THE TRAGEDY OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve, placing them in the beautiful Garden of Eden. Scripture paints only a limited portrait of that mysterious and wonderful world. All we know is Elohim created it and was pleased with it. The entire creation was in absolute harmony with God and fulfilling its ordained purpose. Many have forgotten the purpose of creation from God’s point of view. God created everything for His purpose and pleasure.

Revelation 4 : 11

11 "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created."

God does nothing without a purpose, and if you think He does, you completely misunderstand the nature of God. Man, which was the crowning achievement of creation, was the last creative act of God. God stooped down, scooped a handful of clay, molded it, and blew into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

I can hear God telling Adam this:

“Look around, Adam, this is yours; and look at Me, I am yours; and I will look at you and I will see in your face the reflection of my own glory. That is your end, that is why you were created, that you might worship Me, and enjoy Me, and glorify Me and have Me as yours forever.”

God’s purpose in creating Adam and Eve is summed up in what they could do for God that nothing else in the entire creation could do. Adam and Eve could worship God, and God anticipated and expected that worship. In the cool of the day, God would come down and walk with them where they offered their reverence and adoration. Only Adam and Eve could provide the fellowship God desired. It was their purpose shared by nothing else in God’s creation. God was pleased with everything He created and paused for a moment for a rest, and then it happened.

While God was enjoying His Sabbath, the evil one, the serpent, the dragon, the devil, Satan came and sowed poisonous seeds in the minds of Adam and Eve, and they rebelled against God and His purpose for them, and God immediately knew as soon as Adam and Eve crossed the line, the fellowship was broken.

The question becomes how this relationship is going to be restored. We are going to look at three things:

 ·         FIG-LEAF RELIGION

·         PURPOSE LOST

·         PURPOSE REGAINED

 I.          FIG-LEAF RELIGION

Adam and Eve, for the first time, experienced a sense of spiritual disorientation.

Genesis 3 : 7 – 8 

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 8 And they heard the sound 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.

Adam and Eve saw their nakedness, and in a state of disorientation, they tried to cover what they had done with fig leaves, and fig-leaf religion was born. What is fig-leaf religion? Fig-leaf religion is man’s attempt to cover his own sins. Religion always focuses on the externals, and Adam and Eve were so consumed with their outward condition that they lost focus on the fact that they no longer satisfied the criteria for fellowship with the Creator. When God came for His usual fellowship, Adam and Eve were hiding, but God was seeking.

Genesis 3 : 8 - 9 

8 And they heard the sound 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 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

God was seeking Adam. Shamefaced, Adam came crawling from behind a tree, and God asked Him what he had done. Now, God knew what Adam had done, but He was giving Him a chance to own it, so to speak. Adam admitted that he and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, but he also admitted that it was Eve’s fault. God turned to Eve, and she blamed the serpent. They had quickly learned to blame someone else for the condition of their souls. Blaming someone else for sin is evidence of sin and is the forerunner of religion.

Something changed that day when Adam and Eve did what God told them not to do. The whole scenario changed. Adam and Eve no longer knew God the way they did just a few days prior. Adam and Eve had one supreme purpose and that was to worship God. They rebelled against that purpose, resulting in the Fall of man.

Our world is full of tragedy because of what happened in the Garden. The repercussions have vibrated down through the ages. No generation has escaped. Disease, conflict, war, and crime have infected humanity throughout its history because of the Fall of man, but those things are short-term effects of the Fall. They do not represent the real tragedy of the Fall.

 II.        PURPOSE LOST

The real tragedy of the Fall was that Adam and Eve lost their purpose. They forgot who they were. They did not know where they were, from where they came, or for what reason they were there. They forgot the purpose of their existence. They began wandering in a moral and spiritual wilderness, and humanity is still wandering in that same wilderness. It is like spiritual amnesia. Satan has robbed humanity of its spiritual identity. As a result, men and women walk around in a spiritual fog, not knowing who they are, what they are, or where they are going.

 Man longs for some explanation of its existence. Humanity will seek answers from anyone or anything offering hope.

 ·         Adolf Hitler

·         Jim Jones

·         Charles Manson

·         Antichrist

·         Drugs

·         Alcohol

·         Sex

Too often, they get the wrong answers. Humanity is like a ship without rudders. From the corporate world to the coal mines, people do not know why they are here. They do not know their purpose in life, why they were created, or what they were born to do. Lives are filled with confusion leading to more and more religions that provide absolutely no answers. Religion can only address external conditions, not internal confusion. Satan has successfully sabotaged man’s search for moral and spiritual identity. Satan will do anything in within his power to prevent us from discovering who and what we are.

So, where can we find the answer?

III.       PURPOSE REGAINED 

We find the answer in God’s Word. The Bible explains why we were created and why we are here. We are here to worship God and enjoy Him forever. Apart from that man has no purpose. Apart from the Word of God man wanders in spiritual disorientation. Every person has an insatiable desire to know the purpose of life. You have heard me refer to it as the void created when the Spirit left man in the Garden once man sinned. Men search and search, but that void can never be filled without the Holy Spirit returning upon the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior.

Men try many things to fill that void, and men fail miserably. God made man in His own image and blew in him the breath of life to live in His presence and worship Him. God then sent man out into the world to increase, multiply, and fill the earth with men and women who would worship God in the beauty of holiness, and that is man’s supreme purpose, but man can only achieve that supreme purpose in Jesus.

 John 3 : 16

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Jesus leads us to the Father. 

John 14 : 6

6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

If you have not accepted the Way to the Father, you will never find peace or your purpose in this life. You will always be searching, but outside of Christ, you will never be able to fill that void in your life.