Last night we looked at man as ruler. This morning we're going to look at man as ruined.
! What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving,
! How express and admirable, in action, how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a
God, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals? And yet, to me, what is this quintessence
of dust? Man delights not me, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
So wrote Shakespeare in his play Hamlet. Did you hear Shakespeare's tension as he looks
at man? In one moment he looks with admiration. Oh, what a piece of work is man! And in the
next moment he looks with aversion. Man delights not me.
We do the same, don't we? In one moment we look on the human being with admiration, like
when we see the intellect of an Albert Einstein coming up with a theory of relativity, or when
we see the athleticism of a Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon in the Olympics. And yet in another
moment we look on the human being with disgust, like when we see the men of ISIS destroy women
and children in Syria and Iraq, or when we hear of Rolf Harris abusing women and children
all of his life. Why in one moment do we look on the human being with amazement, and in the
next moment with aversion? Oh, what a piece of work is man! But man delights not me! Why the tension? Well, the Bible gives a very simple answer.
Well, the Bible gives a very simple answer, and it's a one word answer. Sin. S-I-N. Our origins, as we saw last night, are high and holy, but we have fallen very far short from what God intended us to be.
We have, in a word, sin. And Genesis chapter 3 gives us three aspects of sin. Number one, the definition of sin is transgression. The definition of sin is transgression. Verses 1 to 6 of chapter 3.
The perfect creation that God had made in chapter 1 is soon disturbed by one of his own creatures. 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?
Now, the serpent doesn't directly contradict God's words here. He just twists God's words.
Look back at chapter 2, verse 16.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
You may surely eat, or freely eat, of every tree of the garden,
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.
Then look at what Satan says.
Chapter 3, verse 1.
Did God actually say,
You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Then, God gives an expansive provision.
You're free to eat from any tree except one.
And Satan turns that expansive provision into a restrictive prohibition.
Did God say you can't eat from any tree?
He's trying to make God look like a killjoy.
He's trying to make God look tight.
Now, if we're going to understand Eve's response properly,
we first need to think about what this tree of the knowledge of good and evil actually represented.
And in order to do so, I want you to imagine, or draw on your page, a picture, a diagram.
Imagine a big circle.
Big circle.
And underneath that big circle is a little circle.
So big circle, little circle.
And in between both circles is a horizontal line.
That is Genesis chapter 2 and 3 in a picture.
The big circle is God.
The small circle is everything that he made, including us.
And the horizontal line is the distinction between God and us.
Between creator and creature.
And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is like that horizontal line.
It's God's way of saying, I'm the creator, you're the creature.
I'm the one with the authority to decide what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil.
It's God's way of saying to us, I'm God, you are not God.
That was the first law.
It was the first law of all God's laws.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall respect the horizontal line.
So, with that understanding of the tree, let's return to this conversation between the serpent and the woman.
Now remember, God's the big circle above the horizontal line.
And he is given a command.
And here is a creature, the serpent, below the horizontal line, questioning the command.
And what does Eve do?
Verse 2.
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.
Eve enters into dialogue here with the serpent.
And in effect, she acts like the authority of God is up for debate.
She starts rubbing out that horizontal line.
That's her first mistake.
It's not that the fall occurs at this point.
But her foot has started to slip.
Why?
Because she has started to deny God his position of absolute authority.
As the one who decides what is right and wrong.
When Satan asked her the question, did God say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Her response should have been, who are you to talk back to the creator?
He's God.
You are not God.
You do what he says.
It is for our good.
Instead, she adopts a position of neutrality.
As she thinks, let me objectively assess here what God's word has said.
And look what happens when a creature enters discussions over God's word with another creature.
God's word gets minimized.
Did you notice that in her words?
Eve minimizes their privileges.
God said, you are free to eat or you may surely eat.
She says, we may eat.
She understates the potential judgment.
God says, you will surely die.
She says, you will die.
She's taken out the surely.
She maximizes the prohibition.
God said, you must not eat.
She says, you must not eat and you must not touch it.
