"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void" (Genesis 1:1, 2). On the sixth day God created man. We don't know what color he was. He wasn't Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or any other denomination. He wasn't German, Chinese, or American. But he was a man created in the image of God.

Soon man sinned, bringing death to his body and soul. This first man passed his sinful nature on to his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Around 1,650 years later, God washed the world from sin and confusion by sending a great flood. Only righteous Noah and his family survived. But this did not solve the sin problem for long, for soon man began to sin again.

Down through the ages, man continued sinning, heaping evil upon evil. With the devil's help, man devoted around four thousand years to fine-tuning his sinning skills.

Today we find ourselves in a tangled mess of sin. And here we are, about four thousand years after Noah, in the midst of sin's confusion. Carnal man is moving away from God and his fellow man at such an alarming rate that leaves many ungodly people shocked.

When the first man sinned, he was ashamed because he was naked. The fig leaves he tried to cover it with were not enough. He did not grasp that his problem was not with his body but with his sinful soul. Man has tried to cover his naked soul with many things, such as philosophies, religion, pride, excuses, violence, self-effort -- many, many things. But instead of covering his sin, he has only further exposed his sinfulness.