Bible Study Lesson 4 - Man's Problems

Lesson 4 - Man's Problems

Free Bible Study Course

Instructions: Throughout this lesson, you'll find fill-in-the-blank questions. Look up each Bible verse in your own Bible to find the answers. When you're finished, submit your completed lesson using the form at the bottom of the page.

To be happy in this life and in the next life, we must be in a right relationship with our Creator. When man was first created, he was in right relationship with God. He loved God, He worshipped God. He obeyed God. But a time came when Adam rebelled against his Creator and disobeyed Him. This destroyed the right relationship between Adam and God. There were many terrible results of Adam's rebellion and disobedience. In this lesson we are going to consider some of them.

The Curses Pronounced

These happenings are found in Genesis 3:14-19

A. On the Serpent

Look Up Genesis 3:14

"And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou all the days of thy life."

What two things would happen to the serpent?

B. On Satan

Look Up Genesis 3:15

"And I will put enmity (hatred) between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

Satan must have thought he had some willing followers.
Satan is seen to be what he really is -- man's enemy. "... and between thy seed and her seed; ..."
This enmity would continue on.
There would be some who would follow Satan.
Others would oppose him and follow God "it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
This is the Bible's first indication of a coming deliverer.
We will cover this more fully in a future study.

C. On Eve

Look Up Genesis 3:16

"... Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall over thee."

It is God's design that the husband be the head of the home.
This we will also study at a later time.

D. On Adam

Look Up Genesis 3:17, 19

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast unto the voice of thy wife, and hast of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt eat of it: cursed is the for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;"

Adam would have to work hard in order to eat.
He would eat in sorrow.

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the , for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

He would experience not only spiritual, but physical death.
There was no death before this time.

E. On The Ground

Look Up Genesis 3:18

" also and shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;"

The ground would now have weeds and thorns instead of naturally producing only good crops.

Adam Died Spiritually

You will remember that God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). God had warned them, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They ate the forbidden fruit. The result of their disobedience was death! But what kind of death was it? It is a three fold death: Physical, Spiritual, and Eternal.

A. Physical death is the separation of soul and body.

It is represented in the Scriptures as a part of the penalty of sin.

This is the most natural meaning of God's warnings in Genesis.
Look Up Genesis 2:17

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely ."

Look Up Genesis 3:19

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou ."

We know the human body is weak, prone to sickness, dying. Physical death is certain for every person.

Look Up Romans 5:12

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"

Look Up Hebrews 9:27

"And as it is appointed unto men once to but after this the judgment."

B. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God.

Because of the fall of man, the second part of man's penalty is to be spiritually dead toward God. As a member of the sinful human race, man has many problems.

Man is separated from God's life. The moment Adam disobeyed God, he died spiritually. He was separated from the life of God. Adam's sin resulted in spiritual death, not only for himself, but for the entire human race. By nature, every person born into the world is spiritually dead; separated from the life of God.

Look Up Ephesians 2:1

"And you hath he quickened," (make alive) "who were in trespasses and sins;"

Look Up Ephesians 4:18

"Having the understanding , being alienated from the of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the of their heart:"

Man has an inner emptiness; many times life seems so empty and useless. The reason we feel this way is that God made us with a deep inner need to feel that we are worth something. Man needs a purpose in life to give him a sense of value.
It was God's plan that He should provide man's needs.
God had a work for man to do that would give him real value.

Look Up Revelation 4:11

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and and power: for thou hast created all things, and for pleasure they and created."

Man was loved and accepted by God. As long as man was in a right relationship with his Creator, his inner needs were fully met. He was happy and satisfied.
But man has rebelled against God, and he is separated from God. Therefore his deep inner needs are not being met. Man is dissatisfied and has no peace within.

Man has a sinful nature. When he was first created by God, Adam was in right relationship with God. He loved God, he worshipped God, and he obeyed God.
After Adam sinned, a change took place in his heart. Instead of loving God and wanting to do His will, Adam now loved himself and wanted to do his own will. Adam now had a sinful nature.
Adam passed his sinful nature on to his children and to the whole human race.

