In the sermon titled 'Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof,' Scott Brown explores the critical doctrine of sin as outlined in the 1689 Baptist Confession. He emphasizes that knowing God and understanding ourselves are paramount, and that the doctrine of sin serves as an interpretive grid for comprehending various aspects of life, including emotions, politics, and child-rearing. The sermon highlights the concept of total depravity, stressing its importance for parents to correctly interpret their children's behavior. Brown discusses how sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's transgression, leading to barriers between humans and God. The sermon addresses common questions about the nature of sin and its consequences, explaining that sin, although permitted by God, ultimately serves His glory by demonstrating His mercy and patience. Brown underscores the necessity for both parents and children to grasp the depth of sin, arguing that without this understanding, one risks fostering self-righteousness. He concludes by pointing to Jesus Christ as the only remedy for sin, emphasizing the transformative power of the new birth and the mercy of God in setting sinners free.

Two of the greatest needs that we have is first of all to know God and second of all to know ourselves. And this chapter in the Baptist Confession really does help to understand both, but particularly it helps to understand ourselves, who we are. This is the doctrine of sin and the fall of man, and we're going to put each section up on the screen so you can see it. But it's obvious that God desires for us to know ourselves, And so he shows us the doctrine of sin. And you cannot understand the world or what's happening in the world without understanding this doctrine of sin.

You can't understand your emotions. You can't understand what's happening to you. You can't understand a movie. You can't understand a song. You can't understand anything until you understand what has happened to man and how it has happened to him.

And you can't understand politics, you can't understand economics without understanding the doctrine of sin. And for those of you who have children, which is almost all of you, you cannot understand how to raise your children if you don't understand the doctrine of sin. Sin, the doctrine of sin is really the interpretive grid. It is the thing that helps you to understand what's going on. It is like the Rosetta stone for all of life.

It helps you to interpret all of life. It gives you something to look at before you to help you to understand what's happening on the outside of you or even on the inside of you. And so it's a very, very critical thing to understand sin. It sounds like something, you know, very unpleasant to think of, and it is in many ways, but the truth is if you don't understand it, you can't understand yourself, and you can't understand anything else that's going on in this world. So we've really arrived at a critical doctrine.

God wants us to understand sin. And there's a word that you've heard before, total depravity. Well, that doctrine is communicated here in the Baptist Confession. It's very, very important, particularly for parents who are raising children, to understand the doctrine of the total depravity of man. Because you may have a compliant child, you may have a child who was born with a smile on his face.

And you might be tempted to misinterpret what's going on in that child's life. Most families have different kinds of children in them. But the doctrine of sin helps you not to be fooled by outward appearances. It's so easy for us to be fooled by outward appearances and not really understand what's going on. And this chapter makes it very clear that children do not come into the world innocent.

And it also makes it very clear that parents who have children are not innocent either. And so you have some real challenges and tensions that arise from this reality of sin in the world and There there really is only one cure for the depravity and Jesus spoke of it in John chapter 3. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Therefore, you must be born again. There's only one remedy for the power of sin in a person's life and it is the new birth and God is so kind to break actually break the power of sin through the new birth when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you repent of your sins and you're saved and the power of sin is broken.

So with that introduction I plan to cover three of these sections in the confession and The first one speaks about how sin entered into the world and why it entered into the world. And so I'm just going to read from the confession, section one. Although God created man upright and perfect and gave him a righteous law which had been unto life had he kept it and threatened death upon the breach thereof. Yet he did not long abide in this honor. So let's stop right there.

God created man upright. He, man existed in the Garden of Eden without sin at all. Imagine that. When you think about your emotions, your thoughts, and your relationships, and what it would be like to be in that garden with no sin. And what would that mean?

Well, thankfully the Lord is taking us back to the garden. He does it when you're born again and then he continues to take you there and there'll be a final entry into that garden again. God is now reversing the effect of the fall. But he made man upright. And then it says, and gave him a righteous law.

In other words, God told them what was right and what was wrong. God warned them and then as we go on in the next phrase, Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who without any compulsion did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given unto them in eating the forbidden fruit, which God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit having purposed to order it to his own glory. So how did it happen? Eve was deceived by the serpent, And he planted a doubt in Eve's mind. And it's the most harmful doubt you can ever experience.

