Intro:
1. One morning in 1888 Alfred Noble, inventor of dynamite, awoke to read his own obituary. The obituary was printed as a result of a simple journalistic error. You see, it was Alfred’s brother that had died and the reporter carelessly reported the death of the wrong brother.
2. Inspite of the devils lie, Eve was reading her own obituary - dying you shall die!
3. Knowing good and evil brings Death.
Trans:We have seen that this knowledge was Disobedience; now we see it brings forth death as God had promised. 2:17; 3:3b-5
I. FIRST, THERE WOULD BE SPIRITUAL DEATH. 2:17
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. - at first glance this seems to be wrong. For they did not appear to die in the day they ate of the fruit. Adam lived on until he was 930 years old!
But he did die - not that day physically but spiritually...Death is separation from God, and spiritual death is spiritual separation from God.
Since that day every person is born spiritually dead, we are born the first time In Adam:
"...For if by the one man’s offense many died..."Romans 5:15 (NKJV)
"17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one...18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation...19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners..." Romans 5:17-19 (NKJV)
"For as in Adam all die..." 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV)
In Oregon’s Malheur National Forest, a fungus spreads through tree roots across 2,200 acres, making it the largest living organism ever found.
Popularly known as the honey mushroom, the Armillaria Ostoyae started from a single microscopic spore. Yet it’s been weaving its black shoestring filaments through the forest for an estimated 2,400 years, killing trees as it grows.
Tina Dreisbach, "When you’re on the ground, you don’t notice the pattern. You just see dead trees in clusters,"
Like this gigantic mushroom, sin began in a single act of disobedience but has spread across the entire human race.
Sauer, "The beginning of mankind has been compared to a sunny morning. Coming out of eternity, time as it were, was holding hapiness in its hands. In the blessedness of Paradise God had untied heaven and earth.
But then came sin. As a tempest, black as night, it broke in devastatingly and drove all this morning splendour out of the history of time. Thenceforth the earth stood under the shadow of death."
Mankind is alive outwardly and physically but inwardly they are dead to God:
"But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Matthew 8:22 (NKJV)
"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1 (NKJV)
"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh..." Colossians 2:13 (NKJV)
"But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives." 1 Timothy 5:6
Not matter how rich, famous, or healthy one may be - everything thinking person knows that something is wrong!
Movie director Ron Howard, played Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, and as a teen he starred in television’s Happy Days. When he started directing movies, he had success with positive films like Apollo 13, Parenthood, Splash, Cocoon, Back-draft, and Far and Away.
But then in 1996 he went against the flow by choosing to direct a dark, troubling film called Ransom, starring Mel Gibson. The plot revolves around the efforts of the Mel Gibson character to rescue his kidnapped son.
According to Bernard Weinraub in the New York Times, Ron Howard chose this movie because he could identify with the Gibson character, a winning but flawed man.
Brian Grazer a close friend of Ron said, "Ron seems to be a cheerful, easy-going guy, but inside is a very complex, very competitive person who has darkness and pain. He just doesn’t show it to people. In his face he never shows it. And this movie was a creative way for him to express that. The complexity of the Mel Gibson character intersects with Ron personally. He’s a winning character but flawed. Ron views himself that way. And what appealed to him about the movie is the idea of digging around psychologically into a person that he can relate to."
Ron Howard is honest enough to recognize that despite all his success there is a flaw within, and emptiness inside.
Mankind is alive yet dead! Reminds me of 71 year-old Gloria Wicker. A letter from her bank sent the Clovis, New Mexico woman to the hospital when suffered chest pains. What was in the letter? It said that she had died about a month earlier.
Wicker said she spent several hours on the phone trying to prove that she was alive. She was frustrated trying to get past automated phone systems to speak to a human being at the bank to straighten out the mistake. She said," There was no message that said, ‘Press One if you have been declared deceased and your assets frozen.’"
The problem apparently began at the office that processes Wicker’s pension. The plan sent a letter to the bank, and the bank stopped her payments. Wicker said the effort to convince the bank and pension program that she was alive, likely brought on the chest pains. Fortunately, the bank corrected the problem and now recognizes that Wicker is alive.
Is it possible to be dead, and yet still be walking around? Not the way that Gloria Wicker was, but that is how the scripture describes those who live without Christ.
How exactly does this spiritual death effect mankind?
A. It efffects our Mind.
We were given a mind that we might KNOW God, but now man is no longer conscious of God.
Mind is now in darkness:
"17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; Ephesians 4:17-18 (NKJV)
God is light but man’s mind is in total darkness...
Mind is evil:
"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Genesis 6:5 (NKJV)
God alone is good, and when separated from God man is given over to evil schemes.
