ordinary giving birth

so when he had children

seth and then seth had children and they had children and they had children

all the way down to us today

all these ordinary births produce sinners

a corrupt nature is passed down from fathers and mothers to their children

which has just three implications there

which means we are born sinners

that's what david says in psalm 51

in sin did my mother conceive me

from conception we are sinners

we aren't born innocent

and then we eventually become sinners

no

we are born sinners

and every parent in the room I think knows this

we know how sinful our children can be

we never need to teach our children to

to snatch or lie

or to be disobedient do we

we are born with a corrupt nature

and also second thing

this is why the virgin birth of christ is so significant

because jesus was not born by ordinary birth was he

he was born by a supernatural virgin birth

this means he was not included in adam's sin

he was not born with a corrupt nature

he was not a broken image

he came as the true image of god

but third implication

this is also why adam must be real

adam isn't a mythic

made up kind of aesop's fable kind of character

no adam is real real real

he's historical

he walked this earth

he breathed this air

he actually existed

and he was actually the first man

because from him

we get this nature

from him

death occurs

and so as real as our sin is

that is how real adam is

okay that's a side note

but let's see

something has radically and drastically changed us

we are now sinners

we're broken images

we have a corrupt nature

and for this final part

i want us just to focus on

oh we're running out of time

oh

for this final part

i just want us to focus on something specific

i want us to see

what is

what exactly has changed and become corrupt in us

because if everything is corrupt and poisoned with evil

that means

what our desire

that means our desires

what we want

has become corrupt

and so let's see that

the fall

our desires are corrupt

so we've seen

how genesis 3 shows how our hearts have changed

now let's zoom in

on our desires

and our hearts

you hear of the heart a lot in the bible

the heart is the control centre of our being

our hearts

are especially where our desires come from

what we want

and so i want you to look up these passages

maybe just look up the first three

okay

look them up and

see what has changed in our hearts

what's changed with what we naturally want

try to be quick

and we can get through the rest

break out into groups

so

that's the

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, let's bring it together.

Sorry for rushing you guys.

Okay, Ephesians 4.

Who looked at that?

Harry Ovi.

What's our relationship with God like?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And what are our hearts like?

Hardened hearts.

Hardened hearts.

of a little connection here you can follow the logic it's like from the hardness of if you read

it backwards from the hardness of their hearts they are then alienated from god they're ignorant

and alien from god alienated from god and then their minds are darkened in their understanding

okay uh what about romans uh eight uh david fels

um well uh those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh

yeah our minds are completely set on things that are not god right yeah yeah

yes

exactly exactly so yeah the flesh is it's kind of another term

it's for sin the things opposite to god with our minds and our desires you can say all our thinking

is now set opposite to god hostile to god and now we we desire uh sinful things and that's what jesus

says in mark 7 our hearts have now changed and now it's it's from it it's flowing out all this sin

and this is a key key thing to see what it means to be human now that this side of the fall

we are naturally opposed to god we naturally don't want him sometimes you might see this

illustration this gospel illustration you ever seen this but we're we're on one side of the gap

and then god's over here uh and we're trying to get to him aren't we like oh come on come on i just

can't but then the cross helps us get there now if you've used this that like that's okay i'm not

saying don't do this but but can you see what what's wrong with that illustration

are we trying to get to god but we just can't we're not able to do it

no we're running in the opposite direction right it's not that

um we're opposed to him we hate god the language of ephesians 2 is we're children of wrath and so

what we naturally want our desires are corrupt they're broken and unreliable pointing in the wrong

direction they're they're evil we naturally desire sinful things

now we don't think that they're bad things because our moral compass is all broken but we think

they're good things but we tell ourselves they're good things we rationalize it that's why isaiah 5 20

says woe to those who call evil good and good evil but they don't think that it's actually evil

but they just think it's actually good and so our thinking is broken too we have this darkened

understanding but we're not thinking straight and so we are naturally corrupt and we can't help this

we can't help but desire bad things this is how we are naturally we are designed to naturally desire god

but actually what we are now we are naturally desire sin this is how we natural this is our default

position and so our desires are stuck and set into this to desire sin and that's why jesus says

things like we're slaves to sin that's why paul says that without christ we're enslaved to sin and

we're ruled by it and it's a slavery we love uh i'll try and finish in one minute

and so this is fundamentally why we can't save ourselves we don't want to we're enslaved to sin

and so we need to be united to christ we need our old nature to die to escape this slavery and we need

to be raised new and this is why the idea of being true to yourself we hear this all the time is the

message of every disney film this is why being true to yourself is such a dangerous idea the heart and

our desire is not something to be trusted jeremiah 17 the heart is deceitful above all things and so i

hope by now that we can see why this understanding of sin and humanity is so important right now

this is the exact opposite of how the world thinks and i want us to think about this maybe this can be

homework maybe we can think about this next week i've got two scenarios there but i was quickly touching

it this is kind of how the world thinks the church needs to support the lgbtq plus community because i

can't help the way i feel i was born this way and so i need to be true to myself can you see already

how dangerous that thinking is and why people think this way and why they're so enthusiastically

positive about it like this is good for us because our moral compass has flipped and what we now desire

is the opposite to good and we think that is now it's evil but we think it's good uh i'm going to stop

there sorry for running over time do we have any questions at this point i do want to engage with

these maybe think about this for homework and we'll engage it engage with it next next session

great uh let me pray lord god we thank you for the salvation that we have in christ thank you for

all your goodness and your mercy to a fallen humanity help us to know us and know our world better

and in all that to know your grace better we ask this in jesus name amen