Biblical Anthropology - The Fall: Separation & Everything That Goes With It
Vern Peterman · Jan 20, 2008
Biblical Anthropology, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926051111660

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

separation and everything that goes with it. You may notice something a little bit different in today's handout and that you've got a few pages. As a matter of fact, you should have three pages, seven, eight, and nine. And then you've got this yellow sheet in there. The sheet is okay.

It's just there to divide the appendix. The appendix item one is the item behind the yellow sheet and any other appendix items that I give to you will be numbered after that and go behind that one. So the appendix items come sort of randomly, sort of like supplements that we have for the main service.

We're doing okay so far? Okay, nobody's passed out. We're going to look at the fall, and by that we don't mean the season. We mean, or for the stumbling. What we mean is, This is the fall of mankind through Adam's sin. Let's just ask a question at the outset. Why does it matter that we look at the fall?

What difference does that make? Yeah, Mike? It makes a lot of difference because if you're not thoroughly convinced of the fall of man, you can't be thoroughly convinced of the life in Christ. Primo, okay? Very, very important, not optional, incidental, supplemental stuff. The fall is absolutely pivotal. Something that Randy pointed out just some time ago, and that's one of the reasons he gravitates towards Genesis, he says if somebody needs to know what's their need for salvation, go to Genesis.

Because if they don't understand that man is in a state of sin, and is in a fallen state, they will not understand the need for Christ to have died, and they will not understand the need to believe in order to be saved. They just won't comprehend it. If the fall of mankind is not understood, it makes Christ's death on the cross something other than what God intended, doesn't it? Think of what it means if we don't understand the fall when Christ's death on the cross is what? What might you think of it if you didn't understand that?

Yeah, it's kind of like, well, that's an interesting historical incident, but what difference does it make? Yeah. An escape for the first half. Pardon? Jubilee. make a person think that he's free from his guilt, but not free from his sin. Okay. Yeah, think of it, some people just think it's a big tragedy. There was actually even, I think, a fairly misguided church conference that was held down in Australia some years ago, in which some people got up and they said the father was horrible to the son. They just didn't understand. They actually said that God the Father abused the son. Why? They didn't understand the sin problem, right?

So that's key, that's pivotal. Even as we talk about, because really, as we've said before, all of this is a process to biblical counseling. Even as believers, there is a need to understand that what has happened, though we have been saved, though we have been saved, until we go home to see the Lord. Yeah. I was wondering if they didn't believe or understand the significance of Christ's death, the resurrection, how could they believe that that was the Son and that he was nothing more than just another Jew that got crucified?

Norm, frankly, it's baffling. Because for someone to have a church gathering and to not understand the sin problem, it takes a tremendous ignorance or blindness. It's hard to fathom. I don't have an answer for that, because to me it's incomprehensible. Sorry.

Okay, let's take a look at this. Genesis 3 is a pivot point. Because up until then, and we've been studying it in our main service, up until then the Lord has created everything and He called it very good, didn't He? Right? But there was this point at which everything changed. Things changed radically. It's the big pivot point. And it has a huge impact upon, if we say, what does the Bible say about man? This is not one you can miss. You can't miss it and get the picture. You just can't.

The consequences are given briefly in Genesis 3, as we'll study, actually it'll be next month before we get there, but as we'll study in the main service, the consequences are huge. They're put together briefly in Genesis 3, but really the rest of scripture continues to reveal truth about what that fall meant, doesn't it? It continues to spell out what the implications of that sin of Adam were for the rest of mankind, for the whole world. Okay? All right. What God's warning tells us.

God said several things to Adam on the sixth day, but the critical one for our study today is found in Genesis 2.17. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, because it tastes bad. For in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die." It's the last line that is the subject of the serpent's deception. Remember, what did the serpent say? Nah, you're not going to die. Nah. You know, see, it's interesting.

The serpent's approach was not, oh, there is no God. That wasn't going to fly, right? Not with Edward Heap. There is no God. What? So that wasn't a lie that he could sell. His deception was at this point. His deception was instead to question what God said, not God's existence. Question what God said. That was the point at which he said, you know, twisted.

So that's key. It's the ultimate human tragedy. And yet the serpent wanted to make it a benefit. Oh, you'll have a knowledge of good and evil. That's God's. Oh, yeah. Hey, it'll put you on par with God. I mean, this is a smart pill. You just don't want to miss this, right? That's the way he put it.