Eve, you can go and put your hammock in it if you want and have a sleep.
You just can't eat from it.
So do you see what happens when you enter into neutral discussions about God and his word instead of respecting his authority?
His word gets minimized.
Well, the serpent has noticed that Eve no longer respects God's authority completely.
And so he goes for the jugular.
He contradicts God's word directly.
Verse four.
But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
The exact opposite of what God said in chapter two, verse 17.
For God knows that when you eat of this tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
What the serpent offers the woman here is the opportunity to be like God, to become God of her own world, to have her own kingdom.
Look at her response.
Verse six.
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.
Now, I want you to think with me about what actually happens here in this process.
Notice how the woman comes to this decision.
She comes to the decision to eat from the forbidden tree independently from God.
The woman depends on her own senses and rationale as she weighs up eating from this tree.
Do you notice that in verse six?
Pleasing to the eye, good to taste, intellectually advantageous.
God said it is not wise to eat.
She assesses it independently from God and says it would be wise to eat from this tree.
She becomes the interpreter of reality.
She rejects God's interpretation of reality and she becomes her own interpreter.
In short, she interprets the tree independent from God.
That is how she comes to this decision.
But notice also what this act means.
Precisely because she interprets the tree from her own perspective and not God's perspective,
what has she done?
She has set herself up as the ultimate authority to interpret the world.
She now decides what is right and what is wrong.
And for her, it's right to take from the tree.
Because she has interpreted the tree independently from God.
She has rubbed out that horizontal line and she's moved the little circle up beside the big circle.
In the beginning, God established a kingdom.
And here are his creatures, Adam and Eve, establishing their own kingdom.
The kingdom of the self.
Where self interprets by itself and self acts by itself.
And the name of the kingdom, autonomy.
Auto nomos.
A law unto themselves.
And that is the heart of sin.
They wanted to be God.
They wanted to have their own kingdom.
Jackie and I last year enjoyed watching a TV series.
Not recommended to anyone under the age of 18.
Called Breaking Bad.
From the giggles I can see that some of you have seen it.
And in this TV series, it's about a man who's a chemistry teacher.
Who's dying with a lung tumor.
He's got six months to live.
And he decides to try and make money for his family before he dies.
And because he's a chemistry teacher, he knows how to make methylene drugs.
He doesn't take it himself.
But he starts making it.
And he starts making lots of money.
Like hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars.
But life just gets so complicated.
He starts getting offside with gangs who he's selling the drugs to.
The cartel in South America start wanting to kill him.
People have been killed in the process.
And his partner, Jesse, at one point says,
We have to get out of this.
It is getting too crazy.
People are getting killed.
People are losing their lives.
Families are being destroyed.
Why won't you give this up?
And Walt looks at him and says,
It's not about the meth.
It's not about the money.
It's about the empire.
It's this poignant moment when you start to see what is in Walter White's heart.
It's about the empire.
And for Adam and Eve, it wasn't about the fruit.
It was about the empire.
They wanted to be God.
They wanted their own kingdom.
And that is what is at the heart of sin.
It is the promotion of ourselves to that place of ultimate authority where we become our own gods.
Adam and Eve transgressed the law that God is God and we are not.
They broke the first commandment.
You shall have no other gods before me.
They worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.
They transgressed the line between the big circle and the little circle.
When God said, you shall not cross that line.
That is the definition of sin.
It is transgression.
Transgression of what?
Transgression of the law that God is God and we are not God.
That is the first point that Genesis 3 teaches us.
The definition of sin is transgression.
Number two.
The corruption of sin is systemic.
That's just another way of saying that sin affects the whole person.
Now, in each of the points that I'm going to make this morning,
there's a picture I want you to have in your head or an image.
The first one is the big circle, the little circle, and the horizontal line.
This one is of a river.
A river that's being contaminated with some chemicals at its source.
What happens when you pour chemicals into a river at its source?
Well, the whole river gets contaminated, doesn't it?
And that's like sin.
Sin gets to the source of our being, to the core,
and it contaminates everything.
