What Is the Origin Of My Misery?

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Ecclesiastes 7; Lord's Day 3
Psalters: 227, 338, 37, 23
  1. We cannot blame the good God because He created man good, without sin and misery.
    1. God?s creation of man was especially good because man was God?s highest creature.
      1. Physically, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually man is a most remarkable creature (able to bear God?s image).
      2. And man was created so he had a relationship to God.
    2. God made man ?in His own image,? i.e., like God, ?looked? like God spiritually.
  2. Man?s sin and misery had its origin in us, i.e., in our first father?s willful and deliberate fall into sin.
    1. Our problem is not that we have bad parents, bad schools, bad friends, or bad circumstances.
      1. Our fundamental problem is that we have a bad heart; and we all are born with it.
      2. We are so bad that we only sin always, and are unable to do anything truly good in God?s sight.
    2. Adam was created fallible (lapsible), i.e., he was able to fall from this lofty position.
      1. Adam was created with a morally free will, i.e., he was spiritually free either to love God or to hate Him.
      2. God placed before Adam two trees which were the occasion for him to express his free will.
    3. Sin came when Adam, of his own will, deliberately chose to disobey God and determine good and evil for himself.
      1. Satan, in the form of the serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), deceived Adam?s helpmate so he could use her as an ally.
      2. Adam knowingly (he was not deceived) ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, making his choice (I Tim. 2:14).
  3. To what extent are we naturally sinners?
    1. Adam and Eve immediately knew guilt, worthy of the punishment of death.
      1. He immediately knew spiritual separation from God?s love and favor (removed from the Tree of Life).
      2. The power of spiritual death began to rule in them so that they were filled with carnal lust and wanted to do only evil.
    2. Adam?s fall into sin had bitter consequences for all mankind, for God appointed Adam representative and father of all.
      1. It brought sin and death to all mankind (I Cor. 15: 21,22; Romans 5:12).
      2. Now we are, by nature, wholly incapable of doing any good and are inclined to all wickedness (totally depraved).
    3. The only hope of escape is from outside of ourselves: the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ.
      1. Learn that in Christ there is forgiveness of all our sin and guilt, and He has the power to remove sin?s dominion over us.
      2. Jesus does this by regenerating us, re-creating us in the image of God (now the image of Christ).