The Truth About Man's Condition
A few years ago I was visiting with a friend. As we sat in his home and talked, he noticed that the house
across the street was on fire. We went over and knocked on the door. When owner came out, my friend
said, “Did you know your house is on fire?” The man looked and saw flames coming from the other end of
the house, and they got out before anyone could be hurt. THEY DID NOT KNOW THEY WERE IN ANY
DANGER!
Romans 3:10-18
“ As it is written: "There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who
seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good,
not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practise deceit." "The poison of vipers is on
their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and
misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their
eyes."”
A LIE
The human race has been convinced of a dangerous lie. We have been told that we are good people –
we haven’t done anything wrong - we are not in danger of punishment for our wrongdoing – in the end,
everything will be alright. The truth is - that is a lie. We are infected by a deadly disease called sin. But
most of us don’t know it. We have been told that we are okay.
IGNORANCE
When I was in my 3rd year of school, a friend told me to bring my pocket knife to school one day. I said,
“Isn’t against the rules?” He said, “No. I bring mine to school every day.” He lied. The next day I took my
knife to school and the teacher saw it and punished me for breaking the rules. It didn’t matter that I didn’t
know it was wrong. I believed a lie and got in trouble.
When you stand before God one day, it won’t matter who told you everything was okay. What will matter is
that you broke the rules.
SELF
We have a natural tendency to do the wrong thing. Selfishness, or self-will, is the basic characteristic of
sin. We want what we want – we want our own way, and we want it now. When we see a rule, we have a
tendency to want to break that rule to see what will happen, or just to prove that we can do what we want to
do. The best word to describe this is “pride”. Pride elevates self over everything else.
SIN
Where did sin come from? Adam, the first man, introduced sin into the world and it spoiled man’s nature.
Man was made in God’s image – that is, He was made to be like God in His righteousness. But man sinned
and his nature was spoiled:
Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
Genesis 2:17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it
you will surely die."
(Genesis 3:1-19 NIV)
“ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.
{The serpent represents Satan. He was originally the angel called Lucifer. He was the most perfect
angel. But a sinful attitude developed in him. He wanted to be greater than God. This is where sin
originated. Then, he spread his sinful attitude to man through temptation.}
He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" The woman
said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" "You will not
surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree
was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate
it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But
the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten
from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me—
she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this
you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." So the LORD God said to the
serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to
children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam he said, "Because you
listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ "Cursed
is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce
thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat
your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will
return."”
DISOBEDIENCE
So, man incurred a curse for disobeying God. That is what sin is.
1 John 3:4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
(Another vesrsion says that sin is the “breaking of God’s law”.
So we see that Satan introduced sin into the world, as the temptor, and man willingly entered into sin.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in
this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
MAN’S HEART
Sinfulness became a common trait of man. We are not cursed just because of Adam’s sin. We are cursed
because we also sin. We are cursed because we follow our sinful desires instead of following God.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
You see, the fact is that we lie to ourselves and say we are alright when we are not. We deny our
wickedness. We refuse to face the truth about ourselves. Your heart is your true self. The Bible tells us
that -
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
adultery,
Mark 7:22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
TEMPTATION
James 1:14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
James 1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth
to death.
So, the progression here is –
- We are tempted. That is, we desire something that is forbidden.
- We give in to temptation and do the thing – we commit sin.
- Sin brings guilt, shame, consequences, and, eventually, death.
And the worst part is that we all do it.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
The greater problem is that :
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death ...
Ezekiel 18:4 ... the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
You see, we are all guilty of sin – we are all guilty of breaking God’s laws. And even if you have never
murdered, or stolen anything of great value, of committed adultery, or anything like that, we have still done
some of the little things.
10 COMMANDMENTS
Let me be more specific. In the Bible, we have the Ten Commandments. They are:
1 - No other gods – Have you ever made anything more important than God?
2 - No graven images – Have you ever worshipped anything other than God?
3 - Do not take God’s name in vain – Have you ever used God’s name wrongly?
4 - Keep the Sabbath holy – Do you set aside one day for God?
5 - Honor father and mother – Have you ever dishonored your parents?
6 - Do not kill – Have you ever killed anyone?
7 - Do not commit adultery – Have you ever had sex outside of marriage?
And, I must tell you that Jesus said even if you have thought about murder or adultery you are guilty.
8 - Do not steal – Have you every taken anything that was not yours?
9 - Do not bear false witness – Have you ever lied?
10 - Do not covet – Have you ever been jealous of someone else?
Now, maybe you will look at that list and say, “You know, I’m not too bad. I’ve only done one or two out of
ten.” But the Bible says that if you have broken one command your are guilty.
Let me ask you – How many laws do you have to break to be a law breaker? Just one.
The bad news is that every single one of us is guilty of breaking God’s law. We all deserve to be punished
according to the law.
But the good news is this -
Romans 6:23 ... the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
You see, there is a cure for this disease called sin. Jesus is the cure. He died to pay for our sins. He took
the punishment for what we did wrong. What we have to do is accept his payment and stop living in sin.
How many of you would like to accept His forgiveness?