Our body, our emotions, our will, our heart, our words,
our actions, our mind.
And I want to focus on two of these.
The heart and the mind.
The will and the mind.
Let's take a look at the heart.
Come with me to Genesis 6, verse 5.
Genesis chapter 6, verse 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 continually.
Now, the heart in the Bible is the control center of the person.
It's not where you shed your tears from.
It's not your emotions.
The heart in the Bible is the command center of the person.
It's the command center of the will.
And look again at what Genesis 6, verse 5 says.
Note the extreme expressions.
Every, only, continually.
There's no wiggle room here.
Every inclination, not one inclination, evades the accusation.
Every inclination, it gets to the root of our decision making.
Every inclination of the thoughts gets to the thinking behind our actions.
And behind our thinking is an inclination.
It's only evil.
Singularly descriptive.
Nothing else describes every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart
except that adjective, evil.
All the time, continually.
The evil of the heart has no respite, no pauses, no timeouts, no Sabbaths.
All day, every day, every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart
are only evil.
Wow.
Jeremiah 17, verse 9.
In the heart is deceitful above all things.
Beyond cure, who can understand it?
Now, this is not how our society views the human nature.
I think there's a number of views that our society expresses about human nature.
Let me give you two.
And let me give you two explanations they give for why we do what we do.
There is the view that we are amoral beings.
That is, that we are neither good nor bad.
We are simply advanced animals.
Products of a long evolutionary process.
We act out of impulse and instinct.
When we do do something bad, in inverted commas,
it's not really badness, it's just immaturity.
We're just exhibiting that part of us which we have in common with the lower animals.
We just need to grow up, or rather grow out,
of those immature, primitive, instinctual behaviors
that we have inherited from our ancestors.
So that's the one view.
We are amoral.
And we act out of just instinct, because we're just animals.
Another view is that we are actually essentially good.
We're not bad.
We're essentially good.
And it's just external factors that make us behave the way we do.
It's things outside of us, like family, environment, culture, circumstances,
that cause us to act or react instinctively, not intentionally.
And the Bible's perspective is so very different to those two views.
We are not amoral creatures.
We are moral creatures.
We are not inherently good.
We are inherently bad.
We are corrupt at the very core of our being.
Every facet of our nature is contaminated by sin.
The Bible doesn't speak of sin on a scale of immaturity to maturity.
The Bible speaks on the axis of moral accountability.
The Bible doesn't say that we act out of instinct or impulse.
It says we act out of intent.
What the Bible says is that we do what we do out of intent, not instinct.
We do what we do, not out of anxious emotional reactivity of the brain,
but out of the intentional thoughts of the heart.
It's not that your brain isn't involved.
It is.
But it is your heart that is driving your mind.
Paul Tripp puts it well.
Circumstances and people do not make us do what we do.
They are simply the occasions for our hearts to reveal themselves.
It's not your circumstances or the people around you,
the external factors that make you do what you do.
They are simply the occasions for your heart to reveal itself.
And Genesis says that our hearts are corrupt at the core.
They're polluted at the source.
Every inclination of the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually.
And our society doesn't know what to do with this.
A good example is the case of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer.
Do you remember that guy in Norway who set off a bomb down in the city as a distraction
and then made his way to an island where there was a socialist political retreat of young people?
And then with a machine gun he mowed down 77 people on that island.
During the court case, Anders Breivik testified that he knew exactly what he was doing,
that he wanted to do it, and that he did it because of his fascist ideology.
What was fascinating in that case was that the prosecution didn't accept his testimony.
They refused to think that this man was compass mentis when he acted in such a way.
They wanted to prosecute him on the grounds that he was insane.
Yet all along he's saying,
I know what I was doing, I wanted to do it,
and I did it because I'm a fascist ideology.
Now why was it the prosecution couldn't fathom that?
Well it's because they didn't have a category for understanding human nature as evil.
But if we accept the Bible's testimony,
then we have to say that Anders Breivik did what he did,
because at the very core of his being,
all common grace restraints had been removed,
and the full evil of his heart was revealed.
