- Worse than "unmanageable": Dead
- Zombies in search of chaos
- Slaves to self-law (autonomy)
- Universal slavery: All men everywhere
- "We are powerless."
A. Worse than "unmanageable": Dead
As a result of Adam's rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden, all Adam's children
are by nature spiritually dead; if they are to become sons of God and enter His Kingdom,
they must be "re-born" by the Spirit of God.
1. God warned Adam not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, on threat of immediate
spiritual death.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man,
saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you
shall surely die."
2. Adam disobeyed and ate of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-7). As a result, he
brought spiritual death upon himself and the whole human race.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men,
because all sinned;
Ephesians 2:1-3 And you He made alive, when you
were dead in trespasses and sins, {2} in
which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, {3}
among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him,
having forgiven you all trespasses,
3. David King of Israel confesed that he and all other men were born in rebellion
against God
Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And
in sin my mother conceived me.
Psalm 58:3 The wicked go astray from the womb; They
rebel as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4. Because men are born in sin and are by nature spiritually dead, they must be born a
second time if they are to enter Life.
John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say
to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
{6} That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. {7}
Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born
again.'
John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He
gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
{13} who were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
B. Zombies with a thirst for the "unmanageable."
When America was a Christian nation, goodness,
helpfulness, and truth were exalted. Today, our celebrities are those who have no
responsibilities, who make up their own law, and reject God. This is a result of Adam's
Fall: men are blind and deaf to spiritual truth. Their minds are darkened by sin; their
hearts are rotten and evil.
Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.
Genesis 8:21 . . . the imagination of man's heart is evil
from his youth. . . .
Ecclesiastes 9:3 Truly the hearts of the sons of men
are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to
the dead.
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful
above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Mark 7:21-23 "For from within, out of the
heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, {22}
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness. {23} All
these evil things come from within and defile a man."
John 3:19 "And this is the condemnation, that the
light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil.
Romans 8:7-8 Because the carnal mind is hostile to God;
for it is not subject to the law of God, indeed, it cannot.
{8} So then, those who are in the flesh cannot
please God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; he is not able to
understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Ephesians 4:17-19 This I say, therefore, and testify in
the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the
futility of their mind, {18} having
their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; {19}
they have become callous and have given themselves over to
lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you
are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Titus 1:15 To the pure all things are pure, but to
those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and
conscience are defiled.
C. Before the Spirit re-creates us and we are born into God's Kingdom,
we are children of Satan. We are owned by the devil. We are his slaves.
John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and your
will is to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Ephesians 2:1-2 And you He made alive, who were dead in
trespasses and sins, {2} in
which you once walked according to the course of this world, following the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
2 Timothy 2:25-26 God perhaps will grant them
repentance, so that they may know the truth, {26} and
that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken
captive by him to do his will.
1 John 3:10 In this may be seen who are the children of
God and who are the children of the devil: Whoever does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole
world lies under the power of the wicked one.
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I
say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
Romans 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin,
you were "free" -- in regard to righteousness.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were also once foolish,
disobedient, deceived, slaves to various lusts and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another.
D. The reign of sin is universal; all human beings are under its
power. As a result, no one is righteous -- not even one!
2 Chronicles 6:36 . . .(for there is no one who does
not sin) . . . . (compare 1 Kings 8:46)
Job 15:14-16 "What is man, that he could be pure?
And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? {15}
If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure
in His sight, {16} How much
less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!
Psalm 130:3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O
Lord, who could stand?
Psalm 143:2 Do not enter into judgment with Your
servant, For in Your sight no one living is righteous.
Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, "I have made my heart
clean, I am pure from my sin"?
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a just man on
earth who does good and does not sin.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 Truly, this only I have found: That
God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes."
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have
turned, every one, to his own way;
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And
all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities,
like the wind, Have taken us away.
Romans 3:9-12 What then? Are we better than they? Not
at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
{10} As it is written: "There
is none righteous, no, not one; {11}
There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. {12}
They have all turned aside; They have together become
unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
James 3:2,8 For we all stumble in many things. If
anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole
body. {8} But no man can
tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. {10} If
we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
E. Men left in their dead state are unable to manage their lives,
change course, and enter the Kingdom. They have no power within themselves to
repair their lives and experience the Lord's salvation.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No one!
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the
leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Matthew 7:16-18 "You will know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? {17}
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree
bears bad fruit. {18} A
good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Matthew 12:33 "Either make the tree good and its
fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its
fruit.
John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father
who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to
you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
Romans 11:35-36 "Or who has first given to Him And
it shall be repaid to him?" {36} For
of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; he is not able to
understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you differ from
another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive
it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
It is for obvious reasons, then, that man depends on a "Higher Power" to
become a child of God.
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