Dealing with Depravity

Dealing with Depravity

Gen 3:1-24;
Romans 5:12; 8:20-23

Sept 27-28

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Any study of Faith needs to begin with the Holy Spirit. Let's remember the picture as Jesus experienced the Holy Spirit. Here is the picture: at the time of His baptism by John; A dove descended upon him, we guess His head. Think of a Dove, you picture a beautiful, if aggressive, bird of prey. He appears very smoothe, yet much more powerful than first impression would indicate. A dove Has a small head, not one like one who has a big head like an eagle! A different animal who might have a big head and appear regal; is a lion. The Holy Spirit did not come across that way. He was very humble in that he appeared as a dove! Observing, we might notice the two wings. These symbolize the balanced way of approaching life. We might think of the two eyes as well. the wide spacing helps to provide prospective and distance. One view looks inside and the other looks outside. Concerning the Holy Spirit; this might also be a look either at the micro or the macro. How does this look to me? One look is for all eternity and at all times (the macro). The other looks at a specific particular circumstance (the micro). The body of the dove is covered with a layer of feathers that can be fluffed out to provide insulation from the climate and the elements. The color also is white symbolizing purity and sanctification. Last there are two feet to take small steps, three forward and one back on each foot (two, also for balance.). It is by looking on the eyes that I want to illustrate this lesson,DEALING WITH DEPRAVITY. Depravity is the end result of disobedience. Some people call the Lord, Lord but do the very opposite of things that His scripture would lead them to do. Others ne ver consider the gifts and callings of the Lord.

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In The Beginning

Gen 3:1-24

1 ¶ Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest you die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die:

5 For God does know that in the day ye eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 ¶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit of it, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9 ¶ And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you?

10 And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 ¶ And he said, Who told you that thou was naked? Have you eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded you that thou should not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 ¶ And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because you hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shalt bruise his heel.

16 ¶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 ¶ And unto Adam he said, Because 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;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring to you; and you shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20 ¶ And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

21 ¶ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 ¶ And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the LORD God sent him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from where he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The lesson

Most of us are at least familiar with the concept pictured by this curious story. Some also remembering the unfolding of the verses by heart.

The presenting question that people through the centuries forward have asked: WHY?

To think that the one who had the wisdom To create this world; WHY?

To Look at the things that science has discovered WHY?

To consider that the more things that are learned, more questions are raised than answered; WHY?

To see the unknown knowledge exploding exponentially,WHY?

To think of the misery and pain caused by sin, WHY?

So many Questions so few answers;

To have a baby die in one's arms: WHY?

To lean over in the middle of the night to kiss a lover

But only feeling an empty space left empty by ravaging disease; WHY?

To sit alone in a chair waiting for a call form a wayward child that delays it's coming; WHY?

Or never comes because premature Death has claimed a life; WHY?

To think that One so big and grand who has the power to do something

but doesn't use that power to demonstrate this Love He is supposed to have! WHY?

All of these questions are raised by people who experience some form of result listed in Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Grief prescribes a set of internal experiences a person sees when experiencing Loss of some kind. It May be the loss of an actual thing or person or some loss felt in the thought life. Mental and emotional losses may be just as severe and even more painful.People who have unexpressed expectations or even at times inappropriate expectations experience this Grief process as well The pain felt by internal losses is just as real as the pain experienced by some one whose loved one died. As I study these areas, It seems that Loss is universal to the human condition. So in a world that universally recreates and restores; Is this Grief Process... Gods method of healing and restoring similar to the process of mending a broken bone?.

Grief

1. Shock....Denial A short to intermediate period of time permitting a person to function the life process
   
   until a more appropriate time of examination may take place. In a time of crisis, life must continue
   
   at least until circumstances of safety permit review and examination of the Loss
   

   Anger ..Recognition of the loss Emotional and sometimes violent response to loss of control, loss of the picture of life as one wants it to be!
   
   

   Why? ...Bargaining , making the unwanted reality and go away. Imaginings what if? If only?
   

   Reluctant acceptance...Realization and Bargaining necessary to assimilate the new reality while at the same time effort made to maintain some semblance of sanity.
   

   The inappropriate response to acceptance also drives some to escape,:
   

   • Dependence upon some chemical to "dull" the pain.
     