The day that you'll eat of it, you will die. What did God mean by die? That is a big question. What did God mean by die? First of all, what's the timing of that, of that die, that word die? Okay, it's spiritual death, alright? And what's the timing of that spiritual death? When did he say that would happen? The day that you eat of it. So it's not this physical death that he's immediately referring to. It's spiritual death, okay?

So that's a key point there. One of the reasons why it is extremely important to get this point straight is because people misunderstand what that word die or death means. They assume something else and go off in a tangent that misleads their reading of the rest of Scripture to the last pages. Wow. Okay, what am I talking about? You have behind this yellow sheet here a write-up. I won't go into it, but you're certainly welcome to read it.

The sequence among folks who are what's known as a Calvinist bent, goes like this, that those who are, of course, fallen can be saved, but in order to be saved, you have to be elected by God or chosen by God. And then, bear with me here, and then, so the teaching goes, Because you're elect by God, you're regenerated, that is, you're made alive, because the assumption is, in this line of thinking, that you're out on a slab, cold, dead, unable to respond. That's the primary characterization of death. So, because you've been chosen by God, you're then regenerated and given life, and then you're given the gift of faith, so that you can believe, and then you believe, and then you're saved. That's the sequence.

And not only does it fly in the face of verses like believing you might have life through his name. Believe first, life next. Instead of you're given life and then given the gift of faith and then believe. So not only does it fly in the face of verses like that, but it also fails to recognize what death really is. What is death? Death is separation. And Cheryl's right. It starts with spiritual separation. That's what took place that day. That is where Adam and Eve fell. There was a spiritual separation that took place.

So anyway, you're free to read, of course, and invited to read the appendix item about that, what I'll call a mistaken sequence, an assumption about what death is. Let's look at the top of page 8. Second page in your handout for today. Death is separation. If we understand that death is separation, here is how we would explain what Adam was told by God that day, before he fell. This is in the first line of the top of page 8. The insight that death is separation would mean that God was telling Adam, in the day that you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will be spiritually separated from Me, your Creator.

See that? You'll be spiritually separated from Me, your Creator. The separation because of sin was expressed to Israel by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 59-2, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. That's the character of it. and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear." Spiritual separation.

You could read through the whole passage and it even includes a description of death in that passage. So it puts death and separation together. Ephesians 2, 1-3 we have in our handout about mid-page there. And you are dead, there's that word again, in your trespasses and sins.

See, people somehow get the idea, and by the way, this is the way Islam works. It's a weighing of good and bad. There's this kind of balance, you know, more good than bad, and that's how God looks at things. No, what this says is, you know those things that people do that are evil? They're in them. They're in them. That's their position. They're stuck there. They're in them, they're wrapped up in them, their life is in them, they're living out the position that they have. In which you formally walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of the power of the air, who's also the one who told Eve, you will not die. Oh, take this smart pill, it'll be really great. That's the message he gave.

Ephesians 2.12, you were at that time separate from Christ, being aliens without God. Without God is atheos, atheistic. Atheistic in the world.

Ephesians 4.18, excluded from the life of God. That's the death of separation message.

Colossians 1.21, you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind. This thing here was against God. That's separation. Death is separation.

We've got some bullets here, and we won't hit them, but this has very much to do, and we'll talk about this more in detail later, with our identification. We were identified with Adam. And when we were saved, we were identified with Christ. And so it's a dead to, alive to situation.

The person who is an unbeliever, Who are they dead to? God. They're separated from God, right? They're alive to whom? Themselves and the sin nature. They're alive to the sin nature, for whatever good that does, right? So they're alive to and joined to the sin nature.

Romans 7, 1-6. we have died that we might be joined to another, to Christ. So it's an alive to, joined to issue and that's what each one of these bullets at the bottom of page 8 points to. Dead to sin, died with Christ to the world is the last bullet. It's the what are you alive to and what are you dead to kind of issue.

And so that's what was happening there that day in the garden. when Adam took of the fruit that God told him not to eat. You will be dead to me and alive to the sin nature. You will be separated from me. That's what he was saying. You will surely die. It doesn't mean you're out in a slab cold unable to respond. But you are separated from God. That's what God was telling him, warning him about.

This is a real pivotal thing for people to get straight. As we get into identification, which will just be a couple of Sundays, the same concept will come up. We'll talk more about it. Let's look at the top of page 9. Even Peter, we commonly think of Paul as the apostle of the identification truths. But the truth is that other Bible authors did state the truth. Paul is the one who explained it, certainly. But other Bible authors got the idea, too. The Gospel of John that they'll be studying and the Gospel of John elective. It'll get there. John 15, John 17. Yeah, it'll get there.