I'm sure his family history affected him.
I'm sure his social environment affected him.
I'm sure his cultural context affected him.
I'm sure that day he was reacting emotionally with anxiety
as he went around shooting people.
But Anders Breivik did not act out of instinct or impulse.
He acted out of intent.
And that is what the Bible says,
that at the very core of our being we are corrupt.
And that corruption affects all of our actions.
It affects our heart,
but it also affects our mind.
So we've looked at the heart, the will,
now I want to look at the mind.
Now of course, we know the mind is finite,
we know it's forgetful,
but beyond this,
does sin actually affect our minds?
Most Christians I know have either not thought about this,
or if they have,
they think it hasn't affected our minds very much,
because after all,
don't non-Christians invent things,
make great scientific discoveries,
produce magnificent works of art,
literature and architecture?
And at one level that's true.
If we had time to keep reading in Genesis chapter 4,
we would read about rebellious,
murderous Cain,
who builds a city.
Well, you have to have some intellect to build a city.
Or his descendant,
Jubal,
was gifted in music.
And Jubal Cain,
another descendant,
was an engineer
who worked with industrial instruments
like bronze and iron.
So non-Christians can think,
they can create,
they can play,
they can construct.
As Cornelius Van Til put it,
the Israelites did not have to recut
the timbers fashioned by the Phoenicians
to fit them into the temple.
When the Phoenicians measured a piece of wood
for the temple,
the measurement was the same
as if an Israelite had measured it.
Measurements are measurements
or measurements.
Pagans,
Christians and Muslims
can each measure.
So the question is,
does sin actually affect our minds?
Well, I want to suggest that it does
and I want to go through various passages now
to show you that it does.
We get the first hint of it
in chapter 3 actually of Genesis.
Just look at what Adam and Eve's response is
to their sin.
Verse 7.
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.
Now just think about who it is
they're trying to hide from.
The creator of the universe
who made the trees,
who made fig leaves.
I mean, if this isn't the case
of the human mind
not quite thinking straight,
then I don't know what is.
Let's go and hide from God.
Yes, behind those trees.
He won't see us behind those trees.
It's a bit like our son Ben
who loves to play hide and seek
after dinner
while we're still sitting
at the dinner table
and he goes and hides
in the very room that we're sitting
and draws the curtains
and says,
Where's Ben?
We don't know Ben.
Where's Ben?
I mean, he is a legend,
you know,
but he's letting down
the family name at that point.
There are strong hints here
in Genesis 3
that the human mind
has been affected by sin.
They're trying to hide
from the God
who sees all things.
But come with me
to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
And here's a passage
that I think really penetrates
to the heart
of how sin affects our minds.
Ephesians 4 verse 17.
Now this I say
and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer walk
as the Gentiles do
in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened
in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance
that is in them
due to the hardness
of heart.
Do you see how Paul
gives a cause
to the cause
of our darkened understanding?
Verse 18,
our minds are futile,
our understanding
is darkened.
Why?
Because we are separated
from the life of God
because of the ignorance
of God that is in us,
that is the willful defiance
that there is a God,
due to the hardening
of heart.
Do you see the double causation
behind our thinking
that's futile and darkened?
There is the ignorance of God
and behind the ignorance of God
is a hard heart.
That is the cause
of futile and flawed thinking.
Behind the mind
is a heart
that hates God.
The mind is governed
by the heart.
The mind is governed
by the heart.
This is a profound
theological point.
Now some people
would like to dispute that.
They'd say,
no, no, no.
It is possible
for the mind
to govern the heart.
It's possible
for the mind
to control our actions,
our emotions.
Indeed, isn't that
the mature person?
The person who acts,
exhibits, sorry,
mind over will,
mind over heart,
mind over emotions?
In other words,
if only Anders Breivik
had just stopped
to think
for a moment.
And this, of course,
is the boast
of secular humanism,
that the natural person,
by the reasonable use
of reason,
can interpret
the course
and constitution
of their nature,
that the mind
can control the heart.