And it's this doubt that God is good. That God was not enough. This is the most devastating doubt and sinful thought you can ever have, that God is not good. You know, we spent quite a long time this morning in Ezra chapter three, hearing of a people who said, the Lord is good and his loving kindness is everlasting. It's that view of God that the devil desired to unravel and he did it for a time.

And so This seed of doubt of God's goodness was planted in Eve. And what the devil said to Eve is this, you don't really need God. You need to find yourself for yourself. And that's always the beginning of every trouble in a person's life that would hurt them. And then after that seed was planted and Eve took of the fruit, then she tempted her husband.

And as a result, they rejected the idea that God is good. And the words of the Confession say this, they did willfully transgress the law of their creation and command given unto them in eating the forbidden fruit. Satan the deceiver deceived Eve. Now when that happened, Barriers went up everywhere. The first barrier was between Adam and Eve.

And they began to distrust one another. And Adam, when confronted by the Lord regarding his sin, he said it was the woman who did it. She's the one that's responsible for this. That was a separation. When you have a husband blaming his wife, you have a sinful separation that's taken place, and that's what took place there.

And then there was another barrier and it was the barrier between Adam and Eve and God. So this entry of sin caused barriers to go up first between people and second of all between people and God and this is the source of just so much tragedy in the world. Now there's a there's a there's a question they're actually I'm gonna pose two questions that little ones have asked me sometime over, I think, I'm sure it's been the last year. And here's one question that a little person has asked me, why would God punish for such a small thing? All they did was eat fruit.

Why was that so bad? And here's the answer to that question. Eating, it wasn't simply the eating of fruit. That wasn't the big problem. The problem was they did not love God's commands.

That was the problem and that is huge. It's not so, it's not so such a big thing to eat fruit, but to despise God's commands, that is a big thing. Because there you are defying a holy and mighty God, whose wrath is toward those who sin against Him. So it wasn't a small thing. To say, why would God punish for such a small thing, it wasn't a small thing because it was a rejection of a holy and good God.

And we find here that the husband and the wife were willing to sin together. We find that it didn't take man long to sin. You know when my You know, when my wife was a little girl, she asked her daddy, daddy if Adam didn't sin wouldn't everything have been okay? If Adam hadn't sinned wouldn't wouldn't we be okay now? And her daddy said no if Adam didn't sin the next guy would and that's true.

The next guy would have. And so it didn't take man long to sin. Recently, one of my grandsons asked me, if God is so powerful, why didn't God stop Adam from sinning? It's a good question, isn't it? If God is so powerful, because he's been taught that God is powerful.

He's been taught that God is sovereign and nothing can hold back his hand and he does what he wishes in the world. He was taught that and so now he sees this incident in the garden and he says if God is so powerful why didn't God stop him? And the answer is right here in this confession. It's in paragraph, at the very end of paragraph one. Are you ready for the answer?

And the answer is that sin, according to God's design, is used for the glory of God. And that's why it says, which God was pleased according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory. I don't believe the mind of man can figure out all the nuances and details of that. But the reason God permitted, as it says here, according to His wise and holy counsel, for Adam and Eve to fall, is because he designed to use sin for his own glory. And you can think of different ways that God glorifies himself through the presence of sin in the world.

First of all, because God pardons sin and sets sinners free, God is good. God is merciful. God is loving. There is no sinner too sinful for him to pardon. And God is glorified as having patience and kindness and mercy and long-suffering with man.

God is glorified in sin because sinners come to him and a holy God accepts them and God glorifies himself by being so kind to sinners. I don't understand all the details of why God would do such a thing. I don't understand any of the details on why God would do such a thing except this answer I think is the best one. That He is using sin for His own glory. Here's a principle that we need to grasp and embrace and consider and meditate upon.

Wherever you see sin in your life or in anyone else, there is a way that God is glorifying himself through that sin. That doesn't mean that God is pleased with sin. It doesn't mean that God is promoting sin. It means that he has so arranged the world so that sin would turn around for his glory. That's why in Romans 8.28, the apostle Paul says, God causes all things to work together for good, for the called.

Now He uses all things, including sin. God is going to take every sin and he's going to turn it around on itself. And he's going to use it for his own glory. You know, if your heart is tender toward the Lord, And your sins are grief to you. You can also know that God is even going to use your sin to glorify Himself.

