Weekly Bible Study with Dr. Hardiman

COMMAND 1 PART 2: I think it is important to understand the heart of the fallen man (adamic nature, old man, the flesh, depraved, and spiritually dead). Scriptures teach us nothing more clearly than the truth that man is basically and naturally sinful, and that the heart of his sinfulness is self- will. From birth to death the natural inclination of every person is to look out for oneself. That is to do, to have and to be what he wants. At the root and heart of sin is the ego and mans desire to serve himself. He is the ruler of his own life and embedded deep in his soul, in a profound way that he can not reason, he sees God as his enemy and in conflict with his self interest. He has fallen this way genetically, inherited this nature that gets worse with each successive generation. The heart of the sinful nature is corrupt. Its philosophy, standards, dispositions, thinking pattern, desires, hopes and dreams are all formulated on this genetic bent that is a profound mutation of how we were made in the image and likeness of God. Basically we have become blind to be able to see God. We are born deaf to hear God and our hearts care not to seek him. We allow his consideration from an intellectual and superstitious sense. Yet buried in that sinful nature is a fear of something stronger than ourselves. We must contain God by doing all in our subliminal power to keep Him in the form of our acceptance as someone that can only be helpful to us in times of need. In essence we fear him but have no capacity in the fallen state to know or love Him, never mind submit to Him as Lord and savior of our life. There is an indignity that the fallen nature has about not being good enough to be accepted by God. The indignity has nothing to do with feelings of God being merciful but in honesty has to do with our own feelings of self worth, value and fallacy of controlling our own fate. The Adamic nature started with the fall in the garden when man like his predecessor Satan, wanted to be like God. At that moment we became sons of Satan and members of the kingdom of darkness. What are we dark to? The person of who God is, the understanding of his love, the understanding of having no need outside of him, and the feeling of completeness without wants. In the darkness we have no understanding of the factual position of not possessing a sin nature and being in perfect harmony with Him. We are so DARK in the fallen state that none of these things matter because we have no inclination in this nature to care anything about them. Besides we can no longer hear God, see God, nor is He with us. We have been cut off by choice. Thank God that the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came to us sinners to save us from this doom and transfer us into the kingdom of the Son that He loves. We have been born again into the family of God by the redemptive price of His Son. At some point we will cover why even though we are born again that we still sin. Hold on for now, in time it will become understandable. The point is made in the verse from Ezekiel 36 25:27. The sprinkling of water is the process of sanctification in which the Spirit which gives us birth changes our heart (where we do our thinking and express our will). The reading in Ezekiel states He will give us a heart of flesh (here meaning alive to God) and replace our heart of stone (unable to perceive or be alive in relationship to God).The dead can not see. In not seeing they can not see the invisible kingdom He has on earth or understands His words in scripture. They can not feel His personal presence in their lives, nor as dead men neither is it desirable. Gods kingdom is foolishness to them (1Cor 1:18), mythical and boring. Jesus in this passage sees all humanity in two parts, those who are born once of the flesh and are spiritually dead and those who are spiritually "born again" by the Spirit. Those born again are spiritually alive to God and once born again can start to understand his word, see his kingdom and feel his presence. More than that, their new heart has a desire for the things of God. That is why it is important to feed upon Gods word that you can grow in the knowledge of Him. By knowing who He is one will fall more in love with Him. Read Luke 9:60 and Luke 15:24 in their context and see if your new spiritual eyes can see what God is saying about the dead. Who are they? Find the parable of the sower in the gospel of Mark and see if you can understand it. What seed do you want to be? If the seed is the Word of God then how important is the study we are doing? Who wishes to snatch the seed? Why? Notice that the apostles wondered why other people did not understand his teachings. Notice His reply.