But that is fundamentally
to misunderstand
how God has made us.
God has made us
in such a way
that we have a mind,
but that behind our mind
is a heart
that drives our mind.
Let me give you
an illustration.
Imagine I gave you
a bowl of cockroaches.
Imagine this afternoon
you had cockroaches
for lunch.
And I said,
please eat the cockroaches.
And you said,
well, I don't want
to eat the cockroaches.
And I say to you,
why don't you want
to eat the cockroaches?
I don't like cockroaches.
Okay, so,
you've proved my point,
that you're driven
by your desires.
You hate cockroaches,
and that's why
you won't eat them.
You're driven
by your heart,
not your mind.
And you say,
well, okay,
I'll eat the cockroaches
to prove to you
that my mind
can overcome
my desires.
I'm going to apply
my mind
in such a way
that I overcome
my dislike
for cockroaches.
So I'm going to eat them.
So you start chomping
on your cockroaches.
And you say,
see,
I've proved it.
I've made a decision
with my mind
that has overcome
my desires.
And you would be right.
Right?
Wrong.
Yes,
you have overcome
your dislike
for cockroaches
by a decision
of your mind,
but you are now
controlled
by a stronger desire.
The desire
to prove me wrong.
Do you see?
Every decision
is driven
by the desires
of your heart.
Whether you don't
eat the cockroaches
because you don't
like them,
or you do eat
the cockroaches
because you want
to prove me wrong,
either way,
you are led
by the desires
of your heart.
It is heart
over mind,
not mind
over heart.
And this means
that our thinking,
first and foremost,
is a heart issue.
It's a moral issue.
And do you see that
in Ephesians 4?
Our mind is futile,
our understanding
is darkened.
Why?
Because at the very
root of it
is a hard heart.
And the first point
I want to make
on this thing
about the mind
is that our thinking
is a moral activity.
It's not neutral
intellectual activity.
Another way
of saying this
is thinking
is a very spiritual
thing to do.
And by thinking,
I don't just mean
thinking about
the things of God,
I mean thinking
about anything.
What Paul says
to us is,
the thinking
we do with our minds
is a very moral thing.
It's the activity
of your heart.
All thinking
is essentially
moral and spiritual.
You can't think
about psychology
and geology
and engineering
over here
and then go over here
and start thinking
about morality.
When you think
about psychology
and geology
and engineering
over here,
you are acting
morally.
That is a spiritual
activity.
And that is the
first connection
we need to see
that our thinking
is moral.
Our thinking
is moral.
Second,
our thinking
is hostile.
Chapter 4,
verse 18.
They are darkened
in their understanding,
alienated from
the life of God
because of the
ignorance that is
in them
due to the
hardness of heart.
Our heart
lies behind
our thinking,
but notice
what kind of
heart
lies behind
our thinking.
It is a hard
one.
Another way
of saying this
is that our hearts
are hostile to God,
set in opposition
to God,
which means
therefore that
our minds
are set in
opposition to God.
because our hearts
control our minds.
Paul says in
Romans 8, 7,
the mind
controlled by
the flesh
is hostile
to God,
does not submit
to God's law
nor can it
do so.
If all our
thinking is moral
and if our hearts
are hard in
rebellion against
God,
then our thinking
is really
immoral.
It is hostile
to God.
All our thought
patterns and
whatever areas
of life
are constantly
expressing
rebellion
against God.
The reason
we do that
is because
that was
what our
first parents
did.
Remember what
we saw
with Adam
and Eve.
They interpreted
the tree
independently
from God
using their
own senses
and rationale.
They thought
in opposition
to God.
They acted
in opposition
to God.
Their thoughts
about the tree
became hostile
thoughts
in comparison
to God's
thoughts.
They stopped
thinking God's
thoughts about
the tree.
Do not eat.
It is not
wise to eat.
And they
started thinking
their own
thoughts about
the tree.
We can become
like God.