But Peter, even Peter, I mean, this is the guy that even almost a decade after the church had begun and the Lord had ascended, he was the one who, remember, refused to eat the food even after being presented with it three times? That Peter, he's the one who wrote this. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Peter got it. Peter understood. for by his wounds you were healed.

Right out of Isaiah 53. One of the things that this word separation kind of pictures in our mind is this huge chasm. Any of you had a chance to see the Grand Canyon? Huge chasm. The only thing is that you can get across the Grand Canyon. humanly speaking. It's kind of an impressive chasm, but it's humanly possible to get across. However, if you look at this separation, it is a chasm that we cannot span. The separation is huge. Human beings cannot bridge this chasm of death and separation. God had to act. But look at the sequence here. In Genesis 3, what happens is God came to walk with Adam and Eve, which was apparently the daily cycle, that He would spend time with them every day. He came to walk with Adam and Eve.

They attempted to cover themselves. Hey, that's a different behavior. And by the way, He didn't let the fig leaves stand. Here they had these leaves and they said, no, that's not going to work. But they attempted to cover themselves and also to hide.

So God began asking questions. Do you think God asked questions because he didn't know the answers? Not so much, right? It was not that God was ignorant, but God asked several questions. Who did he ask the questions of? Adam, right. He asked the questions of Adam. Why would he do that? Why Adam? Hey, you two. Why Adam? Because he knew what he was doing. Ah, yes. Adam knew what he was doing. How do we know that, Gail? Scripture tells us. Scripture tells us, right? 1 Timothy chapter 2. It's one of those places where it lays it out.

Eve was deceived that Adam knew what he was doing. Why the distinction between the two? Adam was right there when the command was given. He had a place of having originally heard this and it was easy to plant the seed in Eve's mind. Has God actually said this? But Adam, yeah, I heard it myself, personally. So yeah, this is an important distinction. And Scripture not only makes that distinction initially in Genesis, but places like Gale pointed to in 1 Timothy, underscores the point.

The sequence matters. and the fact that who was this instruction given to directly? Adam. Adam. He had a responsibility there. God began with his questions, and in summary, the interactions went as follows, and what we have spelled out there, you may recognize it, is a small chiasm. What did he do? He started with Adam with questions.

Not just one, a few. Where are you? And it's not because he doesn't know. It's bringing up the point, hey, we never had this problem before. And you're hiding. Why? That shouldn't be. God then moves on to Eve. And does he begin telling her things? No. He also asks a question. Not so many, but a question. Then to the serpent, and he didn't ask the serpent any questions. Isn't that interesting? No questions for the serpent. I don't have any questions for you. You're hopeless. No questions for you, but just consequences and a promise of a Savior. If you think you're getting somewhere, I've got an answer for this before this even unravels. I've got an answer already in mind.

We'll get into that as we study Genesis 3. God then talks to Eve and gives consequences, and then God talks to Adam and gives consequences. So real interesting, the pattern there. Starts off with Adam and then Eve, questions. Serpent, no questions. Just, here's what's going to happen. And then back to Eve, consequences. Then back finally to Adam, consequences. Here's the outcome.

Now, here's what's interesting. In the day that you shall eat of it, you will surely die, was what Adam heard, right? Is everything that we read as consequences in Genesis chapter 3, is that involved in the death that day? Or is there more added to it? Thank you. For Adam and for Eve, did they understand that all these consequences that God gave to Adam and to Eve were wrapped up in that word, die. You will surely die. No, they didn't understand it. These were things that they really had no idea what the outcome would be. And in fact, it would take them time to personally and subjectively experience it. Think about this.

God had created Adam and Eve with a certain amount of intelligence. Because God could tell Adam things from the very first day, before the first day was done. Immediately, he could communicate with Adam and tell him things. Matter of fact, very shortly thereafter, he could even ask questions. Questions he had never asked before. But here on this day, this particular event, Adam knew what he was doing, but I don't think he really understood what all the consequences were. I don't think he had any idea.

Art? Who died first in scripture? Who died first? Okay, Art asked the question, who died first? Who did die first, Tom? and it was still simultaneous because both their eyes were open after Adam ate after Eve. So something happened that instant instead of before. One thing is, we can look at this, in the day that you eat of it you will die. So it was in that day. The trigger, the trigger was Adam's sin. Was it not? That was the trigger. the question you're asking?

