The Ascent Of Man

THE ASCENT OF THE NEW MAN

THE STEP-BY-STEP CLIMB TO GLORY

INTRODUCTION

A. Some say that we descended from monkeys.

C. The word “descent” has different meanings:

1. “The fact or process of originating from an ancestral stock.”

2. “The act or process of descending from a higher to a lower level, rank, or state.”

D. The Bible says that God created man in His image, but that he descended into animalistic behavior.

E. The animals might object to that characterization:

The Monkey's Disgrace

Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree,

Discussing things as they are said to be

Said one to the others, "Now listen, you two,

There's a certain rumor that can't be true, That man descended from our

noble race, The very idea is a great disgrace!

"No monkey has ever deserted his wife,

Starved her babies, and ruined her life.

And you've never known a mother monk,

To leave her babies with others to bunk,

Or pass them on from one to the other,

Till they scarcely know who is their mother.

"And another thing you'11 never see,

A monk build a fence 'round a coconut tree,

And let the coconuts go to waste,

Forbidding all other monks to taste.

Why, if I put a fence around this tree,

Starvation would force you to steal from me.

"Here's another thing a monkey won't do –

Go out at night and get in a stew,

Or use a gun or club or knife

To take some other monkey's life.

Yes, man descended, the ornery cuss,

But brother, he didn't descend from us!"

I. A REVIEW OF MAN’S DESCENT

A. Revelation was rejected (Rom 1:18-20)

B. Darkness descended (Rom 1:21-25)

C. Rot and ruin resulted (Rom 1:26-32)

I. REVERSING THE COURSE

A. Justification (Rom 3:21-26)

B. Transformation (Rom 6:17-22; 12:1-2; Eph 4:17-24).

C. Glorification (Rom 8:15-17; 8:28-30).

CONCLUSION

A. With Adam’s sin, his descendants descended into the depths of depravity.

B. The law of Moses was given to keep sin in check, but: “The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins” (Rom 8:3, NLT).

C. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor 3:17-18).