And that
position of
independent
interpretation
God's world
is what
skews
all thinking
about the
facts of
God's
world.
Another
picture for
you from
Cornelius
Van Til.
All is
yellow to
the jaundiced
eye.
If your
eye is
jaundiced
and you're
looking out
of it,
you'll see
yellow
everywhere you
go.
And because
our hearts
are hard
when we look
at the world
and try to
think about
something,
our mind
is futile,
our understanding
is hostile
to God.
Which brings
us to the
third point,
our thinking
is moral,
our thinking
is hostile,
and third,
our thinking
is darkened.
Because it's
hostile to
God, our
thinking is
darkened.
Last year
I was in
Oxford.
We were
playing a
hockey game
and I was
travelling home
that night
from Oxford
and I
borrowed a
friend's
GPS,
a friend
who lives
in Cambridge
and when
I got
into the
car I
switched on
the GPS
and I
saw the
home setting
and I
just clicked
home.
And I
looked on
the map
and it
looked like
it was
heading to
Cambridge
so I
just said
done and
off we
went.
And I
was just
on my
own and
I'm
driving
back and
I'm
moving from
Oxford
towards
Cambridge
and as
I'm
coming
30 miles
towards
Cambridge
the
GPS
starts
taking me
slightly
away from
Cambridge
and I'm
thinking
maybe it's
just a
different
route to
get me
back to
Cambridge
so I
just keep
going and
the closer
and closer
I get to
Cambridge the
more I
realize I'm
being taken
slightly away
from Cambridge
and I'm
sort of
tapping this
thing
what's wrong
with this
GPS
and then I
realized that
the home
setting wasn't
actually Cambridge
it was something
like 10
miles outside
of Cambridge
I didn't
know whether
this friend
played a joke
on me or
not but
he basically
visited a
friend and
for some
reason he
put his
home setting
down as
this friend
10 miles
out of
Cambridge
and here
I am
following this
GPS going
slightly away
from Cambridge
now what
was wrong
was it the
GPS
no
there's
absolutely
nothing wrong
with the
GPS it
was functioning
normally
what was
wrong was
the home
setting
the default
setting was
wrong the
coordinates
were wrong
and it's
the same
with the
human mind
as a
reasoning
faculty
it works
just fine
like the
GPS but
it's home
setting
for discovering
truth has the
wrong coordinates
they're set
in opposition
to God
therefore no
matter how
much you
trust the
normal functioning
of the mind
it will always
end up at the
wrong destination
when trying to
discover something
that is true
a human mind
whose home
setting is
opposition to
God
independence
from God
is never
going to
arrive at a
true
understanding
of any
subject
why
because God
is no longer
in the picture
now I want
you to think
with me about
this
why does
rejection of
God lead
to darkened
understanding
why is it
that when I
reject God
when I
study geology
and rocks
I can never
properly
understand them
I'm always
just slightly
off
a proper
understanding
well let me
take you back
up the road
to Oxford
to the
Bodolian
library
and it's
one of the
oldest libraries
in the world
it has 9
million books
in it
and inside
one of the
rooms in the
Bodolian
library
on one of
the roofs
this old
panel
paneling
wooden
paneling
of a roof
there are
little
Latin
phrases
written on
this roof
it's the
same
Latin
phrase
dominus
illuminatio
mea
God
is
my
light
it's the
motto of
Oxford
University
now why
did the
founders of
that great
university
put that
on the
roof
of the
library
because
they knew
that when
any student
studied
any subject
in order
for them
to understand
that subject
correctly
they needed
the light
of God
Psalm 36
verse 9
in your
light
I see
light
think about
where they
put it
they put
it on
the roof
so that
the students
would know
if you want
to understand
English
if you want
to understand
German
if you want
to understand
psychology
God
is
your
light
and when
you
ask
God
to leave
the
building
you
flick
the
lights
off