Most religions tell us what the rules are. Only Jesus offers us a cure for breaking the rules. The fact is, we
just can’t seem to keep obeying the rules. We don’t need more rules. We don’t even need advice on how
to obey the rules. We need forgiveness, and we need supernatural help to obey the rules.
across the street was on fire. We went over and knocked on the door. When owner came out, my friend
said, “Did you know your house is on fire?” The man looked and saw flames coming from the other end of
the house, and they got out before anyone could be hurt. THEY DID NOT KNOW THEY WERE IN ANY
DANGER!
Romans 3:10-18
“ As it is written: "There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who
seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good,
not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practise deceit." "The poison of vipers is on
their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and
misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their
eyes."”
A LIE
The human race has been convinced of a dangerous lie. We have been told that we are good people –
we haven’t done anything wrong - we are not in danger of punishment for our wrongdoing – in the end,
everything will be alright. The truth is - that is a lie. We are infected by a deadly disease called sin. But
most of us don’t know it. We have been told that we are okay.
IGNORANCE
When I was in my 3rd year of school, a friend told me to bring my pocket knife to school one day. I said,
“Isn’t against the rules?” He said, “No. I bring mine to school every day.” He lied. The next day I took my
knife to school and the teacher saw it and punished me for breaking the rules. It didn’t matter that I didn’t
know it was wrong. I believed a lie and got in trouble.
When you stand before God one day, it won’t matter who told you everything was okay. What will matter is
that you broke the rules.
SELF
We have a natural tendency to do the wrong thing. Selfishness, or self-will, is the basic characteristic of
sin. We want what we want – we want our own way, and we want it now. When we see a rule, we have a
tendency to want to break that rule to see what will happen, or just to prove that we can do what we want to
do. The best word to describe this is “pride”. Pride elevates self over everything else.
SIN
Where did sin come from? Adam, the first man, introduced sin into the world and it spoiled man’s nature.
Man was made in God’s image – that is, He was made to be like God in His righteousness. But man sinned
and his nature was spoiled:
Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
Genesis 2:17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it
you will surely die."
(Genesis 3:1-19 NIV)
“ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.
{The serpent represents Satan. He was originally the angel called Lucifer. He was the most perfect
angel. But a sinful attitude developed in him. He wanted to be greater than God. This is where sin
originated. Then, he spread his sinful attitude to man through temptation.}
He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" The woman
said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" "You will not
surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree
was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate
it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But
the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten
from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me—
she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this
you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." So the LORD God said to the
serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to
children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." To Adam he said, "Because you
listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ "Cursed
is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce
thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat
your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will
return."”
DISOBEDIENCE
So, man incurred a curse for disobeying God. That is what sin is.
1 John 3:4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
(Another vesrsion says that sin is the “breaking of God’s law”.
So we see that Satan introduced sin into the world, as the temptor, and man willingly entered into sin.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in
this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
MAN’S HEART
Sinfulness became a common trait of man. We are not cursed just because of Adam’s sin. We are cursed
because we also sin. We are cursed because we follow our sinful desires instead of following God.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
You see, the fact is that we lie to ourselves and say we are alright when we are not. We deny our
wickedness. We refuse to face the truth about ourselves. Your heart is your true self. The Bible tells us
that -
Mark 7:21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
adultery,
Mark 7:22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
TEMPTATION
James 1:14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
James 1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth
to death.
So, the progression here is –
- We are tempted. That is, we desire something that is forbidden.
- We give in to temptation and do the thing – we commit sin.
- Sin brings guilt, shame, consequences, and, eventually, death.
And the worst part is that we all do it.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
The greater problem is that :
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death ...
Ezekiel 18:4 ... the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
You see, we are all guilty of sin – we are all guilty of breaking God’s laws. And even if you have never
murdered, or stolen anything of great value, of committed adultery, or anything like that, we have still done
some of the little things.
10 COMMANDMENTS
Let me be more specific. In the Bible, we have the Ten Commandments. They are:
1 - No other gods – Have you ever made anything more important than God?
2 - No graven images – Have you ever worshipped anything other than God?
3 - Do not take God’s name in vain – Have you ever used God’s name wrongly?
4 - Keep the Sabbath holy – Do you set aside one day for God?
5 - Honor father and mother – Have you ever dishonored your parents?
6 - Do not kill – Have you ever killed anyone?
7 - Do not commit adultery – Have you ever had sex outside of marriage?
And, I must tell you that Jesus said even if you have thought about murder or adultery you are guilty.
8 - Do not steal – Have you every taken anything that was not yours?
9 - Do not bear false witness – Have you ever lied?
10 - Do not covet – Have you ever been jealous of someone else?
Now, maybe you will look at that list and say, “You know, I’m not too bad. I’ve only done one or two out of
ten.” But the Bible says that if you have broken one command your are guilty.
Let me ask you – How many laws do you have to break to be a law breaker? Just one.
The bad news is that every single one of us is guilty of breaking God’s law. We all deserve to be punished
according to the law.
But the good news is this -
Romans 6:23 ... the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
You see, there is a cure for this disease called sin. Jesus is the cure. He died to pay for our sins. He took
the punishment for what we did wrong. What we have to do is accept his payment and stop living in sin.
How many of you would like to accept His forgiveness?
Most religions tell us what the rules are. Only Jesus offers us a cure for breaking the rules. The fact is, we
just can’t seem to keep obeying the rules. We don’t need more rules. We don’t even need advice on how
to obey the rules. We need forgiveness, and we need supernatural help to obey the rules.