No, we're trying to determine when they understood what death was. And I don't think they understood what death was until somebody died. And who was the first death in scripture? All right, so you're asking who was the first physical death you're referring to? Physically. Who died physically first? First there was the animal that died. That was the first animal. How about first person? Abel. Abel was the first human to die.

So what you look at is here is this event that took place. And interestingly, Scripture puts the point not at Eve's taking of the forbidden fruit, but Adam's. taking us for a bitten fruit, and then both of them have consequences at Adam's sin. Then we see the follow-on consequences. Then an animal dies, and then a human dies. So then this whole thing begins to be apparent as to what it is.

Do you think that Adam and Eve had not a clue what the difference was between being in sin and not? Do you think they were totally clueless or do you think that there was just a lot to understand? What's the difference? I think they were ignorant of what the consequences were before. But there was ignorance and yet there was still a sense of this would not be good.

Let's try to test that out even in our own experience. If I were to look at something and maybe even be warned about something that I had never done and never experienced, even though I had never subjectively been through that, I might still have a sense of, you know, this isn't a good idea or that would be bad. If somebody says, well, lay down the train track while the train, you know, goes by. No, I've never done that.

But I still have a sense of, you know, that wouldn't be so good. And we can think of a number of different circumstances like that where we haven't personally experienced it, but we can still look at it and say, you know, that wouldn't be so good. That wouldn't be a real wise thing. And so there are things like that that kind of give us a sense of, all right, I haven't been through that, but I still look at it and say that wouldn't be very good to do.

This is some comparison to Adam and Eve. They were somehow given the ability so that when, you know, you shall surely die, hit their ears and their minds, that they had a sense of, you know, I'm not quite sure what all that means, but that doesn't sound good. Kind of like laying on the train tracks.

Yeah, Alan? One of the things that's interesting about the death of Abel is he didn't die of old age. It was an act of sin. Ah, yes. You get that? Abel did not die of old age. It was an act of sin. It was sin by his brother that took him out. The first human to die, died not of old age, but by the sin of another. Yes? Was it part of God's original design for man to live eternally in the state that he created them before the sin? Okay, so he asked the question, Was it God's intent that man live eternally before this state of sin?

Now, let's take this one through. This is an interesting one. You ask a good question. Suppose that Adam and Eve both listened to this warning from God. Eve told the serpent, hey, you know, go crawl away somewhere. You know, you're really off the wall. Go away. He didn't know what a wall was, but using the expression. And so suppose that happened, suppose Adam came in and said, you know, look, you get out of here, we don't want to listen to your nonsense.

And he'd have dominion over these creatures, right? And suppose he continued to do that, what would have happened as time went by? He would have just still been ignorant. Yeah, he would have remained in innocence and there is at least the potential that Adam and Eve would have continued on and on and on in that original state of not righteousness but innocence and would have continued on being welcome in the garden, being welcome to eat of the tree of life, continuing to live as God had placed them, and being fruitful and multiplying with more and more people. Yes? What happened along those lines?

Another question is, was God's ultimate design for us to be in that state of innocence rather than be in the state of righteousness which he has offered to us in this age? Yeah, so his question is, what was God's ultimate design? What's interesting is we read through the rest of scripture. It's not revealed in those early chapters in Genesis. As we read through the rest of scripture, the picture becomes clear. Was God ignorant of how this thing would turn out?

Not at all. Yeah, Tom? Also another thought that he and Eve had that whole garden except for the one forbidden. That's right. And God did not point out which tree was the tree of life, or they would have jumped the gun there. I think the idea there is after this period of testing, especially if Adam fended off Satan, that he and Eve just could have sampled the tree of life not knowing it was that, and then that would be their passing grade. What becomes apparent later is that the tree of life is continuance of life as it is. In whatever form. And interestingly enough, it shows up again in the book of Revelation. But as you think this thing through, here is Adam and Eve.

They had this opportunity in the negative. to choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them not to, but he didn't close the door to that choice. And yet the Lord was not ignorant of what would happen. The Lord knew what would happen. And the Lord knew about us meeting here this morning. The Lord knew that Connor would be here this morning. About that. And and everything from then on out.