that
is
what's
wrong
with
all
non-Christian
thinking
they've
asked
the
God
who
is
light
to
leave
the
building
and so
they are
studying
in the
dark
God
you see
is the
source
of all
true
knowledge
and
every
fact
has
its
interpretation
in
God
all
true
knowledge
exists
in
God
because
he
created
all
things
and
he
therefore
interprets
all
things
every
fact
in the
universe
is an
interpreted
fact
there's
no such
things
as
brute
facts
mere
facts
that
are
facts
simply
by
being
facts
all
by
themselves
no
fact
is
a
fact
outside
of
its
relationship
to
its
creator
a
fact
is
only
a
fact
because
God
created
it
determined
it
to
be
that
fact
and
has
given
his
interpretation
of
that
fact
and
if
you
want
to
understand
the
facts
of
the
world
then
you
need
to
live
in
the
light
of
the
God
who
created
those
facts
and
gave
those
facts
their
interpretation
you
need
the
God
who
is
light
to
give
you
light
so
that
is
the
three
ways
that
our
mind
is
affected
by
sin
it
is
moral
it
is
hostile
and
it
is
darkened
now
that was
a bit
of
serious
brain
thing
going on
there
wasn't
it
the
facts
the
facts
the
facts
you
may be
saying
if you've
kept
with me
you may
be
saying
but
can
an
unbeliever
know
anything
then
perhaps
I don't
know if
we're
having a
Q&A
but
I think
we will
be having
a Q&A
after those
last
10 minutes
let me
give you
my quick
thing
can a
non-believer
know anything
about chickens
cows
and calculus
absolutely
not
they don't
have a
clue about
chickens
cows
and calculus
in their
world view
they have
lived
independently
from the
God
who is
light
they switch
the lights
off
and they
don't
have a
clue
about
cows
chickens
and
calculus
unbelievers
all the
time
speak
truth
about
cows
chickens
and
calculus
how is
that
well
God's
common
grace
at that
very point
when an
unbeliever
speaks
something
that is
true
about
cows
chickens
or
calculus
they are
acting
like a
Christian
they are
exhibiting
that they
are
image
bearers
of the
God
who made
them
they are
at that
very point
when they
understand
that 2
plus 2
equals 4
they are
at that
very point
showing
themselves
to be
image
bearers
that they
need the
God
who is
light
to give
them
light
but you
can maybe
ask me
more about
that in
a Q&A
let me
just
pause
and reflect
where we've
come from
the definition
of sin
is transgression
God is
God
we are
not
the corruption
of sin
is systemic
!
it's affected
our whole
lives
our heart
and we saw
that our
society
has two
views of
the heart
this one
that it's
amoral
it's neither
good nor
bad
and that we
only act
out of
instinct
then there
is the
idea that
our heart
is good
essentially
and it's
external
factors that
make us
do what
we do
and then
we've seen
that sin
affects our
minds
our minds
are driven
by our
hearts
since our
hearts
are hostile
to God
therefore
our minds
are darkened
in short
we are fallen
in every
area of our
lives
what a piece
of work
is man
said Shakespeare
but man
delights
not me
so what
then is
the solution
to our
sin
where do
we find
the solution
well I
hope if you
followed me
you can see
that we
don't find
it in
ourselves
if our
hearts are
only evil
continually
then we
don't have
the desires
within ourselves
to change
ourselves
if our
minds are
hostile to
God and
therefore
darkened
in their
understanding
then we
don't have
the mind
to work
out how
to get
out of
the
darkness
we're a
bit like
people who
are hiking
out in
the mountains
and we've
lost our
compass
well the
solution to
sin is not
found in
ourselves
Cornelius
Van Til
has this
great picture
he said
there's more
chance of a
man made
of water
this is a
totally bizarre
illustration but
come with me
for a moment
a man
made out of
water
at the bottom
of an ocean
climbing out
of the water
on a ladder
made of water
picture it
a man made
of water
at the bottom
of the ocean
climbing out
of the ocean
on a ladder
made of water