And you can rest. You can rest in His love. Because He's going to make it right. He's going to take you home and you're going to see how He is going to make it right. He's going to sum up all things in Christ and Christ's sacrifice on the cross for sinners.

But the reason God did not stop Adam from sinning, even though he's so powerful, is for his own glory. You might just think of how God has glorified himself through the sins of others against you, and your sins against others and your sins against God. Think about it. It's a it's a very precious and helpful thought to know that God is so kind. Now children need to be taught that they are depraved and broken and are deeply flawed.

Children need to be taught that. Parents need to teach them this doctrine. This is one of the most critical doctrines for a child to understand. And their understanding it, it will be very very helpful to them, particularly as they grow up and they increase in the knowledge of themselves and then the knowledge of the world and particularly Christian children or children who grow up in Christian homes need to understand this doctrine. Now there are there are many reasons why it's critical that they understand it.

There are things that you that parents always see in children. They see selfishness. They see rebellion. They see anger. They see covetousness.

Have you ever seen covetousness in your house? When one child is coveting the toy of another child, covetousness is everywhere in a home. And it comes out in really dramatic ways when they're little, and it's a good thing. Because when they're little, you're able to deal with their covetousness in a way that you won't be able to when they get older when they start hiding it. And so it coming out when they're young is by God's design as well.

So that you help your children understand what selfishness looks like and how wrong it is, and what rebellion looks like and how wrong it is, and what anger and covetousness and theft looks like. Have you ever had any children steal anything? Or lying? Or not desiring the things of God, being bored with the things of God. All of these things are traceable to sin, and parents have to understand what is happening to their children.

And children need to understand what is happening to them. And on the other hand, there are children who don't lie so much and they're not they're not so covetous and and They're they're not so selfish. They're just not You know as I said before there are some children. They were just born with a smile on their face. But parents have to be very careful not to be deceived, not to over-exalt outward behavior and outward conformity.

They have to understand something. And a children's good behavior can sometimes actually be the overflow of their sin not their trust in God because they've learned how to game the system. So they need to understand that their sin is greater than just their outward behavior. It's deep, it's far deeper. They might be able to say, yes sir, no ma'am, and do things with a smile on their face and have a servant's heart, but they need to understand that their sin is far, far deeper.

The nicest child is completely depraved. You need to understand that. Sometimes parents play favorites because they have a nice child and a not so nice child. But the reason that happens is that they don't really understand the doctrine of total depravity. And they actually think that nice child is better.

Not so. They most likely are just as depraved as the other. And there's a goodness that doesn't flow from the Holy Spirit, nor is it a child-like trust in God or a desire to be holy as he is holy? And so parents have to be very careful not to miss the point because behavior is, it is a system, I mean, I'm sorry, it is a symptom. Behavior is a symptom.

But good behavior often masks depravity at the same time. So parents have to be very prayerful and careful about it. And good people, kind people, smiling people, generous people are often are actually all totally depraved. And parents need to understand that. And children need to understand that so that they don't become puffed up because they can smile and their siblings can't quite as well.

So you need to know who man is. And what we learn here is that when a baby is born, that baby is not a blank slate. And you know this, a sin emerges very, very quickly. But you cannot understand your children or child raising or yourself in dealing with children unless you understand this doctrine. There's a, in the Baptist Catechism, there's a question, question 31.

What was the sin of our first parents? Eating the forbidden fruit. Your children need to understand that. And when that happened there were grave consequences. So let's move to the next clause which speaks of the consequences of sin and it was death and defilement.

Our first parents by this sin fell from their original righteousness and communion with God and we in them whereby death came upon all, all becoming dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of the soul and the body." So as a result of Adam and Eve taking the forbidden fruit, then death and defilement was spread throughout the whole human race. And what we learn here in this clause is that there are two categories of sin. There is sin, that's original sin, and there are sins, particular actions and attitudes that are in rebellion against God. Those are the two categories of sin that the Bible gives us. And what the authors of the Confession say here is that all of your faculties down to the deepest parts of your soul are fallen.

There is a depth to our fallenness, And it's important that we understand how deep it is. And if you don't understand the depth of it, you do not understand the trouble you're in with God. And you tend to minimize your depravity. Now, there have been theological traditions and movements that have disfigured this doctrine, like for example, the Pelagians. Pelagius was a man who argued That sin was only imputed to Adam, but not his offspring.