So while it was hypothetically possible that Adam and Eve would continue on in the Garden, what we see in fact is the Lord knowing, not in making everything happen like a machine, not in predestining every last breath and every last movement, but the Lord knowing provided the Savior for each and every one of us. And the outcome is rather than eternity in the garden, it's eternity with righteousness. Oh, and by the way, the tree of life will still be there in eternity.

But not the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Not that tree. Good question. Let's continue on down here. God prepared a covering for them. Apparently said those leaves aren't going to cut it. Those aren't going to hang around so long. And an animal was sacrificed to do so. And by the way, it was God who made that sacrifice for him, not Adam and Eve themselves.

Regarding the consequences of the fall for mankind and its personal impacts, Eve's consequences would be in childbearing in a relationship to her husband. And we'll go into that in more detail. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.

Adam's consequences would be to this earth, his toil in gaining a yield from it and in returning to the dust from which he was created. Both of them had consequences that would be carried out. Both of them had consequences. This separation from God because of Adam's sin has resulted not only in a change in mankind's relationship with God, a change in mankind's relationship with everything that God made, and a change within human beings and their bodies, and ultimately a change in every human being's future from that time forward. Every human being's future, why? What changed about every human being's future because of Adam's sin? The need for a saviour for every single one.

That's right. And here's a very curious thing. The Lord provided a saviour for all human beings who, except for that saviour, are in a state of sin and condemnation. The Lord did not provide a saviour for the angels who were created all at once. It's a very different position. Human beings are unique.

And I think that's one of the reasons we pointed out when we were studying Ephesians 3 that the Lord is using you and me as angel college to reveal and to teach them about his character because he has uniquely revealed aspects of his love and his grace to us that they personally have not experienced.

So they learn about God's character. You think angels, well they know everything and can do everything, right? They're learning from you and me about God's grace. They're learning from you and me about God's love. They're watching to learn. Isn't that amazing?

Okay, now, something else about the future from this time forward. If Adam and Eve had stayed there in the garden and continued to tell the serpent, you know, you're nuts, get out of here. If they had done that, then that would have been the ongoing consequence. Instead, Adam sinned and now you have a fork in the road for human beings.

Those that by faith are saved. And all human beings, regardless of when, or where or anything else, all human beings are saved by faith everywhere through all time. Always. Okay? Always by faith. And so there's this huge fork in the road that's an eternal fork in the road.

But those who are saved are not made to be Adam again. About the time that Randy was born, I used to listen to this album, Michael Omardian, I think that's how you pronounce his name, neat album, and I kind of enjoyed the music, but as I look back on it, the name of the album was Adam Again. And I thought, that's not right. We're not made to be Adam Again.

Adam held a great place there. Home sweet home. But he had a great place there that the Lord had given him. But it was a place from which he could fall. And he didn't have righteousness unchangeably. He had innocence, and that's different. We as believers, because we're in Christ and he is in us, have righteousness.

And that's a day and night, heaven and hell difference. Huge difference. Massive difference. So the difference from that day forward, from the day that Adam chose, like Gale's point, he knew what he was doing, the day that he chose, Changed everybody's future. No longer back to the garden. Never again back to the garden. Instead, we are saved by faith or not. But if saved by faith, then not innocent, but eternally righteous. Forever innocent.

That's B. That's B. Okay, what we haven't covered yet. Every topic yet on your schedule for the weeks ahead has not been addressed here. How is a person saved and what is salvation? We'll be touching on that next, like next Sunday. How is a person saved and what is salvation? That's a key thing. Is everyone within Christendom, with what the world calls Christianity, is everyone unified on how is a person saved? I feel like that's right. They are not. Everyone is not unified on how you're saved.

There are some that will say, oh, you have to believe and you have to get really wet. And you have to continue to come to our church. There are some that say, well, you got to believe and you got to at least get sprinkled. And then you got to keep on doing this and doing that.

And so there's all kinds of difference of opinion. So we want to look at what does scripture say? What's that Mark? You can always lose it. Yeah, that's right. Then there are those who say you can lose it. It's the banana peel theory. Anybody seen any spiritual banana peels lying around? The banana peel theory. Yeah, good point.

What makes up a human being? What does a What does a believer look like? What does an unbeliever look like? What are they made up of? That's something we want to take a look at. And this is important for two reasons. Two reasons. One is because when you say, what am I made up of? What does scripture say is my constitution? That matters because that impacts how I live every single day. From the day I'm saved until the day I see the Lord face to face. So it matters what we're made up of. It matters what the unbeliever is made up of. Can the unbeliever turn to some inner light? Or is it just a dark cavern in there? Can they find the resources within themselves by meditation and contemplation? Or are they just wasting their time?