what was Van Til
trying to say
he was trying
to say
it is utterly
futile
to think
that you can
save yourself
you are
encased
in the very
problem you're
trying to get
yourself out
of
we cannot
save
ourselves
doesn't
the phrase
you need
to be
saved
take on
a whole
new meaning
now
when you
understand
the doctrine
of sin
we've seen
the definition
of sin
is transgression
the corruption
of sin
is systemic
and this
brings us
to our
final point
back in
Genesis 3
15
the solution
to sin
is Christ
the solution
to sin
is Christ
verse 15
I will put
enmity
between you
and the
women
God is
speaking
to the
serpent
I will
put enmity
between you
and the
woman
and between
your
offspring
and her
offspring
and he
shall
bruise
your head
and you
shall
bruise
his
heel
in dealing
with the
problem
of sin
God
goes right
to the
source
the serpent
was the one
who brought
sin into
the world
and so
God
promises
to destroy
him
and thus
by implication
to rid
the world
of sin
but I want
you to
notice
in chapter
3
there are
two men
who have
an encounter
with the
serpent
there is
Adam
the first
man
who stands
by his
wife
silent
do you
notice that
in verse 6
he
her husband
who was
with her
he just
stood there
silent
he stood
before the
serpent
and fell
down
before him
but there
is this
other man
who is
going to
have an
encounter
with the
serpent
this
descendant
of Eve
a son
a representative
son who
will do
what
who will
fight
against
the
serpent
two men
in chapter
3
fight the
serpent
Adam
stands
before him
as a
coward
says nothing
and falls
down
before him
this
second
son
this
second
Adam
will
stand
before him
and fight
him
the
solution
to sin
is in
this
promised
son
the
hope of
the
world
is in
a
son
now
I've
given
you
a number
of
pictures
this
morning
a
big
circle
small
circle
horizontal
line
the
picture
of
the
distinction
between
the
creature
and
the
creature
the
river
contaminated
at its
source
a
picture
of
the
systemic
corruption
of
sin
cockroaches
picture
of your
heart
over your
mind
the
GPS
home
setting
leading
us
away
from
Cambridge
picture
of our
thinking
being
skewed
because
we've
asked
the
God
who
is
light
to leave
the
building
the
Bodleian
library
with that
motto
on the
roof
God
is my
light
with our
darkened
understanding
let me
give you
one more
picture
I want you to
picture two
giants
and by
giants
I mean
giants
the shoe
of one
giant
would be in
this whole
building
his ankle
would be up
to that
roof
so we're
talking
about
a
big
giant
and on
that
huge
giant
these
two
giants
is a
belt
each of
them
has a
belt
and on
that
belt
is
tens
of
thousands
of
tiny
little
hooks
and
hanging
from
those
hooks
are
people
two
giants
two
belts
and there
are
people
hanging
onto
their
belts
you may
think
I've
gone
completely
crazy
Thomas
Goodwin
the
Puritan
said
in God's
sight
there are
only
two
men
Adam
and
Jesus
Christ
and
these
two
men
have
all
other
men
hanging
from
their
girdle
strings
that
picture
of those
two
giants
is the
theological
structure
of the
whole
Bible
the
one
giant
is
called
Adam
the
other
giant
is called
Jesus
Christ
and what
we've
seen
this
morning
is that
our
problem
is this
we are
hooked
onto
that
first
giant
we're
connected
to the
wrong
man
Adam's
heart
became
corrupt
with
evil
intentions
all the
time
our
hearts
have
become
corrupt
with
evil
intentions
all the
time
Adam
became
hostile
to
God
in
his
thinking
we
have
become
hostile
to
God
in
our
thinking
Adam
became
darkened
in
his
understanding
we
have
become
darkened
in
our
understanding
our
problem
is this
we
are
in
Adam
we're
connected
to the
wrong
giant
and the
solution
to our
sin
is to
get
unhooked
from
Adam
and to
get
hooked
into
this
promised
son
Jesus
Christ
the
last
Adam
and
when
you
get
unhooked
from
Adam
and
get
hooked
onto
Jesus
Christ
you
get
a
new
heart
and
you
get
a
new
mind
let
us
pray
Let's go.