Look Up Romans 5:12

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon men, for that all have sinned:"

Every person is born with a sinful nature and tendency toward sin. All of this is the result of Adam's disobedience.

Look Up Romans 5:19

"For as by one man's disobedience were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

Look Up Ephesians 2:2

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now in the children of disobedience:"

That spirit is the spirit of Satan! Satan rebelled against God and said in his heart, "I will have my own way."
Adam followed Satan in his rebellion against God and said in his heart, "I will have my own way."
Now you and I come along and say, "I will have my own way."
Man commits many sins - Because man has a sinful nature, he commits many sins. Some people have committed greater sins than others, but all have sinned.

Look Up Romans 3:10-12

"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

C. Eternal Death is simply the culmination and completion of physical and spiritual death.

It is the eternal separation of the soul from God, together with the accompanying remorse and outward punishment.

Look Up Matthew 10:28

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy soul and body in ."

Look Up Matthew 25:41

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye , into everlasting , prepared for the and his ."

What is Sin?

People like to set their own standards as to what is right and what is wrong. Some ask, "What is Sin?" The best way to answer this question is to see what God says about sin in His Word.

A. Transgressing God's laws is sin.

In His Word, God has told us what is right and wrong in His sight.

To transgress God's laws means to go beyond what God has said is right.
I John 3:4 says,

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin the of the law."

When we see a sign on a fence that says, "NO TRESPASSING," it means that we are not to go beyond this line. If we cross over the fence, we are trespassing, regardless of whether we take one step or walk a mile.
So it is with God's laws. To transgress His law is to go beyond what He said. Any transgression of God's laws is what?

B. Unbelief is sin.

The Bible is God's Holy Word. Not to believe what God says in His Word is a great sin and rejecting Jesus Christ is the greatest sin we can commit.

Look Up I John 5:10

"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth God hath made him a ; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son."

C. Not doing what you should do is sin.

We sin against God when we do things which we should not do. We also sin against Him when we do not do the things we know we should do.

Look Up James 4:17

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it , to him it is ."

D. Rebellion against God's authority is sin.

Authority means the right to rule and the right to be obeyed. All authority belongs to God because He is the creator of all things.

Look Up I Samuel 15:23

"For rebellion is as the of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."

E. All unrighteousness is sin.

The Bible says that any failure to obey God's commandments is sin. It is true that some sins are more serious than others, but it is also true that any wrong doing is sin.

Look Up I John 5:17c
Look Up Romans 3:23

"For have and come short of the glory of God."

The Root Cause of Sin

It is most important that we discover the root cause of sins. It is not enough to know that we have sinned. We need to understand why we sin.

A. What is the root cause of sins?

The root cause of sins is SELF: that sinful nature of ours which says, "I will do what I want to do!"

Man has taken God off the throne of his heart and put SELF there.
Instead of loving God and wanting to do His will, man loves himself and wants to do his own will.
SELF says, "I must have my own way, and if I don't get it, I will be displeased."

B. This attitude of self-will and selfishness is in the heart of every human being.

The world considers that it is natural and normal for a person to live for himself and seek what pleases him.
The Bible, however, says that our sinful self-life is hateful to God and destructive to us.
Jesus pointed to it as the source of all our sins.

Look Up Mark 7:20-23

"And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that the man. For from , out of the of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from , and the man."

Evil thoughts proceed from "WITHIN!"
Evil thoughts including adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness; all of these evil things come from within, and "DEFILE" the man?

C. We cannot live for ourselves and at the same time do the will of God.

No one can follow the Lord as long as self is in control.
The Lord Jesus said, "... If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

Man's Attempts to Solve the Problem

Every person has a conscience, an inner voice that tells when he does wrong. This inner voice says, "You have broken God's laws. You are guilty." As man continues to go his own way not obeying God, he loads himself down with an unbearable load of guilt.

Because of this gnawing conscience and because he fears the wrath of God, man tries in many ways to solve his problems. We will consider man's remedies and God's provision in our next lessons.

Submit Your Completed Lesson

Here are the past lessons for your review:

Lesson 1 - Where Do We Find Truth?
Lesson 2 - Is The Bible the Word of God?
Lesson 3 - Creation and Fall of Man
Return to the top of this Lesson