That's the big question. How many different kinds of people are there? Now that's a fascinating question. Or you could divide that up all kinds of ways. Income levels, skin color, height, they got hair on top or not, all sorts of things. How many different kinds of people does scripture say that there are?

We'll be looking at that. Identification. We'll spend two weeks on identification. We just very briefly lifted the curtain here today. The old man. The new man. Old nature, new nature. The will of the believer. Those will be the next things that I'll finish out our time looking at what does scripture say about man. Okay. Thoughts, comments, questions, exasperations?

I think one of the consequences of the fall is that we cannot see God as he really is. Because you look at a lot of unsaved people, and one of the biggest issues regarding God throughout history has been this whole idea of how can there be evil exists. And the fact that as an unsaved person, the explanation that the Bible gives, which is God allowed them to sin so that his glory might abound. That doesn't cut for them because they can't see God. And that continues to be a major obstacle, I think, for unsaved people. Yeah. What he talked about is the unbeliever cannot see God. They've got this visibility issue. And it touches on something else.

Back in this kind of Civil War era, Charles Darwin wrote The Origin of Species and published this book. And basically ever since then, with certain episodes of Contrary Movement, this theory of evolution that Darwin gave kind of some rationalization and justification for, has taken hold. But you know one of the reasons why creation was overwhelmed is because Christians were in many ways, and people who called themselves Christians were in many ways not teaching what scripture said. They taught instead creation as taught by Plato, the Greek philosopher.

Many Christians had fallen for this. Isn't that amazing? And what they taught was that there was a perfect being who created a perfect world. It excluded the fall. And that's why evolution caught hold. Christians had not been holding to what scripture taught.

Yeah, Art? I have a tract that says that Charles Darwin on his deathbed asked for the book. Yeah, it's interesting. I've read some kind of conflicting things on that, but there are some accounts that talk about Charles Darwin, you know, reversing his position towards the end. I've not seen how that's quite gotten settled out, but I have heard similar accounts. I think, you know, for us what's important is to look at why did this big movement towards evolution take place?

It's largely because Christians were not holding the scripture. They were looking instead to Plato's pagan ideas of a God, a perfect God, and he created a perfect world. And what we just looked at this morning, the fall, was not included in that picture. All you got to do is not to even prove evolution. All you got to do is to prove that this isn't a perfect world. And that's easy.

That's a piece of cake. What we did is, and I'd say we in a sort of a corporate big sense, what the Christians did was hand it over to them by not holding the scripture alone. Plato may have written very many very interesting and fascinating things, but what he wrote was not inspiring. God's word alone is inspiring.

That's where we lost it. And if we're to ever gain anything back, and it's going to be one mind at a time, it's going to be because we stand on God's word. It's going to be because we teach that and people understand that. Yeah, Norm? Almost everything that Plato wrote also was dealing with self. Yes, and it was what does man think? What does a human being think about God and God's character?

Not what did God deliberately reveal because we couldn't know without it. And it lacked a complete recognition of Jeremy's point. We got blindness in there. The unbeliever has a dark chasm, no flashlight, when it comes to seeing what's the spiritual condition inside. In eternity past, did God have this whole thing worked out? Yes.

But that does not mean everything is mechanical. I don't see it as God bypassed all human choices and everything of that sort. But God knew every last detail. So it would not necessarily be Tuesday the 21st of July. It could be the 14th of June. God's knowledge of everything is perfect. Past and future. The analogy we used previously. But the plan is not necessarily... We use the analogy of the pen, where God sees it all as present.

He sees it all. His knowledge of everything is perfect. As Christ put it, he knows the number of hairs on your head. That's really easy for me. But he knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows all the detail. A bird falls and he knows it. Not only does he know, but he cares.

God knows every last detail. It doesn't mean that he predetermines like this big cosmic machine every last detail. Each person still has a choice to make and a responsibility for those choices. So God's absolute, infinite, perfect knowledge does not equate to He controls and dictates every last movement and breath. And he knew exactly what our salvation would take.

What's going to be required? Before he said, let there be light. The buzzer went off. I'm going to turn into a pumpkin if we don't pray. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you. As we look at this passage, as we look at this pivotal event, of the fall. We can also look at the immensity of your grace and thank you for it. Thank you for what you've revealed because you love us and care for us so much. In Jesus' name, Amen.