   • Negotiated sanity that refuses to accept this Loss
     
   • Retreat or escape through physical illness
     
   • So many ways to resolve the loss so as to achieve some normality

   
   

   Acceptance with thanksgiving,

   • if not for the gift of the actual event,
   • Then at least a heart of gratitude for the presence of the Lord through out the experience
   • that many would consider totally unacceptable

   
   

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Death By One

Romans 5:12

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

John in the Epistle lifts back the veil between earth and heaven. The lifted veil reveals a picture of one sitting at the right hand of God. Through out all eternity, the Living God has been constantly performing the task of Advocate before the throne of God. Silently to the world, He answers the accusations of The Accuser with a simple NOT GUILTY! by venture of the blood. It seems to me that this is the only answer any of us can give to respond to the reality of Dealing with Depravity. Not guilty by vulture of the blood. This looks back to past actions and mistakes, wrong choices, and wilful sin. The other side of the picture reveals both the results of sinful action and the inequity that results from a lifestyle of sin and disobedience. We also must confess the sins of blood comitted in the land. In our day, chief among these is the sin of murder comitted in hospitals everywhere...The sin of abortion. For these and for the inequity caused by the sins of our fathers we must repent ,ask forgiveness and by faith plead the blood of Jesus. For truly, by his death and blood we have forgiveness from all these sins and restore some semblance of life to our world.

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For All Sinned

Romans 8:20-23

20 For the creature (creation) was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

A good way to identify the writer, if there is no by line, is to look carefully at the tracks. The word patterns, the sentence structure quickly gives away the mind and heart of the writer. Even with out the benefit of sitting at his feet, he delivers his thoughts reveals his mind and heart. This section is definitely one that would give away Paul the apostle. The words are somewhat awkward to us as we try to wrestle the meaning. Taken with verse context suffering with all creation we can see that Paul is using this simple fact to shore up his line of discussion about the problem of suffering about which this lesson discusses. The entire book of Romans presents Paul's Gospel or so it has been called by others. In the sixteen chapters of Romans Paul presents his account as "eye witness of the Life of Jesus." Having been guilty of at least holding the coats at the stoning of Stephen, Paul keenly feels the sting of sin. which is Guilt At the same time he also feels the glorious liberty of forgiveness. After his vision he thinks back to the words "do not lay this sin to their charge." spoken by the lips of the dying man, Stephen. Paul carries the guilt of this experience to his grave and one can be quite sure that Stephen awaits in heaven to lift the burden off of his back.

Dealing with the Depravity of this World

The Macro view of this condition raises the question of WHY? Why would a loving God permit sin, dist ruction, and all of the grief and misery caused by this. More than a few have completely turned away from God as if he were an abusing Father. Either their own experiences or even hearing of the starving children in the third world. Feed the Children advertise that a hundred thousand children a day starve to death for lack of food. How could a loving God permit this? How could he permit a whole host of other atrocities. We can think of Hitler's Holocaust! Also more recently there was the Kindeman Square massacre in China only a few years ago. The answer it seams lies in the fact of freedom. If the freedom to chose means anything it means the freedom to choose wrong. God gave Adam this freedom in the garden. Freedom brings responsibilities. Chief Responsibility of freedom is to harvest the fruit that results from the seeds derived from the free choices of the man. Paul also mentioned that each one Reaps from the fruit of his free choices.

In Summary

God has given free choice. This freedom has resulted in wrong choices that have ended in pain, sickness and death. While an omnipotent God could remove depravity, to do so would leave a race of automatons. No one would be able to respond in truth. It is like a person giving another a complement. If he gives the complement under duress, the comments are tainted, and not really believed. If however the praise is genuine and a response of true gratitude from the heart we find the complement meaningful!

In short where sin abounds grace does much more abound. The only way to deal with depravity ... is by Grace

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Result of disobedience

15 ¶ But it shall come to pass, if you wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day; that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you:

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Advocate

1 John 2:1

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

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Accuser

Re 12:10

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

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Heirs of God

16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 ¶ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.Back

Charged with death of Stephen

Acts 7: 58

And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

1 ¶ And Saul was consenting unto his death.

In any court of Law an accomplice pleads the same guilt or innocence as the primary who is accused of the crime. Paul seems to feel the guilt of this "silent support."

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Inequity

6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.

10 ¶ And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

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Sins in Land

Genesis 4:10 And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother’s blood cries up to me from the ground.

Genesis 4:11 And now are you cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand;

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Seed time and harvest

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,

and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

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Each Reaps from the Fruit Sewn

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sews, that shall he also reap.

Galatians 6:8 For he that sews to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sews to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life

This shows that the Freedom of free choice will bring brings the responsibility of Harvest! Sadly the prayer for forgiveness will reverse the guilt and give a second chance to choose well. It will not however reverse the harvest. People have children as a harvest of sinful relationships and inequity. The blood will cover their actions, the sin and the guilt; but the children are still alive. They have to be cared for. They start a whole new cycle of forgiveness and the grief process as they reproduce each after their kind as well. Each one carries the sin of the seed of the Fathers before. This is inequity that also must be forgiven. In actual life it must be forgiven again and again and again!

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Grace abounds in hard times

Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

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