The sermon by Eric Bechler explores the 1689 London Baptist Confession's perspective on the fall of man, focusing on chapter 6, paragraph 1. It begins with the creation of man as upright and perfect, in God's image, and capable of communion with Him. This state was contingent on obedience to God's covenant of works, with eternal life promised for obedience and death for disobedience. The fall occurred when Satan deceived Eve, who then seduced Adam into willfully transgressing God's command, thus introducing sin and death into the world. The sermon emphasizes that Adam was not deceived but acted willfully, and this act of disobedience by one man spread sin to all humanity. The sermon also addresses why God allowed the fall, attributing it to His divine wisdom and for His glory, referencing Romans to illustrate how God's plan includes redemption through Jesus Christ. The speaker encourages resisting temptation by knowing and using scripture, as Jesus did, and equipping oneself with the armor of God.

A reading today from the 1689 London Baptist Confession comes from chapter 6 of the fall of man of sin and then punishment thereof, paragraph 1. 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. Satan using the subtlety of the servant 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. Last week we finished out the chapter of divine Providence. This week we start a new chapter on the fall of man of sin and the punishment thereof.

We will be briefly touching on original sin, federal headship, and total depravity over the next five weeks. As we turn to paragraph one, the first word here is although, which lets you know right away that there's a problem or a surprising result coming but we need to clarify where we're where we're starting this takes us back all the way to the beginning it starts at creation although God created man upright and perfect. So man is good, upright and perfect. He was made in the image of God and he can be in fellowship and communion with God. At this point, there is no sin in him.

We read from Genesis 1.31, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Not just good, but very good. Solomon affirms this in Ecclesiastes 7.29. See, this alone I found, that God made man upright. In the words of Augustine, God had made man passe non pacare, or able to not sin, and passe non mori, able to not die.

God had given Adam work to do in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 15 where he said to dress it and to keep it but he also set up some boundaries for Adam he gave a command that Adam should not eat of a particular tree within the garden and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou shalt eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Genesis 2, 16 and 17. God gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it and threatened death upon the breach thereof. We recognize this structure as covenantal. In fact, the Savoy Declaration comes straight out and states it this way, God having made a covenant of works and life thereupon with our first parents and all their posterity in them.

The majority of the language of the LBC comes straight from the Savoy Declaration, but not here. I'm not sure what is behind the hesitancy of the use of covenant terminology, but we see this in a number of other paragraphs as well in the confession. But we, however, are not shy of that term. What we see and is described here, a righteous law with terms, a reward for obeying, punishment for failing to obey. This is a covenant.

This was the covenant of works. The reward for obedience was eternal life and communion with God. The consequence of disobeying was death. We know that man was created upright and perfect, but man was not created immutable. Man had one but one restriction.

He only had to obey this command of God to maintain direct communion with Him, to stay good, upright, and perfect. So why did God give this command? Here was Adam in the Garden of Eden, and we think of it as the perfect place, perfect temperature, light breeze, fresh air, peace and tranquility. And yet somehow it wasn't enough and they blew it. Our confession describes it this way, yet he did not long abide in this honor.

We can't know exactly how much time passed from the time God created Eve until the fall. We do know that Adam was 130 years old when he had Seth from Genesis 5 3 and sometime before that they had Cain and Abel and sometime before that was the fall. Adam living 930 years, it does make sense that his time in the garden was in comparison not long. The next part of our paragraph goes into the details of the fall. It summarizes what is explained in Genesis 3, 1 through 7.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, He shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. God hath said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eye, and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. We see no evidence here of coercion on Adam.

God did not force them, neither Adam nor Eve, to eat the forbidden fruit. So did Adam let Eve know about this restriction, this command, God's command that they'd not eat of this one specific tree in the midst of the garden. We don't know specifically what Adam may have told Eve, however we know something was communicated based on her answer to the serpent. We see quickly that it's not exactly the same as what God told Adam where we don't see any commandment about touching there. The serpent here is Satan using tools of deceit and guile.

And note the wording in our paragraph, the serpent subdued Eve and she was deceived. And then we read, then by her, seducing Adam. It doesn't say Adam was subdued by the serpent and it doesn't say Adam was beguiled. But what does scripture say to this? Paul tells us in his letter to Timothy that Eve was deceived and fell into transgression, 1st Timothy 2 14.

He also tells us that Adam was not deceived, yet from the Genesis passage we clearly read that he ate of the fruit as well. He was not compelled, but he did willfully eat and transgress the law. He knew what the consequences would be, yet he still disobeyed. Reading from Paul's letter to the Romans, we understand more fully the consequence of this transgression not only applying to Adam and Eve, but to all mankind. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned, Romans 512.

And we'll go into that more next week. As we move to the last part of the paragraph for today, we see the answer to the obvious question, why did God allow this? Our confession states that God was pleased according to his wise and holy counsel to permit and having purpose to order it to his own glory. Why does God do anything? It's always for his glory.

God in his great wisdom had by his decree and is by his divine providence ordained and permitted the fall for his glory. Paul writes, for hath God concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon them all. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counselor? Romans 11, 32-34.

So through Adam, sin entered the world. This isn't the end of the story though. God had a plan, a plan of redemption and we read from Romans, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come, but not as the offense, so also as the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." Romans 5, 14 through 15. Are there things in your life where Satan is trying to deceive you or tempt you?

Is there a voice in the back of your head saying, did God really say that? This worked on Eve. Does it work on you? Eve added to God's command with her comment about not even touching the tree. Then she started rationalizing the possibility of eating the fruit.

It was good for food. Oh, it was pleasant to the eyes. And I bet it would make make me wise. All this took place in her mind. She was working hard to convince herself And then she reached out.

She took the fruit and she ate it. Is there a battle in your mind over something today? Are you trying to rationalize a sin or a temptation? Are you trying to convince yourself that something God forbids is okay? Scripture gives us an example of how Christ responded to Satan's temptations.

He responded with scripture for it is written. You cannot do this unless you know scripture. We must know scripture to fight Satan. We must know scripture to fight temptation, to nip it in the bud. Don't let it take root in your mind.

To keep from thinking too hard or rationalizing over a temptation or sin. Be like Christ. Be prepared and be equipped to say for it is written. And Paul gives us some help with this. He tells us to put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil in Ephesians 6-11.

When you reach out, reach out for God's word and feast on His word and share it with others. Amen.