Mind is idolatrous:
"20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Romans 1:20-23 (NKJV)
Oddly man cannot live without God! So being dead to the True and Living God man invents false gods.
Mind is against God:
"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Romans 8:7 (NKJV)
Mind is incapable of receiving spiriutal things:
"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV)
Mind is given over to perversion:
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; Romans 1:28 (NKJV)
Mind is earthly, materialistic:
"whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things. Philippians 3:19
Mind is Satanically blinded:
"whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NKJV)
Spiritual death means that man can no longer think right, think Godward...In 1995 Jane’s International Defense Review reported that Norinco of China was offering to export a weapon that used laser beams to damage the eyes of enemies. The weapon is called the ZM-87 portable laser "disturber."
According to the Chicago Tribune, "Jane’s said the company states ’one of its major applications’ is ’to injure or dizzy’ the eyes of an enemy combatant with high-power laser pulses, and ’especially anybody who is sighting and firing... [by means of] an optical instrument, so as to cause him to lose combat ability or result in suppression of his observation and sighting operation.’" The ZM-87 is effective to a range of two miles.
Mankind’s mind is blind to the things of God...
B. It effects our Emotions.
Emotions desire that which is vile:
"26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. Romans 1:26-27 (NKJV)
Prolonged spiritual death is manifested in homosexual behavor!
Emotions become calloused:
"4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God," Romans 2:4-5 (NKJV)
Emotions become extremely deceitful:
""The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)
Emotions filled with self-love:
"1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves...2 Timothy 3:1-2 (NKJV)
According to Alex Heard in the New York Times Magazine, for those who just can’t get enough of themselves, a doll company in Denver, Colorado, has the perfect item: the My Twin Doll. For between $130 and $170 you can have a doll custom-made to be a mirror image of your adolescent self, right down to the hairstyle and wardrobe selections. Just send the company a photo, and soon you can go to sleep cuddling a doll-sized version of the one and only you.
Emotions no longer have any desire for God:
"...There is none who seeks after God." Romans 3:11 (NKJV)
Cardiologists are hunting for a way to clear arteries clogged by plaque. They’ve tried using lasers to burn through the plaque. They’ve experimented with rotating burrs to grind away the plaque. They’ve even tried using rotating knives to cut away plaque. None of these methods have succeeded.
At the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in 1993, researchers reported on another experimental device that would work like a tiny jackhammer inside the arteries.
Writer Jon Van says the device is inserted into the coronary arteries via a tiny wire called a catheter. There it emits low-frequency, ultrasound energy, vibrating the jackhammer-like tip of the probe at 19,500 times a second, about one-thousandth of an inch back and forth each time. After the jackhammer has done its work, a balloon is inserted into the narrowed artery and expanded to open the artery.
In twenty-nine test cases, the jackhammer seemed to accomplish something the other methods could not. It broke down the calcium and gristle in the hard plaque without harming the soft walls of the artery.
But only God can remove a heart hardened by spiritual death!
C. Of course spiritual death effects the Will.
Man is still free to do what he wants to do, but not what he ought to do! His will is dead to God...
"in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 2:2 (NKJV)
Spiritual dead people live in disobedience to God.
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:44 (NKJV)
"7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Romans 8:7 (NKJV)
"who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:13 (NKJV)
II. FURTHERMORE, THEY WOULD EVENTUALLY DIE PHYSICALLY.
Just read Gen. 5! It’s a grave yard!
People can ignore spiritual death, but not physical death! Look around and see the funerals - that proves that we are sinners. Rom. 6:23
Blanchard, "Three people die every second, 180 every minute, nearly 11,000 every hour, about 260,000 every day, and 95,000,000 every year. Death comes to young and old; rich and poor; educated and ignorant; king and commoner.
No sex is spared, no age exempt, and no color excused. The dynamic young; the business man; the glamorous actress; the great athlete; the brilliant scientist; the television personality; the powerful politician - none of them can resist the moment when death will lay its hand upon them and bring all their fame and achievements to nothing.
Death is no respector or time or place; it has neither season nor parish. It can strike at any moment of day or night, on land, on the sea or in the air. It comes to the hospital bed, the busy road, the comfortable armchair, the sports field, and the office; there is not a single spot on the face of the planet where it is not able to strike.
Whomever we are we have an appointment with death, one we did not make and cannot cancel. We can take regular exercise, get into a keep-fit program, eat nothing but health food, swallow dozens of vitamin pills a day, have a regular physical check-up and take the best medical advice we can afford - but we can never do more than delay the inevitable. As one one put it, "Death is not a spectator sport." Heb. 9:27
Con:
1. The knowledge of good and evil brought about Death.
2. George Orwell describes a wasp that "was sucking jam on my plate and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him."
That’s a picture of humanity - only we cut our own self in half!
Johnny Palmer Jr.