And so the Pelagians would say that the sin nature has not affected the will of man. The will of man is good. And it's a total contradiction of Romans 5-12. By one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. The Anabaptists and the Quakers also denied inherent original sin.

And the Roman Catholics denied it in a particular way. They say that the Virgin Mary was not conceived in sin. But the Bible says, no, that's not true. All of mankind was conceived in sin. Armenians lean in that direction, arguing that the will can choose what is good and therefore is not completely fallen.

So there is sort of a very very light plagianism that exists in in armenianism. But the depth of the sin needs to be understood. If you don't understand the depth of sin, here's what you get in your family. You get a self-righteous family. If you don't understand the depth of sin in a church, here's what you get.

You get a self-righteous church. People who just think they are so good and other people aren't. And It's devastating to misunderstand the doctrine of sin. And you'll have people who look down their noses at one another thinking that somehow they are more righteous. And You've got to understand this doctrine.

Now in this paragraph it's very clear that sin has brought about death. And the fact that people die, and by the way people do die everyone will die it's a fact of all of all of life But the fact that people die is a proof of what God said about sin is true. If people didn't die, it would be proof that it was not true. But people do die, and it bears witness that sin is real. Every time a person dies, you can rest assured that it's been proven again that what the Bible says about sin is true, because people die as a result of sin.

And David said it like this, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." In Psalm 58 verse 3, the wicked are astray from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. So there is this reality of what has happened. And I think we'll just cover those first two and we'll finish next week and elaborate some more and continue in some of the other areas that the other clauses speak about. But sin is so deep that you cannot work your way out of it through good works.

It's impossible. We need the mercy of God and we cannot keep the whole law. We cannot keep a single part of the law. James says if you've broken one part of the law you've broken all and that's our condition and that's why that's why having some manifestation of niceness in this world really doesn't get you anywhere with God. Because your problem is far deeper than your outward appearances.

But the hope that God gives for sinners is that He provided a sacrifice for sin. He provided His Son. His Son kept every law. His Son, when He was tempted, did not sin. On the other hand, when we're tempted, we do sin.

But God gave His Son so that sinners could be saved. God gave His Son to take the punishment for sinners, and He would take the wrath that we deserved upon His own body, and He would suffer for our sins so that we could go free. Because, you see, our sin is so deep, you can never confess all your sins, you can never know all of your sins, because You have that problem of even understanding yourself well enough. But your bigger problem is that you have sin. You have original sin.

And it goes to the depth of everything you ever say or do. Somebody said that if sin were blue, every word you ever spoke would have a tint of blue in it. Sin is that deep. You have never, and I have never done anything that was completely without sin. But Jesus Christ has.

And He is the remedy. And I pray that we at this church, we would understand how deep our problem is. It's way deeper than any outward manifestation of anything. We need to understand who we are. There's no hope for a church to be a loving church without a proper understanding of sin because all you'll get is self-righteousness and people will be making judgments on all the wrong things if they do not understand the doctrine of sin and the fall and the depravity that has spread in the human family.

There's another catechism question that I want to just close with. It's question 33. What befell our first parents when they had sinned? Instead of being holy and happy, they became sinful and miserable. And that's the sad story.

But the Lord is so kind to take the reality of sin and use it for his own glory so that sinners would be set free, so that God would be given the name of merciful. And in his holiness, He makes His children holy. And it's so critical for us that we understand just how damaging sin is. It makes you sinful and miserable. The most miserable people in the world are the ones who are trapped in their sin.

The happiest are the ones who've been set free. And that's why God sent his son to set us free from sin. And in that, he glorifies himself as a God of mercy and a God of love. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you that you have provided for our sins.

We thank you that you have shown us how this world really is. You've shown us how to examine our own emotions, our own motives, our own lives. You've helped us to understand how to evaluate everything, every song, every film, everything. Lord is tied to this very thing. Help us, O Lord, to hate the sin and turn from it.

That you would give us the happiness of Jesus Christ who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, his God gave him the happiness that was far above all of his companions, because there is such happiness in the turning away from sin. Lord, I pray that you would help all of us to do that. I know there are some little children here, and I pray that you would help them to see their sin and help them to turn away from their sin, their selfishness, their covetousness, their anger. Oh God, that you would rescue them early, to turn away early, and that you would also bless their parents with an understanding of their own sin, and that they would all together understand the depth of it and turn to the only hope that there is, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.